2024-01-16 00:57:00
On the evening of January 14, A-share listed company Hepalink (002399) issued an announcement stating that its wholly-owned subsidiary Techdow Pharma Italy SRL (referred to as: Tiandao Italy) had recently encountered telecommunications fraud by a criminal gang, involving an amount of approximately 11.7 million euros. Converted according to the latest exchange rate, it is equivalent to about 91 million yuan in RMB.
A reporter from the Financial Investment News noticed that Hepalink’s net profit in the first three quarters of 2023 was 143 million yuan, which means that the amount defrauded reached 60% of the profit in the first three quarters of last year, making the company’s already sharp decline in performance worse.
The amount defrauded reached 91 million yuan
The reporter learned that Hepalink was founded in Shenzhen in 1998. It is a multinational pharmaceutical company with an A+H dual financing platform. Its main business covers the heparin industry chain, biomacromolecule CDMO and the investment, development and commercialization of innovative drugs.
According to the 2022 annual report, Hepalink conducts academic promotion to target customers through its own marketing team in Poland, Italy, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and other EU and non-EU European countries, and directly participates in the bidding of local hospitals and retail pharmacies. After obtaining business opportunities Sales directly or through local distributors.
Haipuri said that after the incident, the company immediately reported the case to the local police, and the police have filed a case and started investigation and handling of the case. At the same time, the company fully cooperates with the police and strives to avoid losses as much as possible. At the same time, the company’s management has notified all directors, independent directors and the audit committee as soon as possible, and has initially determined that this is an accidental incident and confirmed that the company’s production and operations are operating normally. The management carefully reviewed this emergency incident and actively took measures to strengthen internal control management, improve standard governance, and enhance risk prevention awareness.
In terms of performance, Hepalink’s performance has declined sharply since 2023 due to the impact of destocking in the heparin industry. The third quarterly report of 2023 shows that the company’s operating income in the third quarter of last year was 4.063 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 24.69%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 143 million yuan, a significant year-on-year decrease of 78.05%. In its third quarterly report, the company stated that the decline in performance was mainly due to a decrease in gross profit during the reporting period, an increase in investment losses, and a lower year-on-year exchange gain.
Hepalink announced that the company’s management takes the matter seriously and has sent people to the subsidiary to handle the matter. As the case is under active investigation, the results cannot yet be confirmed, or may have a potential impact on the 2023 financial statements.
Many companies suffered from telecommunications fraud
It is worth noting that in recent years, many A-share listed companies have encountered telecommunications fraud, but the amount was not as high as the amount involved in Hepalink’s case. Industry insiders pointed out that “listed companies are not alone in telecom fraud. In many cases, financial personnel were tricked into mistakenly remitting money, resulting in being defrauded.”
Dating back to 2016, Shenzhen Energy announced that on December 10, 2015, a financial manager of the company encountered information fraud. The financial manager violated the company’s financial management system and internal control procedures and was deceived into ordering subordinates to pay external bidding deposits. RMB 35.05 million. Shilong Industrial’s announcement on June 15, 2020 showed that the company also suffered telecom fraud due to financial executives, resulting in 2.98 million yuan in the company’s bank account being stolen through the Internet.
Similar to the overseas fraud encountered by Hepalink, Daya Sacred Elephant disclosed when it released its 2021 annual report that its wholly-owned subsidiary Sacred Elephant Group Co., Ltd.’s American Home Legend LLC became a victim of a telecommunications fraud. The perpetrators invaded the company to rent Microsoft’s 365 mailbox system, forged fake emails to impersonate the company’s management members, forged supplier documents and email paths, and committed fraud. The amount involved was approximately US$3.569 million (equivalent to RMB 22.7549 million). Ultimately, the above-mentioned matters led to an increase in the company’s non-operating expenses of 22.7549 million yuan in 2021.
Investors need to pay attention to risks
Because it is a critical time for the disclosure of the 2023 performance forecast, many investors have clearly requested Hepalink to disclose the details of telecommunications fraud in detail. Hepalink only responded in the announcement that the company is paying close attention to the progress of the investigation of this case, cooperating with the police to detect the case, recovering losses in a timely manner, and actively fulfilling its information disclosure obligations. Investors are advised to pay attention to investment risks.
Lai Junchen, party branch secretary and senior partner of Chongqing Baijun (Chengdu) Law Firm, said in an interview with reporters, “As for the issue of fund recovery, because it involves criminal issues, you should first believe that the public security organs can do their best to recover the stolen goods. Then In recent years, as the country has strengthened its crackdown on telecommunications fraud and cooperated with relevant foreign judicial authorities, the possibility of recovering funds has increased compared with previous years. If the police fail to intercept the funds when they intervene and the funds have left the country, it will be determined. Regarding the cooperation with foreign judicial authorities and the return of stolen goods by criminal suspects; secondly, the victim, that is, the company, should actively assist the public security organs in detecting the case and strive to recover the defrauded funds as soon as possible.”
He also said that the impact of this fraud case on investors mainly has two aspects. First, the company’s stock price may be affected; second, it may affect the dividend distribution in the new year. Investors should pay attention to this incident and clearly understand the reasons for being defrauded, so as to better protect their legitimate rights and interests.
Liu Jianyong, director of Sichuan Angong Law Firm, told reporters, “If someone is defrauded by telecommunications by an overseas criminal organization, recovery is relatively complicated.”
He also pointed out that the defrauded funds amounted to more than 90 million yuan, which will have a certain impact on the cash flow, profits and annual financial statements of the listed company. This also reflects the obvious loopholes in the company’s financial management and will also affect investors. Trust in the company.
In the secondary market, Hepalink’s share price plummeted due to the news that its wholly-owned subsidiary Tiandao Italy suffered telecom fraud. As of the close of trading on January 15, Hepalink closed down 4.92%, with its stock price closing at 10.25 yuan, and its latest market value was 13.4 billion yuan.
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