Source: Visual China

Reporter丨Chen Jing

The sensational Everbright Securities MPS incident has the latest developments.

On June 11, Everbright Securities issued an announcement to disclose the MPS matters and follow-up situation of the wholly-owned subsidiary Everbright Capital.

The announcement shows that JINXINNC. (Cayman Baptist), the subject of overseas project transactions of Shanghai Baptist Fund, filed fraudulent false statements and breach of tax commitments with individuals and institutions such as RICCARDO SILVA ANDREA RADRZZANI, the original seller shareholder of MPS, in the High Court of England and Wales. The litigation claims that the amount involved is approximately US$661 million (approximately RMB 4.2 billion).

Everbright Securities said that the company’s business operations are currently normal.

Originating from MPS, China Merchants Bank and Huarui Bank invested 3.2 billion in total

What is the MPS project? How did Everbright Securities step on the thunder?

The matter dates back to four years ago. This series of disputes are all related to the “Storm” of the British sports copyright company MP&Silva (the “MPS” project) acquired by Baptist Fund, the executive partner of Everbright Baptist in 2016.

Everbright Baptist, a subsidiary of Everbright Capital, serves as the executive partner of Baptist Fund.

In 2016, Everbright Baptist and Baofeng Investment and Shanghai Qunchang launched the Baptist Fund with a fund size of 10 billion and a total maturity of 5 years. According to Tianyan Check, Baptist Fund has a total of 14 investors, of which China Merchants Wealth holds 53.82%, and Everbright Capital holds 1.15%. The executive partners of Baptist Fund are Shanghai Qunchang Financial Services Co., Ltd. and Everbright Baptist Hui, Baofeng (Tianjin) Investment Management Co., Ltd. Huarui Bank and Shenzhen Hengxiang are also partners of Baptist Fund.

In May 2016, Baptist Fund raised 5.2 billion yuan to complete the acquisition of 65% of MPS. MPS used to be the world’s top sports media company, with business covering more than 200 countries and regions around the world, with more than 90 global event property rights, and more than 30 event rights agency partners. LeTV Sports is its largest partner in China. Against LeEco, the Storm Group at the time also aimed at the sports sector, hoping to formally enter the sports industry.

Among the 5.2 billion yuan raised by the Baptist Fund, Everbright Capital contributed 60 million yuan as an inferior investor. The priority investor China Merchants Bank invested 2.8 billion yuan, and Huarui Bank invested 400 million yuan through Aijian Trust; other investors included Zhaoyuan Yongjin invested 600 million yuan, Shenzhen Hengxiang, Baofeng Department and Everbright Capital jointly invested billions .

In October 2017, MPS lost to rival IMG in the Serie A international copyright bid. In the same year, BeIN Sports took away the Ligue 1 copyright from MPS. Since then, MPS has been losing ground in the sports copyright market. Due to the inability to pay copyright fees, some major copyright owners terminated their contracts with MPS early and even took them to court. In October 2018, with the bankruptcy and liquidation order of the High Court of the United Kingdom, MPS became history. The 5.2 billion yuan investment was “flooded” and the investors encountered Waterloo.

Since then, many partners of the Baptist Fund have demanded compensation from the Everbright Department and the Baofeng Department.

In July 2019, Feng Xin, the actual controller of Baofeng Group, was arrested. Baofeng was in deep crisis and could not protect itself. Everbright Capital has become the main claim target of all investors. Everbright Securities’ 2018 annual report shows that the stakeholders of the Baptist Fund’s priority limited partners have presented a letter of replenishment stamped by Everbright Capital, promising that if the priority limited partners cannot exit, they will be funded by the inferior ones. People Everbright Capital assumes the corresponding obligation to make up the difference.

Everbright Capital was sued or arbitrated by China Merchants Bank, Zhaoyuan Yongjin and Huarui Bank, and Shenzhen Hengxiang, and the amount of “debt collection” involved exceeded 4.1 billion yuan. Among them, the amount involved in China Merchants Bank’s lawsuit against Everbright Capital is approximately 3.489 billion yuan, and the amount involved in arbitration applications for Huarui Bank and Shenzhen Hengxiang is 452 million yuan and 168 million yuan respectively. The arbitration initiated by Zhaoyuan Yongjin involved an amount of 100,000 yuan.

On May 31, 2019, Everbright Securities disclosed that the case was at the stage of filing and acceptance, and the impact on Everbright Capital could not be accurately estimated for the time being.

After the MPS incident, Everbright Securities also experienced a series of executive changes.

In April 2019, Xue Feng resigned as chairman and director of Everbright Securities, and Party Secretary Yan Jun replaced Xue Feng as chairman of the company. In January 2020, Liu Qiuming, the original chairman of CM Investment, was newly appointed as the president of Everbright Securities. The former president Zhou Jiannan resigned due to personal reasons. Several senior executives, including the chief risk officer, compliance director, business director and directors of Everbright Securities, have also changed.

