Smith Barney, which “does not take the ordinary path”, will face major adjustments at the beginning of the year——
After serving as chairman of Meibang Apparel (002269.SZ) for seven years and one month, Hu Jiajia submitted her resignation to the board of directors. Founder Zhou Chengjian took over again.
It is worth mentioning that in the past year or so, Youngor has taken over some properties sold by Meibang Apparel six times. The United States cashed out a total of nearly 1.6 billion yuan.
Loss of 3.2 billion in 7 years
On the evening of January 5, Meibang Clothing announced that the company’s chairman Hu Jiajia submitted her resignation due to personal reasons. Her positions include chairman, director, member of the nomination committee, member of the remuneration and assessment committee and chairman of the strategy committee.
After resigning from the above-mentioned positions, Hu Jiajia will continue to serve as the company’s president.
Hu Jiajia. Source: Family Business Magazine
As of the date of this announcement, Hu Jiajia holds 225 million shares of the company, accounting for 8.96% of the company’s total share capital, and is approximately 370 million yuan based on the latest market value.
Other data show that Hu Jiajia’s annual salary is 720,000 yuan.
It is worth noting that another announcement released on the same day showed that at the eighth meeting of Meibang Apparel’s sixth board of directors, the company’s founder Zhou Chengjian was considered and approved as a non-independent director candidate for the company’s sixth board of directors. On the same day, Meibang Apparel reviewed and approved the company’s “Proposal on Convening the Second Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders in 2024” and agreed that the company would hold an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on January 22, 2024.
Zhou Chengjian is the executive director and actual controller of Shanghai Huafu Investment Co., Ltd., the controlling shareholder of Meibang Apparel. He is the actual controller of Meibang Apparel. He does not directly hold the company’s shares and has a father-daughter relationship with Hu Jiajia.
Public information shows that Zhou Chengjian, a native of Lishui, Zhejiang Province, graduated from the EMBA of Zhejiang University. He started self-employed business in May 1984. In 1995, he opened the first Meters Bonwe store in Wenzhou and implemented brand chain operations; he was a former Wenzhou City Manager. General manager of Kelisha Garment Factory, chairman of Wenzhou Metersbonwe Co., Ltd., chairman of Wenzhou Metersbonwe Co., Ltd., chairman and president of Metersbonwe Group Co., Ltd., No. 1 and 2 of Meibang Apparel , Chairman of the Board of Directors for three terms.
With the second generation giving way and the fathers returning, what are the considerations behind the personnel changes at American Apparel?
The meaning of the announcement is already obvious.
On the evening of January 5, a Meibang Apparel insider told reporters that the personnel change was mainly to transfer power back to Zhou Chengjian, who would serve as the helm of Meibang Apparel.
After sorting through the public information, the reporter found that, in fact, since the second half of 2023, Zhou Chengjian has spoken out publicly many times and led the transformation of Meibang’s apparel e-commerce business.
Meibang Clothing’s decline began in 2013. After the number of stores reached a high of 5,220 in 2013, the number of stores of Meibang Apparel showed a “cliff-like” decline.
At the same time, since 2013, Meibang Apparel’s net profit attributable to its parent company has declined sharply. Financial data shows that in 2013, Meibang Apparel’s net profit dropped sharply from 850 million yuan in the previous year to 405 million yuan.
According to information disclosed in previous announcements, Hu Jiajia was born in 1986, with a postgraduate degree. She graduated from Aston University in marketing in 2010 and obtained a master’s degree in fashion marketing from Marangoni Institute in London in 2011.
As the eldest daughter of Zhou Chengjian, the founder of Meibang Apparel, Hu Jiajia worked in the President’s Office, Metersbonwe Footwear Development and Operations Department, Brand Marketing Department, and Strategic Development Department in Meibang Apparel from 2011 to 2016.
On November 21, 2016, Zhou Chengjian and Hu Jiajia handed over the baton from father to daughter for the first time.
