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 华尔街日报关于长虹和APEX事件的报道 |
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wanderer
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作者：wanderer 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
Chinese TV Maker Expects Big Loss
-- Changhong to Write-Off $310 Million After Apex Fails to Pay Bill for TV Sets
Apex Digital Inc., a Southern California company that shook up the consumer-electronics industry with aggressively low prices, is now being rocked with allegations that it failed to pay a major supplier.
Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., one of China's largest television manufacturers, told securities regulators in Shanghai that it expects to post a big loss this year because it planned to write off about $310 million in unpaid bills by Apex. That represents about half of the value of the approximately five million TVs that Changhong built for Apex in 2002 and 2003, and which were sold in U.S. outlets that include Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
A spokeswoman for Apex, a closely held company based in Ontario, Calif., would say only that the company has a "pending business disagreement" with Changhong and is working to resolve it. She said the dispute wouldn't affect production and sales of its other products, chiefly DVD players and some LCD, or liquid-crystal-display, televisions.
But the disagreement adds to problems faced by the company, which include legal disputes and competition from retailers that previously used its goods in low-priced promotions for customers. Apex was the largest seller of DVD players in the U.S. in 2003, but word of disputes with the licensing group that oversees video-recording technology patents led some retailers to steer clear of its products this year.
Apex's sales of conventional, tube-based TVs also fell this year after the U.S. government imposed duties on Chinese manufacturers, including Changhong, which made prices of such products less competitive. "We had to completely change product categories," said Marietta Schoenherz, the Apex spokeswoman, though she declined to discuss its shift in strategy more specifically.
Retailer Circuit City Stores Inc., which was once one of Apex's biggest U.S. customers, still carries two models of Apex LCD-TVs. But Circuit City has expanded its own relationships with Chinese electronics manufacturers, eclipsing what it buys from Apex.
Apex and Changhong have squabbled for some time. After shipping more than three million TVs to Apex by spring 2003, Changhong sought about $600 million in unpaid bills from Apex, but Apex apparently paid only a small portion of that debt, according to Changhong's filings and other company documents. Changhong, in its 2003 annual report published earlier this year, said Apex still owed it more than $530 million.
Chinese authorities began to take notice early this year. Changhong, which is owned by the municipal government of the city of Mianyang, in July abruptly swept out Chief Executive Ni Runfeng, who had led the company for 19 years and helped develop the relationship with Apex.
Police from Sichuan province in October detained Apex Chairman David Ji in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, according to an economic-crime investigator in Mianyang, the city in Sichuan where Changhong is based. The officer said yesterday an investigation of Apex and Changhong continues, but she declined to go into detail.
Mr. Ji's status couldn't be determined. Ms. Schoenherz, the Apex spokeswoman, said she didn't know where he was but added that the company expects he will be at the Consumer Electronics Show, the industry's largest convention, in Las Vegas next week. She said she had no information about whether Mr. Ji had been detained by Chinese authorities at any time.
In its latest filing, Changhong said it was owed $467.5 million by Apex as of last week, but that it expects to collect just $150 million. After disclosing plans for the write-off, Changhong shares fell 9.9% to 4.44 yuan (about 54 U.S. cents) yesterday on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Since its formation by Mr. Ji and associate Ancle Hsu in 1999, Apex attracted imitators for its ultralow prices on electronics goods and lean business structure. The company relies heavily on contract manufacturers, chiefly in China, and employs just a few dozen people in the U.S. to handle distribution and marketing.
Apex's initial DVD players, priced below $200, drove prices down on those products faster than anticipated by many of its larger, more established rivals. But the company was to become involved in a number of legal disputes.
MPEG LA LLC, which oversees video-recording patents, first sued Apex Digital in mid 2002 for nonpayment of royalties. The two later reached an agreement under which Apex paid some royalties and agreed to an audit of its sales. But MPEG LA again sued Apex in early 2004 alleging the electronics company underreported DVD player sales and underpaid royalties.
Larry Horn, MPEG LA's vice president of licensing and business development, said his Denver-based firm again settled its second suit, pending a completed sales audit that hasn't been finalized. "There have been difficult times in the relationship. We hope they right themselves and pay full royalties," he said.
Despite the problems, Apex became the top seller of DVD players in the U.S. in 2002 and was the sixth-ranked seller of DVD players in units in the U.S. during the 12 months ended Nov. 30, according to NPD Group, a market-research firm.
"They did more than any other company to bring down the prices of DVD players and compromised the rules in the process," says Ross Rubin, an NPD analyst in New York. "Now they're really trying hard to be seen as a more legitimate consumer electronics company."
After shifting to TVs with Changhong's help, Apex occasionally topped the TV-set sales charts in the U.S. in 2002 and 2003. It finished 2003 as the third-largest seller of TVs in units, according to NPD's survey, but tumbled to sixth place in the 12 months ending Nov. 30.
作者：wanderer 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
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 华尔街日报关于长虹和APEX事件的报道 -- wanderer - (5861 Byte) 2004-12-30 周四, 10:22 (1646 reads)
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