After five consecutive daily limits, the stock opened at the daily limit for two consecutive days. In the morning of September 11, Laobaixing (603883.SH) opened at the daily limit, and this was the second day that the stock fell to the daily limit. In less than ten days, Laobaixing's stock price has experienced a roller coaster-like fluctuation. Before this decline, the stock had been at the daily limit for five consecutive trading days, with a cumulative increase of more than 60%, and then began to plummet from September 10. Just before this abnormal movement, the stock had just experienced a long decline of more than three months. Since hitting a new high in the middle of May, the stock has continued to fall, and the decline accelerated after the actual controller Xie Zilong was detained and investigated at the end of July, with the cumulative maximum decline approaching 60%. While the stock price fluctuated sharply, Laobaixing's business also showed a slump. In the first half of this year, the company's net profit fell for the first time in nearly nine years, and its revenue growth rate was also at its lowest in the past three years, and it faced cash flow pressure. Just before the big drop, the stock price rose by 60% "absurdly" After the opening on September 11, Laobaixing fell to the limit, with the latest share price of 15.97 yuan/share and a total market value of 12.104 billion yuan. In the previous trading day, the stock also showed the same trend and closed at the limit. Before the big drop, Laobaixing had been trading at the limit for five consecutive trading days from September 3 to 9, with the share price rising from 12.24 yuan to 19.71 yuan, a cumulative increase of 7.47 yuan, and an increase of 61.03%. Although the company has repeatedly warned of risks, it has not been able to stop the rise. In recent years, Laobaixing's stock price has fluctuated greatly. Just before this big rise, the stock had just experienced a long decline of more than three months and was at its lowest point since the beginning of this year. After entering September, although there has been a rebound, it is still in a position. On May 14, Laobaixing hit a new high of 36.9 yuan/share this year during the trading session, and then fluctuated downward all the way. After entering the end of June, the stock's decline accelerated further. By August 30, the intraday low had fallen to 11.9 yuan. Excluding the ex-rights factor after the bonus issue, the cumulative decline during the period was close to 60%. The decline of the stock since the end of July is related to the detention and investigation of the company's actual controller and chairman Xie Zilong. After the company disclosed this on July 3, it opened lower the next day, falling 9.98% throughout the day, and continued to fall until the end of August.The recent ups and downs in the stock prices of the common people have not been triggered by any favorable or unfavorable stimuli. The company announced on September 9th that Xie Zilong is still under detention and under investigation, and the company is temporarily unaware of the progress and conclusions of the detention investigation.

Industry insiders believe that the fluctuation of this stock is related to the speculation in its sector. Recently, the pharmaceutical commerce sector, to which the common people belong, has experienced a significant increase, and individual stocks in the same sector, such as Shuyu Civilian and People's Tongtai, have also seen a surge. As of September 9th, the Wind Drug Retail Index (882473) had a deviation value of 47.06%. On that very day, the pharmaceutical commerce sector as a whole experienced a decline, and both Shuyu Civilian and People's Tongtai also fell sharply.

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Performance under pressure, expansion pace slows down

The common people, who have been subject to speculative trading, have not performed well in their mid-year report this year.

In the first half of this year, the common people's performance was "revenue increased but profit did not increase". Data shows that in the first half of this year, the company achieved a total operating income of 10.94 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.19%; net profit was 503 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.05%; non-deducted net profit was 482 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.79%, marking the first decline in net profit in the company's history over the past nine years.

Although the revenue in the first half of this year has increased, the growth rate is the lowest in the past three years. According to the semi-annual report, from 2022 to the first half of 2023, the company's revenue growth rates were 20.51% and 20.24%, respectively, while only 1.19% in the first half of this year.

In addition, the company's operating cash flow has also declined significantly. In the first half of 2022 and 2023, the company's net operating cash flow was 1.015 billion yuan and 1.037 billion yuan, respectively, and 611 million yuan in the first half of this year, a year-on-year decrease of 41.08%.

What is more severe is that the common people's cash flow also faces certain pressures. As of the end of June this year, the company's short-term loan balance was 1.188 billion yuan, and the non-current liabilities due within one year were 1.101 billion yuan, with a total amount close to 2.2 billion yuan, but the monetary funds in the same period were only 1.936 billion yuan.

While performance and cash flow are under pressure, the actual controller's shares are also highly pledged. According to the disclosure, the actual controller's total shareholding quantity is 212 million shares, with a shareholding ratio of 27.90%, and the total number of pledged shares is 117 million shares, accounting for 55.35% of the shares they hold.

Xie Zilong and his spouse Chen Xiulan are the joint actual controllers of the common people. The two hold 26.12% of the equity of the common people through the 100% shareholding of the common people's Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. In addition, Chen Xiulan also directly holds 1.78% of the equity of the common people, with a total shareholding of 27.9%.To address operational pressures, the common people have slowed down the pace of store expansion this year. The company's management mentioned during the semi-annual report interpretation meeting that, based on market conditions and the company's own situation, the target for new stores for the year will be reduced from the initial 3,800 to 2,800. Among these, the net increase task for the second half of the year is about 1,100 stores, which is a decrease of approximately 27.7% compared to the first half. After the adjustment, compared to the net increase of 3,388 stores in 2023, the expansion pace has slowed down.