[Epoch Times, November 28, 2021]On the evening of November 26, Chinese Internet business giant “Meituan” announced its latest quarter results, with a net profit loss of 99.94 billion yuan in the third quarter.
According to the financial report, in the third quarter of 2021, Meituan’s total revenue was 48.8 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), an increase of 37.9% year-on-year, but the chain growth rate was only 11.5%, and a loss of 99.94 billion yuan was recorded during the period. This is an increase of 6.6 billion yuan over the second quarter.
In the third quarter of 2021, the operating loss of the “New Business and Others” segment increased to RMB 10.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 437%. The operating profit margin of this segment decreased from minus 24.7% year-on-year by 54.8 percentage points to minus 79.5%.
Due to a major loss in new business, Meituan’s net loss for the entire third quarter reached 99.94 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 6.6 billion yuan from the net loss of 3.356 billion yuan in the second quarter. So far, the net profit loss of Meituan in the first three quarters has reached 18.1 billion yuan.
According to the data as of the end of the third quarter, several key debt items of Meituan have surged.
In terms of non-current liabilities, long-term loans recorded 10.635 billion yuan, a 443% increase from 1.957 billion yuan at the beginning of this year. At the same time, the bills payable was 30.8 billion yuan, a 137% increase from the 12.9 billion yuan at the beginning of the year.
In terms of current liabilities, short-term loans reached 13.73 billion yuan at the end of the third quarter, while only 6.395 billion yuan at the beginning of the year, an increase of 114% during the year. So far, Meituan’s long-term and short-term loans totaled 23.3 billion yuan during the year, an increase of 191% from the beginning of the year. In addition, in terms of current liabilities, Meituan has 16.78 billion “other payables and accrued expenses”, which is also a significant increase of more than 60% from the 10.56 billion at the beginning of the year.
In addition to debt financing, Meituan actually conducted equity financing this year. In April this year, Meituan raised approximately US$6.6 billion in net funds.
“China Fund News” reported that since this year, Meituan’s stock price has performed poorly. Calculated from the high of 460 Hong Kong dollars in February, to the low of 183 Hong Kong dollars in August, the biggest drop was more than 60%. Looking at the entire third quarter, the decline was 23.03%. On November 26, it fell by 3.87% to close at $263.6.
In the above-mentioned three-quarter report, Meituan also mentioned the huge fines that occurred last month.
On October 8, 2021, the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration of the Communist Party of China issued an “Administrative Penalty Decision” for the anti-monopoly investigation to Meituan, and Meituan was fined RMB 3.442 billion.
On November 20, the State Administration of Market Supervision of the Communist Party of China fined 500,000 yuan for the acquisition of shares of Qingping Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. by a company of Meituan on the grounds of “violating the anti-monopoly law.”
Beginning last year, the CCP authorities have purged Chinese Internet companies on the grounds of “national security” and “anti-monopoly.” Internet companies such as Tencent, Alibaba, and Meituan have been interviewed or fined by the authorities.
On the evening of November 18, after Tencent’s financial report showed that the company’s net profit fell for the first time in ten years, Alibaba’s performance report showed that net profit for the second quarter of the 2022 fiscal year ended September 30 this year was down 39% year-on-year.
Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese Communist Party has publicly mentioned “common prosperity” more than 60 times. Chinese technology executives are very “interested” and have “actively” donated huge amounts of money. Among them, the founder of Meituan Wang Xing donated US$2.27 billion. The authorities continue to purge Internet companies to panic the business community. Recently, the founders of many well-known Internet companies have left the company’s executive positions.
Editor in charge: Li Bing#
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