The secretary of a company with a market value of 50 billion yuan resigns, with an annual salary of 1.485 million yuan, having joined the company nearly 20 years ago.

Ask AI · How does competition in the HPV vaccine market lead to Wantaibio’s performance decline?

Recently, Wantaibio announced that the company’s board of directors has received a written resignation letter from Secretary of the Board Yu Tao. Yu Tao applied to resign from the position of Secretary of the Board due to personal family reasons and will no longer hold any position in the company after resigning.

As of the date of this announcement, Yu Tao directly holds 369,130 shares of the company. Based on Wantaibio’s closing price of 39.85 yuan/share yesterday, the market value of Yu Tao’s shares is approximately 14.7086 million yuan.

According to Wantaibio’s 2024 annual report, Yu Tao’s annual salary for 2024 is 1.485 million yuan. He has served as the Secretary of the Board of the listed company since August 24, 2023, with an original term end date of April 18, 2027.

Previous information disclosed by Wantaibio shows that Yu Tao was born in 1975, holds Chinese nationality, has no permanent residency abroad, and has a master’s degree. He has served as a senior R&D personnel at Beijing Shuanglu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a researcher in the Strategic Research Department of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission’s Biological Center, and acting director of the Business Development Department. He has worked for the company since 2007, holding positions such as Marketing Director. Prior to serving as Secretary of the Board of the listed company, Yu Tao’s position was Director of Business Development.

Public information shows that Wantaibio was established in 1991 and is dedicated to the research, development, production, and sales of diagnostic reagents, vaccines, and medical devices. The company’s controlling shareholder is Yangshengtang, and the actual controller is Zhong Shanshan. Zhong Shanshan directly holds 17.7% of Wantaibio’s shares and indirectly holds 55.79% of Wantaibio’s equity through Yangshengtang Limited. From 2001 to 2021, Zhong Shanshan served as the chairman of Wantaibio for a long time.

However, Wantaibio’s performance has significantly declined in recent years. In 2024, the company achieved revenue of 2.245 billion yuan, while in 2022, the company’s revenue reached 11.185 billion yuan; in 2024, the company’s net profit was 106 million yuan, while the net profit in 2022 was as high as 4.736 billion yuan.

Recently, Wantaibio also issued a profit warning for 2025. The company expects that the net profit attributable to the owners of the parent company for the year 2025 will be between -410 million yuan and -330 million yuan; the company expects that the net profit attributable to the owners of the parent company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses for the year 2025 will be between -660 million yuan and -530 million yuan.

Wantaibio stated that the significant decline in the company’s profits and overall losses are mainly influenced by two aspects.

The company indicated that the bivalent HPV vaccine is adversely affected by the expansion of the age range of Merck’s nine-valent HPV vaccine, substantial price reductions in government procurement, and insufficient consumer demand, leading to near-expiration products that cannot be sold and inventory that cannot be converted into cash. The company is actively addressing products on both the market and production sides from the perspective of solidifying asset quality and eliminating operational impacts, and has made corresponding impairment provisions. The overall expected impact on net profit is 500 million to 600 million yuan, which is one of the reasons for the significant decline in profit this period.

The company also pointed out that due to the national centralized procurement price reductions in the diagnostic reagent industry and the unbundling of inspection packages under healthcare insurance policies, the company’s diagnostic revenue and profits have declined year-on-year.

In the secondary market, Wantaibio’s stock price has dropped from 45 yuan/share at the beginning of this year to 39.08 yuan/share as of today’s publication, with a market capitalization of 49.412 billion yuan, and the stock price has fallen over 13% this year.

It is worth mentioning that despite the decline in Wantaibio’s performance controlled by Zhong Shanshan, another listed company he controls has seen significant growth in performance. On the evening of March 24 this year, Nongfu Spring announced its full-year results for 2025, with the company achieving operating income of 52.553 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.51%, exceeding 50 billion yuan for the first time; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 15.868 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.89%.

According to the Hurun Rich List released in March this year, 72-year-old Zhong Shanshan ranks second among Chinese entrepreneurs with a wealth value of 515 billion yuan (a year-on-year increase of 35%).