Cover Story II | Restarting IPOs for Unprofitable Companies (AI Translation)
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This article was translated from Chinese using AI. The translation may contain inaccuracies. Click the button on the right to hide or reveal the original version.
2025年6月18日，2025陆家嘴论坛在上海开幕，中国证监会主席吴清发表主题演讲，宣布设置科创板科创成长层，重启未盈利企业适用科创板第五套标准上市，并扩大适用标准至更多前沿科技领域。
文｜财新周刊 全月
By Caixin Weekly Quan Yue
Cover Story I | Surge in Hard Technology IPOs
文｜财新周刊 全月
By Caixin Weekly Quan Yue
被按下暂停键两年后，未盈利企业IPO迎来政策窗口期。
After a two-year pause, unprofitable companies seeking to go public are now seeing a policy window reopen for IPOs.
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Caixin is acclaimed for its high-quality, investigative journalism. This section offers you a glimpse into Caixin’s flagship Chinese-language magazine, Caixin Weekly, via AI translation. The English translation may contain inaccuracies.
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Cover Story II | Restarting IPOs for Unprofitable Companies (AI Translation)
Explore the story in 30 seconds
- China’s securities regulators have reopened IPO access for unprofitable “hard tech” firms on the STAR Market via the fifth listing standard, with new rules for institutional investor participation and pre-IPO review, marking a shift after a two-year pause.
- Since STAR Market’s 2019 creation, 54 unprofitable firms have listed; as of July 2025, 22 became profitable, but risks remain as 16 broke issue price post-listing, reflecting market uncertainty and stricter scrutiny.
- The reforms signify deeper registration-based IPO system marketization, focusing less on profitability, more on disclosure, and aim to balance innovation support with investor risk controls.
AI generated, for reference only
Explore the story in 3 minutes
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Who’s Who
- Zejing Pharmaceutical
- Zejing Pharmaceutical, also known as Zejing Pharmaceutical-U, was the first unprofitable company to list on the STAR Market in January 2020. The "U" suffix denotes its status as a non-profitable listed company on the STAR Market. As of July 16, 2025, it still hadn't achieved profitability, despite its revenue growing by 37.91% to 533 million yuan in 2024 and its net loss narrowing by 50.52% to 138 million yuan compared to the previous year.
- Shengke Communication
- Shengke Communication (688702.SH) is a company that went public on the STAR market on September 14, 2023. It was unprofitable at the time of its listing and remains so as of July 2025. It falls under either standard two or standard four for listing eligibility.
- Wuhan Heyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
- Wuhan Heyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Heyuan Bio) is the first IPO project to successfully pass the listing committee meeting after the resumption of the fifth set of listing standards for the Sci-Tech Innovation Board. The company incurred a total loss of 482 million yuan over three years during the reporting period.
- Zhixiang Jintai
- Zhixiang Jintai-U (688443.SH) was the last company to list under the fifth set of standards on the STAR Market before a temporary halt in such listings. It went public on June 20, 2023.
- Zhongjuxin
- Zhongjuxin (688549.SH) is a Chinese company that was previously listed on the STAR Market as an unprofitable entity. The company has not yet become profitable.
- Muxi Integrated Circuit (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
- Muxi Integrated Circuit (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. is one of two domestic GPU companies that had their STAR Market IPO applications accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange on the same day. Muxi Integrated Circuit has reported significant losses, with a net profit attributable to the parent company of -3.29 billion yuan from 2022 to Q1 2025.
- Moore Threads Intelligent Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
- Moore Threads Intelligent Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. is a Chinese GPU company. In June, its application to be listed on the STAR market was accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange, despite reporting a net loss of 5.05 billion yuan from 2022 to the end of 2024.
- Shanghai Suwon Technology Co., Ltd.
- Shanghai Suwon Technology Co., Ltd. (燧原科技) is one of China's leading chip companies. In August 2024, it began the IPO counseling process, alongside other major players like Shanghai Biren Technology Co., Ltd. and Moore Threads. While the article notes no further progress since its registration in August 2024, it highlights the general trend of Chinese chip companies seeking public listings.
- Shanghai Birun Technology Co., Ltd.
- Shanghai Birun Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Birun Technology") is a leading Chinese chip enterprise. In August 2024, Birun Technology initiated its IPO counseling process, following the trend of a hot rush to list within the Chinese chip industry.
- Huizhi Micro
- Huizhi Micro is an unlisted company identified by the ticker (688512.SH). Huizhi Micro is one of 22 companies, out of 54, whose stock price has fallen since being listed on the STAR Market. Its stock price has been cut in half.
- Grin Deep Vision
- Grin Deep Vision (格灵深瞳) is listed on the STAR Market with the stock code 688207.SH. In July 2025, its stock price had nearly halved compared to its offering price. It is categorized as a company that was unprofitable at the time of its IPO and had not yet turned a profit by July 2025.
- Jingjin Electric
- Jingjin Electric (精进电动), identifiable by its "UW" suffix for showing unprofitability, is a company listed on the A-share market's STAR board. Its stock price has experienced a significant decline, nearly halving since its listing. This places it among the unprofitable companies whose IPOs are now being re-evaluated for listing requirements in China.
AI generated, for reference only
What Happened When
- January 2020：
- Zejing Pharmaceutical-U became the first unprofitable enterprise to go public on the STAR Market.
- February 2023：
- ChiNext board released criteria allowing unprofitable companies to go public, raising the market capitalization and revenue requirements, but as of July 2025, no unprofitable companies have been listed on ChiNext.
- June 20, 2023：
- Zhixiang Jintai-U went public under the fifth set of standards on the STAR Market—no new 'U' listings on this standard occurred after this date until at least July 2025.
- August 27, 2023：
- CSRC released a statement on optimizing IPO and refinancing regulatory arrangements and announced it would temporarily tighten the pace of IPOs.
- September 14, 2023：
- Centec Communications-U was listed on the STAR Market as the last unprofitable company to go public before a two-year pause.
- March 11, 2024：
- CSRC Party committee expanded meeting raised the phrase 'supporting high-quality, unprofitable technology companies to go public and prudently restoring the application of the fifth set of standards on the STAR Market'.
- August 26, 2024：
- Enflame Technology completed coaching registration acceptance for IPO.
- September 11, 2024：
- Biren Technology completed coaching registration acceptance for IPO.
- "9/24" policy stimulus in 2024：
- Shanghai Composite Index stabilized, oscillating between 3,200 and 3,600 points.
- June 18, 2025：
- Wu Qing, Chairman of the CSRC, announced at 2025 Lujiazui Forum the establishment of a new 'Growth Tier' on the STAR Market and the restart/expansion of the fifth set of listing standards.
- June 30, 2025：
- Muxi Integrated Circuit and Moore Threads both had their STAR Market IPO applications accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
- July 1, 2025：
- Wuhan Healthgen Biotechnology Corp. passed its review meeting, becoming the first IPO project to clear committee under the restored fifth set of STAR Market standards.
- July 13, 2025：
- The Shanghai Stock Exchange released updated business guidelines and issued the Guidance for the Sci-Tech Innovation Growth Tier, as well as documents for senior professional institutional investors and the Preliminary Review Guidelines.
- As of July 15, 2025：
- There were 589 companies listed on the STAR Market, with detailed breakdown per listing standard.
- As of July 16, 2025：
- A total of 54 unprofitable enterprises had successfully gone public on the STAR Market since Zejing’s listing; 22 achieved profitability after listing, 22 of 54 saw share prices fall below their offer price.
AI generated, for reference only
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