Doctor, in the eyes of many people, means a decent career with a high salary. However, for the general public, public hospitals are generally those with more exposure, and they know little about specialized hospitals that are more profitable.
Compared with public hospitals, which are mainly for comprehensive medical services, specialist hospitals are more inclined to a single direction of diagnosis and treatment. In the private medical industry, the term "golden eyes and silver teeth" exists, which also means that ophthalmology has extremely high profit margins. Among them, there is Aier Ophthalmology, the largest listed private medical company in China, which is also the specialty hospital with the highest market value in China.
As one of the first companies listed on the Growth Enterprise Market, Aier Ophthalmology has maintained a rapid growth in market value and has been favored by investment institutions and the market. In December of this year, Aier Ophthalmology announced two consecutive mergers and acquisitions, bringing its stock price to a new high again.
As of the close of trading on December 25, 2020, Aier Ophthalmology's share price has reached a historical high of 73.38 yuan, and its market value has successfully exceeded 300 billion yuan. In sharp contrast, on December 25 last year, its stock price just touched 30 yuan, and its market value was only about 100 billion yuan.
How does Aier Ophthalmology become the best among specialist hospitals? In contrast to the sluggish share prices of other domestic private medical listed companies, what is the difference between Aier Ophthalmology?
Huge market, unlimited possibilities
Ophthalmology and dentistry, both as the most valuable high-quality track among private medical circuits, have always been called "golden eyes and silver teeth". This means that the ophthalmology medical field has a relatively large profit margin.
With the acceleration of the aging of our country's population, the in-depth popularization of electronic display devices such as mobile phones and computers, and the increase in work intensity, the number of patients with eye diseases has increased sharply, and the demand for ophthalmic treatments has been increasing.
But in fact, in most public hospitals, the ophthalmology department is small in scale and can provide low profits, so its scale is difficult to meet the needs of domestic patients for ophthalmic medical services.
According to statistics from Tianfeng Securities in relevant research reports, as of 2018, the number of visits in eye hospitals reached 29.324 million, a year-on-year increase of 11.3%.
At the same time, Tianfeng Securities predicts that the overall size of my country’s ophthalmic medical market in 2019 will be 170 billion yuan, of which the ophthalmic medical service market will account for approximately 124 billion, accounting for 73%; followed by the ophthalmic equipment market, which will be approximately It is 26.7 billion yuan, accounting for 16%; the last is the ophthalmic medicine market, which is about 19.3 billion yuan, accounting for 11%.
The huge market space provides sufficient development potential for the development of Aier Ophthalmology. Today, Aier Ophthalmology has more than 600 chain hospitals across the country, and its layout covers every corner of the country.
Looking back on the current situation, what determines the upper limit of the development of Aier Ophthalmology is how high the ceiling of the entire industry is. But at present, although Aier Ophthalmology has become the industry leader, in fact, there are still more than 3/4 of the market that has not yet been tapped, which means that there is still great room for development.
However, the huge market also means that it will be able to accommodate the existence of multiple competitors.
What is supporting the chain of eye hospital empire in Aier?
Eye health has received increasing attention in recent years. However, due to its own nature, most ophthalmic diseases require surgery to achieve treatment, and only a small part can be treated with drugs and physical therapy with related medical devices. This property is also reflected in the market share of ophthalmic medical services.
So, what are the advantages of private chain eye hospitals represented by Aier Ophthalmology?
Although public hospitals have many advantages, such as public endorsement and capital investment, the long-term income of ophthalmology has been low, which makes most public hospitals ignore the construction and development of ophthalmology.
The private chain eye hospitals only focus on ophthalmic medical services, and focus more on investment in related equipment and medical resources. In addition, the chain of private eye hospitals is essentially a commercial organization, so with the help of promotion and marketing, it has narrowed the word-of-mouth gap with public hospitals to a large extent.
In general, ophthalmology is an extremely refined and specialized medical subject, which has extremely high thresholds and requirements for hospital equipment and doctors. This means that related ophthalmic medical equipment and doctors require high capital costs.
Private chain eye hospitals use the chain model to dilute these costs to a certain extent. Compared with the higher funding pressure of public hospitals, private chain eye hospitals can invest this part of the capital on technological improvement. The gap between the two Obviously.
Not only that, compared with public hospitals, the nature of private chain eye hospitals' own commercial institutions determines that their development will be restricted by funds, and their own operating capabilities determine the upper limit of their development.
Under operating pressure, private eye hospitals can provide equipment and services equal to or better than public hospitals, but the prices are equal or even lower. However, public hospitals are subject to relevant restrictions, but do not have more advantages in price.
