Zhongxin Finance, March 25 (Zuo Yukun) When everyone is used to calling Cao Dewang the "glass king", he has been squeezed into the "glass second king" by another low-key entrepreneur.

　　With the disclosure of the 2021 corporate annual report, Fuyao Glass' performance has been surpassed by Xinyi Glass.

The battle for the "Glass King" led by Cao Dewang and Li Xianyi, who are both Fujian businessmen, has also quietly ushered in a turning point.

Data map: Cao Dewang, founder and chairman of Fuyao Glass Group, gave a speech.

Photo by Lu Ming

Xinyi Glass surpasses Fuyao Glass in business performance for the first time

　　On March 17, Fuyao Glass released a performance announcement saying that the company's revenue in 2021 was 23.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.57%; its net profit was 3.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.97%.

　　Fuyao Glass is a well-deserved auto glass production giant in China.

From the perspective of specific business, the revenue of automotive glass in 2021 will be about 21.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.16%.

In this way, automotive glass contributes about 90% of Fuyao Glass' revenue.

　　Fuyao Glass also attributed the growth in performance to the basically control of the domestic epidemic and the recovery of the auto market.

According to the statistics of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the national automobile production and sales in 2021 will show a year-on-year increase, ending the three consecutive years of decline since 2018.

　　But in the business world, in addition to the rule of "advance or retreat", there is also the reality of "advance is difficult to overcome".

　　The latter was Xinyi Glass.

　　The performance disclosed by Xinyi Glass last month showed that its revenue in 2021 was 30.4 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 24.7 billion yuan), a 63.6% increase from 2020; its net profit reached 11.5 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 9.3 billion yuan).

Xinyi Glass said that the substantial increase in the company's performance was mainly due to the increase in sales and sales of float glass and other products.

　　Float glass refers to the glass produced by the float process, which is the raw material for the production of automotive glass and architectural glass.

About 60% of Xinyi Glass' revenue comes from this.

　　Judging from the performance level alone, Fuyao Glass's position as the industry leader of the "glass king" has changed hands.

This is also the first time that Xinyi Glass has surpassed Fuyao Glass in business performance since its listing in 2005.

Data map: Cao Dewang.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Luo Yunfei

High profile Cao Dewang

　　Started from scratch, from a buyer to a glass king; went to the United States to build a factory, and now has its own factories in five states in the United States... In 2019, this series of legendary stories converged into a documentary called "American Factory", and it was Won the Best Documentary Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards.

　　This also really made Cao Dewang, the actual controller of Fuyao Glass, "fired".

　　In the 1970s and 1980s, China's auto glass basically relied on imports. A piece of auto glass with an actual production cost of only about 100 yuan was sold for several thousand yuan. Cao Dewang gave birth to "must make your own auto glass for the Chinese people." " idea.

　　In 1987, Fuyao Glass Industry Group Co., Ltd. was formally established and listed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1993, becoming the earliest listed private enterprise in Fujian.

The internationalization strategy has also been laid out since 1990. In 2010, Fuyao Glass signed a strategic cooperation agreement with General Motors of the United States, and began to invest and build a factory in the United States in 2014.

　　"If there is no 'GM' contract, I would not have gone to the United States at that time, because I can't speak English, and it is very hard to go there. But for us Fuyao, it is necessary to go to the United States, we are doing auto glass Yes, the United States is the world's largest automobile manufacturing base, and if you want to become the world's leader, you must come here." Cao Dewang said.

　　Starting from the big dream of a small buyer, Fuyao Glass has completely changed the history of China's automotive glass market being monopolized by foreign brands, and has occupied 25% of the global automotive glass market in 2019.

Low-key Lee Hyun-yi

　　Compared with the well-known Cao Dewang, Li Xianyi, who is in charge of Xinyi Glass, rarely appears in the public eye.

In recent years, the low-key and taciturn Li Xianyi has rarely attracted attention. It was his second son Li Shenggen who married tennis champion Yan Zi.

　　In fact, Li Xianyi and Cao Dewang are not only famous bosses in the glass industry, but also fellow Fujianese.

　　According to public information, Li Xianyi dropped out of school at the age of 15 and went to Hong Kong from Fujian in 1982 to work in the auto parts business.

It was also discovered that most of the auto glass relies on imports, so he returned to the mainland to establish Xinyi Glass.

In 2005, Xinyi Glass was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

　　It is worth mentioning that under the background of the rapid development of the overall automobile industry, Li Xianyi's Xinyi Department has told a richer story than Cao Dewang.

Taking glass as the basic disk, it extends "Xinyi Solar", which is an independent listing of photovoltaic glass, "Xinyi Energy", which operates solar power plants, and "Xinyi Power Storage", a comprehensive new energy solution provider.

　　This also makes Li Xianyi's personal wealth far surpass that of Cao Dewang.

According to the latest statistics of the 2022 Hurun Global Rich List, Cao Dewang ranked 900th with a worth of 24.5 billion yuan, and Li Xianyi ranked 356th with a worth of 51 billion yuan.

Li Xianyi, chairman of the board of directors of Xinyi Group.

Screenshots from the official website of Confidence Glass.

Will it be completely surpassed?

　　Li Xianyi, who "blooms more", and Cao Dewang, who is "from one to the end", and the two who have gone out of two different paths, actually have clues.

　　For example, in 1992, Li Xianyi, who has made great achievements in the glass business, began to get involved in real estate, and many projects in Shenzhen came from the hands of Xinyi Real Estate.

However, Fuyao, which had briefly traversed real estate, cut off all non-main businesses in 1993 and concentrated on making automotive glass.

　　"I have four not to do, not to do real estate, not to do finance, not to do coal mines, not to do the Internet." Cao Dewang once said in an interview.

In the cold winter of the global auto market in 2020, he also reiterated that "resolutely not to do real estate".

　　Glass has become Fuyao's "last stubbornness", how could Xinyi suddenly complete the go-ahead?

Some analysts believe that this may be related to the different business structures of the two glass companies.

　　Fuyao Glass' annual report shows that automotive glass with a slightly lower gross profit margin accounts for the bulk of Fuyao Glass' revenue.

Xinyi Glass, on the other hand, has a high gross profit margin of float glass, which accounts for the majority of the company's revenue.

　　At the same time, along with the increase in Fuyao Glass’ sales revenue, its gross profit margin has declined. In 2021, the gross profit margins of Fuyao Auto Glass and Float Glass will be 30.66% and 36.19%, respectively, compared with the previous year. They fell by 1.55 and 1.97 percentage points respectively.

This also means that the cost of Fuyao Glass is rising faster than the price of its products.

　　But Cao Dewang doesn't look pessimistic.

In his speech by the chairman of Fuyao Glass, he emphasized that Fuyao Glass' market share has reached a new height in the industry.

　　In the Hong Kong stock market, two companies with small market capitalizations may still go a long way side by side.

　　In your opinion, has the "Glass King" really changed hands?

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