Economic Observer reporter Cai Yuekun "I don’t want it!" On June 6, Master Xi, who was in his fifties, spoke to reporters while driving a car online: a branch of a construction enterprise owed him more than 100,000 yuan, which has been more than ten years, and there is no hope of recovery.
Master Xi is an individual boss, who has long provided stone for the construction party. Nowadays, the whole industry is getting more and more depressed, and it is more difficult to get back the money for the construction enterprises. Using his spare time, Master Xi started a network car.
It is not only Master Xi who is difficult to collect debts, but also the construction industry in the upstream of individual enterprises is also bearing the burden that the accounts are increasingly difficult to recover after the advance payment for Party A..
According to the reporter’s incomplete statistics of listed construction enterprises in various provinces, by the end of 2022, the accounts receivable of Shanghai Construction Engineering had increased to about 62.489 billion yuan, accounting for 17.04% of the total assets; The accounts receivable of Chongqing Construction Engineering Co., Ltd. is 21.378 billion, accounting for 26.05% of the total assets; The accounts receivable of Anhui Construction Engineering Co., Ltd. is 36.191 billion yuan, accounting for 24.28% of the total assets & hellip; …
The rising accounts receivable, like a sword of Damocles, hangs over the heads of construction enterprises.
Li Chuan, who works in a large construction enterprise, has a deep understanding of this: "For construction enterprises, although accounts receivable are hard to get, the current payments of small and medium-sized enterprises in the upstream and downstream cannot be defaulted, and the wages of migrant workers cannot be defaulted. Affected by the high pressure of accounts receivable, even some enterprises can’t rely on credit to support cash flow. "
After the accounts receivable are defaulted by Party A, it will cause some construction enterprises to default on suppliers and other payment. In addition, the reporter’s investigation found that there are also illegal subcontracting, subcontracting and other industry chaos in the construction industry, which makes the problem of "triangular debt" in the construction industry extremely prominent. "Triangle debt" is a "difficult hurdle" in front of many construction enterprises, which has troubled the healthy and benign development of the whole industry.
In addition, the level of accounts receivable of construction enterprises is also related to the customer’s region. Comparatively speaking, the state-owned construction enterprises in economically developed areas, such as East China, are relatively less dragged down by accounts receivable, while the state-owned construction enterprises in the central and western regions are relatively more dragged down by accounts receivable.
In Li Chuan’s view, construction enterprises work hard, hard and painful. The construction industry is not only a labor-intensive industry, but also an industry of national economy and people’s livelihood. Therefore, how to solve the problem of "triangle debt", how to achieve high-quality, healthy and long-term development, and how to solve the problem of settlement of accounts receivable of construction enterprises is imminent.
High accounts receivable
The high accounts receivable of listed construction enterprises has become a common problem in the whole construction industry.
In addition to listed construction enterprises in various provinces, the reporter noted that China Construction’s 2022 annual report also revealed that by the end of 2022, the company’s accounts receivable amounted to 210.43 billion yuan, up 27.5% year-on-year. The main reason for the increase was that the overall business scale increased and the volume of accounts receivable increased. Accounts receivable accounted for 7.93% of total assets.
Li Chuan said that accounts receivable mainly correspond to two types of customers: one is that accounts receivable are difficult to recover due to the increase in defaults of real estate customers in the past two years; The other category is government investment and construction projects, accounting for a higher proportion. Because there is no settlement for construction enterprises in the upstream, there are many problems such as wage arrears for migrant workers and supplier lawsuits.
For construction enterprises, accounts receivable are hanging high. On May 25th, relevant persons of Chongqing Construction Industry analyzed to reporters that the increase of accounts receivable of construction enterprises is closely related to the macroeconomic downturn, and the real estate market is depressed in the past two years, and there are many enterprises that have exploded, and real estate development is one of the important customers of construction enterprises. In addition, it is an indisputable fact that the macro-economy has been in a downturn in the past two years, and the accounts receivable of construction enterprises have increased significantly.
On May 25, Zhang Wen, an analyst with the rating department of CSI Pengyuan Industrial and Commercial Enterprise, told the Economic Observer that the construction market in China has continued to grow for a long time, and the phenomenon of capital construction is widespread in the industry, which makes a large number of accounts receivable in the accounts of construction enterprises, and its scale keeps growing with business expansion; In addition, in recent years, the deterioration of the liquidity of housing enterprises and the intensification of the contradiction between local government revenue and expenditure have also lengthened the payment cycle of construction enterprises.
Relevant persons from Shaanxi Construction Engineering told reporters that since its listing, the company has entered a stage of rapid development, and its operating income has achieved rapid growth, which has also driven the growth of accounts receivable. Although such projects generally have a long repayment period, many projects are mainly government and state-owned assets, and the repayment is guaranteed.