At the same time, the policy also provides incentives and support for private medical care, which has accelerated the development of Aier Ophthalmology. In May 2017, the "Opinions on Supporting Social Forces in Providing Multi-level and Diversified Medical Services" issued by the General Office of the State Council stated that "by 2020, build a large number of social medical structures with strong service competitiveness. , Gradually forming a new pattern of multi-level and diversified medical services."
Encouraged by this policy, public hospitals have been restricted by their own public advantages and hindered their expansion; instead, private eye chain hospitals have more sufficient momentum for expansion, and they have achieved rapid expansion under the opportunity of policy encouragement.
Today, Aier Ophthalmology has become a well-deserved chain eye medical overlord in China. Its chain eye hospitals have spread across all provinces and cities across the country, building a huge chain eye medical empire.
Chain Ophthalmology is undoubtedly a track with excellent development prospects, especially for Aier Ophthalmology, there is still a very high development space in the future. The huge market and profits have naturally attracted some competitors to enter.
"Sanying" fights Aier, who can be the winner?
This year, there are three private eye hospitals applying for GEM IPO. The three companies applying for IPO are Huaxia Ophthalmology, He's Ophthalmology and Preh Ophthalmology. Will the listing of these three pose a threat to Aier Ophthalmology?
Judging from the prospectus of the three, the revenue in 2019 was 2.432 billion yuan, 742 million yuan, and 1.192 billion yuan respectively. Compared with Aier Ophthalmology, the gap is significant.
There is also a huge gap between the number of hospitals and Aier Ophthalmology. As of 2019, Huaxia Eye Clinic, He's Eye Clinic and Preh Eye Clinic have 51, 13 and 18 hospitals respectively. Among them, He's Ophthalmology adopts a tertiary eye health medical service model, with 3 tertiary eye health service agencies, 30 secondary eye health service agencies and 56 primary eye health service agencies.
Not only that, in terms of the scope of the layout, these three are currently starting from regional development and gradually expanding across the country. There is also a big gap between this and the nationwide deployment of Aier Ophthalmology. However, to a certain extent, this is also subject to the factors of one's own body size. Compared with the market value of 100 billion Aier Ophthalmology, it is indeed a better choice to start with the regional market.
In the medical service industry, the advancement of medical technology means whether it can move to a higher level. Therefore, the investment in technology research and development will determine the state of future development.
Aier Ophthalmology's research and development expenses in 2019 accounted for 1.52% of total operating income, and for these three competitors, the proportion of research and development in total revenue in 2019 did not exceed single digits. The weakness in research and development means that it will not be able to form a strong competitiveness with Aier Ophthalmology in terms of medical capabilities.
In general, the three still have a large gap with Aier Ophthalmology, and they cannot pose a major threat to Aier Ophthalmology in the short term. The ability of Aier Ophthalmology to become the leader in ophthalmology medicine lies in its strong merger and acquisition capabilities and control of medical talents.
Through the establishment of an M&A fund, it will cultivate relevant eye hospitals outside of itself. Use M&A funds to invest in external eye hospitals, and after cultivation is mature, acquire shares for mergers and acquisitions, thereby achieving rapid expansion. Not only that, this model realizes the separation of the parent body of the listed company from the external medical institution, which reduces the risk of the parent body from the external hospital to a certain extent.
This "listed company + fund" model not only ensures the stability and performance of the parent listed company, but also achieves stable and continuous expansion, reduces financing pressure, and constitutes a good closed loop of growth. This model is also the key to the recognition of Aier Ophthalmology by investment institutions and the market.
As for the control of talents, Aier Ophthalmology has established a unique equity incentive mechanism. Aier Ophthalmology has launched a variety of incentive plans based on partnership plans. Relevant technical and management talents can act as cooperative shareholders to jointly establish new hospitals. This model will greatly arouse the enthusiasm of talents, and at the same time a better incentive mechanism can attract more medical talents to join and reduce the loss of talents.
Under the combined effect of these two models, Aier Ophthalmology has built a fast-growing chain ophthalmic medical business empire. It is undoubtedly very difficult for latecomers to surpass.
to sum up
The rise of Aier Ophthalmology actually reflects the huge consumer demand for specialized medical services. The chain model can quickly improve the relevant medical service capabilities to meet this huge consumer demand.
What can be seen is that the degree of myopia in the population continues to rise, and the gap in the demand for ophthalmic medical care will continue to enlarge. As a leader in the ophthalmology medical track, Aier Ophthalmology will also reach new heights in 2021 with this growing demand.
Author: squirrel fish
Article source: Songguo Finance, please indicate the copyright for reprinting.