NVC lighting change behind the sky: Schneider rights double

No. 76 Nanbin Road, Chongqing International Finance Center, is located in Nan'an District of Chongqing and is famous for its beautiful night view. NVC Lighting (, HK) is headquartered here. Founder Wu Changjiang suddenly crowned a few days ago, so here is a mysterious increase.

Wu Changjiang, the founder, former chairman and chief executive officer, was announced on May 25 that he had resigned from NVC Lighting for "personal reasons."

Failed to bet? Is Xia Zeliang, the secretary of the Nan'an District Party Committee of Chongqing Municipality, involved in the investigation? Collusion forced by other shareholders? For a time, there have been various speculations about the reasons for the resignation of Wu Changjiang.

As early as May 2, Zhang Dejiang, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, vice premier of the State Council, and secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee visited Wuxi Lighting's Wanzhou Base. Wu Changjiang did not attend and was accompanied by Mu Yu, Vice President of NVC Lighting. There are reports that he was outside China at the time. Currently, Wu Changjiang’s mobile phone is in a state of continuous shutdown.

Although the reasons for Wu Changjiang’s resignation are inconsistent with each other, a survey by the Daily Economic News found that Schneider Electric (Schneider), the strategic investor who is the third largest shareholder of NVC, has in fact become a major player. Winners - On the basis of realizing the double harvest of production bases and sales channels, Zhang Naimeng, the chief operating officer of Schneider, took the position of chief executive of NVC Lighting, and further strengthened his voice in NVC Lighting.

In addition, the successor to the chairmanship of NVC Lighting is the founding partner of Saife Asia Fund, the largest shareholder of NVC Lighting.

NVC Lighting "changes the sky"

On the morning of May 29, a reporter of "Daily Economic News" came to Chongqing NVC Lighting Co., Ltd.

The 23rd, 25th, and 26th floor of Chongqing International Finance Center is the office area of ​​NVC Lighting. NVC employees are as busy as ever.

At this time, Wu Changjiang announced to leave NVC lighting for only 4 days. For Wu's resignation, many NVC lighting employees stated that the company has a spokesperson system and personal inconveniences add criticism.

Just two months ago, Wu Changjiang, who was ambitious at the signing ceremony between NVC Lighting and the Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Olympic Committee, once boldly told reporters including the “Daily Economic News” to complete the national market. After the layout, NVC Lighting boldly to force the global market, seize the opportunity of international large-scale events, continue to enhance the brand's international influence, and lay a brand influence in Asia and the world.

At present, NVC Lighting has established operating agencies in more than 40 countries and regions.

During this meeting, the reporter of “Daily Economic News” also had a brief exchange with Wu Changjiang. At that time, Wu Changjiang was very aggressive.

Unexpectedly, just two months later, Wu Changjiang suddenly announced that he had left NVC Lighting, who had devoted his entire life.

The 47-year-old Wu Changjiang was a native of Chongqing and was born in Tongliang in 1965. At the beginning of this year, it was he who made concerted efforts to relocate the headquarters of NVC from Huizhou, Guangdong, to Chongqing's South Bank. This move caused great disagreements on the board of directors.

Recently, the reporter of “Daily Economic News” has just received a business card from an employee of NVC Lighting Holdings Co., Ltd. with the “Headquarters address: No. 76, Nanbin Road, Nan'an District, Chongqing, China”.

As early as August 3, 2006, Wu Changjiang became one of the top “Public Relations” in Chongqing's investment promotion departments after he became one of the top ten dealers.

"The development of our hometown is so fast. We also want to make a modest contribution." Wu Changjiang has repeatedly made similar statements.

In November 2006, Wu Changjiang started to play chess pieces in Wanzhou. However, at the beginning of the establishment of the company, it was not named “NVC”, but “Chongqing Enweixi Lighting Co., Ltd.” with a registered capital of US$4 million. The legal representative is Wu Changjiang, and the registered place is British Virgin Islands. NVC Lighting Holdings Limited holds its entire equity interest. In 2008, the company changed its name to Chongqing NVC Lighting Co., Ltd. At present, the annual output value of the Nissei Wanzhou base is nearly 2 billion yuan.

Under the unremitting efforts of the local investment promotion department, Wu Changjiang decided to fall again in Chongqing Rongchang in 2008. Wu Changjiang’s company in Rongchang was named “Chongqing Enweixi Industrial Development Co., Ltd.”.

Reasons for resigning cited speculation Since the May 25 resignation announcement, the real reason for Wu Changjiang’s resignation has been confusing.

