OPPO Reforms Share Incentive System, Plans to Go Public

Chinese media outlet 36Kr reported on Tuesday that OPPO’s Intranet “Hio” published an internal letter about salary reform on Monday, saying that OPPO will change the salary mechanism that has been used for several years and introduce a new share incentive for middle-levelemployees and above.

Although the company is not listed, OPPO has always had an independent stock settlement mechanism, often called a “black market” by internal employees. Many OPPO employees described the trading process to 36 Kr. In a QQ group, some people throw stocks and some people receive stocks. Employees can negotiate prices by themselves, and then go to the finance department to go through the trading procedures.

This obscure stock trading method doesn’t really motivate OPPO employees. The internal letter mentioned that, in the future, OPPO’s stock issuance will implement two modes: one for grassroots employees in which OPPO stocks can be purchased with a certain proportion of employees’ year-end awards. The other will be for employees above the middle level, in which equity will be distributed according to individual merits.

Before the reform, OPPO’s salary model was divided into two types, namely “fixed salary” and “floating salary”. Employees could choose one of them after completing one year of employment.

The internal letter also mentioned that the two systems have their own advantages and disadvantages. “The security of the floating system’s monthly salary is obviously insufficient, while the bonus of the fixed system is not conducive to stimulating employee innovation,” the letter mentioned.

The newly implemented salary reform is a merger of the original two models. The salary composition of employees is basic salary, year-end bonus, stock related to merit pay, and daily welfare.

OPPO has transformed the salary system and introduced open stock incentives, which suggests that listing procedures are underway at the company.

An insider who is still working at OPPO told 36 Kr that the company is currently guiding employees on salary reform in batches. “Human resource staff have mentioned that the company will go public someday,” the staff member said.

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A person who has left OPPO told 36 Kr that in early 2021, OPPO introduced several auditors from four major accounting firms to sort out documents to meet the listing requirements. However, there is no final timetable of an OPPO listing. “The current accounts, taxation and equity of OPPO are complicated, and it will take 2 or 3 years to finish the prepatory work,” the former staff member told 36 Kr.