Viann, an analyst in the rating department of China Chengxin International Industrial and Commercial Enterprise, told the Economic Observer that the proportion of two funds in assets of construction enterprises is relatively high, and the high asset-liability ratio is also a common phenomenon in the industry. After the housing enterprises are out of danger, the bigger problems faced by construction enterprises are the problem of clearing debts and bad debts. How to recover and monitor the two funds during the follow-up project, how to prevent and control risks and reduce losses are difficult.
Real estate thunder drag
According to many investigations, the increase of mine explosion in real estate enterprises in recent two years has become one of the important reasons for the high pressure of accounts receivable in construction enterprises.
For example, on May 22nd, Duanheng Construction applied to Chongqing No.5 Intermediate People’s Court for reorganization of Jinke Real Estate Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jinke Shares", 000656.SZ). As a construction party, Duanheng Building is the corner where many construction enterprises recover debts from real estate enterprises.
According to Pengyuan’s credit data, in 2022, there were 27 new default subjects in the real estate industry, and the number of default bonds was 188, up by 125% and 176% year-on-year, accounting for 56.3% and 76.1% respectively, and the risks in the industry accelerated. According to overseas market data, after 2021, real estate enterprises have become the main risks in the overseas bond market, and the proportion of default subjects has increased significantly, accounting for 89% in 2022, up 34 percentage points year-on-year.
The default of housing enterprises also dragged down the accounts receivable of construction enterprises. For example, Chongqing Construction Engineering’s 2022 annual report shows that more than half of the customer names with bad debt provision are housing enterprises.
In addition, the 2022 annual report of Shanghai Construction Engineering pointed out that in 2022, the newly signed contract was 451.687 billion yuan, and the operating income was 286.037 billion yuan, an increase of 1.77% year-on-year; However, the net profit of returning to the mother was 1.356 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 64.03%.
Regarding the reasons for the change in net profit, Shanghai Construction Engineering pointed out that the company was affected by force majeure factors, and the gross profit margin of construction business declined. Affected by the downturn of the real estate industry and regulatory policies, the gross profit margin of real estate development business has decreased, and some inventories have been depreciated by a large amount. The fair price of financial assets in hand fell.
In this regard, Viann said in an interview that it is true that some risks and financial pressures have been transmitted to the construction enterprises, but the overall impact is controllable. The construction enterprises that have undertaken more private housing projects are mainly affected, such as some private regional leading housing construction enterprises in Nantong, which are relatively deeply bound to Evergrande, resulting in their own liquidity risks.
Long cycle of state-owned accounts
In addition to being dragged down by the explosion of housing enterprises, the more important types of accounts receivable of construction enterprises at present are: government investment projects and state-owned enterprise investment projects, which are hard to become the pain that construction enterprises cannot express.
Li Chuan said frankly, "Now the payment cycle of state-owned enterprises or government projects is too long. At the same time, we can’t default on the payment of small and medium-sized enterprises, let alone the wages of migrant workers. In the middle, we can only squeeze our own profit margins. "
Li Chuan said that although there is less possibility of bad debts in accounts receivable of government investment projects, the time period will be longer. At present, there are many lawsuits in construction enterprises, most of which are accounts receivable disputes with private owners. For government investment projects, it is more reported to the SASAC through the group, and the SASAC coordinates the settlement of accounts receivable.
According to the disclosure of Shaanxi Construction Engineering’s 2022 annual report, the reporter found that there are mainly state-owned enterprises according to the accounts receivable of the top five at the end of the period. The details are as follows: Xixian New Area Qinhan New Town Development and Construction Group Co., Ltd., Xi ‘an International Football Center Operation Management Co., Ltd., Xixian New Area Fengxi New Town Development and Construction (Group) Co., Ltd., Xixian New Area Jiaotong University Science and Technology Innovation Port Development Co., Ltd. and Yan ‘an University. The ending balances of accounts receivable are 3.045 billion yuan, 2.141 billion yuan, 1.578 billion yuan, 1.332 billion yuan and 1.267 billion yuan respectively. Five entities account for 5.63% of the accounts receivable of Shaanxi Construction Engineering.
Although the account period of government investment projects and state-owned enterprise investment projects is long, for construction enterprises, such projects basically account for most of the company contracts.
According to the Chongqing Construction Engineering Annual Report, in 2022, the company continued to strengthen strategic marketing and deepen strategic cooperation with local governments, state-owned investment platforms and survey and design consulting units. In the whole year, 43.55 billion yuan of government and state-owned investment projects were newly signed, accounting for more than 59%.
