Produced by | The Front Line of Entrepreneurship

Author | Wang Yajing

Editor | Dan Zong

Copy editor | Xing Jing

Reviewed by | Song Wen

After submitting its filing in August 2025, Changjin Photonics is set to face a pivotal battle for an IPO listing.

On March 20, the Shanghai Stock Exchange disclosed that Wuhan Changjin Photonics Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Changjin Photonics”) will participate in the 12th meeting of the Listing Review Committee for 2026, which will determine whether the company can continue to move forward on the SSE STAR Market.

As a special fiber manufacturer, Changjin Photonics mainly produces multi-category special optical fibers, with its core products being rare-earth-doped fibers. Devices made from rare-earth-doped fibers can be widely applied in advanced manufacturing, optical communications, national defense and military industries, and other fields.

However, before the company even goes public, its valuation has already started to decline. In March 2025, China Mobile Fund entered the company at a price of 27.05 yuan per share; at that time, the company’s valuation was 1.8 billion yuan. Three months later, Huagong Mingde transferred the company’s equity, with the unit price falling to 24.34 yuan per share and the corresponding valuation dropping to 1.71 billion yuan.

Behind the valuation decline, Changjin Photonics is extremely dependent on major customers. From 2023 to 2025, the company’s top five customers contributed more than 66% of revenue each year. Even so, during this period both the company’s revenue and profit growth rates slowed down at the same time.

Under these circumstances, how exactly does Changjin Photonics tell the capital market a story of sustained growth?

1、Growth in performance slows, cutting prices to grab market share?

Changjin Photonics was founded in July 2012, and for a long time its business has focused on the fiber-optics field.

An optical fiber is an optical transmission fiber; its basic function is to transmit optical signals. Optical fibers that have only optical-signal transmission capabilities are called conventional communication optical fibers, which are widely used in optical communications. Special optical fibers, by contrast, have special materials and structures, giving them special performance and uses.

At present, Changjin Photonics mainly focuses on special optical fibers. Its products mainly include rare-earth-doped fibers such as ytterbium-doped fiber, erbium-doped fiber, and thulium-doped fiber, as well as power-transmission fibers, other special optical fibers, and devices. Among them, rare-earth-doped fibers contribute more than 80% of annual revenue, making them the company’s core products.

（Photo / Changjin Photonics IPO prospectus）

Because special optical fibers are widely used in advanced manufacturing, optical communications, national defense and military industries, measurement and sensing, and other fields, market demand is broad. According to a report from iResearch, the domestic special optical fiber market size is expected to climb to 13.1 billion yuan by 2028. Of this, the market size for rare-earth-doped fibers in 2023 is 2.6 billion yuan, with an expected increase to 4.7 billion yuan by 2028.

（Photo / Changjin Photonics IPO prospectus）

In this broad market, Changjin Photonics’ current market share is not particularly high. According to the company, in 2024 its ytterbium-doped fiber market share was about 8%, making it the second-largest company in China’s ytterbium-doped fiber industry; its power-transmission fiber market share was about 4%.

In fierce industry competition, perhaps in an effort to capture more market, Changjin Photonics has tried to “increase volume by lowering prices,” and many products have seen price cuts.

For example, in 2024 and 2025, the sales unit prices of power-transmission fibers fell year over year by 19.76% and 17.70% respectively; in 2025, the sales unit prices of other special optical fibers and devices fell sharply year over year by 33.52%.

（Photo / Changjin Photonics IPO prospectus）

In the reporting period (2023 to 2025), although the unit price of rare-earth-doped fibers remained generally increasing overall, the core product ytterbium-doped fiber—accounting for 40% or more of revenue every year—saw price cuts.

In 2024 and 2025, the sales unit prices of ytterbium-doped fiber declined year over year by 9.77% and 9.18%, respectively, gradually falling to below 20 yuan per meter.

（Photo / Changjin Photonics IPO prospectus）

In the inquiry letter, the SSE also required Changjin Photonics to explain the relatively significant reasons and sustainability of the price cuts for power-transmission fibers, and the commercial rationale for expanding the power-transmission fiber share through price cuts.

Judging from the data, even if some products have already lowered prices, Changjin Photonics’ performance growth rate has still continued to slow.

