MINI-CASE: NINE DRAGONS PAPER1

The Global Recession

"This time is really different. Large and small are all affected. In the past, the big waves would only wash
away the sand and leave the rocks. Now the waves are so big, even some rocks are being washed away."
- Cheung Yan, co founder and Chairwoman of Nine Dragons Paper2

The first week of January, 2009, was proving to be a challenge for Nine Dragons Paper. The company had
to repeatedly deny rumors that it was on the edge of bankruptcy. A variety of media reports over the past two
weeks had reported that the companys inability to service its debt would lead to a bankruptcy filing.
Incorporated in Hong Kong in 1995, Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Limited, had become an international
powerhouse in the paper industry. The company's primary product was linerboard, with a product line
including kraftlinerboard, testlinerboard and white top linerboard in a portfolio of paperboard products used
to manufacture consumer product packaging. The company had expanded rapidly and spent extensively.

But by January 2009 the world economy was spiraling downward. Squeezed by market conditions and
burdened by debt, Nine Dragons Paper (NDP), the largest paperboard manufacturer in Asia and second largest
in the world, saw its share price drop to HK$ 2.33, 90% off its high and less than half of book value. As the
economic crisis of 2008 bled into 2009, export-oriented industries suffered. Rumors had been buzzing since
October that NDP was on the ropes. It was carrying so much debt that more than one analyst was asking "Will
they go bust?" Was the financial crisis of 2008 about to claim another victim, or had friction between the
global economic crisis and the company's debt ignited jittery nerves in the global markets?

The Chairlady

Cheung Yan, or Mrs Cheung as she preferred, was the visionary force behind NDPs success. Her empire had
been built from trash, discarded cardboard cartons, to be precise. The cartons were collected in the U.S. and
Europe, shipped to China, then pulped and re-manufactured into paperboard. NDP customers then used the
paperboard to package goods that were shipped back to the U.S. and Europe where the cycle was repeated.
"Wastepaper is a forest," a former boss once told Mrs Cheung. NDP had worked to perfect the harvesting of
that forest.

Born in 1957, Mrs Cheung came from a modest family background yet through hard work, perseverance
and savvy business strategy built a company that was a dominant force in the industry. She had started as an
accountant for a Chinese trading company in Hong Kong; after her employer failed, she started her own
company to deal in scrap paper. In 1990 she moved to the U.S. to start another company, American Chung
Nam Incorporated (ACN), to capture the waste paper stream in the United States.

Origins

It is the largest of scaly animals, and it has the following nine characteristics. Its head is like a camel's, its
horns like a deer's its eyes like a hare's, its ears like a bull's, its neck like an iguana's, its belly like a frog's,
its scales like those of a carp, its paws like a tiger's, and its claws like an eagle's. It has nine times nine
scales, it being the extreme of a lucky number.
- www.ninedragonbaguazhang.com/dragons.htm

1
Copyright 2010 Brenda Adelson and Michael Moffett. All rights reserved. This case was prepared by Brenda Adelson
and Michael Moffett for the purpose of classroom discussion only, and not to indicate either effective or ineffective
management.
2
"Wastepaper Queen: Letter from China," New Yorker, 30 March 2009, p8.
2

One of the first companies to export waste paper from the U.S. to China, ACN started by collecting waste
paper from dumps, then expanded its network to include grocery stores, waste haulers and waste paper
collectors. Mrs Cheung negotiated favorable contracts with shipping companies whose ships were returning
to China empty after unloading goods in North America. ACN soon expanded abroad and became a leading
exporter of recovered paper from Europe and Asia to China. By 2001, ACN had become the largest exporter,
by volume, of freight from the United States. "In other words, nobody in America was shipping more of
anything each year anywhere in the world."3

The Chinese economic miracle which began in the late 1990s rose on the back of exports of consumer
goods which required massive quantities of packaging material. Within a few years, the demand for
packaging outgrew what domestic suppliers could provide. Seizing the opportunity, Mrs Cheung founded
Nine Dragons Paper Industries Company in Dongguan, China in 1995. By 1998, the first papermaking
machine (PM1) was installed and running. NDP expanded rapidly and by 2008 it had 22 paperboard
manufacturing machines at five locations in China and Vietnam producing 7.85 million tonnes annually.