In addition, the annual report of Shanghai Construction Engineering revealed that in 2022, the company signed a total of 451.687 billion yuan of new contracts, of which construction business and government investment projects accounted for 29%, an increase of 11 percentage points over the same period of the previous year; State-owned enterprise investment projects accounted for 55%, and the total ratio of the two reached 84%, which continued a good business pattern.
Regarding the problem that the account period of government investment projects and state-owned enterprise investment projects is too long, Zhang Wen told reporters that the main reason for the increase in the arrears of accounts receivable of construction enterprises in urban investment and PPP cooperation projects is the decline in land transfer income, tax reduction and fee reduction, which has increased the financial pressure on local governments and urban investment companies; Secondly, in recent years, the supervision of PPP projects has become stricter, and some PPP projects have hidden debt risks, which affects the timely payment of projects. For construction enterprises, this phenomenon undoubtedly increases the pressure of capital turnover, especially for construction enterprises located in weak areas.
Viann also told reporters that according to the investigation, the increasing financial pressure of some city investment platform companies has really impacted the repayment of construction enterprises. Construction enterprises generally encountered the situation that some government platform customers delayed the payment of the project funds, and the account period was lengthened as a whole. Even some city investment platform companies with weak qualifications and weak regions have begun to show arrears in the project funds or other default signals, especially for PPP projects and investment and financing construction projects with long cooperation periods. Most of them still rely on the payment mode of the government, but there are many influencing factors such as the change of government, the change of financial situation and the change of policy, and the uncertainty of payment is further increased.
"Construction enterprises should combine their own conditions and resources, take risk control as the bottom line, not blindly expand the scale of investment and financing projects, carefully select regions and owners, pay more attention to the source and availability of project funds, and strictly isolate risks from project companies to prevent risks arising from issues such as capital advance." Viann said.
Say "No" to the huge amount of money!
Another important reason for the high accounts receivable is that the "advance payment" of construction enterprises after undertaking projects belongs to the normalization phenomenon of the industry.
Li Chuan told reporters that it is convenient for a department project to ask: "Can it be funded?" If the contractor answers no, it may be difficult to take down the project.
Li Chuan said that because of the increasingly fierce competition in the construction industry, the cost of adding various materials and labor costs is also increasing. In this context, if construction enterprises frequently advance capital, it will greatly affect the company’s profit rate and other indicators, and compress the profit space of enterprises. Even if the enterprise lacks temporary working capital, huge accounts receivable may become the last straw to crush the normal operation of the enterprise.
A person in charge of the construction legal affairs department of a central enterprise once told reporters that the problem of advance payment is closely related to the business model formed by construction enterprises and developers for a long time. Private real estate enterprises have exploded one after another, and the macro-environmental impact of the overall real estate industry has been superimposed, which has affected the recovery of accounts receivable of construction enterprises. Some private construction units such as Nantong Liujian even went bankrupt and reorganized because of debt problems.
With regard to the advance payment in the construction industry, Zhang Wen told reporters that the project owners (local governments, state-owned enterprises and real estate developers, etc.) have the demand for advance payment for construction due to the consideration of capital turnover and scale expansion, while the threshold of the construction industry is low, the degree of homogenization of enterprises is high, and the competition is fierce, forcing construction enterprises to make concessions through payment terms to undertake projects.
Viann told reporters that, on the whole, for most enterprises, the problem of advance payment is still within the tolerable range, and the profit growth and financing channels are relatively smooth, which can cover some related losses. Enterprises with strong financial strength will have more obvious advantages in project contracting, and enterprises with weak financial strength may lose opportunities in project expansion, or they may be gradually eliminated due to the untimely collection of accounts, and the Matthew effect of the industry will be further highlighted.
The chaos of subcontracting still exists.
Behind the problem of "triangular debt" in the construction industry, it is closely related to the chaos of illegal subcontracting and subcontracting in the construction industry.
Li Chuan told reporters that illegal subcontracting in the construction industry still exists, but it is relatively formal for state-owned enterprises, and some private construction enterprises subcontract more.
The reporter noted that on January 3, 2019, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the Notice on Printing and Distributing the Administrative Measures for the Identification, Investigation and Punishment of Illegal Acts in Construction Project Contracting and Contracting, which regulates the contracting of projects by the construction unit to individuals and the contracting of projects by the construction unit to units without corresponding qualifications.
Li Chuan said that at present, the management of project subcontracting is becoming stricter and stricter in the country, so enterprises themselves will pay attention to avoiding risks in this respect.
