Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd. has reported its first instance of revenue growth without a corresponding increase in net profit in nearly a decade. In 2025, the company's revenue rose significantly by 30.85% to 39.353 billion yuan, while its net profit attributable to shareholders declined slightly by 1.77% to 5.522 billion yuan. This resulted in a net profit margin drop of 5.34 percentage points year-over-year to 13.74%, marking the lowest level in the past four years.
Two primary factors contributed to this profit squeeze despite revenue expansion. First, the company substantially increased its workforce and leveraged more debt, causing operating expenses to grow faster than revenue. Second, the acquisition of Kingsemi Co.,Ltd. during the reporting period backfired as Kingsemi's profitability deteriorated sharply post-consolidation, negatively impacting Naura's overall performance.
Market reactions to the earnings report have been mixed. Following the annual report disclosure, the company's stock price displayed a W-shaped pattern, undergoing one significant decline and two substantial rallies. As of April 24, the closing price stood at 472.70 yuan per share, unchanged from the closing price on the annual report release date.
The decline in net profit is primarily attributed to cost pressures stemming from aggressive expansion. By the end of 2025, Naura's employee count reached 21,101, an increase of 4,747 from the beginning of the year, representing the highest annual hiring surge since its listing. Technicians constituted the largest portion of new hires at 1,928, accounting for approximately 41% of the total increase. Production staff and sales/customer service personnel together made up about 45% of the new hires.
Concurrently, the company significantly increased its debt leverage, with total liabilities growing by 12.389 billion yuan to 45.873 billion yuan by year-end. On the asset side, the increased financing primarily flowed into cash and cash equivalents and inventory, which grew by 4.990 billion yuan and 5.148 billion yuan respectively. The company stated that the additional borrowing was necessary to support order growth, research and development investments, and acquisition requirements.
These factors drove substantial year-over-year increases across all four major expense categories. Sales expenses, administrative expenses, R&D expenses, and financial expenses grew by 48.57%, 58.67%, 46.96%, and 264.78% respectively, reaching 1.636 billion yuan, 3.444 billion yuan, 5.435 billion yuan, and 229 million yuan. The corresponding expense ratios were 4.16%, 8.72%, 13.81%, and 0.58%, increasing by 0.52, 1.64, 1.51, and 0.38 percentage points respectively. The combined increase of 4.05 percentage points in expense ratios was the main driver behind the net profit margin decline.
Notably, despite aggressive hiring, Naura's revenue per employee lags significantly behind industry peers. According to Wind data, Naura's recent revenue per employee stands at approximately 1.85 million yuan, with profit per employee around 350,000 yuan. In comparison, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. achieves over 3.6 million yuan in revenue per employee and more than 650,000 yuan in profit per employee, while Piotech Co.,Ltd. generates over 2.5 million yuan in revenue per employee and between 400,000 to 600,000 yuan in profit per employee.
Intuitively, as a multi-product platform requiring specialized technical and production personnel for each equipment category, Naura's extensive workforce dilutes per capita efficiency. Companies focused on specific product categories naturally achieve higher personnel efficiency. This structural difference suggests that Naura's full-product-line strategy inherently carries higher cost attributes, potentially putting it at a disadvantage in price competition.
While the company achieved robust revenue growth of 30.85% in 2025, primarily driven by over 50% growth in integrated circuit equipment revenue, the outlook for its vacuum new energy equipment market remains pessimistic. The company noted that the global photovoltaic industry has entered a deep adjustment cycle characterized by persistent overcapacity, weaker-than-expected downstream installation demand, and continuous price declines across the photovoltaic supply chain. Upstream battery and component manufacturers have significantly scaled back expansion plans, directly causing substantial contraction in photovoltaic equipment demand.
Simultaneously, intensified homogeneous competition and escalating price wars within the industry have further compressed equipment manufacturers' profit margins, adversely affecting order acquisition, delivery schedules, revenue scale, and profitability in Naura's vacuum new energy equipment segment, particularly its core photovoltaic business.
This challenging environment is reflected in the significant decline of contract liabilities. By the end of 2025, Naura's contract liabilities balance stood at 4.291 billion yuan, down 31.02% from the end of 2024. Contract liabilities typically represent received but unrecognized revenue, and their fluctuation is generally interpreted as indicating changes in short-term future revenue streams. The substantial decrease suggests that liquidity deterioration in the photovoltaic industry chain has disrupted shipment schedules, potentially lengthening Naura's turnover cycle.
In June 2025, Naura completed the acquisition of controlling interest in Kingsemi, obtaining a 17.87% stake and majority board seats, thus consolidating Kingsemi's financials. However, the acquisition provided minimal improvement to Naura's financial statements. By the end of 2025, Kingsemi's assets totaled 6.442 billion yuan with revenue of 1.948 billion yuan, while Naura reported total assets of 43.928 billion yuan and revenue of 39.353 billion yuan. Kingsemi's relatively small scale offered limited contribution to Naura's size.
More significantly, Kingsemi's sharp profit decline dragged down Naura's overall profitability. Although Kingsemi's revenue grew 11.11% to 1.948 billion yuan in 2025, its net profit attributable to shareholders plummeted 64.64% to 72 million yuan, with non-GAAP net profit turning negative at -18 million yuan. Kingsemi's net profit margin stood at 3.63%, down 7.89 percentage points year-over-year and substantially below Naura's 13.74%.
Kingsemi attributed its profit decline to three factors: increased staff costs due to talent strategy implementation (expense ratio +1.37 percentage points), reduced government subsidies recognized as other income (other income ratio -4.75 percentage points), and increased asset impairment provisions as market entry price pressures pushed the net realizable value of certain products below book value (asset impairment loss ratio +1.27 percentage points). Notably, the acquisition agreement included no performance commitments, and Naura received no compensation for Kingsemi's underperformance.
Currently, Kingsemi's most significant contribution to Naura's financial statements appears in intangible assets. In 2025, Naura recognized 3.249 billion yuan in intangible assets from the business combination, including 3.111 billion yuan in patent rights. Additionally, Naura acquired or developed non-patented technology valued at 3.598 billion yuan through purchases and internal R&D. Consequently, Naura's intangible assets reached 10.520 billion yuan by year-end, surging 123% from the beginning of the period.
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