Unsatisfied with a salary exceeding 4 million, Absen founder "doesn't want to be chairman"

The scene of not wanting to be the chairman due to dissatisfaction with a salary of several million is currently happening at Absen (300389.SZ), which has a market value of less than 6 billion.

Recently, the board of directors of Absen reviewed and approved multiple proposals, including the "Proposal for the Election of the Chairman of the Sixth Board of Directors," and founder and chairman Ding Yanhui was re-elected as chairman with "8 votes in favor and 1 vote against."

The only opposing vote came from Ding Yanhui himself, citing "dissatisfaction with the salary for the chairman position."

In fact, Ding Yanhui's salary is not low. The salary for 2024 reached 4.3556 million yuan, an increase of over 50% year-on-year.

Such growth contrasts with Absen's performance, as the net profit attributable to the parent company for 2024 fell by 66.82% year-on-year. Although there was a year-on-year increase of over 60% in the third quarter of this year, it has not yet returned to the performance level of the same period in 2023.

What Ding Yanhui is truly "dissatisfied" with may not be this several million salary.

To understand Ding Yanhui's actions, we must start with a private placement three years ago.

In May 2022, to resolve the issue of Absen having no actual controller, Ding Yanhui subscribed to 41 million shares of Absen's additional issuance at 6.33 yuan per share, totaling 260 million yuan, and became the actual controller.

Since then, Absen has begun to distribute dividends generously, with a total dividend amount reaching 701 million yuan from 2022 to 2024, of which Ding Yanhui, as the major shareholder, received 242 million yuan.

The largest dividend occurred three months after Ding Yanhui became the actual controller of Absen, when Absen distributed 537 million yuan in dividends after three years without any dividends. Based on Ding Yanhui's then 124 million shares, he received as much as 186 million yuan.

To summarize Ding Yanhui's operation: first, he increased his stake in the company through a low-priced private placement, and then realized cash flow recovery through dividends.

In this way, he not only steadily increased his equity ratio to strengthen his control over the company but also reduced the capital occupation pressure during the increase process through the dividend mechanism.

However, this approach seems to have hit a wall.

In May of this year, Ding Yanhui planned to subscribe to Absen's additional issuance of shares at 7.80 yuan per share, with an amount not exceeding 360 million yuan, but faced opposition at the shareholders' meeting.

This may be a significant reason for Ding Yanhui casting a dissenting vote this time