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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023

or

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from          to

Commission file number 001-41761

Cheetah Net Supply Chain Service Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

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6201 Fairview Road, Suite 225

Charlotte, North Carolina 28210

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (704) 972-0209

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

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If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

The registrant’s Class A common stock commenced trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on August 1, 2023. As of June 30, 2023, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the registrant’s Class A common stock was not publicly traded. Accordingly, there was no market value for the registrant’s Class A common stock on such date.

The number of the registrant’s shares of Class A common stock, $0.0001 par value per share, outstanding on March 15, 2024 was 10,938,329.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s proxy statement for its 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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PART I

Item 1. Business.

Overview

We are a supplier of parallel-import vehicles sourced in the U.S. to be sold in the PRC market. In the PRC, parallel-import vehicles refer to those purchased by dealers directly from overseas markets and imported for sale through channels other than brand manufacturers’ official distribution systems. Parallel-import cars have been popular in the PRC because they are generally priced 10% to 15% cheaper than vehicles sold through distribution systems authorized by brand manufacturers and generally offer a wider variety of models and versions with more customization. In addition, some overseas models can only be obtained through this channel rather than through the brand manufacturers’ authorized distribution systems as a result of certain regulations that prohibit their production and sale in the PRC due to environmental protection and emission standards. Customers demand our parallel-import vehicles largely because our selling prices are lower than those offered by other suppliers of parallel-import vehicles to the PRC market, driven by our scalable operations and a systematic approach to procurement. We have available a large number of professional purchasing agents that we believe can supply stable and large quantities of cars at reasonable prices to Chinese parallel-import car dealers and maintain a long-term relationship with them. See “—Our Competitive Strengths—In-depth Industry Insight and Strong Overseas Procurement Capability Enabled by a Large Team of Professional Purchasing Agents.”

In China, sales of parallel-import vehicles have been facilitated by a series of related regulations and policies that have been promulgated by the PRC government since 2016, including “Several Opinions on Promoting Pilot Parallel Import of Automobiles,” “Opinions on Further Promoting the Development of Parallel Import of Automobiles,” and the “Circular on Several Measures for Invigorating Automobile Circulation and Promoting Automobile Consumption.” Such regulations and policies are in compliance with U.S. laws on trade and export. See “—Our Industry and Business Model.” To our knowledge, there are currently no U.S. federal or state laws, regulation, or rules on trade or export that prohibit the export of vehicles that will be parallel imported into foreign countries. We purchase automobiles, primarily luxury brands, such as Mercedes, BMW, Land Rover, Lexus, and Bentley, from the U.S. market and resell them to our customers, including both U.S. and PRC parallel-import car dealers, for sale to the ultimate users. We derive profits primarily from the price difference between our buying and selling prices for parallel-import vehicles.

The primary driver for our industry is the continued growth of high-net-worth individuals in China. The core of our business is the ability to identify the type of parallel-import vehicles that are in high demand and to procure them in a timely manner. We procure our automobiles from U.S. automobile dealers via a network of independent contractors acting as purchasing agents on our behalf. As of December 31, 2023 and 2022, we actively worked with 389 and 342 purchasing agents, respectively.

We believe that our corporate focus and dedication to the market, manifested in the size and sophistication of our purchasing agent team, provides us with a significant marketing advantage and sets us apart from our competitors. Although we compete directly with many other companies that sell parallel-import vehicles to the PRC, most of our competitors are small family businesses that obtain U.S. cars through their family members or friends in the U.S. and therefore cannot guarantee a steady supply. We have developed a standardized system of recruiting, training, and managing a large number of professional purchasing agents, enabling us to sell on a recurring basis a large number of automobiles to the PRC market. We have been currently able to maintain sufficient purchasing agents to meet our purchasing demand, and as a result, we have become a reliable source of parallel-import vehicles and have built long-term relationships with multiple U.S. and PRC parallel-import car dealers. During the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, we sold 230 and 434 parallel-import vehicles to Chinese parallel-import car dealers, respectively. During the same years, we sold 73 and 29 parallel-import vehicles to our U.S. customers, respectively.

We experienced significant growth in sales volume, revenue, and gross profit from 2016, when we commenced our operations, to the first half of 2022 due to our core strengths and a favorable economic climate. Our financial results in 2022 were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and our financial results continue to be impacted by weak economic conditions in the PRC. We have responded to this weakness by focusing less on unit sales and concentrating more on the sales of those luxury vehicles that provide us with the highest profitability per transaction. Our financial results during 2023 demonstrate the impact of this strategy shift. We sold 303 and 463 vehicles during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, we had total revenue of $38.3 million and $55.2 million, respectively, representing a decrease of 30.5% from 2022 to 2023. We earned net income of $0.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to net income of $0.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2022.

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Sales to the PRC market represent a significant part of our revenue. During the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, sales to the China market accounted for approximately 78.7% and 93.1% of our revenue, respectively.

Recent Developments

To diversify our revenue and further leverage our in-depth expertise in the parallel-import vehicle industry, we launched our financial services to small- and medium-sized traders in the global supply chain industry (primarily other parallel-import vehicle suppliers) in October 2022. Our financial services are provided in the form of inventory financing, for which customers can use their cars as collateral, which will be stored in our warehouse or other locations designated by us, in exchange for a loan from us. In December 2023, we further advanced such financial services strategy by introducing our vehicle pledge loans, primarily aimed at parallel-import car dealers. We provided $0.7 million in loans to third parties in the fourth quarter of 2023, all of which was outstanding as of December 31, 2023. See “Note 4—Loans Receivable” in the notes to our consolidated financial statements for more details.

Beginning in the second half of 2023, the market for new luxury vehicles in the PRC has been negatively impacted by weak economic conditions and a shift in consumer demand towards electric vehicles (“EVs”), mainly those produced domestically by PRC manufacturers. Luxury import brand manufacturers have responded to these threats by discounting the sale price of their vehicles, which has resulted in a significant challenge to our ability to generate a profit from the sale of parallel-import vehicles generally. Consistent with our strategy to focus only on profitable parallel-import vehicle transactions, our unit sales during the fourth quarter of 2023 fell to 49 vehicles, a 36.4% decrease from the fourth quarter of 2022 and a 38.0% drop from unit sales in the third quarter of 2023, which resulted in our recognition of a net loss during the fourth quarter of 2023. This market dynamic has continued into 2024 and we are unable at this time to predict when the market for luxury vehicles will firm and the price spread between vehicles sourced from brand manufacturers’ official distribution systems and those sourced via the parallel-import market will return.

To diversify our revenue and further leverage our in-depth expertise in the parallel-import vehicle industry, we have embarked on a plan to acquire warehousing and logistics businesses with the goals of reducing our costs of transporting purchased vehicles from the dealer lot to the ultimate point of sale and to more efficiently manage the transaction cycle. We completed the first of such acquisitions in early 2024. On January 24, 2024, we entered into a stock purchase agreement with Edward Transit Express Group Inc. (“Edward”), a California-based common carrier specializing in ocean and air transportation services, and the sole shareholder of Edward. On January 29, 2024, we entered into an amendment to the stock purchase agreement with Edward and the sole shareholder of Edward, modifying certain terms of such agreement. Pursuant to the stock purchase agreement, as amended, we agreed to acquire 100% of the equity interests in Edward from the sole shareholder of Edward, for a cash payment of $300,000 and 1,272,329 shares of our Class A common stock. On February 2, 2024, we closed the acquisition and Edward became a wholly-owned subsidiary of our Company. The acquisition of these capabilities can be further leveraged by offering warehousing and logistics services to third-party parallel-import vehicle and other wholesalers and enhanced by offering financial services that we launched in October 2022. Our long-term ambition is to move beyond the parallel-import vehicle business and become an integrated provider of international trade services for small- and medium-sized traders.

