Source: @华夏时报微博

China Times reporters Zhang Mei and Shuai Kecong report from Beijing

In the context of fierce competition in the public offering industry, the veteran institution NORD Fund Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "NORD Fund") has recently attracted market attention due to a strategic investment. According to the after-hours data on March 21, the institution obtained 525,000 shares of XGIMI Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "XGIMI Technology", 688696.SH) for 53.55 million yuan through transfer, and calculated at the closing price of 129.17 yuan on the same day, it has realized a floating profit of 14.26 million yuan.

However, in contrast, Wind data shows that the management scale of Nord Fund has shrunk by 8.7 billion yuan in the past six months, a decrease of 17.5%.

It is reported that the equity price of XGIMI Technology is 102.00 yuan per share. On March 24, the stock price rose further, closing up 1.03% to 130.5 yuan per share.

In response to related questions, the reporter of "China Times" sent an interview letter to Nord Fund and XGIMI Technology on March 20, but did not receive a reply as of press time.

Spend 53.55 million yuan to acquire equity

The exposure of the equity transaction of Nord Fund originated from the results of the shareholder inquiry and transfer released by XGIMI Technology on February 18. On February 18, XGIMI Technology issued a report on the results of shareholder inquiry and transfer and a suggestive announcement on the change in shareholders' equity of more than 5% of the shares.

According to the announcement, the transfer price of this inquiry is 102.00 yuan per share, and the number of shares transferred reaches 1,978,538 shares. The transferors are Chengdu XGIMI Enterprise Management Consulting Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "XGIMI Consulting"), Chengdu Happy Rice Enterprise Management Consulting Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Happy Rice") and Liao Chuanjun. Among them, Zhong Bo, the actual controller of the company, transferred a total of 1,978,500 shares, accounting for 2.83% of the total share capital, through the employee shareholding platform XGIMI Consulting, Happy Rice Flower and Liao Chuanjun, who acted in concert, and the transfer price was locked at 102 yuan per share. After the transfer, the core shareholding ratio of Zhong Bo, the actual controller of the company, decreased from 30.08% to 27.28%.

In terms of the transferees, the transferees were finally determined to be 11 investment institutions. 11 investors, including Nord Fund and Beijing Nuan Yixin Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd., were finally allocated. Among them, NORD Fund acquired 525,000 shares for 53.55 million yuan, accounting for 0.75% of the total share capital, ranking first among the 11 transferees. This strategic investment demonstrates its deep recognition of XGIMI's long-term value.

After this transfer, XGIMI Technology's equity structure diversification trend is obvious, which also lays the groundwork for future governance optimization and strategic upgrading.

Revenue declined and profit increased

XGIMI Technology's latest performance report shows that the company's revenue in 2024 will decline slightly year-on-year, but the net profit attributable to the parent company will increase.

Specifically, on February 25, XGIMI Technology released its 2024 performance report, achieving revenue of 3.414 billion yuan in 2024, a year-on-year decrease of 4.02%, which is also the second consecutive year of revenue decline for XGIMI Technology. Previously, in 2023, XGIMI Technology's revenue will be 3.557 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 15.77%. However, in the context of declining revenue, XGIMI Technology's net profit has achieved positive growth, with the annual net profit attributable to the parent company reaching 122 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.14%; The non-net profit attributable to the parent was 93.4342 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.96%.

What is the reason for XGIMI Technology's transformation from declining revenue to "reducing revenue and increasing profits"?

In the fourth quarter of 2024, XGIMI Technology achieved an operating income of 1.132 billion yuan and a net profit of 162 million yuan, a quarter-on-quarter turnaround and a year-on-year increase of 375%. The company believes that this marks significant results in its long-term investment and optimization in R&D, supply chain and other links.

Looking at the financial data, R&D investment has become a key variable. From 2021 to 2023, XGIMI Technology's cumulative R&D expenses exceeded 1 billion yuan, supporting the company's single-quarter net profit in the fourth quarter of 2024 to reach 162 million yuan, a year-on-year surge of 375%, achieving a typical good situation of "exchanging profits for growth", so that profits in 2024 will rise instead of falling.

XGIMI Technology explained in the performance report that the growth of net profit is mainly due to the company's continuous investment and optimization in R&D, supply chain and other links. In recent years, XGIMI Technology has continuously increased R&D investment, and the cumulative investment in R&D from 2021 to 2023 has exceeded 1 billion yuan. These investments not only enhance the company's technical strength, but also effectively control costs and expenses, and improve operational efficiency.

Liu Zhigeng, a well-known financial and tax audit expert, said that XGIMI's current phenomenon of declining revenue and rising profits is the result of short-term cost reduction and efficiency increase and R&D investment, rather than the growth brought about by technological breakthroughs or market expansion. Its essence is that the improvement of operating efficiency and R&D investment have laid a good foundation for its cost reduction and efficiency increase in advance. Although the improvement of operating efficiency has enhanced the ability to resist risks, the stagnation of the growth of the main business, the lack of technological progress, and the slow development of the business may make the company's future development weak. Therefore, if the company cannot break through the current development bottleneck or establish the necessary technical barriers, its long-term competitiveness will gradually weaken.

The scale of management shrank by 17.5%.

In contrast to the precise layout of XGIMI Technology, Nord Fund itself is facing a bottleneck in development. Founded in 2006, the shareholders of NORD Fund are Tianfu Qingyuan Holdings Co., Ltd. and Beijing Tianlang Yunchuang Information Technology Co., Ltd., which hold 51% and 49% of the shares respectively. According to the information on the official website, as of December 31, 2024, the management team of Nord Fund has more than 160 people.

Wind data shows that there are 41 Nord fund products, with a total scale of 40.911 billion yuan, ranking 92nd among 162 fund companies in the whole market. In the second quarter of 2024, the scale of Nord Fund will be 49.614 billion yuan. In half a year, the size of the Nord fund has shrunk by 17.5%.

It is worth noting that the company's product structure presents the characteristics of "strong bonds and weak stocks", with bond and currency funds accounting for 85.97% of the total. Specifically, Nord Fund has 2 equity fund products with a scale of 357 million yuan, 24 hybrid fund products with a scale of 5.167 billion yuan, and 12 bond fund products with a scale of 23.313 billion yuan, accounting for 56.99%; 1 money market fund product, with a scale of 11.856 billion yuan, accounting for 28.98%; There are 2 FOF fund products, with a scale of 218 million yuan.

The product performance of Nord Fund is not very optimistic, and the performance of many of its fund products has been negative in the past three years. Among them, NORD value advantage (570001. OF), NORD Growth Advantage (570005. OF), NORD Cyclical Strategy (570008. OF) has lost more than 20% in the past three years.

Editor-in-charge: Ma Xiaochao Editor-in-chief: Xia Shencha