Everbright Securities is also constantly trying to hold Storm Group responsible. In April 2020, Everbright Securities disclosed the result of the first instance of the MPS case. The Shanghai Financial Court ruled that Everbright Capital, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Everbright Securities, should pay approximately 3.116 billion yuan to China Merchants Bank and interest from May 6, 2019 to the date of actual settlement. Loss, and bear part of the litigation fees, property preservation fees and other expenses; pay the investment principal of 400 million yuan to Huarui Bank, pay the investment income from January 1, 2018 to the date of actual performance, and bear litigation fees, preservation fees, etc. Currently, Everbright Capital has filed an appeal, and the relevant litigation is still in the process of performing judicial procedures.

MPS risks are fully accrued, and China Everbright is stepping out of the haze

Following a sharp rebound in performance in 2019, Everbright Securities has achieved a three-fold increase in net profit in 2020.

According to the company’s annual performance report released on March 25, the company achieved a total of 15.866 billion yuan in operating income in 2020, an increase of 58% year-on-year, and a net profit of 2.334 billion yuan attributable to the parent, an increase of 311% year-on-year.

However, dragged down by the MPS incident, Everbright Capital has suffered three consecutive years of performance losses in 2020, with losses of 1.634 billion yuan and 2.909 billion yuan in 2018 and 2019, respectively. As of December 31, 2020, Everbright Capital had total assets of 2.980 billion yuan, net assets of 2.442 billion yuan, and losses of 2.069 billion yuan.

Everbright Securities accrued a liability of 1.55 billion yuan for MPS matters in 2020. In the past two years, it has accrued liabilities of 3.011 billion yuan. Up to now, Everbright Securities has accrued liabilities of 4.565 billion yuan for MPS. In the MPS incident, the largest amount of funds contributed by the stakeholders of the two priority partners-China Merchants Bank and Huarui Bank. According to the announcement on the judgment of the first instance disclosed by Everbright Securities, in addition to the priority principal, a certain amount of interest must be paid. However, as far as the current situation of Everbright Securities’ accrued accrual is concerned, Everbright Securities has made a full accrual for this matter.

Everbright Securities stated that since the occurrence of the MPS incident, the company has deeply analyzed the problems reflected in the risk event, focusing on comprehensively recreating the style from improving the risk management system, achieving full coverage of risk management, implementing the responsibilities of relevant personnel at all levels, strengthening professional management and expert decision-making, etc. Control compliance system. The company has carried out a series of risk investigations and rectifications, comprehensively strengthened the management and control of subsidiaries, further built a sound and prudent risk culture, improved the risk compliance system, and improved risk prevention and resolution capabilities. Judging from the 2020 annual results announcement disclosed by Everbright Securities, the company has stepped out of the haze of MPS risk events, the risks have been basically cleared, and the company’s development will become more healthy.

Produced | Sohu Technology

Author | Yin Lina

Edit | Yang Jin

The listing rumors have been brewing for more than three years. In the morning of June 11, Didi finally submitted a prospectus and launched an IPO in the United States.

According to the prospectus, Didi’s stock code is “DIDI”, with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, and China Renaissance Capital acting as underwriters.

Since its establishment, Didi has gone through 22 rounds of financing with a total financing amount of nearly 80 billion yuan, making it a well-deserved financing expert.

However, from the perspective of performance, Didi’s online car-hailing seems to be huge, but only has a meager profit of 3.1%; international business is still losing money, and there are large variables due to the epidemic; new businesses such as freight and community group buying have just started. It is still a “cash-burning” machine, and profit is far from expected.

Performance dismantling: loss is still the main theme

Let’s look at the performance first. From 2018 to 2020, Didi’s revenue was 135.3 billion yuan, 154.8 billion yuan and 141.7 billion yuan, respectively. In the first quarter of this year, Didi’s revenue was 42.2 billion yuan.

From the above figures, it can be seen that in the past three years, Didi’s revenue growth has not been significant. Affected by factors such as the new crown epidemic in 2020, overall revenue has also declined slightly. However, the impact of the epidemic was eased in the second half of last year. The prospectus shows that in the second half of last year, the total transaction volume of Didi’s travel business in China was 121.6 billion yuan, an increase of 80.3% over the first half of the year and an increase of 12.2% over the second half of 2019.

In addition, losses are still the main theme of Didi. In the past three years, Didi’s net losses were 15 billion yuan, 9.7 billion yuan, and 10.6 billion yuan, respectively. The adjusted non-GAAP profits were 8.6 billion yuan, 2.8 billion yuan and 8.4 billion yuan. In the first quarter of this year, due to the unrecognized income of 9.1 billion yuan and an investment income of 3.3 billion yuan from the spin-off of Orange Heart Optimal, the investment income reached 12.36 billion yuan, Didi turned losses, net profit reached 5.5 billion yuan, and an adjusted loss of 5.5 billion yuan. yuan.

In terms of business, the main sources of Didi’s revenue are divided into three categories, namely, China’s travel business (China’s online car-hailing, taxi, agent driving and ride-hailing businesses), international business (international travel and food delivery, etc.) and Other businesses (shared bicycles and motorcycles, car service, freight, autonomous driving, financial services, etc.).