One of the arguments for "failed to bet" is one. It was reported that on August 31, 2011, Wu Changjiang and HSBC Private Bank (Switzerland) Hong Kong Branch entered into a bullish equity derivative transaction but eventually lost.

However, Wu Changjiang issued two microblogs on the evening of the 25th and responded by saying that he was “a physically and mentally exhausted person and wanted to rest for a while,” saying that his resignation was not an suspicion that “lost the game against gambling” and also shared the stock with the directors. There was no disagreement between them, and he said, "When I adjust for a period of time, I will still come back. I devoted my life to NVC. I will not and will never give up." But then Wu Changjiang will follow a Weibo. delete.

For this statement, Shi Yongjun, a spokesman for NVC Lighting, told the reporter of “Daily Economic News” that “Wu Changjiang resigned for personal reasons and had nothing to do with gambling.”

"Internal struggle" is the second argument. Daily Economic News reporter noted that although Wu Changjiang is the largest individual shareholder, he lacks control over NVC Lighting's board of directors.

Look at the structure of NVC Lighting's board of directors at a glance, except that Mu Yu (Vice President Executive Director) is the original NVC, and the other board members are two from Schneider – Zhang Kaipeng, Zhu Hai, and two of Softbank – Yi, Lin Heping, one of Goldman Sachs – Xu Mingyin.

“We are also afterwards Zhuge Liang, and now we can only see this clearly,” said a NVC lighting supplier executive. However, he believes that in order to maintain the stability of the company, it is impossible for the new management to substantially adjust NVC Lighting's management structure and development strategy in a short period of time.

As for the direction of the company after “changing the commander”, Shi Yongjun told the “Daily Economic News” reporter that the company’s development strategy and management structure will not be adjusted.

In Rongchang local, Daily Economic News reporter also heard another version of Wu Changjiang's resignation.

“I heard that Wu Changjiang and Rongchang's other two owners (a food company and a real estate company) were involved in investigations with officials of a former Rongchang County official who was investigated.” A person from a certain branch of the Rongchang County government disclosed to reporters. .

Coincidentally, in March of this year, NVC Lighting's headquarters was intented to be investigated by Xia Zeliang, secretary of the Chongqing Nan'an District Party Committee. Xia had previously been the secretary of the Rongchang county. He had a connection with Wu Changjiang in 2008. At that time, it was Xia Zeliang’s visit to Guangdong. Wu Hui invested in Chongqing.

On March 20 this year, Xia Zeliang’s last public appearance was a signing ceremony for NVC Lighting and the Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Olympic Committee. He also delivered a speech. After March 21, according to the Economic Observer Network, Xia Zeliang was taken away by relevant departments and was "double-regulation."

The boss of a real estate company and the owner of a food company were assisted in the investigation because of Xia Zeliang. This became a “open secret” in Rongchang. Recently, the secretary of the food business owner confirmed to the reporter that the boss “assisted the relevant department to investigate”.

However, when reporters asked whether Wu Changjiang’s rumors were being investigated for truthfulness, various departments of the Rongchang County Party Committee and the county government stated that they were not aware of the matter. People from the Rongchang County Prosecutor's Office also called "uninformed."

Regarding the rumors that Wu Changjiang was assisted in the investigation, Shi Yongjun responded to the reporter of the “Daily Economic News” that Wu Changjiang’s departure did not have anything to do with this matter (Xia Zeliang being investigated).

“I understand that Wu Changjiang resigned in order to evade the relationship with Chongqing. The former officials of Nanan District were arrested and he was informed that Wu was also assisted in the investigation. If the investigation results are all right, Wu will come back again.” One with NVC Lighting Senior sources familiar with the matter disclosed to reporters.

Schneider Chengda winner Wu Changjiang Within a few days after resignation announcement, Schneider Chief Operating Officer Zhang Kaipeng went to NVC Lighting's new CEO and declared NVC lighting entering a new era.

On the same day, Zhang Kaipeng arrived at Chongqing NVC Lighting headquarters to meet with senior management personnel. “Zhang shook hands with many ordinary employees and talked with each other.”

As a strategic investor in NVC Lighting, Schneider was described by the industry as "extremely aggressive."

Schneider is a Fortune 500 company specializing in electrical and electrical products. According to public reports, since the 1980s, Schneider has acquired world-renowned electrician brands such as TE Electric, Real Power, Merlin Gerin, and Clipsal. In 2010, Schneider’s global sales reached 20 billion euros. Looking at the development trajectory of Schneider since entering China in 1979, "acquisition and merger" has been the main line of the company's expansion in China.