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe the following competitive strengths are essential for our success and differentiate us from our competitors:

In-depth Industry Insight and Strong Overseas Procurement Capability Enabled by a Large Team of Professional Purchasing Agents

We are capable of providing a large and stable source of parallel-import vehicles. With in-depth knowledge of the Chinese luxury car market, we have built a large team of independent contractors, who serve as professional purchasing agents, to facilitate our procurement of vehicles, enabling us to become a growing supplier of parallel-import vehicles. As of December 31, 2023, we had 389 professional purchasing agents who are experts in both luxury cars and negotiation skills. Due to our in-depth industry insight and strong procurement capability enabled by our sizable team of purchasing agents, we have built long-term relationships with five Chinese parallel-import car dealers. We rely on the business relationships we have built over the years while working with those PRC customers, many of which have cooperated with us for over three years. Since our inception in 2016, we have developed a standardized system of recruiting, training, and managing a large number of professional purchasing agents, enabling us to sell on a recurring basis a large number of automobiles to the PRC market. We believe that our corporate focus and dedication to the market, manifested in the size and sophistication of our purchasing agent team and our ability to source and train new purchasing agents, sets us apart from our competitors. Although we compete directly with many other companies that sell parallel-import vehicles to the PRC, most of our competitors are

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small family businesses that obtain U.S. cars through their family members or friends in the U.S. and therefore cannot guarantee a steady supply. See “—Our Professional Purchasing Agents.” The standardized system has been tested during the past years and has propelled us into a strong market position in parallel-import car sales. As a result, Chinese parallel-import car dealers with whom we work proactively choose to source luxury vehicles from us.

Scalable Operation with Systematic Approach to Procurement Which Drives Better Pricing for Customers

Customers demand our parallel-import vehicles largely because our selling prices are lower than those offered by other suppliers of parallel-import vehicles to the PRC market, driven by our scalable operation with a systematic approach to procurement. We acquired automobiles from U.S. automobile dealers via our purchasing agents. See “—Sales of Parallel-Import Vehicles—Services and Operational Flow—Procurement.” Since we have a large number of professional purchasing agents with excellent negotiation skills, we believe we are able to supply stable and large quantities of cars at reasonable prices to Chinese parallel-import car dealers and maintain a long-term relationship with them. See “—In-depth Industry Insight and Strong Overseas Procurement Capability Enabled by a Large Team of Professional Purchasing Agents.” We purchased and sold 258 and 303 vehicles, respectively, during the year ended December 31, 2023. We purchased and sold 356 and 463 vehicles, respectively, during the year ended December 31, 2022. As a stable parallel-import vehicle supplier, we are able to offer our customers a lower price than our competitors, which in turn increases our customers’ demand for our automobiles.

A Visionary and Experienced Management Team with Strong Financial and Operational Expertise

Our senior management team has extensive experience in finance and imports and exports of automobiles. Mr. Huan Liu, our Chief Executive Officer, has extensive experience in real estate, private equity, and car imports and exports. As the founder and CEO of Cheetah Net, Mr. Huan Liu has been responsible for the management of day-to-day operations and high-level strategizing and business planning, as well as implementing proposed plans and evaluating the success of our Company in achieving its goals. From 2014 to 2015, Mr. Huan Liu served as the chief executive officer at Beijing Xinyongjia Technology Co., where he was responsible for identifying opportunities for expansion and analyzing operations to identify areas in need of reorganization. From 2012 to 2013, Mr. Huan Liu served as the senior investment manager at Beijing Wanze Investment Management Co. Ltd. and was responsible for developing and implementing risk-based asset allocation models and performance analytics. He received his master’s degree in Finance from the International Business School at Brandeis University in 2012.

Our Growth Strategies

Taking the niche market of parallel-import vehicle trade as an entry point, we intend to continuously consolidate our upstream and downstream customer resources. By leveraging these resources and our industry expertise, we are launching and developing our warehousing and logistics services and providing financial services to the upstream and downstream dealers across the entire parallel-import vehicle trade value chain. Ultimately, we aim to become a global supply chain platform that offers an integrated package of warehousing, logistics, and financial services to small- and medium-sized import and export companies. Specifically, we intend to develop our business and strengthen our brand loyalty by implementing the following strategies:

Launch Additional Warehousing and Logistics Services

We plan to acquire two warehouses, either on the east or west coasts of the United States. As of the date of this annual report, we have already acquired one warehouse through the acquisition of Edward. We have retained Edward’s current manager, who possesses extensive experience in the freight industry, as the CEO of our new wholly-owned subsidiary following the acquisition of Edward, to lead our warehousing and logistics business. Lately, we have transported a majority of the vehicles to the west coast, and while this decision increased our procurement costs, it was offset by a decrease in selling expenses. Additionally, the new strategy also streamlines shipping time and expedites receipt of payment through letters of credit, since it only takes approximately two to three weeks to deliver a purchased vehicle to a customer overseas through the west coast ports (compared with 40 to 60 days if through the east coast ports), resulting in significantly shorter payment cycles. The Edward acquisition provides us with our own warehousing and logistics systems. Thereafter, we expect to build economies of scale by providing these services to small- and medium-sized traders in the global supply chain industry. We expect our first customers will be parallel-import vehicle businesses with whom we have established relationships. Not only can we use our self-operated warehousing and logistics systems to deliver vehicles to the customers of our parallel-import vehicle business, we can also offer such services to other small- and medium-sized suppliers of parallel-import vehicles or those engaged in the import or export of other products between the U.S. and the PRC or other destinations around the world who lack such systems.

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In the longer term, we plan to develop an online Service-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) platform to facilitate our warehousing services, logistics services, and financial services, enabling us to automate and digitalize key steps of the supply chain for our customers. The SaaS platform will include a warehouse management system, which monitors the entire flow of inventory, labor force, and information in and out of our warehouse network, resulting in improved operational efficiency by providing real-time inventory visibility. Our warehousing and logistics systems and SaaS platform will enable us to warehouse, manage, and deliver the goods of our customers. In addition, since we hold our customers’ goods in our own warehouses and monitor their inventory, we will be able to access real-time data related to customer’s inventory, purchases, and financial information with their prior consent, allowing us to make efficient decisions as to whether to approve customers’ application for our financial services. See “—Our Growth Strategies—Launch Financial Services to Small- and Medium-Sized Traders in the Global Supply Chain Industry.” Once we have established a relatively mature warehouse and logistical services in the parallel-import vehicle industry, we may expand our SaaS platform to other industries, such as textiles, medical products, and tires.

Moreover, after we obtain access to our warehouses, we plan to provide warehousing and order fulfillment services to small businesses, such as e-commerce merchants, who can send their products/merchandise to our warehouses in advance, and when their customers make a purchase, we will be responsible for picking, packing, and shipping the specific products to the customers based on their order information. By outsourcing their warehousing and order fulfillment functions to us, these small businesses may be relieved of their logistics burdens and have greater flexibility and agility when it comes to marketing and selling practices. We expect to generate revenue and profits by charging those small businesses storage, packing, and shipping service fees. We expect to further develop our SaaS platform with respect to the warehousing and order fulfillment services we plan to launch. Specifically, we plan to utilize our SaaS platform for marketing purposes by advertising small business sellers’ merchandise on our platform to help them promote and gain more exposure to potential or target customers. We expect to generate profits by charging small businesses services fees for our marketing efforts.

