$Lichen China (LICN.US)$
Based on the financial statements from the previous fiscal year, they had minimal debt, with revenues of $39.759 million and a net profit of $8.338 million in the last quarter. Over the past two weeks, they have issued two rounds of Recent IPOs, and I have always wanted to determine the purpose of such operations. The number of shares issued in these two rounds are 15 million and 20 million respectively, at prices of $0.18 and $0.14, resulting in revenues of $2.7 million and $2.8 million, totaling $5.5 million, nearly 40 million RMB. Additionally, on December 12th, L1 Capital purchased 4.7971 million shares, making this institution the second largest shareholder after CEO Li Ya. After this issuance, the circulating shares of this stock should be around 50 million (as displayed on MOOMOO, which is somewhat outdated and has not been updated even in the last new stock issuance). This company never explains the reasons and motivations for issuing new stocks, leaving people to speculate and infer. From an operational perspective, they have established a new branch in Singapore. They have also partnered with JD.com to develop a financial chat robot, which is expected to go online soon for trial Operation. If they were facing a debt crisis, this amount of money would not be enough. Moreover, just twenty days ago, their stock price was around $2. If they really needed money for development, shouldn't they issue new stocks at around $1 to raise more funds? So, I wonder what their reason is for issuing these new stocks. My initial guess was due to development considerations, where they signed agreements with certain individuals to obtain Low Stock Price chips, and these specific individuals would help them expand overseas. The company's management believed that the launch of JD.com's chat robot would stimulate the stock price, allowing these individuals to make huge profits from the price difference. I also noticed that just a few days before the first new stock issuance, the company even gave out stock options to their employees when the price was around $2. Imagine, if you were a boss and had just given employees stock options at around $2, then immediately issued new stocks at $0.18 causing the stock price to plummet... this is definitely not a normal situation. The company had $34.19 million in cash on hand at the end of the previous fiscal year, total debt of $0.082 million, and now a market cap of only $10.08 million. If in this quarter they don't encounter any problems, plus the additional $5.5 million from the issuance, the enterprise value EV would directly be -29.528 million. Now, you only need to spend $10 million to acquire this company, do nothing, and directly profit $29.5 million. Therefore, until now, I still think this is a very strange and interesting situation. I speculate that they are either transitioning, expanding overseas, or as mentioned earlier, letting collaborators obtain Low Stock Price chips. I will continue to Hold until there are some developments, as this is no longer just about making money for me, but about honing my judgment skills. For other investors, I would say to be patient, don't panic.