Jiangsu Jingshen Salt Chemical Co., Ltd. Finally Realizes Its Dream of Going Public

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As the bells marking New Year’s Day 2016 were about to ring, and amid the joy of the successful completion of the 12th Five-Year Plan, the Shanghai Stock Exchange brought exciting news: Jingshen Shares was officially listed on the stock market on December 31st! This marks the realization of Inshin’s 8-year-long dream of going public. On its journey toward achieving listing, Inshin Corporation has braved challenges and moved forward with determination, taking solid steps forward. In particular, in 2015, the new leadership of Su Yan Group attached great importance to the process of listing Jing Shen Co., Ltd., designating it as one of the eight key tasks under the “33181” project. The entire group pooled its efforts to push forward with this listing effort, thereby accelerating Jing Shen’s path to initial public offering. Looking back at the listing journey of \"Jingshen Shares\", many touching stories shine with brilliance; its outstanding achievements are gratifying, and numerous highlights inspire us to move forward. Chasing Dreams: Innovative Development Through Technology. Jing Shen Co., Ltd. is a holding subsidiary of Jiangsu Salt Industry Group, with its headquarters located in Huai’an City, where there are over 130 billion tons of rock salt buried underground. It is on this fertile ground that the brilliant new stars in the salt industry shine with dazzling light. Today, Jingshen Co., Ltd. relies on the unique resource advantages of the world’s largest salt mine in Huai’an, as well as five other advantages including circular economy practices, transportation capabilities, technological innovation, and strategic location. Through innovative development, it has grown into a large-scale national enterprise that integrates research and development, production, distribution, and sales. It operates 12 subsidiaries, has over 2,800 full-time employees, total assets of more than 4 billion yuan, and an annual production capacity of over 5 million tons of salt and salt-based products. Technology is the primary productive force. Jingshen Co., Ltd. has always adhered to the concept of innovative development in order to enhance its core competitiveness. During the process of innovative development, Jingshen Shares faced various challenges such as insufficient funding, a limited range of products, a shortage of talent, weak brand strength, and an imperfect corporate governance structure and capabilities. In order to overcome these challenges as quickly as possible, with the care and support of local Party committees at all levels as well as its shareholders, and through the careful efforts of intermediary agencies such as Southwest Securities, along with the joint efforts of all employees at Jing Shen, the company has adhered to the requirements of a listed company, relied on technology for innovation-driven development, overcame the bottlenecks in its growth, and achieved leapfrog progress. Since 2008, Jing Shen Co., Ltd. has been actively preparing for an initial public offering. In the process of preparing for the company’s listing, Jingshen Shares carried out two rounds of asset integration and two rounds of private financing to establish the entity responsible for the listing; 298 million yuan was raised in this way. This enabled the elimination of competition within the same industry, and the company’s corporate governance structure continued to improve. More importantly, Jing Shen Co., Ltd. has always been committed to advancing technological innovation, giving full play to the crucial role of innovation-driven development in driving the company’s growth. Over the years, Jingshen Co., Ltd. has actively established three research platforms: an enterprise technology center, a salt chemical circular economy research institute, and a technology cooperation platform for industry, academia, and research. Jingshen Co., Ltd. has collaborated with a number of institutions of higher learning and research organizations, including Nanjing University of Technology, the Wuhan Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Tianjin University of Science and Technology, to work together on research projects and train talent; these efforts have yielded tangible results, laying a solid scientific and technological foundation for facilitating the company’s listing. Over the years, Jingshen Co., Ltd. has been vigorously strengthening cooperation among industry, academia, and research institutions as well as improving its technological innovation system. At the same time, it has carried out mass-based innovation initiatives, with a number of such projects yielding results and resolving various technical challenges that hindered production operations. Through QC improvements and technological upgrades, the quality of some products has been enhanced, production costs have been further reduced, and the quality and efficiency of development have improved even more. Chasing Dreams: Industrial Upgrading and Transformative Development. In the process of pursuing corporate listing, Jingshen Co., Ltd. adopted a strategic approach to transformation, focusing on improving product quality, optimizing the product portfolio and market distribution, and promoting industrial upgrading. Jingshen Co., Ltd. was originally a company that produced only salt; through its transformation and development, it expanded its operations to include the production of alkali and calcium. It pioneered a new alkali production process in China based on the integrated production of salt, alkali, and calcium underground, thereby achieving industrial upgrading. This technology has been successfully put into industrial use, achieving the highest comprehensive efficiency per ton of alkali in the country. The company’s core proprietary technology, the \"combined production process for salt, alkali, and calcium,\" was granted a **patent in 2012; Academician Zhou Guangyao of the Chinese Academy of Engineering described it as \"a first in China and at the international forefront.