At the end of 2010, NVC Lighting just went public and Schneider began to "darkly send the youngsters."

Wu Changjiang himself also admitted that Schneider chose NVC lighting mainly because of the company's channel advantages. NVC Lighting has nearly 3,000 channels in the country. These resources are not available to Schneider. Schneider hopes to pass this Strategic cooperation further opens up the domestic market.

In July last year, Schneider bought shares in NVC Lighting and acquired 9.1% of the company’s shares for HK$1.275 billion. As a result, Schneider became the third largest shareholder of NVC Lighting. At the same time, NVC Lighting and Schneider entered into a strategic cooperation agreement for the sales network for a period of 10 years.

On September 13th last year, NVC Lighting and Schneider officially announced their strategic cooperation in Beijing. According to the cooperation agreement, NVC Lighting granted Schneider China and its affiliates access to, shared and used the company's sales network. The cooperation period is 10 years. It provides a great convenience for Schneider to promote and sell its products in China.

According to NVC Lighting's statement at that time, before the cooperation was reached, there were hundreds of NVC products sold by distributor stores, and the entry of Schneider's products would increase dealers' sales of thousands of optional products. .

With the introduction of Schneider, Wu Changjiang also had his own ideas. He said at the time that this not only strengthened the shareholder base of NVC Lighting, but also opened up the possibility of diversified cooperation for the company. What's more, Schneider's business is spread over many regions of the world. NVC Lighting can use Schneider's strength to expand overseas markets.

Due to the short time period, the extent to which the growth of NVC Lighting's overseas performance has come from Schneider's contribution is still not easy to judge. However, an indisputable fact is that Schneider is using the NVC lighting channel to expand its own territory. . At present, in the NVC Lighting franchise store, products printed with Schneider LOGO have already put on the shelf.

In addition, in March this year, Schneider will also be located in Wanzhou, Chongqing Enlin Electric Co., Ltd. as a whole for the construction of the first production base in southwest. Enlin Electric's industrial and commercial registration information shows that the company was established on October 17, 2011, with a registered capital of 90 million yuan, which is a foreign-funded enterprise. The production base is located in Tianziyuan, Economic Development Zone, Wanzhou, and the legal representative is Yin Tao. Its business scope involves Production and sales of electrical products, intelligent lighting, low-voltage electrical appliances, exhaust fans, Yuba, integrated wiring lines.

According to public reports, Enlin Electric is not a listed company's asset. It is a company initiated by Wu Changjiang, chairman of NVC Lighting, and a number of natural persons. It is related to listed companies, and Wu Changjiang has nearly 40% of the company’s assets. Shares.

For this acquisition, a person familiar with NVC Lighting once admitted to the media that Schneider and NVC are strategic partnerships. Some of the products of Enlin Electronics compete with Schneider, which is not conducive to the cooperation between the company and its shareholders. Relationship maintenance.

Some analysts pointed out that through the cooperation with NVC Lighting, Schneider has undoubtedly found a shortcut to quickly enter the market, achieving a double harvest of production bases and sales channels.

NVC Lighting’s above-mentioned supplier executives told the “Daily Economic News” reporter that after Wu Changjiang resigned, Schneider could obtain greater benefits. Schneider valued NVC’s unmatched sales channels in China. In addition, if Schneider controls NVC, if the two companies bid for a project at the same time, Schneider's interests will be guaranteed. If it is for other reasons that Wu Changjiang left, he will certainly choose his own company to control the company.

Earlier, there were also reports from the media that Schneider had to open the Chinese market quickly and achieved a double harvest in production bases and sales channels. It was an inevitable choice to increase control of NVC. In this personnel transfer, Zhang Kaipeng was appointed as chief executive officer of the company. The official also hinted at Schneider’s attempt to enhance his right to speak.

In fact, Wu Changjiang may have long realized that NVC's control may be controlled by foreign investors. In order to prevent it from getting out of control, he began to increase his share of NVC Lighting at last year.

According to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, during the period from September 20 to 30, 2011, Wu Changjiang has increased its holdings of 9 million shares of the Group for five times, and the total shareholding has increased to 19.45%.

However, with the foreign shareholders Softbank and Goldman Sachs "dumping," Wu Changjiang's control eventually fell.

"Doesn't rule out some private agreements between Schneider, Softbank, and Goldman Sachs. The appointment of Zhang Kaipeng as the chief executive officer is a signal." An industry source analyzed the "Daily Economic News" reporter.