Expansion

"The market waits for no one. If I don't develop today, if I wait for a year, or two or three years, to develop,
I will have nothing for the market, and I will miss the opportunity."4
- Cheung Yan

Even with capacity expansion across the

Exhibit 1. NDPs Capacity Expansion
Chinese paperboard industry, the demand for
paperboard surpassed production. In 2005 Million metric tons
9
Chinese manufacturers produced nearly 28
8
million tonnes of containerboard, yet
7
consumption equaled 30 million tonnes. The
output gap had narrowed over the past 6

decade, yet despite its standing as the largest 5

containerboard manufacturing country in the 4

world, China remained a net importer. 3

2
Since its founding, NDP had expanded
1
production capacity rapidly, as illustrated in
0
Exhibit 1.The company had three paperboard 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
manufacturing plants in China: 1) Dongguan,
in Guangdong Province in the Pearl River
Delta; 2) Taicang, in Jiangsu Province in the
Yangtze River Delta region; and 3) Chongqing, in Sichuan Province in western China. All three were
strategically located close to consumer goods manufacturers and shipping ports. NDP also had three other
major investments to support its paperboard manufacturing: 1) a specialty board producer in Sichuan
Province; 2) a joint venture in a pulp manufacturer in Inner Mongolia (55% interest); and 3) a joint venture
in a pulp manufacturer and paper mill in Binh Duong Province, Vietnam (60% interest). NDP by 2008 was
the largest paperboard manufacturer in Asia. If planned expansion was completed, NDP would become the

3
Wastepaper Queen: Letter from China," New Yorker, 30 Mar 2009, p4.
4
Ibid, 2009, p2.
 3

largest paperboard manufacturer in the world by the end of 2009.

Mrs Cheung believed that expansion and

Exhibit 2. NDPs Growing Sales and Profitability
its resultant economies of scale were the
primary drivers in increasing profit margins. Sales (000s Rmb) Return on Sales (%)
And in fact, looking at the companys sales 16,000,000 25%

and profit growth over the previous years 14,000,000

Return on Sales = Net Income
(Exhibit 2), this did not appear to be a 12,000,000
Sales 20%

company that should be on the brink of

10,000,000
bankruptcy. In papermaking, expansion 15%

required significant capital outlay and a long 8,000,000

term outlook. For example, a papermaking 6,000,000

10%

machine cost $100 to $200 million to

4,000,000
purchase and setup, and even then it might 5%

take up to two years before it reached optimal 2,000,000

productivity. But all things considered, sales 0 0%

had continued to grow even faster, although 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

the rate of profitability had fallen in 2008.

Financing Expansion

"Why are we in debt?" she asked. "I didn't misuse this money on derivatives or something! I took a high level of
risk because that is the preparation for the future, so that we will be first in the market when things change."5
- Cheung Yan

Historically, NDP had funded capital

Exhibit 3. NDPs Capex and Operating Cash Flow
expenditure with a combination of operating
Rmb (000s)
cash flow and bank borrowings. But the 10,000,000

increasing rate of expansion, as illustrated in 9,000,000

Exhibit 3, meant that the company needed a 8,000,000

Capital
sizeable injection of outside capital. In March Expenditure
7,000,000
2006, NDP offered 25% of the company's
6,000,000
equity, one billion shares, at an offer price of
HK$ 3.40 per share. Within six months the 5,000,000

stock (HK:2689) was a constituent stock of 4,000,000

Operating
the Hang Seng Composite Index and by the 3,000,000
Cash Flow
end of the year the price had increased nearly 2,000,000

400%, to HK$ 13.28, making Mrs Cheung, 1,000,000

who had retained 72% interest, the richest 0

6/30/2003 6/30/2004 6/30/2005 6/30/2006 6/30/2007 6/30/2008
woman in China.

