Burst! Shoe King BELLE Temporarily Suspended YOHO! Investor 5 Billion 700 Million

A generation of shoe king will change hands. According to Bloomberg quoted sources, CDH investment is leading 5 billion 700 million US dollars (about 44 billion 200 million HK dollars) to discuss the acquisition of BELLE International (01880.HK), which means that the relevant decisions will be announced as soon as possible this week.

It is understood that CDH investment has many years of investment experience in the field of e-commerce. As early as 2006, it invested in the trend media YOHO. Now YOHO! It has developed into a group with several business segments, including media and e-commerce.

Up to now, BELLE international and CDH investments have not responded to the news in time. BELLE international suspended this morning and released a price sensitive announcement based on the takeover and merger code. Before the suspension, BELLE International reported 5.27 yuan per share, with a market value of HK $44 billion 450 million, less than 50% of its peak market value. BELLE International's current business includes manufacturing, distribution and retailing of footwear and apparel products. Its footwear businesses mainly include Belle, Teenmix, Tata, Staccato, Basto, Joy & Peace, SKAP and Mirabell, etc. Unlike footwear business, its sports and apparel business is currently dominated by agents, including front-line sports brands Nike, Adidas, PUMA, Converse, and clothing brand Moussy and SLY.

After listing in 2007, BELLE international immediately launched a series of acquisitions, such as the acquisition of Fiat by 380 million, the acquisition of 600 million by Mie Li, and the acquisition of 1 billion 600 million by sun da.

The analysis of the causes of BELLE International's performance predicament mainly includes the market saturation, oversupply, transformation of electricity supplier failure, etc., but the most mainstream view is that consumer tastes are changing a lot now.

Continuous decline in performance, BELLE in the Chinese footwear market for 7 years of hegemony era ended last year. According to the research report released by Morton, BELLE International's third quarter operating data showed a poor performance. During the same period, footwear sales in the same store decreased by 13% compared to the same period last year, showing a far lower performance than the 8% expected by the bank. Since this year, sales of BELLE footwear and its stores have recorded double-digit declines, while the second quarter and the first quarter have decreased by 10% and 16% respectively.

During the period, BELLE shoes shops closed 239 stores during the period, accounting for 1.8% of the total. The second quarter closed 271, accounting for 2% of the total, which reflected that the same season sales improvement in the second quarter was mainly driven by customs stores. By the end of November 30, 2016, BELLE had set up 20630 retail outlets in China, of which 13145 were footwear shops and 7485 were sports and clothing stores. Last month, BELLE international sales revenue fell 15% to 25% in the whole year. BELLE was mainly due to the continued weakening of footwear business performance.

Some analysts pointed out that in the past, BELLE had won the market strategy by the intensity of the network. In the age of information and logistics, this mode undoubtedly allowed it to quickly occupy the market. But now the market has changed. Especially for young consumers, BELLE is far inferior to some fast fashion brands in terms of price performance, personalization and catching up trend, and the price has no advantage. Especially with the increase of brand, BELLE's products have been seriously homogenized.

It is noteworthy that the domestic women's shoes market is still in the doldrums. According to Euromonitor Euro data, some analysts pointed out that if sold at the reported price, that means BELLE international will be sold at a low price. At present, BELLE international sports apparel annual net profit of 1 billion 800 million, according to the valuation of FL, this part of the business will be valued at 30 billion, although the footwear business is declining, but from the Stella Luna parent company nine Hing Holdings situation, this part of the business is also estimated to be near the bottom, the valuation will also be close to 30 billion.

From 2011 to 2014, the sales volume of women's shoes increased by 52%, but the market demand increased by only 13%. By 2015, because of the sharp supply of the market, the sales revenue and profitability of single stores declined, and some shops that failed to keep up began to close. Lies Dan announced the third fiscal quarter ending in late November. The total sales of self operated retail business fell by 8% compared to the same period last year, while the same store sales fell 7.1%, and the total sales of e-commerce fell by 40.5%. During the period, the group had 822 retail outlets in the mainland, Hongkong and Macao with 75 shops closed. Lies Dan's share price has shrunk by nearly 45% since its listing, due to persistent downturns.

Another shoe group, Daphne International (00210.HK), announced earlier that its turnover fell by 22.4% to HK $6 billion 502 million in the year ended December 31, 2016, and the deficit expanded to HK $819 million, a loss of HK $379 million in the same period last year. In 2013, Daphne International's market value was more than 17 billion, but in just 4 years, its market value shrank by more than 1/10, about 1 billion 300 million.

For the current situation, BELLE international CEO Sheng Bai Jiao is most clear, but he acknowledged at the 2016 annual performance conference that the decline in performance was mainly due to the great changes in consumer demand for shoes. Consumers began to pay attention to cost performance, convenience and personalization, and pointed out that the emergence of electricity providers posed a great threat to the group.

For the first time in nine years, the company has recorded a profit decline. Sheng Bai pepper said that if it did not transform, it would die. At present, domestic retail is facing a more severe environment. The group is preparing for the winter, and the worst is yet to come. During the third quarter, BELLE international closed at least 2 stores a day.