Recently, the reporter tried to contact Schneider China headquarters many times, but failed.

Wu Changjiang's resignation: Affiliated companies face "de-familyization"

As the soul of NVC Lighting (02222, HK), Wu Changjiang’s withdrawal has caused this lighting industry giant to face a lot of uncertainty.

Yesterday (June 4th), NVC Lighting's stock price was still hovering low, closing at HK$1.42, which continued to fall from the 2.19 Hong Kong dollar at the time of the withdrawal of Wu Changjiang and the recent drop was as high as nearly 35%.

This shows the outside world's concerns about NVC lighting. NVC Lighting employees also leave a message on Wu Changjiang's Weibo, hoping to see the return of the king.

"Daily Economic News" reporter found that NVC Lighting has been deeply branded by Wu Changjiang's family. Related transactions have been frequent. Wu Changjiang's father-in-law and mother-in-law have been renting NVC lighting's trademarks and using NVC Lighting. Sales channels. And this time Wu Jiangjiang's "abdication" may make Wu Nashi Lighting's family-oriented layout face challenges.

En Weixi's Concerns In 2008, under the efforts of the local investment promotion department, Wu Changjiang decided to fall in Chongqing Rongchang. On November 4th of that year, NVC Lighting and the Chongqing Rongchang County Government formally signed a production base investment agreement.

According to the investment agreement, NVC Lighting will be located in the Lighting Industry Base in western China, located in Rongchang County, with a total investment of approximately RMB 500 million, of which RMB 200 million will be invested in the first phase and 100 acres will be used for the first phase. Wu Changjiang's company in Rongchang was named "Chongqing Enweixi Industrial Development Co., Ltd." (hereinafter referred to as Chongqing Enweixi).

Banqiao Industrial Park, Chongqing Rongchang County, Chongqing Enwei West is located here. The official website of the company promotes it as a wholly-owned company invested by NVC in Chongqing Banqiao Industrial Park Rongchang.

This point is also confirmed on NVC Lighting's official website. “In the main company and address of NVC Lighting Holdings Co., Ltd.”, the Enwei West Industrial Group was impressively listed.

However, the "Daily Economic News" reporter found that there is no direct equity relationship between Chongqing Enweixi and NVC Lighting.

Industrial and commercial data show that Chongqing Enweixi registered capital of 30 million yuan, initiated by two natural persons, ID card information shows Liu Xiang, Wuhou District, Chengdu City, invested 15.1 million yuan, holding 50.33%, Wu Xianming, Nanhai District, Chongqing invested 14.9 million yuan, 49.67% of shares, this shareholder is Wu Changjiang's father-in-law. Among them, Liu Xiang has served as an executive director of the company. Since then, Chongqing Enweixi has made two additional capital increases and its registered capital has increased to 50.08 million yuan. At present, the legal representative of the company is Wang Shaoling.

On May 30, the "Daily Economic News" rushed to Rongchang County.

Referring to Chongqing Enweixi, there may not be much known in Rongchang County, but when it comes to NVC lighting, nobody knows.

On the office building of Chongqing Enweixi, the four characters of “NVC Lighting” are particularly eye-catching, and the slogan “Creating a World Brand” is also written on the plant.

"We have no equity relationship with NVC Lighting. We are only part of NVC's supply system. NVC's business volume accounts for about 30% of our company's business volume." An executive from Chongqing Enweixi to "Daily Economic News, a reporter calmly, the company's real boss is Wang Shaoling. However, when the reporter asked about the holding of Wu Xianming’s father-in-law Wu Xianming’s shareholding, he kept silent.

According to public reports, Wang Shaoling is also the general manager of NVC Lighting's R&D system.

A person familiar with the matter disclosed to the reporter of “Daily Economic News” that Wang Shaoling and Wu Changjiang are students. Before Wang Shaoling, a company was acquired by NVC. However, Wang Shaoling has many industries in Guangdong. The Chongqing Enweixi project is indeed a meeting between Wu Changjiang and the local government. Due to the huge brand influence of Wu Changjiang and NVC, the local government can pay more attention to this project. NVC also wants to improve its supply system through Chongqing Enweixi.

“NVC is our major customer. We are still a little worried about the change of NVC's senior management.” said the above Chongqing Enwei West executives.

The executive also said that the use of NVC's signboards will also help promote NVC's brand. "On the highway, we can see the four characters of the NVC lighting on our office building. This is equivalent to advertising NVC Lighting. NVC Lighting therefore has to pay us a certain fee."