In 2020, these three types of income will be 133.6 billion yuan, 2.3 billion yuan and 5.8 billion yuan respectively. Among them, China’s travel business is the most important source of income, and the proportion of China’s travel business to total revenue is as high as 94.3%.

Among various expenditures, operating costs account for a large proportion, mainly commissions and subsidies paid to drivers. In the past three years, Didi’s gross profit margin was 5.5%, 9.8% and 11.2%, showing an upward trend year by year.

Among various expenses, marketing and marketing expenses accounted for the highest proportion. Last year, the total amount reached 11.14 billion yuan, accounting for 7.86% of total revenue. Followed by general and administrative expenses, about 7.55 billion yuan, accounting for 5.33% of total revenue.

Although as of the end of last year, Didi had 15,914 full-time employees worldwide, including 7,110 R&D employees, which accounted for 44.7% of R&D employees, the proportion of Didi’s technology and R&D related expenses was not the highest: last year it was 63.2 100 million yuan, accounting for 4.46% of total revenue. Finally, operating and support expenses are 4.70 billion yuan, accounting for about 3.32% of revenue.

In terms of operations, in the 12 months ending March 31, 2021, Didi has been operating in more than 4,000 cities and towns in 15 countries around the world. The total transaction volume of the whole platform is 341 billion yuan, of which Didi’s core platform GTV (referring to GTV in China’s travel and international markets) reached 244.2 billion yuan. With the exception of community group buying, the average daily order volume of all businesses reached 41 million, the annual active users reached 493 million, and the annual active drivers were 15 million.

However, the current progress is still far from the “0188” plan released by Didi in March last year. The “0188” plan shows that Didi will serve more than 100 million orders per day during the three years from 2020 to 2022, with a penetration rate of more than 8% for all domestic trips, and a global service user MAU of more than 800 million.

What is more worrying is that in Didi’s “main battlefield” Chinese market, the number of orders has shown a downward trend year by year, and the customer unit price has not increased significantly.

The number of Didi orders in the Chinese market dropped from 8.79 billion orders in 2018 to 8.67 billion orders in 2019 to 7.75 billion orders. However, this trend also has business adjustments and environmental factors. In 2019, Didi discontinued its ride-hailing business. Under the new crown epidemic in 2020, people will go out less frequently, and Didi has also suspended cross-city orders and ride-sharing services. In terms of customer unit prices, they were 23.3 yuan, 23.3 yuan and 24.4 yuan respectively in three years.

However, Didi has achieved profitability in the Chinese travel market: adjusted pre-interest and tax profit of 3.84 billion yuan in 2019, 3.96 billion yuan in 2020, and 3.62 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2021.

The rake puzzle: online car-hailing profit margin is only 3.1%

After the ride-hailing incident occurred in 2018, the outside world had a lot of discussions about Didi. In addition to inadequate security measures, the question of Didi’s profitability was the most acute.

Just when everyone thought that Didi was earning a lot of money, some media broke the news that Didi had “a total loss of 10.9 billion yuan in 2018 and a driver’s subsidy of 11.3 billion yuan”, and “the total loss in the six years of its business has exceeded. 40 billion yuan”.

Entering 2020, discussions on Didi’s high commission rate remain high, with some drivers claiming that the commission rate for some orders has even reached more than 30%. In response, Didi issued a statement stating that the proportion of such “extreme rake orders” was 2.7% last year, and it has now been reduced to 0.03%. The next step will allow this number to continue to decline until it is completely eliminated. Today, Didi has launched a transparent billing function, and drivers can view the flow of funds for orders in the past 7 days.

As a matter of fact, the situation regarding the commission of the online car-hailing business can be seen in the prospectus.

Look at the whole first. The prospectus shows that from 2018 to the first quarter of 2021, drivers from around the world earned more than 600 billion yuan in revenue on the Didi platform. In the Chinese market, in the online car-hailing business in 2020, the total revenue and incentives received by drivers will reach 117.4 billion yuan.

In the prospectus, Didi detailed the financial status of Didi in China’s travel market in 2020.

Last year, Didi’s total transaction volume in the domestic travel market was 189 billion yuan, of which the transaction volume from online car-hailing business (excluding taxis, private cars, and ride-hailing, etc.) was 148.6 billion yuan.

Excluding expenses spent on consumer subsidies and road tolls, Didi’s total revenue was 133.6 billion yuan. Among them, 110.5 billion yuan was used as driver income, accounting for 82% of revenue; 6.9 billion yuan was used as driver incentives, accounting for 5.2% of revenue, and the two together accounted for 87.9% of Didi’s total revenue, accounting for approximately total online car-hailing 79% of the transaction volume is consistent with Didi’s previously announced commission.

Earlier, on May 7, Didi car-hailing issued a statement on the “rake”, stating that in 2020, Didi car-hailing drivers accounted for 79.1% of the total payable by passengers. Of the remaining 20.9%, 10.9% are passenger subsidies, 6.9% are corporate operating costs (technology research and development, servers, security, customer service, manpower, offline operations, etc.), taxation and payment handling fees, etc., and 3.1% are online appointments Net profit of car business.