The proceeds from the IPO allowed NDP

to retire a large portion of its accumulated debt. But as Mrs Cheung increased the rate of asset growth, capital
expenditure outpaced operating cash flow, generating a negative free cash flow. (Free cash flow is generally
defined in industry practice as operating cash flow less capital expenditure, capex.)When financial markets
ground to a halt in the fall of 2008 and the economic crisis spread around the globe, export orders dropped

5
"Wastepaper Queen: Letter from China," New Yorker, 30 Mar 2009, p2.
4

50%, sales revenue plummeted, and the debt burden became noticeably heavier.

In April 2008 NDP had issued $300 Exhibit 4. NDPs Changing Financial Structure, 2005-2008
million in senior unsecured notes, notes which
Fitch rated BBB-. This was the very edge of
investment grade, and typical for the industry. Rmb (000s) Liabilities Equity
Fitch had cited many factors common to the 35,000,000
industry in its initial rating: the current 30,000,000
economy, raw material price increases and 25,000,000
supply risk but specific to NDP, it noted the 20,000,000
aggressive capital expenditure program. As 15,000,000
price pressure from raw materials continued 10,000,000
and the company's leverage increased, Fitch
5,000,000
downgraded NDP to BB+ in October 2008,
0
speculative grade, and as markets tumbled, to 2005 2006 2007 2008

BB- in December.6 NDPs management team Although both liabilities and equities had grown once again in 2008, the proportion of the
companys funding base made up of debt (liabilities) had declined.
had argued that by the end of 2008 the
companys financial structure had improved,
not worsened, as shown in Exhibit 4.

Operations and Innovation

"We only have a certain number of opportunities in our lifetime. Once you miss it, it's gone forever." 7
- Cheung Yan, co founder and Chairwoman of Nine Dragons Paper

From the beginning, the company had invested in the most advanced equipment available, importing
papermaking machines from the U.S. and Italy. Each plant was constructed with multiple production lines,
allowing flexible configuration. This allowed the company to offer a diversified product portfolio to its
customers with options including product types, sizes, grades, burst indices, stacking strengths, basis weights
and printability. Five principal products were available in over 60 basis weights and over 1,000 different sizes
and type specifications. This flexibility allowed responsiveness to customer demand. NDP had become an
innovation leader in the industry. Equipment utilization rates consistently averaged 94%, surpassing the
industry average.

Containerboard manufacture demands an uninterrupted supply of electricity, consumes large quantities

of water and generates noxious waste products. NDP constructed water treatment plants, waste treatment
facilities, coal fired cogeneration power plants and transportation infrastructure to support its operations.
These facilities generated operational efficiencies and cost controls while also reducing their environmental
impact as much as possible in an historically dirty industry. The Chinese government had imposed
increasingly strict regulations to limit environmental impact and compliance was costly: expenses associated
with environmental compliance had led to the closing of more than 550 small paper mills in 2008 alone.

Water was used as efficiently as possible. At all of its plants, NDP had constructed its own water
conservation and recycling system. The system reduced consumption by taking advantage of differences in

6
Fitch Ratings, market announcement, 14 April 2008.
7
"Wastepaper Queen: Letter from China," New Yorker, 30 Mar 2009, p2.
 5

water quality requirements of different production lines. For example, water used by one production line was
treated and reused before being treated again and discharged into the environment. This innovation resulted
in water usage of 6 to15 tonnes per tonne of production, less than half the international standard. NDP also
found that if it controlled the saline levels in the water, it could provide a consistently high quality product
to customers. Waste treatment facilities were constructed at all manufacturing plants. Their purposes were
three-fold: to capture part of the waste stream for reuse, to re enter paper pulp into the production stream, and
to channel remaining waste into a waste to energy boiler for incineration.

Coal fired co-generation power plants were constructed to supply the plants in Dongguan, Taicang and
Chongqing. The cost of power was reduced by approximately one third, steam generated as a by-product was
redirected to the production line for use in the drying process and surplus electricity was sold to the regional
power grid. In the future, this surplus power could support additional capacity expansion. Also, the power
plants were equipped with particulate filtration and de-sulphurization equipment to reduce pollution.