At that time, Meibang Clothing announced that Zhou Chengjian applied to the company’s board of directors to resign from his positions as chairman, director and member of various special committees under the board of directors, and at the same time applied to resign from the company’s president. In addition, the company’s board of directors agreed to elect Hu Jiajia as the company’s chairman. At the same time, the board of directors agreed to appoint Hu Jiajia as the company’s president.
After Hu Jiajia took over Meibang Apparel, Meibang Apparel began to suffer large losses in 2017.
According to incomplete statistics, in the more than seven years since Hu Jiajia took over, Meibang Apparel’s net profit attributable to its parent company has accumulated a loss of nearly 3.2 billion yuan.
On the evening of December 26, 2023, Hu Jiajia also received a decision on administrative regulatory measures issued by the Shanghai Securities Regulatory Bureau. The reason is——
From May 2018 to December 2019, Meibang Apparel provided financial assistance to new franchisees with greater financial pressure to pay for their store rent and decoration investment. The maximum daily balance was 228 million yuan, accounting for the company’s most recent period of business at the time of the incident. 8.14% of audited net assets.
As of September 30, 2023, the uncollected balance was 43.9985 million yuan, and Meibang Apparel failed to disclose this financial assistance in a timely manner.
Youngor takes over six times
In order to return funds, Meibang Apparel has sold store properties and investment targets to external parties many times.
Meibang Clothing recently announced that it plans to sell two shops in Nanchang City and Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province to Ningbo Youngor Clothing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Youngor) in a cash transaction. The transaction prices are respectively.��170 million yuan, 60 million yuan.
According to the announcement, these two shops are located in the middle section of Times Square on Shengli Road, Donghu District, Nanchang City, and No. 48 Kangjian Middle Road, Xinzhou District, Shangrao City. They were purchased by Meibang Apparel in 2008 and 2010 and are mainly operated as self-owned brand direct stores. .
It is worth noting that since December 2023, this is the third time that Meibang Apparel has announced a sale. The first two times it planned to sell two stores in Chengdu and Xi’an to Youngor, cashing in 680 million yuan and 40 million yuan respectively.
This is also the sixth time that Meibang Apparel has officially announced the sale of some properties since October 2022. The trading partners of these stores are all Youngor companies. The total value of the first five acquisitions was approximately 1.34 billion yuan. Including this time, the United States has now reached 1.57 billion yuan.
In October 2022, Meibang Clothing announced that it would sell a store in Wuhan, Hubei to Ningbo Youngor Clothing Co., Ltd. for 190 million yuan;
In December 2022, Meibang Clothing announced that it would sell a store in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province for 130 million yuan;
In June 2023, Meibang Clothing announced that it would sell some stores in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province for 300 million yuan;
In early December 2023, Meibang Clothing announced that it would sell its store at No. 43 Dakejia Lane, Jinjiang District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province (located in the Chunxi Road business district), with the final transaction price of 680 million yuan;
On December 26, 2023, the transaction price of a store located in Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province held by Meibang Apparel Sales Company was finally determined to be 40 million yuan after negotiation between the two parties.
A generation returns to the world
After sorting out Meibang Apparel’s actions in the past six months, the clues to Zhou Chengjian’s return have long been buried in a series of daily operations.
On June 7 and 12, 2023, Hangzhou Meters Digital Industry Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Meters Digital Industry Co., Ltd. were registered and established. The legal representatives, general managers and executive directors of the two e-commerce live broadcast companies are both Zhou Chengjian, the founder of Meibang Apparel, and their registered capital is 10 million yuan.
At that time, as for Zhou Chengjian’s “emergence” again, insiders at American Barney responded to the media saying——
Zhou Chengjian wants to have a deeper understanding of the current front-line business, especially the live broadcast business, such as the live broadcast business path and the thinking methods of young people. At the same time, we also hope to quickly realize the coordination and integration of the company’s relevant resources, so that the e-commerce business can develop in a healthy and orderly manner.
All the above clues point to the possibility of Zhou Chengjian’s imminent return.
With the latest announcement of Meibang Apparel, Zhou Chengjian seems to be just one step away from taking the helm again.
We will wait and see whether the former star brands can seize the wave of e-commerce again to save themselves.
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