Overall, excluding driver income and driver subsidies, Didi will receive 16.2 billion yuan in its online car-hailing business. Excluding 12.2 billion yuan in operating expenses, Didi’s online car-hailing business before interest, tax and amortization The profit reached 4 billion yuan, and the profit rate was about 3.1%.

Didi doesn’t want to be just online ride-hailing

The slow revenue growth and the meager profit of domestic online car-hailing have forced Didi to find the next growth point.

In 2018, Didi began its international expansion, trying to replicate its experience in the Chinese market to the world, and was the first to enter Brazil, Mexico, Australia, and Japan. Prospectus data shows that Didi currently has operations in 15 countries around the world.

However, in the case of China’s local online car-hailing is only a meager profit, it is conceivable that it is difficult for the international business to make a profit, especially in the context of the new crown epidemic in foreign countries where there are still large variables. From the beginning of 2018 to the first quarter of this year, Didi’s international business losses have accumulated more than 10 billion yuan.

But one problem is that a series of new businesses such as shared bicycles and motorcycles, car services, freight transport, autonomous driving, and financial services only brought Didi 5.76 billion yuan in revenue last year, but at the same time it brought more than 8.8 billion yuan. The loss is more than twice the profit of online car-hailing.

This year, the loss has further expanded. In the first quarter of this year, the loss of new business in a single quarter reached 8.08 billion yuan. From 2018 to the first quarter of 2021, Didi’s losses in new businesses have totaled more than 26 billion yuan.

It is worth noting that these new businesses have completed independent spin-offs and financing in the first half of this year.

Last year, Qingju launched a round of financing. SoftBank and some other investors invested US$134 million and Didi invested US$750 million. At the beginning of this year, Qingju launched a Series B financing again, in which external investors invested US$166 million and Didi subscribed. A share of US$300 million in equity financing and a US$100 million in convertible notes. Qingju is currently valued at US$1.9 billion, and Didi holds 88.3%;

In the first quarter of this year, Didi Freight received US$1.5 billion in Series A financing, the latest valuation is US$2.8 billion, and Didi currently holds 57.6% of the shares;

Didi’s autonomous driving company has completed a US$1.5 billion Series A financing, with a valuation of US$3.4 billion, and Didi’s shareholding ratio is 70.4%.

Orange Heart Optimal conducted A1 and A2 rounds of financing in March this year. Among them, the A1 round of SoftBank Vision Fund injected US$900 million and the rest of the external investors injected US$100 million; the A2 round was funded by the management of about US$200 million, and the financing was completed. After Didi’s equity fell to 32.8%, it was no longer consolidated. However, in the A2 round, Orange Heart Pride issued USD 3 billion of convertible bonds to Didi. Didi has the right to convert the bonds into stocks before the expiration date of the convertible bonds and become the controlling shareholder of Orange Heart Pride again.

Although these new businesses are at a loss, it is not difficult to see how much Didi attaches importance to internationalization and new businesses from the purpose of fundraising: 30% of the funds raised are used to expand business in international markets outside of China; 30% The raised funds are used to improve technical capabilities including shared travel, electric vehicles and autonomous driving; the remaining about 20% will be used to launch new products and expand existing product categories to continuously improve user experience.

Today, Didi’s listing process has begun, but it will take more time to wait for these new businesses to grow into the next “ace” besides online car-hailing.

(Original article by Sohu Technology, please indicate the source for reprinting)

Raising pigs in a closed cold barn is a new direction in livestock development In 2019, according to professional statistics, Thap Muoi had nearly 10,000 pigs of 406 households destroyed due to African swine fever. Like other pig-raising households, Ms. Luong Thanh Huong’s farm of nearly 500 pigs in Hamlet 3, Tan Kieu Commune also destroyed 164 pigs, it is worth mentioning that in the same place, but the cages are raised in the traditional form. disease, and the cage in the form of a closed cold barn (just a few meters away) was completely unaffected. Ms. Huong said that last year, due to the African cholera epidemic, her traditional farm was also affected by the disease and had to be destroyed a lot, but in the form of a closed cold barn, she was not affected. rebuilt the barn, raising all in the form of cold barns. Raised in this form, pigs grow quickly, reduce a lot of costs and are consumed at a higher price than the market. The closed cold barn system is divided into 3 areas including: food processing area, pig raising area and biogas cellar complex to treat manure and wastewater. This is a modern farm with full equipment such as water cooling system, exhaust fan, automatic feeding and drinking trough, automatic temperature control system inside… Model of the barn. closed cold, the temperature is always stable, the pigs are less tired due to the influence of the hot sun, helping the pigs to exercise well, eat well and grow stably, less effort to take care and clean pigs should be consumed with price is higher than the market. Therefore, there are many breeding households coming to learn the model of livestock by a closed cold barn system. Also a large pig breeder, Ms. Nguyen Thi My Em from Hamlet 4, Tan Kieu Commune is intending to rebuild the barn in the form of a cold-closed barn, but is still facing financial difficulties. Raising pigs in a closed cold barn system is a new direction in livestock development today, but the initial investment is relatively large. Mr. Nguyen Hong Sang – Deputy Head of Technical Training and Technology Transfer Department, Thap Muoi Agricultural Service Center said: “Effectiveness when raising livestock in the form of closed cold cages is clear, but the common difficulties of farmers are obvious. raising livestock in the district is the source of capital, because raising according to this model requires relatively large capital. Dong Thap also has policies to support the development of household livestock production, but it is difficult for people to access this capital due to the habit of small-scale livestock production, which the policy is bound to be on a large enough scale, depending on the type of livestock. but have different regulations, must link consumption, environmental protection issues… so it is difficult for people to access”. In order to keep livestock from being affected by the epidemic, ensure environmental hygiene, safety and efficiency, in the coming time, Thap Muoi needs to strengthen the propaganda to change the practice of small and fragmented livestock to form of farm farming, concentrated, self-contained, sustainable livestock production.