The company also owned and operated its own transportation infrastructure, including piers and
unloading facilities, railway spurs, and truck fleets. The company received shipments of raw materials,
including recovered paper, chemicals and coal, at its self owned piers in Taicang and Chongqing and at the
Xinsha Port in Dongguan. These facilities took advantage of ocean and inland waterway transportation,
reducing port loading and unloading charges, and allowed the company to avoid transportation bottlenecks.

Raw Materials

"Wastepaper is like a forest. Paper recycles itself, generation after generation." 8

- Cheung Yan, co founder and Chairwoman of Nine Dragons Paper

Recovered paper and kraft pulp are the principal raw materials used in the manufacture of paperboard;
therefore, the ability to consistently source large volumes of high quality recovered paper is critical to success
in the industry. To ensure supply of manufacturing inputs, NDP had secured long term contracts with
American Chung Nam to supply up to 80% of its recovered paper needs. To establish a secure source of wood
pulp, NDP entered into a joint venture with China Inner Mongolia Forestry Industry Company, a state owned
enterprise, in 2004. In 2008 NDP acquired a wood and bamboo pulp/specialty paper project in Leshan,
Sichuan, and in May 2008 acquired Sichuan Rui Song Paper Company which would provide additional
supplies of kraft and bamboo pulp.

Paperboard and the Packaging Industry

The paper industry in China mirrored the global paper industry - resource hungry and dominated by large
domestic players. Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing Limited was NDP's strongest competitor in China. Also
founded in 1995, it also focused on containerboard and also added capacity rapidly, producing 2.88 million
tonnes in 2008. Together, NDP and Lee and Man Paper accounted for 24% of domestic production in 2008.9
Other paper manufacturers in China were generally smaller, older, and more diversified. International
companies, though large enough to compare with NDP, typically had a broader focus and were vertically
integrated into other paper related market segments. Because production in the industry was not labor

8
"Blazing a Paper Trail in China: A Self Made Billionaire Wrote Her Ticket on Recycled Cardboard," The New York
Times, 16 Jan 2007.
9
Deutsche Bank AG/Hong Kong, 24 Aug 2009.
6

intensive, the low labor cost advantage in China added little value; and because shipping costs were high on
a value to volume basis, it was not cost effective to manufacture far from customers.

Global demand for consumer goods had been the primary driver of China's manufacturing and export-led
growth over the past decade. Conversely, given the manufacturing slowdown resulting from the 2008 global
economic crisis, some industry experts expected that future demand might not match the anticipated capacity
increase in the paperboard industry. Already, production had slowed. In fact, the demand for raw materials
had decelerated so rapidly that scrap paper was "backing up in America like a clogged drain."10

Prospects

Our future path of development may remain thorny ahead, but armed with the shared confidence and courage
throughout the Group to overcome and conquer, we are poised to act even more diligently and powerfully
to prepare for the next global economic recovery.
- "Chairlady's Statement," 2008/09 Interim Report, Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Limited

Nine Dragons Paper was being squeezed Exhibit 5. NDPs Growing Gap in Free Cash Flow (FCF)
by declining markets, burdensome debt and
Rmb (000s)
possibly, just possibly, some market hysteria.
2,000,000 Operating Cash Flow (OCF)
As the economic crisis of 2008 continued into
2009, many of NDP's customers simply 0
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
disappeared. Mrs Cheung's focused
determination had guided NDP to its present -2,000,000

industry leadership position. NDPs

-4,000,000
management team wondered if the growing
gap between operating cash flow and capex in -6,000,000
recent years was dominating the markets Capex

thinking. That gap, as seen in Exhibit 5, was -8,000,000

indeed large, but it was a gap that had always

-10,000,000
been filled opportunistically with debt. Would
Free cash flow (FCF) = Operating cash flow Capital expenditures (capex).
this time be different? More than 670,000
Chinese businesses had failed in 2008. Would
NDP be next?

Case Questions

1. How would you characterize the way in which Mrs Cheung has gone about building NDP?
2. In your opinion, do you believe NDPs approach to rapid capacity expansion is too risky?
3. What actions would you recommend to NDP to stop the markets attack on its financial viability?

10
"Wastepaper Queen: Letter from China," New Yorker, 30 Mar 2009, p7.