From 2023 to 2025, the company achieved revenue of 145 million yuan, 192 million yuan, and 247 million yuan, with growth rates of 33.56%, 32.58%, and 28.79% respectively—declining along the way.

Over the same period, its net profit attributable to shareholders was 54.6565 million yuan, 75.7559 million yuan, and 95.6404 million yuan, with growth falling from 48.60% to 26.25%, nearly a “halving” in terms of the increase.

（Photo / Changjin Photonics IPO prospectus）

Changjin Photonics admits that it faces operating pressure from falling product prices and slowing revenue growth, which heightens growth-related risks.

To that end, “The Front Line of Entrepreneurship” also tried to find out from Changjin Photonics, specifically what the company’s core competitiveness in the industry really relies on—products or low prices? Is it only able to rely on cutting prices to seize market share? Why, after lowering prices, did the company’s revenue and profit growth rates both continue to slow? But as of the time of this article being submitted, it had still not received a reply.

2、Major customers become shareholders; executives hold cross appointments

Even with such performance, it still cannot be separated from the help of major customers.

In the reporting period, the top five customers together contributed 82.26%, 73.19%, and 66.20% of Changjin Photonics’ revenue, indicating high customer concentration.

In response, Changjin Photonics explained that this is because the downstream market for optical fiber laser manufacturers corresponding to the company’s main products has a high concentration. According to the China Laser Industry Development Report, AccuLight Laser, CreativeX Laser, and JPT together occupy more than 50% of domestic market sales share; the above manufacturers are all among the company’s top five customers.

Being deeply tied to major customers is a “double-edged sword.” On one hand, major customers can create scale effects, enabling the company to expand quickly in the short term. On the other hand, to maintain long-term cooperation, companies also need to cede part of their say—reducing their bargaining power and extending the receivables collection cycle.

From 2023 to 2025, Changjin Photonics’ accounts receivable balances were 59.1149 million yuan, 77.6037 million yuan, and 117 million yuan, representing 40.89%, 40.49%, and 47.48% of operating revenue respectively. In other words, more than 40% of the company’s revenue is “paper wealth.”

（Photo / Changjin Photonics IPO prospectus）

Among the top five accounts receivable customers, CreativeX Laser and JPT also have their wholly-owned subsidiary Huizhou JPT listed. In particular, the relationship between JPT and Changjin Photonics has attracted significant attention from the outside.

In the reporting period, the company’s sales revenue to JPT was 14.9468 million yuan, 17.7882 million yuan, and 23.6414 million yuan, accounting for 10.34%, 9.28%, and 9.58% of the company’s operating revenue for the respective period; it has always been among the company’s top five customers.

（Photo / Changjin Photonics IPO prospectus）

However, their relationship goes beyond this.

In 2019, Changjin Photonics started technical docking with JPT, a manufacturer of fiber-optic lasers, and reached a cooperation intention. In October of that year, it entered JPT’s approved supplier system and began batch sales.

In the second half of 2019, the two sides began negotiating investment matters. In January 2020, they signed an investment agreement. In May of that same year, the company completed the registration for capital increase and equity subscription. At that time, Changjin Photonics’ pre-investment valuation was only 40 million yuan, and the subscription price was 8.89 yuan per registered capital unit.

Eight months later (January 2021), Changjin Photonics’ pre-investment valuation had increased to 140 million yuan, and the subscription price became 24.89 yuan per registered capital unit. That means that within just 8 months, the shares held by JPT were at an unrealized gain of nearly 180% per share.

（Photo / Changjin Photonics reply letter）

Before the IPO, JPT still held 12.24% of Changjin Photonics’ equity, making it the second-largest shareholder and the largest external investment institution. As an important shareholder, JPT appointed Wu Jianke, the company’s deputy general manager and secretary to the board, to enter Changjin Photonics to serve as a director.

What worries the public is that, given the existing business cooperation with JPT, along with their equity relationship and cross-appointment of executives, whether there could be any transfer of benefits. How can the cooperation between the two sides be ensured to be fair and transparent? Would JPT get involved in the company’s other cooperation? Is there an agreement for “low-price equity subscription” by JPT in order to facilitate the business cooperation?