Manage the Growth of our Purchasing Agent Team and Maintain an Adequate Customer Base for the Parallel-Import Vehicle Business

We endeavor to continue to expand our parallel-import vehicle business. Retaining quality purchasing agents with excellent negotiation skills is an essential part of our business. To maintain or grow our team of professional purchasing agents, we will devote the necessary resources to personnel recruitment and training. In addition, we will maintain and grow our customer base by identifying and engaging more parallel-import car dealers in China to further increase our sales. Moreover, we will continue to monitor the constantly changing PRC market demand for vehicle models and expand our brand coverage as applicable to strengthen our strong market position as a supplier of luxury automobiles to the parallel-import car dealers in China.

Pursue Additional Strategic and Financially Attractive Acquisitions

We endeavor to identify, acquire, and integrate businesses that will expand our parallel-import vehicle business, warehousing services, and financial services while achieving synergies and generating attractive returns. Using our disciplined approach to screening and evaluating potential opportunities, we intend to seek strategically and financially attractive acquisition targets that provide us with new capabilities. We have significant internal resources dedicated to tracking potential acquisition prospects which are formally reviewed by senior management on a regular basis. Since we are a stable parallel-import vehicle supplier with a wide network of contacts and have been involved in the industry for more than eight years, we believe we will be an acquirer of choice in our industry at attractive valuations. Edward is the first such business that we integrated into our operations.

Organizational Structure

Cheetah Net was originally formed on August 9, 2016 under the laws of the State of North Carolina as a limited liability company known as Yuan Qiu Business Group LLC. On March 1, 2022, we filed articles of incorporation including articles of conversion with the Secretary of State of the State of North Carolina to convert from an LLC to a corporation, and changed our name to Cheetah Net Supply Chain Service Inc. Cheetah Net also conducts business under the marketing name of “Elite Motor Group.” As of the date of this annual report, Cheetah Net holds 100% of the equity interests in the following entities:

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On August 3, 2023, we closed our IPO of 1,250,000 shares of Class A common stock at a price of $4.00 per share. In connection with the IPO, the shares of Class A common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “CTNT” on August 1, 2023.

Our Industry and Business Model

We generate revenue primarily from the sales of parallel-import vehicles. In the PRC, parallel-import vehicles refer to those purchased directly by dealers from overseas markets and imported into the PRC market for sale through channels other than brand manufacturers’ official distribution systems. Models and prices of parallel-import vehicles vary from mid-range to high-end brands, with the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (“MSRP”) typically not less than $40,000. Parallel-import cars are popular in China because they are relatively cheaper and offer a wider variety of models and versions with more customization possibilities than regular imported cars. Specifically, because parallel-import vehicles do not have to pass through multiple levels of distributors, such as China general distributors, regional distributors, and 4S stores, to reach their end consumers, they can generally be priced at least 10% to 15% lower than regular imported cars. Parallel-import cars are popular also because some overseas models cannot be produced and sold in China due to certain regulations concerning environmental protection and emission standards and can only be introduced into the PRC market through parallel imports. As manufacturers frequently arbitrage markets, setting the price according to local market conditions so the same vehicle will have different retail prices in different territories, this enables parallel-import vehicle dealers to utilize a profit

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maximization strategy to drive profit from the industry. Currently, there are no U.S. federal or state laws, regulation, or rules on trade or export that prohibit the export of vehicles that will be parallel imported into foreign countries. Nonetheless, manufacturers and their distributors sometimes regard parallel-import vehicles as a competitor to their network of franchised dealerships, and thus may take measures to limit or reduce the opportunities for third parties, such as parallel-import vehicle dealers, to profit through leveraging the manufacturers’ different pricing strategies across the world. For example, they may add provisions in their sales agreements that restrict the export of the purchased automobiles, or they may build and update their Suspect Customer Database and monitor and limit the sales of automobiles to those suspect customers.

Parallel-import vehicles in China are generally divided into three categories based on the original country of procurement, including the U.S. version, the Middle East version, and the European version. All of the cars we sell are of the U.S. version with MSRPs typically not less than $80,000. Suppliers of the U.S. version of parallel-import cars are typically unable to purchase large quantities of vehicles, so most of the industry’s participants are small family businesses who purchase cars from local dealers and resell them to local dealers/exporters in the U.S. or to dealers/importers in China. For U.S. dealers of parallel-import vehicles, vehicle sourcing capabilities are critical.

In order to rein in prices of foreign luxury cars in the PRC market, which are typically higher than elsewhere in the world, the PRC government has issued policies to promote the development of the parallel-import car industry. Since the PRC government issued policies to promote the layout of parallel-import vehicle trials in October 2014, the parallel-import vehicle market began to grow. In 2016, the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC and seven other departments issued “Several Opinions on Promoting Pilot Parallel Import of Automobiles” to speed up the implementation of the pilot policy measures to promote parallel-import cars. China began piloting parallel imports of automobiles in February 2016, where the first cities to pilot parallel imports of cars were Shanghai, Tianjin, Fuzhou, Shenzhen, and Huangpu, followed by Chengdu, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Dalian, and Ningbo. As a result of these government policies, more Chinese consumers have access to foreign premium cars, such as Porsche and Land Rover, which have spurred sales despite overall softening sales in the broader market. The market liberalization in 2016 was partly driven by the PRC government’s desire to break up monopolies, benefit consumers, and encourage more cooperation between suppliers and dealers in a fairer and more reasonable environment. In 2017, China’s new “Measures for the Administration of Automobile Sales” (the “Measures”) were released. Article 36 of the Measures provides a regulatory basis for the parallel importation of automobiles. This document contributed to the rapid development of the parallel import model in China. The new regulation defines the supplier of imported cars as “the operator who imports cars from abroad,” and the authorization of the manufacturer is no longer required for importing cars. Under the traditional brand authorization model, the car manufacturer is in control of the product types and specifications of the imported cars. With the development of the parallel import model, however, a growing number of PRC end consumers choose to bypass the brand-authorized dealers in favor of non-authorized dealers for a variety of reasons such as price and special needs. The development of the parallel-import vehicle industry has since grown significantly. Furthermore, in 2019, the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC and six other departments issued the “Opinions on Further Promoting the Development of Parallel Import of Automobiles,” which emphasizes the need to (i) permit and support establishment of compliance and modification sites for parallel-import automobiles to ensure the automobiles meet the national standards; (ii) promote the normalization and institutionalization of the parallel import of automobiles; (iii) further improve trade facilitation for parallel-import automobiles; and (iv) further strengthen the supervision and accountability of parallel-import automobiles. In 2022, the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC and 16 other departments promulgated the “Circular on Several Measures for Invigorating Automobile Circulation and Promoting Automobile Consumption,” which provides that the PRC government will further promote the sustainable and healthy development of parallel import of automobiles by supporting the parallel import of automobiles in ports that permit automobile imports and improving the mandatory product certification and information disclosure system for parallel-import automobiles. Such regulations and policies comply with U.S. laws on trade and exports.

Currently, we are primarily engaged in parallel-import vehicle dealership business, where we purchase automobiles from the U.S. market through our large team of professional purchasing agents, and resell them to our customers, including both U.S.- and PRC-based parallel-import car dealers. We derive profits primarily from the price difference between our buying and selling prices for parallel-import vehicles. Our operating principle is to maximize sales margins rather than volume, so we mainly focus on luxury vehicle brands in large demand because of the strong purchasing power of the end consumers in the PRC and higher markups for pricing. This strategy allows us to maintain efficient operations and effective management by keeping the size and scope of our Company within reasonable limits.

