On October 28, Xi’An Eswin Material Technology Co., Ltd. (Xi’An Eswin) made its debut on the STAR Market. The company issued shares at 8.62 yuan apiece, offering 537.8 million shares to raise a total of 4.636 billion yuan.
On its first trading day, Xi’An Eswin’s stock surged 361.48% at the opening to 39.78 yuan per share before closing at 25.75 yuan, marking a 198.72% gain and valuing the company at 103.973 billion yuan.
As one of the first companies listed under the STAR Market’s newly established "Sci-Tech Innovation Growth Layer," Xi’An Eswin was joined by Heyuan Biotech and Bebetter Pharmaceuticals on the same day.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange accepted Xi’An Eswin’s IPO application in November 2024, making it the first unprofitable company to seek listing after the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) introduced the "Eight Guidelines for Sci-Tech Innovation" in June 2024. In June this year, the CSRC launched the Growth Layer to support tech firms with breakthrough innovations, strong commercial potential, and high R&D investment despite current losses.
Xi’An Eswin remains loss-making. Its prospectus shows net losses of 533 million yuan, 683 million yuan, and 738 million yuan from 2022 to 2024. However, H1 2025 revenue grew 46% YoY to 1.3 billion yuan, with net losses narrowing to 340 million yuan and gross margin improving by 13 percentage points to -3.67%.
At the listing ceremony, Chairman Yang Xinyuan emphasized that losses are a necessary phase for tech firms building technological capabilities. He highlighted the need for capital market support to compete globally.
Notably, Xi’An Eswin’s management team is closely tied to BOE Technology Group. Parent company Eswin Group’s controlling shareholders—Wang Dongsheng, Mi Peng, Yang Xinyuan, and Liu Huanping—all held senior roles at BOE. Together, they control 67.92% of Eswin Group via a shareholders’ agreement.
Eswin Group operates in chips, silicon materials, and advanced packaging. Xi’An Eswin focuses on 12-inch silicon wafers and epitaxial wafers for memory chips, logic chips, and image sensors.
Wang Dongsheng, 68, founded BOE in 1993 and stepped down as chairman in June 2019 after turning it into a display panel giant, earning him the title "Father of China’s Semiconductor Display Industry." Post-BOE, he joined Eswin Group as chairman. Yang Xinyuan succeeded him as Xi’An Eswin’s chairman in March 2023, while Wang remains a director and chairs the strategy committee.
Xi’An Eswin’s early funding came from Beijing Core Momentum Fund, backed by the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund and BOE.
The IPO will fuel capacity expansion and R&D. As China’s top 12-inch wafer producer, Xi’An Eswin ranks sixth globally, holding 6-7% of worldwide capacity. Its first factory (11 billion yuan investment) is operational, while the second (12.5 billion yuan) began production in 2024.
However, rising depreciation costs—3.20 billion yuan (2022), 6.15 billion yuan (2023), and 9.31 billion yuan (2024)—pressure profitability. H1 2025 depreciation hit 526 million yuan. Management expects losses until at least 2027, citing industry peers’ 4-6-year breakeven timelines. Major shareholders pledged to extend lock-up periods if profitability isn’t achieved by 2027.
Globally, Japan’s Shin-Etsu and SUMCO dominate 12-inch wafer supply, controlling ~50% of output. SEMI forecasts monthly demand to exceed 10 million wafers by 2026, driven by AI and electronics recovery. Xi’An Eswin aims to challenge this oligopoly.