It is understood that, in addition to producing outdoor lighting products for NVC, Chongqing Enweixi is also involved in manufacturing fields such as power (tower) poles, high-voltage substations, communication poles, street light poles, and wind power tower masts. At present, the company also has its own marketing system to sell the "Eng Weixi" brand products.

“We are also paying close attention to NVC's high-level changes.” The above executives said that this incident may affect NVC sales, thus affecting their orders.

However, the above executives also stated that regardless of who controls NVC, Chongqing Enweixi is the best supplier of NVC outdoor lighting products in terms of cost performance and quality. In addition, they are very familiar with NVC management methods. With business ideas, cooperation is very tacit.

After NVC lighting changed its command, whether Chongqing Enweixi can get orders from NVC smoothly still needs time to test.

Frequently-related transactions On April 20, 2010, NVC Lighting signed an agreement with Zhongshan Aixili Lighting Co., Ltd. According to the agreement, NVC Lighting awarded certain of its registered trademarks to Shengdi Aishi Co., Ltd., which used sales revenue. 3% was paid to NVC Lighting as a trademark license fee.

Not only that, the two parties also signed an agreement on distribution management framework. The content of the agreement is that the company can sell its home lighting products through NVC Lighting's distribution network. In return, Holy Land needed to pay Nash Lighting a distribution commission of 6% to 8% of sales.

With the network layout of NVC, the channel is king, there is almost no peer to the right.

According to data provided by NVC Lighting, in 2011, based on maintaining 36 exclusive regional distributors, the company had a net increase of 158 stores during the year. By the end of last year, the number of franchised stores had reached 2,968. The NVC sales network covers a total of 2014 cities and has basically covered provincial capitals and prefecture-level cities. The coverage of county-level cities exceeds 61%.

Why does sacred land love the king of the lighting industry alone?

"Daily Economic News" reporter found that the holy land of Aishishi was privately controlled by Wu Changjiang's mother-in-law. The company was established in March 2008 with a registered capital of 1 million yuan. Wu Chen's mother-in-law Chen Min holds a 40.93% stake in the company.

Not only that, the companies associated with Wu Changjiang include Huizhou Changzhou City Changxin Hardware Processing Factory, Chongqing Enlin Electric Appliance Co., Ltd., Shandong NVC Lighting Development Co., Ltd., etc.

The reporter found that Changxin Hardware is an individual industrial and commercial household owned and operated by Wu Changjiang’s cousin Yin Xuan. According to public information, the registered place is Building L of the Leizhou Industrial Park in Wuhu, Huizhou.

In addition, Wu Changjiang’s mother-in-law Chen Min holds a 48% stake in Shandong Leishi. At the same time, Chen also holds a 36.2% stake in Huizhou Enlin Electric Co., Ltd. And Huizhou Enlin holds a 99% stake in Chongqing Enlin (now transferred to Schneider).

Among these companies, Shandong Leishi and Chongqing Enlin, like Shengdi Aishi, can lease the trademark of NVC Lighting and enter its sales channels.

How does a company like Sage Aishi benefit from cooperation with NVC?

NVC Lighting's 2011 annual report shows that the company’s income from the above-mentioned affiliated company’s distribution commissions was US$7.7 million. Based on an average commission fee of 7%, the company’s total sales of products on the NVC channel amounted to approximately US$110 million. As the country's largest lighting company, NVC Lighting's operating revenue last year was only 590 million US dollars, which means that these related companies through the NVC channel sales have been close to one-fifth of NVC lighting revenue.

In terms of trademark use, NVC Lighting received a total of 3.86 million U.S. dollars in license fees last year. According to the 3% payment standard, the total value of products sold by these companies under the NVC Lighting brand is approximately 130 million U.S. dollars.

In addition, NVC Lighting's purchase of raw materials and finished products from these companies amounted to US$8 million. Among the top five suppliers of NVC Lighting last year, Chongqing Enweixi was ranked among them.

In fact, through NVC Lighting’s trademarks and channels, the performance of these family companies associated with Wu Changjiang has increased year by year. For this reason, the two parties had to increase the agreement in December 2014 and May 31, 2010. The upper limit of the commission or trademark license fee.

However, whether it is a trademark licensing framework agreement or a distribution management framework agreement, the duration of the agreement is three years from May 20, 2010. That is, by May next year, these contracts will all expire. At that time, NVC Lighting's NVC would be missing. Will these agreements be renewed?

The original NVC, who has the right to speak, can protect the interests of the Wuchang family and will be asked a big question mark.