Secondly, talking about subcontracting, Li Chuan said that adopting subcontracting system is a common phenomenon in the construction industry. For example, after a construction enterprise bids for the project, it cooperates with many downstream subcontractors through market competition. In addition, part of the cooperation is with labor service companies. In the process of cooperation with labor service companies or subcontractors, the payment method depends on how the contract is agreed. For example, according to the progress of the project, when Party A pays a certain percentage to the construction enterprise, the construction enterprise will also pay a certain percentage of the project payment to the labor service company according to the time node agreed in the progress of the project. "But in general, when the project is completed, the construction enterprise must settle the arrears of the labor service company. Because labor service companies also have to pay wages to migrant workers. Therefore, when Party A is in arrears with accounts receivable for a long time, for construction enterprises, it is necessary to pay the funds of the labor service company, and sometimes it is necessary to borrow money to alleviate the financial pressure. " Li Chuan said.
Li Chuan said that for some construction enterprises, when the scale of accounts receivable reaches a certain level, faced with a large number of Party A’s inability to pay in time, there may be a large number of arrears owed by labor service companies or subcontractors, which is also one of the reasons for a large number of "triangular debts" in the construction industry.
Li Chuan said that in terms of specific construction, in the 1990s, enterprises generally managed their own construction employees, and then subcontracting gradually appeared, separating the labor service layer from the management layer, and pushing the labor service layer to the social level for cooperation. However, twenty years later, many construction enterprises began to set up their own labor industrial parks, and employees were paid by enterprises, so the project construction was not carried out through subcontracting, so as to avoid risks caused by subcontracting cooperation in the later stage.
Strain over the hurdle
"Triangle debt" has also become a difficult hurdle for many construction enterprises.
On June 8, a construction enterprise executive told reporters that the biggest problem facing the company at present is that the money for government projects will not come back, and it has to be funded to continue to take over the project. The advance funds for individual projects are also borrowed from banks.
State-owned project accounts will become the "last straw" to crush enterprises? Construction enterprises should pay enough attention to the problem of difficult accounts for state-owned projects.
For how to reduce the problem of accounts receivable from the source, some construction enterprises have adjusted their business ideas.
The relevant person in charge of the above-mentioned Chongqing Construction Engineering told reporters that at present, when a new project is accepted, it will be judged whether the project can be accepted according to the expected profit of the profit project and the fund planning of the project. If the advance payment is too high, many projects may be rejected internally and no longer participate in the competition. At present, the company’s business philosophy is that projects that have no expected profits or need huge advances will no longer participate.
"Because the market construction industry is not good, although a large number of projects regardless of cost will be beneficial to the company’s scale expansion, it will have an impact on the risk control and quality development of enterprises. Therefore, for projects that require huge advances, new projects are not accepted now. " The source said.
Li Chuan also said that the company began to be very cautious about the management and control of real estate. There are prudent principles when choosing the source, such as real estate development in first-tier cities.
At the same time, Li Chuan said that the company is constantly stepping up the collection efforts, generally adopting hierarchical promotion. From the group to the responsible department of the company, there are certain planned tasks to pay off debts every year, so as to increase the collection efforts of accounts receivable in an all-round way. For some accounts receivable with bad debts, the company also communicates with Party A to relieve the pressure of accounts receivable through litigation, debt in kind, creditor’s rights replacement and other ways.
The reporter noted that the policy level has also been concerned about the arrears of project funds in the field of engineering construction. For example, the Regulations on the Protection of Wage Payment for Migrant Workers (Order No.724 of the State Council), which came into effect on May 1, 2020, has made relevant provisions on the punishment responsibility of the construction unit for implementing the construction funds, failing to implement the project payment guarantee, and the responsibility for paying off wages.
Many construction enterprises also told reporters that the problem of huge accounts receivable should be treated from the source. For example, we should strengthen the standardized management from the source for the policy norms of the construction enterprise’s advance payment problem.
Viann told reporters that under the current market situation, construction enterprises should first change their business ideas, focus on high-quality development, stop blindly expanding their business scale, and put more emphasis on how to realize new contracts with income, profitable income and cash flow profits.
Viann believes that "nowadays, construction enterprises generally pay more attention to the risk control of the front-end and marketing end, such as strengthening the role of pre-evaluation of projects, strengthening due diligence on owners, and implementing business terms in detail, so as to provide a contractual basis for future settlement payments and grasp risks from the source. In addition, in the middle and back end, we should also strengthen the control of the whole process of the project, so that we can monitor the related risks in the process of project implementation in real time and make a good plan. The collection and management of "Two Funds" are no longer just considered by the Finance Department and the Treasury Department, but need the full cooperation of the departments such as market, risk control, fund, project management, finance and risk control, and all of them pay more attention to it. It is suggested that the proportion of the pressure drop of "Two Funds" in the assessment index can be increased, and the target responsible person should be implemented and the relevant rewards and punishments should be given to the collection tasks such as the payment of completed projects, the payment of projects under construction, and the expected bad debts but the collection realized.
(At the request of the interviewee, Li Chuan is a pseudonym in the article.)