Our Customers

We primarily serve two types of customers: (i) PRC customers and (ii) U.S. domestic customers. Specifically, our PRC customers refer to those Chinese automobile dealers/importers who intend to import automobiles into the PRC market as parallel-import vehicles. Our

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U.S. domestic customers are parallel-import car dealers/exporters based in the U.S., which are typically the branches or upstream suppliers of Chinese parallel-import vehicle car dealers, who often lack purchasing capabilities in the U.S. market and need to purchase vehicles from us to transport to their PRC branches or sell to their PRC customers. Our customers are willing to work with us because we are able to provide them with a large number of vehicles having a wide variety of models, thus greatly reducing the difficulty of collecting and managing vehicles for them. Our PRC and U.S. customers generated approximately 78.7% and 21.3% of our revenue, respectively, during the year ended December 31, 2023, and 93.1% and 6.9% of our revenue, respectively, during the year ended December 31, 2022. We had a total of four and 17 customers for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2023, our three largest customers accounted for approximately 98.9% of our total revenue, while for the year ended December 31, 2022, our three largest customers accounted for 65% of our total revenue.

As an example of a typical transaction, under a sales contract entered into by and between our Company and a PRC customers, we are required to (i) load the designated automobiles on a vessel by the time of shipment specified in the contract at a U.S. port of loading; (ii) facilitate export customs clearance; (iii) provide the PRC customer with information about the designated automobiles, quantity, invoice amount, vessel name, and departure date, and provide a bill of lading, packaging list, commercial invoice, and other necessary documents; and (iv) ensure that the sold automobiles are brand new. Pursuant to the sales contract, the PRC customer (i) is responsible for import customs clearance and other relevant import issues; (ii) is required to bear all costs and risks once the designated automobiles arrive at the designated port of destination in the PRC; and (iii) is responsible for arranging payment as specified in the contract. In the event of any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to such sales contracts, both parties agree (i) they will first try to resolve such disputes through friendly consultation; and that (ii) the validity, interpretation, and implementation of such contracts shall be governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina in the U.S.

Similarly, our U.S. customers enter into sales agreements for each automobile sold by us. According to a typical sales agreement entered into between our U.S. customers and our Company, we will (i) sell the designated automobile to the U.S. customer for the amount specified in the agreement and certify that all of the information provided therein is true and accurate to the best of our knowledge; (ii) deliver the automobile to the warehouse requested by the U.S. customer; and (iii) provide the automobile title within three weeks of the completion of the transaction. Meanwhile, the U.S. customer acknowledges that the automobile described therein is sold “as is” and that there is no guarantee or warranty either expressed or implied with respect to the automobile.

Our Suppliers

We do not have typical suppliers, because we purchase all of our automobiles via our team of professional purchasing agents from U.S. automobile dealers that have the designated automobile model in stock. The designated brands and models are usually luxury or mid- to high-end vehicles that are in high demand in the PRC market, such as Mercedes GLS450, Mercedes G63, BMW X7, and Lexus 600.

Our Professional Purchasing Agents

As of December 31, 2023, we worked with 389 independent contractors as our professional purchasing agents, responsible for purchasing designated models of vehicles using the knowledge and negotiating skills they have acquired from our training. We have developed a standardized system of recruiting, training, and managing professional purchasing agents. Specifically, we post job listings on various job platforms to attract qualified potential candidates, and assign received resumes to our full-time procurement specialists, who will schedule interviews by telephone or in person. A second interview will be conducted by a procurement manager and/or human resources manager to further review the candidate’s background and qualifications. Upon reviewing the applicant’s experience in the industry, knowledge of our Company, and other qualifications, we will determine whether a candidate is a good fit. In addition, we have designed and developed our own referral program that incentivizes our existing agents to utilize their network to attract additional qualified agents and thus further expand our purchasing agent base. In particular, we encourage our purchasing agents to introduce such positions to their connections and forward their resumes or contact information to our Company if consent is granted. The candidates so referred, if retained, will receive our training and start working as purchasing agents, and the referral agent will earn a $200 commission for each deal the referred agents close. There is no limit or cap on how many referrals can be made in our referral program. In the referral program, existing agents act as mentors to new agents by providing them with initial training and helping them become familiar with our Company.

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Since most of the purchasing agents have other part-time employment, training sessions are provided to accommodate their schedules. In a training session, our procurement specialists outline the details, such as models with specifications, buying procedures, commission structure, and agent conduct when visiting a dealership. The agents are trained continuously after each deal is completed to improve their skills and knowledge. To determine whether a new purchasing agent has been fully trained and understands well his or her responsibilities, workflow, and company procedures and policies, a procurement manager will schedule an assessment test or call with the new agent before the agent places his or her first order with a dealership. We manage our purchasing agents through a variety of communication tools including texts, phone calls, emails, and zoom meetings. Each purchasing agent is assigned to a procurement specialist in charge, who leads and trains a group of agents. Depending on the agent’s schedule, the procurement specialists in charge are in direct communication with their agents on a weekly basis for updates on active deals, leads for new potential deals, and scheduling vehicle pick-ups.

As each of our purchasing agents may only be able to perform a limited number of purchases before being recorded in the U.S. dealers’ Suspect Customer Database, we may encounter difficulty maintaining a sufficient number of purchasing agents to meet our purchasing demand. Our newly established referral program helps us maintain sufficient purchasing agents by offering incentives to existing agents in the form of a referral commission on each successfully concluded transaction completed by a new agent whom they referred to us. As a result, agents are more motivated to work and stay with our Company.

In accordance with a typical independent contractor agreement entered between a professional purchasing agent and our Company, the purchasing agent agrees to (i) acquire the automobile identified by our Company and promptly transfer possession of the automobile to us; (ii) diligently execute all documents related to the transfer of title and delivery of the automobile; (iii) deliver the automobile without any physical damage, including all purchasing documents, user manuals, window sticker, keys, spare tires, and interior carpets; and (iv) acknowledge that the automobile is at all times the sole property of our Company insofar as we fulfill our obligation to fund all related costs of purchasing the automobile and to pay/reimburse all fees owed pursuant to the independent contractor agreement. Pursuant to the independent contractor agreement, we are required to pay the purchasing agent a service fee calculated according to an agreed-upon payment structure specified in the agreement, which includes (i) a base fee ranging from $500 to $2,000, depending on the model of the purchased automobile, and (ii) an incentive bonus that amounts to 25% of any further discount achieved by the purchasing agent beyond the pre-determined benchmark discount required for the purchased automobile. Such agreement also includes liability exemption clauses providing that the purchasing agent shall not be liable for any fines or lawsuits imposed by dealerships or manufacturers due to export infractions or infringements and we agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the purchasing agent from and against any liability, losses, claims, costs, interests, penalties, expenses, and damages arising from any non-negligent execution of the role as purchasing agents on behalf of our Company.

Brands We Supply

The brands of automobiles we have procured include Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Land Rover, Lexus, Bentley, Ram, and Toyota.

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The following table sets forth a breakdown of brands purchased during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022.