In response, “The Front Line of Entrepreneurship” tried to learn from Changjin Photonics, but as of the time this article was submitted, it still had not received a reply.

3、Huawei and China Mobile bet on it; valuation drops by 90 million yuan on the eve of the IPO

Changjin Photonics’ development is built on R&D from Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

In July 2012, the company’s predecessor, Changjin Limited, was formally established. At the end of 2017, the company acquired six invention patents from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, initially forming the basic theories and solution framework for the design, production, and testing of special optical fibers, laying the groundwork for entrepreneurship.

The company’s two founders, Li Jinyan and Li Haiqing, both previously worked at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (renamed Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics Research Center in 2017). Li Jinyan had been a professor and doctoral supervisor; Li Haiqing served as an engineer and senior engineer in his earlier roles.

Before the IPO, Li Jinyan controlled a total of 43.12% of the company’s voting rights through Changhexin, Zhiyuan No. 1, Zhiyuan No. 2, and acting-in-concert agreements, making him the de facto controller.

Also set to share this round of capital feast with Li Jinyan are his friends, students, and alumni. According to incomplete statistics from “The Front Line of Entrepreneurship,” in addition to Li Jinyan and Li Haiqing, there are also 7 management personnel who graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Among them, core technical personnel such as Wang Yikuang, Chu Yingbo, Xu Zhongwei, and Hu Xiongew ei all followed Li Jinyan to conduct research during their time in school.

In addition, the company’s board secretary Dai Bin, operations director Chen Gui, and marketing director Liao Lei also graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and two faculty members from Huazhong University of Science and Technology had previously served as consultants at Changjin Photonics.

Meanwhile, Liu Changbo, a director and general manager who acts in concert with Li Jinyan, was a colleague of Li Jinyan and Li Haiqing; the three of them had jointly worked at listed company FiberHome Communications for many years.

As a platform built on the “alumni network,” Changjin Photonics successfully attracted investment from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and from Huagong Tech, a listed company spun out of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Besides that, the company also brought in well-known investment institutions such as Hillhouse Capital, Hubble Investment under Huawei, China Unicom, and others, as well as state-owned assets-related entities including the Hubei Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the management committee of the Wuhan East Lake High-Tech Development Zone, and the Wuxi State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

On the eve of the IPO, China Mobile’s China Mobile Fund also made an aggressive equity subscription. In March 2025, China Mobile Fund subscribed 369.75 million yuan of additional registered capital for Changjin Photonics with a total subscription amount of 100 million yuan. The price was 27.05 yuan per share, corresponding to a pre-investment valuation of 1.8 billion yuan.

However, Changjin Photonics’ valuation quickly began to decline. In June 2025, Huagong Venture Capital acquired 1.07% equity from Huagong Mingde at a unit price of 24.34 yuan per share, resulting in a valuation of 1.71 billion yuan.

（Photo / Changjin Photonics IPO prospectus）

This also means that within just 3 months after China Mobile took an equity stake, Changjin Photonics’ valuation not only failed to increase, but instead dropped by 90 million yuan.

So, why didn’t the company’s valuation increase after China Mobile Fund’s investment? And why did the company’s valuation decrease rather than rise two months before the filing? In response, “The Front Line of Entrepreneurship” also attempted to inquire with Changjin Photonics, but as of the time this article was submitted, it still had not received a reply.

Objectively speaking, with support from a number of investors, Changjin Photonics’ capital chain remains stable. As of the end of 2025, the company’s short-term borrowings were 30.0229 million yuan, and non-current liabilities due within one year were 20.023 million yuan. Over the same period, its cash and cash equivalents were 101 million yuan, and its trading financial assets were 212 million yuan, leaving a relatively ample room for turnover.

（Photo / Changjin Photonics IPO prospectus）

At present, Changjin Photonics lacks neither funding nor halo, but the valuation declining rather than increasing after China Mobile took an equity stake also reveals the capital market’s uncertainty about its growth prospects. In the future, if it lacks sustainable profitability and expansion capability, Changjin Photonics’ growth story may be difficult to sustain.

Note: The main image in the article is from Shetu.com, based on the VRF protocol.