A 90-year-old department store has ¥137M cash against ¥3.9B of short-term debt

Central Mall opened in Nanjing's Xinjiekou on January 12, 1936, founded by a group of industrialists to sell Chinese-made goods, and listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2000. Over the decades it grew from the flagship into a chain of department stores across Jiangsu and beyond — Xuzhou's biggest state-run store joined in 2004 — and layered a property development business on top of retail, financed by rising borrowings.

The two layers broke together. First-half 2025 revenue fell 11.96% to ¥1.168 billion and the company swung to a loss; the annual report on April 29, 2026 showed full-year revenue down 6.99% to ¥2.137 billion and a loss of ¥393 million, widened from ¥148 million in 2024. Impairment ran to ¥134 million — ¥126 million on unsold development inventory, ¥8.2 million of goodwill. The Xuzhou store was shut as a 'strategic closure' with contract terminations, asset write-offs and lease penalties, and a subsidiary paid back taxes and late fees after self-inspection.

The balance sheet is the story: a 97.14% asset-liability ratio — ¥9.541 billion of debt against ¥9.824 billion of assets — and net assets down 60.54% in a year to ¥273 million. Cash stood at ¥137 million against ¥3.892 billion of short-term borrowings, of which ¥393 million was overdue, plus ¥1.262 billion of long-term debt falling due within the year. Unsold property dominates inventory: ¥3.932 billion after ¥739 million of accumulated writedowns. What still works is small: operating cash flow of ¥359 million, up 14.25%, and leasing income — 33.71% of revenue at a 99.55% gross margin.