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Services and Operational Flow

Procurement

We make procurement decisions based on our extensive experience and insight into the PRC parallel-import vehicle industry. In order to avoid overstocking or understocking inventory, we must forecast inventory needs and expenses through meticulous market analysis and weekly sales department meetings. Specifically, our management estimates, based on the data from the General Administration of Customs of China, that approximately 20,000 parallel-import cars have been exported annually from the U.S. to China in recent years, most of which are of low-end and mid-range brands. Our founding team understands the factors driving the growth of the luxury-car segment in China and the desires of the Chinese consumer. In addition, we have some close business partners in China who are parallel-import car traders or dealers, including some of our PRC customers and some third parties or potential customers. They provide us with timely information on the PRC market and often offer us more favorable terms of settlement. To develop our sales strategy and support our procurement department’s purchasing plans, the sales department meets weekly with our procurement department to discuss the latest market needs and dynamics, including sales prices, brand composition, and inventory changes. Nonetheless, in the event that we overstock or understock our inventory, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely harmed.

We primarily procure automobiles through our team of professional purchasing agents, who serve as independent contractors, from U.S. automobile dealers that have the designated automobile model in stock. As of December 31, 2023 and 2022, we worked with approximately 389 and 342 professional purchasing agents, respectively. Mr. Walter Folker, who currently serves as our Vice President of Procurement, oversees a full-time procurement manager, who in turn supervise five full-time procurement specialists, as of December 31, 2023. Those full-time procurement specialists are responsible for training our purchasing agents and providing them with timely phone coaching and on-site support. Due to our standardized recruitment, training, and management of professional purchasing agents, we believe our efficient procurement management and organizational skills set us apart from other competitors in the industry. See “—Our Professional Purchasing Agents.” Our purchasing agents negotiate the best price for our designated automobile models using the knowledge and negotiating skills they received from our training. We decide which automobiles to purchase primarily based on the demand and selling price for specific automobile models in the PRC market and their availability in the U.S. market. We regularly issue

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instructions about the brands and models of vehicles to be purchased, as well as the maximum acceptable prices and pick-up time limits. Professional purchasing agents can visit dealerships across the U.S. for quotes based on their schedules and convenience, and provide us with the price information they obtain. We then select the lowest prices for models in demand and assist those purchasing agents who provide such quotes in completing the purchases. Once the purchases are completed, the purchasing agents sell automobiles to our Company at their purchase prices and charge us a service fee per automobile based on the model of the vehicle and the discount they obtained from the automobile dealers. See “—Our Professional Purchasing Agents.” A purchasing agent usually pays the deposit to automobile dealers using a Company-issued credit and pays the remaining balance via bank cashier check from our Company’s bank account. The purchasing agents may occasionally advance funds to the automobile dealers, which will be reimbursed once they provide a receipt and other required documents. In addition, we will fund any other costs, fees, and taxes incurred by purchasing agents related to the purchase and transfer of automobiles. Once the purchasing agents receive the titles of the purchased automobiles from the Department of Motor Vehicles, they immediately sign the titles over to Cheetah Net. Automobiles purchased from U.S. automobile dealers are picked up by our purchasing agents and delivered to us at a designated warehouse or other agreed delivery location.

Below is a diagram showing the procurement process:

The following chart demonstrates the number of vehicles we acquired each year since 2016. We are able to support an annual purchase volume of 500 to 600 cars with our current team size and working capital reserves. In the future, if our client base expands, we may

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adjust the brands of luxury cars we offer. This could result in more cars to be acquired, with a higher or lower average purchase price per vehicle than the current level. Nevertheless, we will primarily focus on vehicles with MSRPs between $80,000 and $130,000.

Note: Year 2020 was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and China’s Implementation of National VI Standards.

We actively monitor our automobile inventory as part of our inventory management process. It is our policy to keep our inventory levels as low as possible while maintaining reasonable levels. The balance of our inventory as of December 31, 2023 and 2022 accounted for approximately 15.4% and 41.2% of our total current assets, respectively. The automobiles are stored in the third-party warehouses until they are shipped to China or delivered to our U.S. customers.

Financing for Procurement

Our business requires a large amount of capital. To maintain our liquidity, we sometimes use the following financing instruments for procurement, including inventory financing, letter of credit financing (“LC financing”), and revolving line of credit:

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Sales and Services

We sell our automobile inventories to our U.S. customers (parallel-import vehicle exporters based in the U.S.) or PRC customers (Chinese parallel-import car dealers who purchase cars from us and import them into the PRC to resell them to other dealers or end consumers). A specific vehicle model’s pricing and profitability vary based on the market demand and supply for that model. We set our selling prices based on multiple factors, including the price of the same model sold by authorized dealers in China, normal commercial terms, market pricing adjustments, customer payment methods, operational efficiency of our Company, and anticipated workload for trading activities. The selling price is finalized as the MSRP plus service fees, which are determined upon comprehensive consideration of the overall market adjustments for vehicles as well as the customer’s payment method. For example, for the year ended December 31, 2023, the total selling price for customers using letters of credit as payment method ranged from 120% to 130% of the MSRP plus a market adjustment of up to $25,000, while the total selling price for customers using telegraphic transfer (wire transfer) as the payment method was the MSRP plus an adjustment price ranging from $4,000 to $37,000 as determined on a case-by-case basis. During the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, the sales price of our vehicles ranged between $77,499 and $277,300.

The following table sets forth the breakdown of our sales revenue by brands and models during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022.

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Typically, we enter into sales contracts with our PRC and U.S. customers. See “—Our Customers.” Our U.S. customers usually pay the full amount to us within two days before or after the automobile is delivered to the appointed warehouse. In most cases, our PRC customers make their payments one or two weeks after we arrange for a freight forwarding company to load the automobile and provide them with the ocean bill of lading and other related documents.

Fulfillment and U.S. Customs Clearance

For our domestic sales, we deliver the purchased vehicles to U.S. customers at their designated warehouses and provide the original copy of the title to them within the agreed timeframe. Our U.S. customers are responsible for export and cross-border transportation matters on their own after purchasing automobiles. In this case, we bear the risk of damage and loss before delivering the automobile to the warehouse designated by the U.S. customer.

For our PRC customers, it is our responsibility to arrange for the ocean freight forwarder to load the automobile to be shipped and provide them with the ocean bill of lading and related documents. As such, we bear the risk of damage and loss prior to arranging for the shipping of automobiles by third-party logistics service providers, but these risks pass to our PRC customers once the automobile is dispatched on board. Our PRC customers, namely, Chinese parallel-import car dealers, will be responsible for after-sale services for the end consumers of those parallel-import vehicles. Prior to shipping the automobiles, we generally require PRC customers to make the majority of the amount owed (typically the MSRP amount) upfront via a letter of credit, where the release of payment is contingent upon our submission of a bill of lading and other required documents to the issuing bank underlying the letter of credit for its review. Once we confirm receipt of the letter of credit, we will settle the loan (if any) and arrange for customs clearance and shipping by third-party logistics service providers. In the event that all customs clearance procedures have been completed with all forms filled out and accepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“Customs”), we will ship the automobiles and provide the issuing bank with the bill of landing and related documents for its review. Upon completion of the review, the issuing bank releases payment to us, and the bill of landing and related documents to PRC customers, which are necessary to obtain the automobiles from the freight forwarder. We cooperate with third-party logistics service providers whose primary responsibility is to provide cross-border logistics services, typically by sea, for the delivery of our automobiles to our PRC customers.

Technology and Intellectual Property

The success of our business depends on our proprietary technologies. We have developed our Office Automation System (the “OA System”), an information technology system we use to track our order status and monitor our business workflow. The OA system facilitates the storage, exchange, and management of order data, thereby increasing our productivity and efficiency. Currently, the OA System has four main modules: Dashboard, Resume, Orders, and Pick-Up.

