Tiger Global-backed grocery supply start-up Missfresh is combating to outlive because it shuts operations throughout China, wallows in an accounting scandal and searches for capital to maintain its enterprise.
Shares of the Nasdaq-listed firm have misplaced 97 per cent of their worth since its IPO in June final yr, and this week introduced it will dilute ailing shareholders additional by issuing 300mn shares to a Shanxi coal mining group for Rmb200mn ($30mn).
The sale will hand Shanxi Donghui Group a roughly 30 per cent stake in Missfresh and it will likely be in a position to appoint two administrators as a part of the transaction.
One individual near the corporate stated that in current months, it had held talks with a variety of suitors together with GOME Electrical Appliances, SF Express and China Resources as administration looked for financing or an acquirer.
The upheaval marks a stark flip of fortunes for Missfresh, which pulled in additional than $1bn in financing from buyers equivalent to Tiger Global and Goldman Sachs and gained a $3bn valuation in New York one yr in the past. Its market worth has now sunk to $88mn.
It is the most recent funding to show bitter for Tiger, which has been hit by losses of about $17bn throughout this yr’s sell-off of publicly traded know-how shares, marking one of many greatest greenback declines for a hedge fund in historical past.
Missfresh pioneered a technique of blanketing cities with mini-warehouses that mixed storage of a small variety of high-volume gadgets with supply capabilities, permitting its pink-clad riders to zip contemporary fruit and meats to Chinese households in roughly half-hour.
Management claimed the low-cost mannequin would enable Missfresh to profitably ship groceries, a notoriously robust proposition. Investors stepped as much as fund the enterprise, with Tiger placing in $117mn over a number of years for a 12 per cent stake whereas Goldman Sachs injected $66mn
The funding propelled Missfresh’s growth into 16 Chinese cities the place it ran 625 warehouses as of June 30 final yr. But the individual near Missfresh stated the corporate had “blindly expanded, blindly opened new warehouses and blindly entered new cities”.
“The cash flow is drying up . . . if we don’t pay vendors on time, it will cause a shortage of supplies,” stated the one who requested to not be named.
Missfresh denied it was searching for an acquirer and stated the corporate had ample provides.
While Missfresh has been unable to concern audited financials or its annual report for the yr to December 31, the corporate estimated losses final yr hit Rmb3.7bn.
The cash-starved start-up can also be dealing with a number of lawsuits in China as money owed pile up. One provider surnamed Li informed the Financial Times that his firm was nonetheless owed greater than Rmb226,000 for fruits offered to Missfresh in 2020.
“All the payments went smoothly in 2019 but since 2020 they’ve started delaying payments, so we stopped supplying . . . and we are bringing it to court,” stated Li.
This yr, Missfresh has moved to shut down its mini-warehouses in a minimum of 9 cities, leaving primarily clients in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin in a position to take pleasure in its quick 30-minute supply service.
Earlier this month, the corporate admitted staff in a single enterprise unit had created “questionable transactions” that led to revenues being overstated by Rmb677mn within the first 9 months of final yr.
The firm stated an impartial evaluate discovered no proof of government involvement and that the implicated staff had left the corporate. With its share costs languishing beneath a greenback, Missfresh faces the specter of delisting in November.
Missfresh stated closing warehouses in some cities was achieved to scale back prices and that some provider merchandise didn’t meet its requirements, which may have brought about delayed funds. Tiger Global didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Source: www.ft.com