From April 15 to 26, the Securities Department of the company, in conjunction with third-party organizations, organized a number of performance briefings in the form of telephone access and online text. Hu Zumin, General Manager, Tang Xiaolin, Deputy General Manager, and He Yimeng, Secretary of the Board of Directors, attended the briefing, and Wang Lan, Deputy General Manager, and Yuan Guangda, Independent Director, attended the briefing by telephone.
Recently, affected by the international situation, external market fluctuations and other factors, the communication industry and the company's secondary market performed poorly. At the same time, the epidemic has repeatedly hindered the development of offline activities in various places, and the channels for offline communication between the company and investors have become narrow. In order to further increase and enrich the contents and methods of investor relations management, the regulatory authorities encourage listed companies to organize diversified online and offline communication, carry out high-frequency communication activities, and guide investors to pay attention to the long-term value of the company. The management of the company actively responded to the call of the regulatory authorities, and organized several performance briefings to meet the exchange needs of investors for information such as business data and long-term strategic planning under the epidemic situation.
A total of 218 institutions and a number of individual investors participated in this series of investor exchange meetings through network and telephone access, with more than 245 participants, setting a new high in recent years. The 218 participating institutions included 43 public offerings including Bosera Funds, Dacheng Fund and GF Fund Management, 7 brokers including China Securities, Guosen Securities and TF Securities, 67 private placement institutions and 101 other types of institutions.
Hu Zumin introduced the overall operating environment and annual operating performance of the company in 2021 to investors, and focused on looking forward to the future development strategy of the company to participating investors. Leaders of the company fully answered the relevant questions raised by investors through telephone access and online text channels, and exchanged more than 50 questions, with a response rate of 100%.
Regarding the layout of automotive electronics, Wang Lan, Deputy General Manager of the company, said that with the emergence of new forces in vehicle design such as Huawei and Xiaomi, more and more manufacturers including Foxconn begin to participate in the original automotive industry. Starting from manufacturing, we hope to participate in automotive electronics manufacturing and then expand to automotive electronics product design and production. From the perspective of product self-research, the company is more optimistic about intelligent communication products in the field of intelligent cockpit. At present, the company has initial customers and intentional orders, and has set up its own team on the manufacturing side. With the advantages and experience accumulated in communication for many years, the company also hopes that automotive electronics can become a pillar industry of T&W in the future and help the company achieve rapid growth.
As for the performance of gross profit margin last year, Tang Xiaolin said that the performance of gross profit margin and net interest rate is related to the company's business model and product structure on the one hand, and on the other hand, affected by the epidemic situation and Sino-US trade friction last year, the price of raw materials rose sharply, and the pressure on logistics and supply chain was obvious. In addition, due to the appreciation of RMB, the company's profit margin was affected to some extent. Tang Xiaolin said that in the future, with the return of material supply and cost, optimization of operational efficiency, implementation of intelligent manufacturing, product upgrading and increase of the proportion of new businesses, there is room for continuous improvement in the profitability of the company.
At this series of performance briefing, the participating investors also fully expressed their views on the current stock price trend and countermeasures of the company. He Yimeng, the Secretary-general of the company, pointed out that the company and management pay attention to the stock price trend and attach great importance to the interests of all shareholders of the company, especially small and medium-sized investors. But at the same time, we also realize that management doesn't have to only keep an eye on stock prices. At present, the market attention and prosperity of the whole communication industry are not high. Recently, the company's stock price is affected by many factors such as market environment and industry situation, which deviates from the development trend of the company's fundamentals. As the management, first of all, we should increase the company's performance, and then we should pass on the company's value and core competitiveness to investors through correct channels. As long as we can perform our internal operation well, the stock price will converge with the real value of the company in the long run.