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As of the date of this annual report, we have registered three domain names in the U.S., including (i) Cheetah-net.com, a domain name registered on August 17, 2022 and associated with the Cheetah Net website; (ii) Pacificconsultingusa.com, a domain name registered on January 7, 2019 and associated with the Pacific Consulting LLC website; and (iii) Allen-boy.com, a domain name registered on December 5, 2018 and currently not in use.

Employees

As of December 31, 2023, we had a total of 20 employees, 18 of whom worked as full-time employees, as set forth in the following table:

​

Our employment contracts with full-time employees include a confidentiality clause.

In addition to our employees, we worked with 389 independent contractors as of December 31, 2023. These independent contractors serve as our professional purchasing agents, primarily responsible for visiting the U.S. automobile dealers and negotiating the best vehicle purchase price.

We believe that we maintain a good working relationship with our employees and our independent contractors, and we have not experienced material labor disputes in the past. None of our employees is represented by labor unions.

Competition

The automobile dealership industry in the U.S. is highly competitive and rapidly evolving, with many new companies constantly entering the market. We are committed to the niche market of selling automobiles to U.S. and PRC parallel-import vehicle dealers. We compete with other U.S. companies that sell parallel-import vehicles sourced in the U.S. to be sold in the PRC market. Our ability to compete effectively in the parallel-import vehicle dealership industry depends upon many factors, including our experience and in-depth insight into the industry, as well as the ability to provide vehicles in large quantities to Chinese parallel-import car dealers on a recurring basis. Generally, we do not have major competitors, because most of our competitors are small family businesses that obtain U.S. cars through their family members or friends in the U.S., and thus cannot guarantee recurring large supplies. With a large purchasing agent team responsible for our procurement, we have become a stable supplier for Chinese parallel-import car dealers. Accordingly, we believe we are well-positioned to effectively compete in the parallel-import vehicles dealership industry. It is possible, however, that some of our current or future competitors may have a greater brand recognition, or more financial, technical, or marketing resources. We may lose clients if we fail to compete successfully, which could adversely affect our financial performance and business prospects. We cannot guarantee that our strategies will remain competitive or successful in the future.

Governmental Regulations

Automotive Dealing and Other Laws and Regulations

We operate in the highly regulated automobile dealership and commercial lending industries. A number of U.S. federal, state, and local laws and regulations affect our business. Numerous laws and regulations govern our business, including those relating to our sales, operations, financing, insurance, advertising, transportation of vehicles, and employment practices. The regulatory bodies that regulate our business include the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, the United States Department of Transportation, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission, various state dealer licensing authorities, various state consumer protection agencies, and various state financial regulatory agencies. We are subject to compliance audits of our operations by many of these authorities. For example, the Federal Trade

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Commission has jurisdiction to investigate and enforce our compliance with certain consumer protection laws and has brought enforcement actions against auto dealers relating to a broad range of practices, including the sale and financing of value-added or add-on products and the collection, storage and use of consumer personal information.

Currently, we have a dealer license in North Carolina under Allen-Boy, which allows us to sell vehicles nationwide and export them worldwide. As we expand to other states, we may be subject to applicable vehicle dealer licensing laws in those states. Some states regulate retail installment sales, including setting a maximum interest rate, caps on certain fees, or maximum amounts financed. All domestic vehicle sale transactions and applicable retail installment financings are conducted under our dealer licenses. As we expand to other states, we may be required to obtain additional finance licenses or other licenses, and we may not be able to obtain such licenses within the time frame we expect or at all. We may also be subject to certain states’ laws related to titling and registration and wholesale vehicle sales. These laws can vary from state to state. The applicability of these regulatory and legal compliance obligations to our business depends on evolving interpretations of these laws and regulations and how our operations are, or are not, subject to them, and we may face regulatory action if regulators believe that we are not in compliance with such obligations. In addition to these laws and regulations that apply specifically to the sale and financing of vehicles, our facilities and business operations are subject to laws and regulations relating to environmental protection, occupational health and safety, and other broadly applicable business regulations. We may also be subject to laws and regulations involving taxes, tariffs, pricing, content protection, electronic contracts and communications, mobile communications, consumer protection, and information-reporting requirements, as well as privacy laws, anti-money laundering laws, and federal and state wage-hour, anti-discrimination, and other employment practices laws. For example, under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a foreign national is eligible for employment authorization in the U.S. only with an employment-related green card (permanent residency), an exchange visitor work and study visa, or a temporary (non-immigrant) worker visa, such as an H-1B visa. In particular, the H-1B visa is a nonimmigrant work visa that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers for specialty jobs that require a bachelor’s degree or equivalent. H-1B status can be granted initially for up to three years, and can be extended for another three years. H-1B holders who reach that six-year maximum must leave the U.S. and remain outside for at least one year before being eligible for a new six years of H-1B. As of December 31, 2023, we had 18 full-time employees, including seven foreign employees who do not have permanent work permits in the U.S. and currently work under H-1B visas or student visas. We are also subject to laws and regulations affecting public companies, including securities laws and exchange listing rules.

Automobile Exportation Laws and Regulations

The exportation aspect of our business is subject to the U.S. Code of Federal Regulation’s requirements for exportation under 19 CFR § 192.2 and the inspection of Customs. We may be required to present to Customs, at the port of exportation, both the vehicle and the documentation describing the vehicle, including the vehicle identification number (the “VIN”) or the product identification number at least 72 hours prior to export for Customs to determine the authenticity of the documents. Specifically, for exportation of U.S.-titled vehicles, we are required to provide to Customs the vehicle’s original certificate of title. If the vehicle to be exported is leased or has recorded liens in the U.S., separate writing from the third-party-in-interest is also required, which expressly provides that the vehicle may be exported and contains a complete description of the vehicle (including the VIN and the name and contact of the owner or lienholder) and the original signatures.

Regulations Affecting Financial Services

Our financial services are affected by laws and regulations that apply to commercial lending. This includes a range of laws, regulations, and standards that address information security, data protection, privacy, licensing, and interest rates, among other things.

Federal Lending Regulations

Several federal laws and regulations affect our lending operations. These laws include, among others, portions of the Dodd Frank Act, Anti-Money Laundering requirements (Bank Secrecy Act and USA PATRIOT Act), Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Privacy Regulations (Right to Financial Privacy Act), Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and requirements relating to unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices.

State Lending Regulations

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Item 1A. Risk Factors.

As a smaller reporting company, we are not required to provide the information required by this item.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.

None.

Item 1C. Cybersecurity.

Risk Management and Strategy

We recognize the importance of cybersecurity in our operations. We face diverse cybersecurity threats, ranging from unauthorized individual access attempts to sophisticated disruptions targeting our business and customer data. Our operations involve collecting and storing customer information in cloud systems, such as Google Drive, and we rely on third-party providers, such as Google, whose systems may encounter interruptions and/or cybersecurity incidents.

Our business depends on the continuous functioning of our OA System, which tracks order status and monitors business workflows. The secure handling of information is crucial, particularly for tracking automobile orders. We have implemented various measures, such as access controls, data encryption, and vulnerability assessments, to prevent and mitigate cybersecurity risks and incidents. In particular, we have implemented a cybersecurity risk management program, in accordance with our risk profile and business size, which is designed to detect, identify, assess, and respond to current and emerging cybersecurity threats. We have developed a comprehensive, cross-functional approach to identifying, preventing, and mitigating cybersecurity threats and incidents, while also developing tools and processes that provide for the prompt escalation of certain cybersecurity incidents so that decisions regarding the public disclosure and reporting of such incidents can be made by management in a timely manner. Our cybersecurity risk management program is supported by third-party information technologies and vendors, including Squarespace and Google Workspace, which assist us with information technology system monitoring, detection, and response support services. We also leverage third-party information technology service providers to monitor and evaluate our cybersecurity posture through vulnerability scans, penetration tests, and cybersecurity risk reviews and assessments. We engage in the assessment and testing of our cybersecurity risk management program, policies, standards, processes, and practices that are designed to address cybersecurity threats and incidents. These efforts include a wide range of activities, assessments, vulnerability testing, and other exercises focused on evaluating the effectiveness of our cybersecurity measures and planning. We also have a process to review certain third-party information technology service providers and vendors, including through contractual requirements and proactive threat intelligence monitoring, as appropriate. However, cybersecurity incidents, if they occur, depending on their nature, could lead to the loss, destruction, or unavailability of critical and confidential data, impacting our operations and potentially harming our reputation. This could result in customer distrust, termination of partnerships, significant remediation costs, and legal liabilities.