There are objects in the house that seem simple but also emit energy that affects feng shui, including the refrigerator. This is not only a popular, lovely household item, a place to store and preserve food, but according to the feng-shui concept, the refrigerator is also considered a family’s treasury, with a close relationship strong and financially of the members. Feng shui expert Phung Phuong will point out 4 absolute absolute places that must not be refrigerated. If committed, it will cause damage to the family fortune. Do not place the refrigerator opposite or close to the stove In terms of the five elements, the fridge is mainly on the Kim onion, while the kitchen cooks the fire onions. When the refrigerator is placed close to or facing the stove, it will create a way of the Fire to engrave Kim. In this posture, male-female owners or family members are easy to create words or contradictions that are difficult to reconcile. Therefore, it is best to place diagonally or together, the stove and refrigerator should be placed 2-3 meters apart. With a small space, there is no place to place the refrigerator so that the door of the refrigerator opens to form a partition with the stove, this will limit the air flow from the exhaust to the inside of the refrigerator every time you open, just right. chemical dissolution, ensuring food safety. Great cavalry put the refrigerator opposite the door, the toilet door Refrigerators help store and preserve food, in terms of aesthetics as well as daily activities, the refrigerator located opposite the main door or the toilet door is not polite, affecting human health. Moreover, the toilets with Thuy Thuy are very prosperous, the refrigerator is considered a “fortune” of the family, if you place the refrigerator in front of the toilet, it will be easily swept away by Thuy. Taboos put the refrigerator under the altar The altar space is originally a spiritual space, always in need of tranquility and minimizes disturbance. While the refrigerator is a place for each family to store and preserve food, regular commuting is a taboo. In addition, the constant opening of the cupboard to store or take food (by Duong) will make the worshiping space (in Yin) lose the dignity and tranquility due to the smell of food, the frequent disturbances. Avoid placing the refrigerator at the bottom of the stairs Refrigerators are like “treasury” (the family’s wealth) should be placed in large, well-ventilated places that are both good for the operation process and good for the homeowner’s feng shui. The location under the stairs, narrow, lack of light, is very easy to cause defecation due to the process of people moving. Setting the refrigerator here is therefore a disadvantage, not good at all for the health and fortune of homeowners as well as family members. The above are taboos when using a refrigerator according to the water. Hope to help you avoid the bad effects caused by this feng shui error. * Information is for reference only.

According to the plan, LG will complete this production conversion this year while reassigning affected workers. LG’s factory in Hai Phong. LG Vietnam President Jung Hai-jin affirmed that the cessation of smartphone production in Vietnam is part of LG’s plan to restructure its basic product portfolio, and affirmed that this plan will not significantly including production and sales activities as well as LG employees in Hai Phong. In 2015, LG opened the production line in Hai Phong. The factory currently has more than 16,000 workers and mainly produces home appliances, smartphones and car infotainment products. In addition, leaders of LG Vietnam also leave open the possibility of additional investment in this factory in the near future. In addition, a representative of LG Vietnam also denied the information that LG offered to sell a smartphone factory in Hai Phong for more than 2,000 billion VND. “It is true that we stopped making smartphones, but this is only one line in the factory. We also produce other products such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners … ”, emphasized LG Vietnam representative. according to Yonhap

Photo: SCMP The SF5 model, co-developed by Huawei and SERES, is the first model to appear in the Huawei store. This vehicle running both electricity and gasoline is equipped with a HiCar system based on Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system. The car can run 180 km in pure electric mode, while it can run 1,000 km in extended mode. Photo: FT A Huawei salesman said that the HiCar system allows users to switch between the phone app and the car’s central control system. You can also connect the car with other smart devices such as TVs, air conditioners … Photo: FT Previously, Richard Yu, the head of Huawei’s consumer technology division, admitted that the US embargo had negatively affected its smartphone supply chain. Photo: FT “Electric cars are the only product line that can offset the losses in the smartphone business because they are expensive – although the total sales are not as high as smartphones,” the senior employee said. Photo: FT Two cars, one in blue and one in white, have appeared in stores in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Chengdu. Users can also pre-order the car on Huawei’s e-commerce site Vmall with a deposit of 1,000 yuan. These vehicles are priced at 216,800 yuan and 246,800 yuan.