\" This proprietary technology was successfully awarded the First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress by the China National Light Industry Council in 2014. The China Chemical Industry News reported it on its front page as a headline, having a significant impact within the industry. “The development of new \"Huaiyan\" products is another highlight of the transformation and development process. Jingshen Co., Ltd. has developed a series of new \"Huaiyan\" salt products, providing green, healthy, and safe table salt for over 200 million consumers in Jiangsu and other provinces. Its subsidiary, Ruifeng Company, has developed a range of halal salt products, filling a gap in the domestic market. The new products it has created, such as halal seaweed salt, halal low-sodium salt, and halal low-sodium spirulina salt, have yielded positive economic and social benefits. The company’s Salt Industry Research Institute has intensified its efforts in developing new products; it has completed the formulation testing and pilot production of 10 new products, including low-sodium salt made from seaweed, seasoning mushroom salt, and potassium-rich table salt, thereby ensuring that the needs of consumers at various levels can be met. The “Huaiyan” series of table salt produced by Jingshen Co., Ltd. has been recognized as a “Famous Brand Product in China,” while the Jingshen brand products have received the title of “Famous Brand Product in Jiangsu.” Building Dreams: Circular Economy, Green Development. Striving to create a \"resource-efficient and environment-friendly\" enterprise is the mission of the people at Jing Shen for green development. Leveraging their advantages in terms of resources and technological innovation, they are actively building a salt-alkali-calcium industry chain characterized by a circular economy, thereby fostering the sustainable development potential of their enterprises. A series of investment projects featuring advanced manufacturing equipment and significant resource advantages have been implemented one after another: the successful commissioning of the 600,000-ton caustic soda (Phase I) project has injected new momentum into the innovative development of Jingshen Co., Ltd., improving the company’s profitability ； The completion of the mechanical thermocompression salt-calcium co-production upgrade project has expanded the company’s production capacity and promoted the development of a circular economy ； The effective implementation of the boiler desulfurization and denitrification projects ensures that the company’s waste gas emissions meet **environmental regulations**. Jingshen People are committed to building a modern saline-alkali circular economy industrial base. Following the development direction of \"producing soda from brine, extracting brine using calcium solutions, injecting alkali slag into wells, and producing both salt and calcium\", efforts are made through \"filling in gaps and improving deficiencies\" to establish a circular economy industrial chain that encompasses \"mining – salt and soda production, calcium production – well injection and mining\" ； Fully leverage the technological leadership role of as a high-tech enterprise, as well as the transformation capabilities of the provincial-level R&D center platform, to further develop technologies such as calcium liquor-based denitrification and alkali slag solidification that possess independent intellectual property rights. Accelerate the development of high-value-added projects related to liquid salts and salts for pharmaceutical use, in order to maximize the industrialization benefits. Over the years, Jing Shen Co., Ltd. has completed more than 90 various technological projects. To date, the company holds 23 authorized patents and has received over 20 research projects at or above the provincial level ； In 2013, Jing Shen Co., Ltd. was approved as a \"High-Tech Enterprise in Jiangsu Province.\" Jingshen Co., Ltd. was also involved in the formulation of the **standard for industrial salt and the industry standard for seasoning salt. Realizing Dreams: Pursuing Balanced Development with Dual Focuses. During the process of going public, Jingshen Shares adhered to the principle of addressing two aspects simultaneously and with equal emphasis. Party organizations at all levels, as well as trade unions, youth leagues and other mass organizations affiliated with the Party, focused on key tasks such as the company’s production and operation activities and its pursuit of going public. They strengthened Party building in terms of organization, ideology, work style, systems, and anti-corruption efforts, carried out extensive thematic education and practical activities, and made solid progress in tasks such as strengthening grassroots foundations, pursuing uniqueness, and improving standards. By leading teams effectively and building strong brands, these organizations fully leveraged the political advantages of Party organizations at all levels as well as the bridging role of mass organizations, thereby providing a solid foundation for uniting efforts to pursue goals and driving development through transformation and innovation. Over the years, Jingshen Co., Ltd. has consistently treated corporate culture building as a strategic initiative aimed at uniting the workforce and strengthening the foundation of the company. It has placed emphasis on the development and cultivation of corporate culture, ensuring that its construction is closely integrated with the core tasks of reform and development, thus enabling corporate culture to serve as an important spiritual pillar and source of strength for the sustainable development of Jingshen Co., Ltd. In recent years, Jingshen Co., Ltd. has been awarded titles such as “Civilized Unit of Jiangsu Province,” “Outstanding Unit in Enterprise Culture Construction during the 12th Five-Year Plan Period nationwide,” and “Star-rated Enterprise for Fostering Harmonious Labor Relations and Fulfilling Social Responsibilities in Huai’an City.” ； The company’s Party committee has been recognized by the Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee and the Party committee of the Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission as a \"‘Four Good’ leadership team\" among provincial-owned enterprises, as well as an \"advanced grassroots Party organization\". Jingshen Co., Ltd. has been ranked among the top 10 enterprises in China’s salt production industry for three consecutive years, and has received titles such as “Outstanding Enterprise in Integrity and Quality Management in China,” “Quality and Integrity Enterprise in Jiangsu Province,” and “Model Enterprise for Honest Business Practices in Jiangsu Province.” 8 years of hard work through trials and hardships, 8 years of pursuit that led to glory. Jingshen Co., Ltd. has adhered to innovative development, pursued transformational growth, advocated green development, and promoted harmonious development, achieving success in both economic and cultural development areas and finally realizing its dream of going public. Reaping the joys of the 12th Five-Year Plan and standing at a new starting point for the 13th Five-Year Plan, faced with this new journey, Fu Yunjing, the chairman of Jing Shen Co., Ltd., is filled with deep emotions. With great enthusiasm, he said that the successful listing of Jingshen Shares was merely the first step in a long journey. In the face of a complex economic landscape, it is necessary to grasp the new normal, adapt to it, and lead it, so as to sail forward toward an even brighter future!