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As of the date of this annual report, we are not aware of any cybersecurity incidents, that have had a materially adverse effect on our operations, business, results of operations, or financial condition.

Governance

Our board of directors considers cybersecurity risk as part of its risk oversight function and has delegated to the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee (the “Committee”) oversight of cybersecurity and other information technology risks. The Committee receives reports from management on potential cybersecurity risks and threats. Our management plays a key role in assessing and managing our material risks from cybersecurity threats, with designated positions and committees equipped with the necessary expertise. The management team supervises efforts to prevent, detect, mitigate, and remediate cybersecurity risks and incidents through various means, which may include briefings from internal security personnel and threat intelligence and other information obtained from governmental, public, or private sources.

Item 2. Properties.

Our principal executive offices are located at 6201 Fairview Road, Suite 225, Charlotte, North Carolina, where we lease office space from an independent third party, GT Real Estate USA, LLC, with an area of approximately 2,514 square feet, a lease term from December 1, 2020 to December 31, 2023 and a monthly rent of approximately $6,354. On April 28, 2023, we entered into an amendment to our current lease, extending its term to February 28, 2027, with a monthly rent of approximately $6,639. On July 25, 2023, GT Real Estate USA, LLC transferred all of its lease rights to two Delaware LLCs, WILVI 6201 SPE LLC and BILA 6201 SPE LLC. This office is used as our corporate headquarter for general business operations and administrative functions.

Allen-Boy, one of our subsidiaries, leases office space for business operations in Charlotte, North Carolina, from an independent third party, Sounder Properties Inc., with an area of approximately 225 square feet, a lease term from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023, and a monthly rent of $465. In September 2023, we renewed the lease with a monthly rent of $505, for a term commencing on October 1, 2023 and ending on September 30, 2024. This office is the address for our dealer license.

Pacific, one of our subsidiaries, leases an office in New York City, New York, from an independent third party, Executive Workspace LLC, with an area of approximately 1,692 square feet, a lease term from August 1, 2021 to September 30, 2023, and a monthly rent of approximately $11,174. On September 26, 2023, we amended the lease to include an additional office space of approximately 1,591 square feet and extended its term to February 29, 2024. On February 2, 2024, we further renewed the lease, extending its term to May 31, 2024. This lease currently carries a monthly rent of $9,944. This office is used to support business operations for employees based in New York.

Edward, which became one of our subsidiaries on February 2, 2024, had previously been in a collaborative partnership with us as providers for vehicle storage and logistics services throughout the year ended December 31, 2023. Following our acquisition of Edward in 2024, we assumed responsibility for a lease agreement for its warehousing facility located in Gardena, California, covering approximately 8,800 square feet. This lease agreement, now under our management, has been entered into with an independent third party, SCI Ventures, Inc. The current lease is set to expire on August 31, 2028, with a monthly rent of approximately $13,500. The leased warehousing facility enhances our logistics capabilities and operational efficiency.

We believe that the offices and warehouses we currently lease are adequate to meet our needs for the foreseeable future.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings.

We are not currently involved in any material legal proceedings. From time-to-time we are, and we anticipate that we will be, involved in legal proceedings, claims, and litigation arising in the ordinary course of our business and otherwise. The ultimate costs to resolve any such matters could have a material adverse effect on our financial statements. We could be forced to incur material expenses with respect to these legal proceedings, and in the event that there is an outcome in any that is adverse to us, our financial position and prospects could be harmed.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.

Common Stock

Our Class A common stock trades under the symbol “CTNT” on the Nasdaq Capital Market.

Holders of Record

As of March 15, 2024, we had 10,938,329 shares of Class A common stock issued and outstanding held by seven stockholders of record, not including beneficial holders whose shares are held in names other than their own.

Dividend Policy

As of the date of this annual report, we have not paid any cash dividends on our Class A or Class B common stock. We are organized under the North Carolina Business Corporation Act, which prohibits the payment of a dividend if, after giving it effect, we would not be able to pay our debts as they become due in the usual course of business or our total assets would be less than the sum of our total liabilities plus the amount that would be needed, if we were to be dissolved, to satisfy the preferential rights upon dissolution of any preferred stockholders. Our board of directors may decide to pay dividends in the future. Any determination by our board of directors to pay dividends in the future to stockholders will be dependent upon our operational results, financial condition, capital requirements, business projections, general business conditions, statutory and regulatory restrictions, and any other factors deemed appropriate by our board of directors.

Equity Compensation Plans

For information on securities authorized for issuance under our existing equity compensation plan, see Item 12 under the heading “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters.”

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

Other than previously disclosed in our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q or current reports on Form 8-K, during the period covered by this annual report, we issued the following securities which were not registered under the Securities Act. We believe that each of the following issuance was exempt from registration under the Securities Act in reliance on Regulation S under the Securities Act regarding sales by an issuer in offshore transactions. No underwriters were involved in these issuances of securities.

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Use of Proceeds

The following “Use of Proceeds” information relates to the registration statement on Form S-1, as amended (File Number 333-271185) for our initial public offering (“IPO”), which was declared effective by the SEC on July 31, 2023. In August 2023, we completed our IPO, in which we issued and sold an aggregate of 1,250,000 shares of Class A common stock, at a price of $4.00 per share for $5,000,000. Maxim Group LLC was the representative of the underwriters of our IPO.

We incurred approximately $870,000 in expenses in connection with our IPO, which included approximately $350,000 in underwriting discounts, approximately $100,000 in expenses paid to or for underwriters, and approximately $320,000 in other expenses. None of the transaction expenses included payments to directors or officers of our Company or their associates, persons owning more than 10% or more of our equity securities or our affiliates. None of the net proceeds we received from the IPO were paid, directly or indirectly, to any of our directors or officers or their associates, persons owning 10% or more of our equity securities or our affiliates.

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The net proceeds raised from the IPO were $4,230,000 after deducting underwriting discounts and the offering expenses payable by us. As of the date of this annual report, we have used approximately $3,530,000 for working capital and other general corporate purposes in support of our current business. We intend to use the remaining proceeds from our IPO in the manner disclosed in our registration statement on Form S-1, as amended (File Number 333-271185).

Recent Purchases of Equity Securities

None.

Item 6. [Reserved].

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this annual report. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this annual report, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business and related financing, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, our actual results could differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.

Business Overview and Recent Developing Trends

We are a supplier of parallel-import vehicles sourced in the U.S. to be sold in the PRC market. We purchase automobiles, primarily luxury brands such as Mercedes, Lexus, Range Rover, RAM and Toyota, from authorized dealers in the U.S. market and resell them to our customers, including both U.S. and PRC based parallel-import car dealers. We derive profits primarily from the price difference between our buying and selling prices for parallel-import vehicles. Our expertise lies in our ability to identify the type of parallel-import vehicles that are in high demand and to procure them in a timely manner.