But the son did not just for that matter but only got heatstroke out there. He realized the sun had changed color, in spite of the dark dome year after year. In his mind one after another appeared images of pink silk strings, honey of wet waves, thin glass, the hair of a worm on the leaves, the edge of a stream of woman’s hair as she bent down to kiss.

“Now is September, probably”, he dreamed, “you know from the calendar”. The old man was furious, what about September, whatever color change in the sunlight it was, it was still the sun killing it, and he was almost burned down by it.

“Beautiful is poisonous, that sunlight is like your cheeks,” said the old man. Perhaps he wanted to mention the woman who left him behind. It was also a long time ago, when the son was only nine years old, the old man had also married several more wives, but still regretted his hatred not ceasing. A person’s first love, he said, determines his / her life. Although the son felt that he lost his campaign for mayor, or the loss of his investment in the artificial rain factory, the loss of wealth after a few divorces, it had nothing to do with his first love. But the old man still dragged the mother he could no longer remember, to blame for every risk he had in his life. The past is like the tail getting longer and longer, and I don’t know when it swings back to avoid the damage.

“It’s all in the sun to go fishing in the lake,” said the dreamy son, ignoring his father’s burning attitude, and his father’s helplessness, as if the old man was standing in front of the dying sick child. The old man can hardly stop the memories of a man who used to bathe in the September sun, the one sun that has met once in his life is unforgettable. But the son grew deeper, because it had been seventeen September, before the sun began to melt everything it shone on, and man retreated to the earth, creating the Underworld.

In Underground there is also sunshine, and sun. All are recreated vividly, just like the real thing. Everything is delicately simulated, the sun is tilted early and tomorrow afternoon, the days of artificially cloudy sky, and widespread showers or thunderstorms. Rain and shine are preprogrammed from the beginning of the year, before submitting to the Underground committee, and so that no year is like any other year. People no longer remember the real light, the real atmosphere in the world they left behind when they fled. Even plants and trees are deceived by artificial light, they branch, flower, bear fruit. Sunflowers regardless of the sun, still welcoming flowers. Only rosemary, probably overly sensitive to the environment, was doomed.

But they cannot reproduce the September sun. They couldn’t coat the air mirror, a thin, sweet layer. They do not know how to make the golden color of the sun that makes the leaves of the tree drink well before they do the sowing. So every September, in Underground, there will be a bunch of people who miss the old sun so much, don’t really need to do anything, climb up the dome and look back at the old sky. The children born in Underground don’t know why there is such an absurd nostalgia, they rummaged through thousands of books, searching for pages describing the autumn sun that made them crazy, but they didn’t feel it. OK. The clever word does not fully describe the intensity of the September sun, for it was not born to be described, but let people bathe, drink, numb, or hang from a tree or sink to the bottom; so that people remember the sadness.

Like that guy, lying on the dome forever, not needing anything, looking out there. Relieved of the scene where my husband / father quit his job, lethargic as he died, every September his wife and son would travel with suitcases. Staying Underground does not mean that people give up their passion for moving, nearly plane-speed trains across the oceans, they are always happy to keep their doors waiting for customers. He went upstairs with dome, lying forever Fewer and fewer people were going up there, they forgot the September sun, or had been able to endure it, went to see it. The last news about the sunburn was decades ago, he remembers that the column next to it had written about the summit meeting about patching ozone layer. I don’t know if the sun out there has cooled down yet. Someone must open the Underground door to try it out.

“That day, sitting fishing, seeing the mist evaporating on the lotus leaf,” he said to the old man. And the father was so desperate he didn’t want to say anything, as he saw the prospect of a son opening the door on Underground 86 and walking out.

Imagine someone else remembers the real sun out there, not that people are used to rain and sun and fake sun, like a bird used to cage. Someone else came out, burned down, was better than hiding in a deep pit. Who knows, when the sun has cooled, they won’t say it because everyone living in the cage looks after each other easily.

Text: Nguyen Ngoc Tu – Illustration: Kim Duan

Epic Store offers titles from smaller indie titles like The Stanley Parable and Tormentor X Punisher to the blockbuster 3-A, Watch Dogs and Star Wars: Battlefront 2. Everything really exploded when in the summer of 2020, the Grand Theft Auto’s week-long free release dragged on players to land, and Epic’s server crashed just minutes later. All these special offers are out of pocket by Epic Games to enhance the brand’s identity, a small amount of money, luckily, the company has to pay the bills very quickly.

According to PC Gamer, Epic’s massive legal battle with Apple over Fortnite revenue on the App Store leaked the total amount invested in the Epic Store, around $ 444 million. And of course, 273 million of that is considered a net loss as Epic has launched a variety of free gift programs. However, the company is not too confused by this investment, but also hopes that profits will start to increase in 2023 and more than a quarter of a billion dollars is spent is only part of a long-term strategy.

This confidence is not without foundation, Epic guarantees a steady stream of profits from Unreal Engine and Fortnite. With Fortnite still considered one of the most successful battle royale games on the market today.

Thanks to improved revenue, Halico’s gross profit also increased sharply to 11.3 billion dong, 2.7 times higher than the same period. However, because cost of goods sold and selling expenses still accounted for a large proportion, profit after tax in the first quarter of 2021 still suffered a loss of 1 billion dong but decreased by 88.4%, equivalent to a loss of 7.59 billion dong. with the same period in the first quarter of 2020 (loss 8.62 billion dong).

Net revenue in the first quarter of 2021 increased by nearly 10 billion dong compared to the first quarter of 2020.

In 2021, Halico targets net revenue of 115 billion dong and pre-tax loss of 31 billion dong. Thus, the company’s revenue target after the first quarter has been completed by 31%.

In 2020, Halico had a loss of 31 billion dong. However, this loss was lower than in 2019 (a loss of 65 billion dong) was thanks to the significant reduction in expenses. This is the 5th consecutive year this business has fallen into a loss situation.

Halico continuously fell into a state of loss.

According to Halico, the company has difficulty doing business due to changing and stricter tastes and requirements of consumers. In that context, Decree 100 strictly controls the consumption of alcohol and beer products, contributing to the decline in sales.

Halico outlined a development plan to open new showrooms. Besides, Halico continues to maintain and develop the Restaurant channel; search for consumer markets for 96% vol alcohol, 70% vol alcohol and HaliClean hand sanitizer.

Halico, formerly known as the Hanoi winery, was established in 1898 at 94 Lo Duc. The period 2008-2012 was when Halico achieved rapid growth in revenue, affirming its number one position in the wine industry of the country. However, Halico’s sales and profit figures plummeted in the two years 2013-2014 and started to sink in losses since 2015 up to now.

As of March 31, 2021, Halico’s total assets were only VND388 billion, down 7 billion from the beginning of the period, accumulated loss of VND445 billion increased by 31 billion compared to the beginning of the period.

Ha Nam Lottery One Member Limited Company (Ha Nam Lottery Company) was licensed to operate from March 9, 2009. As a 100% state-owned enterprise directly under the People’s Committee of Ha Nam province, Ha Nam Lottery One Member Limited Company has an equity of 27.38 billion VND. Representative is Mr. Nguyen Dang Khai, Chairman and Director of the company.

Over the years, the business activities of Ha Nam Lottery One Member Limited Company always fell into a state of loss, many signs of wrongdoing in the management and financial spending of the company, causing loss of state assets. tens of billions of dong.

Specifically, according to the report on business results of Ha Nam Lottery Company, in 2017 the company lost VND 1,866 billion, in 2018 it lost VND 5,613 billion, the accumulated loss as of August 31, 2018 was VND 18,754 billion / VND 27.38 billion of equity, ineffective business activities at the Company resulted in the total remaining equity by the end of 2018 to only VND8.6 billion. In which, working capital is about 2.6 billion dong (2 term deposits are 2 billion dong) and the rest are in cash and demand deposit. Capital with fixed assets is 6 billion VND, including 1 car, the rest is real estate.

Facing the situation that the company continuously made losses, on March 6, 2019, the People’s Committee of Ha Nam Province issued Document No. 558 / UBND – KT requested: Checking and checking the losses and arising costs. Unusually high at Ha Nam Lottery Co., Ltd. Stop the loss lasting for many years. Request the Director of the company to strictly abide by the regulations and take responsibility before the law for business activities at the company. However, up to now, the company’s business has not been effective, there are still many problems that need to be solved.

Piled up mistakes in financial management

In 2018, under the direction of the Department of Finance of Ha Nam Province, VACO Independent Auditing Company audited the financial statements showing a series of mistakes of Ha Nam Lottery Company. One of the most serious mistakes is that the company does not record revenue (left off the books) of the lottery lottery from July 2016 to August 2017.

According to the revenue report, this type of revenue is from 12 to 15 million VND / day. So, in the period of 14 months, it is estimated about 5.4 billion VND to stay out of the book. The question is why Ha Nam Lottery Company did not record the revenue of the lottery type lottery from July 2016 to August 2017? How that money is spent is still unknown.

In addition, the use and management of public assets of Ha Nam Lottery Company is very loose, causing wasteful use of assets, the budget is not for the right purpose, not serving the general operation. business activities of the company. Typically, the company voluntarily purchased 01 car brand TOYOTA ALTIS 2.0 produced in 2013 without consulting the owner, Ha Nam Provincial People’s Committee.

Another corporate mistake that was discovered according to the audit report is that the issuance of lottery tickets includes: Prize structure, commission rate, and the form of dialing to issue does not comply with the regulations of the Company. law.

Specifically, the Company issued lottery tickets outside the province (sold in Hanoi). The dialing is not public, there is no record. All lottery tickets released outside the province have no invoices, only handwritten transactions. This amount is still left out of the book over 1 billion dong of unpaid and confirmed debt.