The primary driver for our industry is the continuing growth of high-net-worth individuals in the PRC. We are focusing our attention on the most popular of the luxury vehicles that provide us with the best profit opportunity. We provide or utilize third parties in the U.S. to provide logistics and warehousing services and to truck transport our vehicles from an authorized dealer in the U.S. to the ultimate point of sale.

Beginning in the second half of 2023, the market for new luxury vehicles in the PRC has been negatively impacted by weak economic conditions and a shift in consumer demand towards EVs, mainly those produced domestically by PRC manufacturers. Luxury import brand manufacturers have responded to these threats by discounting the sale price of their vehicles, which has resulted in a significant challenge to our ability to generate a profit from the sale of parallel import vehicles generally. Consistent with our strategy to focus only on profitable parallel-import vehicle transactions, our unit sales during the fourth quarter of 2023 fell to 49 vehicles, a 36.4% decrease from the fourth quarter of 2022 and a 38.0% drop from unit sales in the third quarter of 2023, which resulted in our recognition of a net loss during the fourth quarter of 2023. This market dynamic has continued into 2024 and we are unable at this time to predict the point at which the market for luxury vehicles will firm and the positive spread between the price of vehicles sourced from brand manufacturers’ official distribution systems compared with those sourced via the parallel-import market will return.

We are responding to the current softness in luxury vehicle sales in China by reducing our operating costs, maintaining a very low level of inventory, and using our cashflow to strengthen our logistics and warehouse capabilities as well as cover overhead. We have significant flexibility to reduce expenses due to our scalable operations; for example, our procurement agents are paid on a commission basis only so these agents are paid only to the extent they purchase vehicles on our behalf. We are proceeding with our plans to integrate the acquisition of Edward and to acquire additional U.S.-based logistics and warehousing service providers to reduce our reliance on the purchase and sale of luxury vehicles and augment our core operations with service revenue, which we believe will provide the opportunity to generate revenue by selling these services to third-party parallel importers as well as to importers of other goods. We believe we can overlay these services with the financial services plans we launched in October 2022 for inventory financing (see “Item 1. Business—Overview—Recent Development” for more details), such that we can essentially become a one-stop shop for small- and medium-sized traders within the global supply chain sector.

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Key Factors Affecting our Results of Operations

We believe the following key factors may affect our financial condition and results of operations:

Results of Operations

Major Components of Results of Operations

The automobile models we purchase and sell are among the most popular vehicles in the market, which we believe provide lucrative profit opportunities. Our selection of customers and the models we plan to purchase are based on our efforts to maximize the overall profitability of each vehicle sale. We will continue to apply this guiding principle in developing and refining our procurement and sales

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strategies. As such, we consider market conditions, capital costs, and other factors when determining the models and categories we purchase and the prices at which we sell them. While the brands, models, and their price ranges at which we sell may be adjusted, we intend to maintain the highest gross profit opportunities to improve the overall efficiency of our capital and maximize our earnings potential.

Revenue

We generate revenue by selling vehicles to U.S. parallel-import vehicle exporters and PRC parallel-import vehicle dealers. A specific vehicle model’s pricing and profitability vary based on the market demand and supply for that model. We set our selling prices based on multiple factors, including the price of the same model sold by authorized dealers in China, the normal commercial terms, customer payment methods, and anticipated workload for trading activities. The selling price is finalized as the MSRP plus adjustments, which are determined upon comprehensive consideration of the overall market conditions for vehicles as well as the customer’s payment method. In addition to those specific factors that impact the parallel-import vehicle market, our revenue may be impacted by global economic factors including the U.S. dollar/RMB exchange rate, overall financial and economic conditions in the PRC, and any significant change in relevant import or export regulations.

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Our revenue decreased by $16.8 million, or 30.5%, from $55.2 million in 2023 to $38.4 million in 2023. Despite a year-over-year revenue decline in 2023, our average selling price per vehicle increased from 2022. The initial rise was due to our shift towards models with higher profit margins. Starting from the third quarter of 2023, we began adjusting our average selling prices downward in response to short-term market volatility, which continued during the fourth quarter with the onset of price inversion in the Chinese market. These adjustments affected our fourth quarter sales, which resulted in a 39.4% drop in revenue from the same quarter in 2022.

Cost of Revenue

Our cost of revenue mainly comprises (i) the purchase cost of vehicles including dealership service fees and non-refundable taxes incurred during procurement, and (ii) fulfillment expenses, mainly including (a) compensation and bonuses for staff in the purchasing department, (b) commission paid to purchasing agents, (c) transportation and storage costs for vehicles, and (d) consulting fees paid to dealer experts to assist us in making the best purchase decisions. Allowance for slow-moving inventories is also included in the cost of revenue when our cost of inventory is higher than net realizable value.

Our cost of revenue decreased by $16.6 million, or 32.8%, from $50.7 million in 2022 to $34.1 million in 2023, primarily as a result of our decline in sales.

Interest Expense, Net

To improve our cash flow and expand our business, we obtain loans from finance companies through (i) inventory financing by keeping inventories not intended for immediate sale as collateral, (ii) LC financing by using letters of credit received from our international customers in overseas sales of parallel-import vehicles as collateral, and (iii) accessing revolving lines of credit to further support our operations and strategic initiatives. Accrued interest is recorded as interest expense. As of the date of this annual report, our LC financing annual interest rate is 18.0%, and our revolving line of credit interest rate is 18.0%.

Risks and Uncertainties

Our operations are in the U.S. and our primary market is in the PRC. Accordingly, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be influenced by political, economic, and legal environments in the U.S. and the PRC, as well as by the general state of

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the U.S. and the PRC economies. Our results may be adversely affected by changes in the political, regulatory, and social conditions in the U.S. and the PRC.

Risks and uncertainties related to our business include, but are not limited to, the following:

Our business, financial condition, and results of operations may also be negatively impacted by risks related to natural disasters, extreme weather conditions, health epidemics, and other catastrophic incidents, which could significantly disrupt our operations.

Our operations in 2022 were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the COVID-19 pandemic restricted our purchasing agents in the U.S. from freely purchasing designated automobiles at U.S. automobile dealerships, either because of the short supply of vehicles or because of store closings or limited opening hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected the market demand for our products. Due to the implementation of significant governmental measures in the PRC, including lockdowns, closures, quarantines, and travel bans, intended to control the spread of the virus, parallel-import vehicle consumers were less willing to spend, and their purchasing power declined. Consequently, the market demand for luxury cars, which make up the vast majority of our inventory, has decreased dramatically. As of the date of this annual report, the spread of COVID-19 has been under control, and during the year ended December 31, 2023, the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a material impact on our financial positions and operating results.

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Comparison of Results of Operations for the Years Ended December 31, 2023 and 2022

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Revenue

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During the year ended December 31, 2023, our financial performance reflected the consequences of our strategic decisions and external market forces. Our revenue experienced a substantial decline compared to the previous year. Revenue from our operations decreased by $16.8 million, or 30.5%, from approximately $55.2 million in 2022 to $38.4 million in 2023. This decline can be primarily attributed to an intentional pause in vehicle procurement in the fourth quarter of 2023, prompted by price inversion in the Chinese market, as well as a change in our procurement pricing strategy as detailed in our most recent quarterly report. The impact of these factors was particularly pronounced in the fourth quarter of 2023, during which period revenue was $5.8 million, a decrease of 39.4%, or $3.8 million, from the $9.6 million reported in the fourth quarter of the previous year.

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