In 2018, the total cost of commissions that the company spent on 2 traditional lottery agents was up to 27%, surpassing the prescribed threshold of 12%, equivalent to VND 210,000,000. According to Circular No. 138/2017 / TT -BTC guiding some specific expenses for lottery businesses specified in Decree No. 122/2017 / ND-CP, then: Lottery businesses decide but must not exceed 15% of the revenue from the lottery business, including value added tax and special consumption tax.

In 2018 alone, hundreds of expenses amounted to more than 162 million VND of the company such as: Business, reception, conference and other general expenses but there are not enough valid invoices and documents. Even there are expenses up to tens of millions of dong, but only the payment list and the signature of the payee as well as retail invoices that are not in accordance with regulations, have no legal validity. The improper financial management and spending leading to loss is unavoidable. The question here is: Is the amount spent on items without full invoices and documents in accordance with the law is reasonable and actually spent?

For clear information, the PV contacted Ha Nam Lottery One Member Limited Company and was told by Mr. Quach Anh Hien – Head of Administration Department of Ha Nam Lottery Company: “Ha Nam Lottery Company is owned by the Provincial People’s Committee. When the Commission has a directing document, we can provide relevant information to the press ”.

Although it was explained by the PV that related to the use and management of finance, the books on the side of Ha Nam Lottery Company are independent and autonomous, while the Provincial People’s Committee only manages people. For some reason, when the PV contacted Ha Nam Lottery Company many times but did not receive any answer, the company unit is avoiding providing information to the press. .

We keep informing readers.

Although the legal battle between Epic Games and Apple (US first instance trial) will take place in May, right now the related developments of the case continue to attract attention from the public. .

A few days ago, the Australian trial was postponed for the third time, but the legal documents show interesting information. The Epic Games Store lost approximately $ 181 million in 2019 and nearly $ 273 million in 2020, showing that since its launch in 2018, the company has never been profitable. Also, in 2021, Epic Games’ expected loss is about $ 139 million.

According to Apple forecasts, the business of Epic Games by the end of 2021 has lost $ 600 million after 3 years. To be profitable, Epic Games may have to wait until 2027.

The thing has been predicted from before

In fact, Epic Games has previously confirmed that the Epic Games Store will not be profitable until 2023. On loss information, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, is very optimistic: ” Although Apple calls it a loss, in my view it is an investment, which is also the basis for bringing huge profits in the future.

Although the CEO of Epic Games is confident about profitability, it still cannot change the fact that they have “lost”. As a company that owns Unreal Engine tools, the loss of 450 million USD in the past 2 years is beyond the imagination of many people.

In this case, with the backing of the Unreal Engine being used by most of the developers, the Epic Games Store took up to 4 years to be profitable causing people to question whether or not the business strategy is. “Take profit as a profit” of company leaders?

Free business strategy

According to the official data Epic Games published before, the progress of the game store in the past 2 years is very clear. By 2020, the total number of users on the Epic Games Store will reach 160 million, up 56% from 108 million in 2019. Besides, daily active users reach 31.3 million in 2020, increasing 192% and total user time is 5.7 billion hours, up 70%.

But the problem also lies here, in this era, an emerging gaming platform can achieve such a marked growth, spending money is an inevitable option.

According to the New York Times, in 2020 alone, Epic Games has invested about $ 444 million in the monopoly of the game, with Control of 505 Games alone, the amount amounted to 10.45 million USD. Such a huge investment, in exchange for a one-year monopoly of several games, is also Epic’s best weapon for taking the market from Steam.

But Epic’s revenue from these exclusive and third-party games is relatively limited. In 2020, players spent $ 700 million on the Epic Games Store, which is only $ 20 million higher than in 2019. Of which, revenue from third-party titles is $ 265 million, only up $ 14 million compared to 2019. Apple estimates show that if you count transactions in 2019, Epic will lose at least $ 330 million in exclusive expenses.

Of course, in addition to investing money in exclusive content, Epic Games also promotes a free business strategy to attract new users. The $ 450 million loss is mainly due to this business method. According to Epic’s official data, from 2019 to 2020, the platform distributed 180 games for free, with a total value of up to $ 3,862 (US price) with 950 million purchases. This is actually a buy 1 get 1 free, but with a free gift for buyers, Epic Games has to pocket money for the developer.

On the one hand, they’re spending money on game companies and developers for exclusive content, on the other, they’re out-of-pocket attracting players who aren’t willing to pay. After all, in terms of business, Epic Games is the one to lose.

A healthy competition

Indeed, for developers, whether their game has a chance of being included by Epic in the Epic Games Store (471 games in 2020) or directly on Steam, Epic’s arrival makes a difference. special. For the gaming industry, the PC games market is no longer dominant enough and only acts as an incentive for competition. If Epic can gain a foothold, Steam’s upcoming business strategy must also change.

With the strength of the Unreal Engine, Epic Games Store can completely use competitive tactics to disadvantage Steam. However, to challenge Steam’s position is not easy, especially keeping players from paying fees, Epic Games has too many obstacles to overcome before making any profits.

Of course, competition is inevitable and is also a necessary factor for the development of the market. Whether healthy competition can be maintained, that depends pretty much on the final court ruling after the legal battle between Epic Games and Apple is over.