Major capital players invest 1.6 billion, ending 15 years of the vaccine industry's lack of a controlling owner?

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Source: Scale Business

By | Yang Wanli

Editor | Liu Zhen tao

A listed company that has been listed on the A-share market for more than 15 years and for many years has had no actual controller may soon welcome a real “boss.” It is Watson Biotech, a leading vaccine company.

Recently, leading vaccine company Watson Biotech issued an announcement mentioning that the company is advancing a private placement of shares (a follow-on offering) to raise funds of no more than RMB 2.003 billion. Tengyun Xinwo under Century Jinyuan will subscribe to all the shares to be issued in the private placement.

If the transaction is ultimately completed, Watson Biotech will end the “unowned” situation that has lasted for more than 15 years since its listing. Huang Tao, who is known as a “master of capital operations,” may also become its new actual controller through the private placement.

Century Jinyuan is a comprehensive, cross-industry international enterprise group. Its four main business corridors are “big consumption, big culture & tourism, big health, and new technology.” In 2018, Huang Tao took over Century Jinyuan from his father, Huang Rulun. After taking over, Huang Tao has been active in the capital market, from Wan tong Technology to Annai’er. This time, he is again making a cross-border move by laying out the biopharmaceutical sector, further expanding the Huang family’s capital footprint in the A-share market.

While investors have been热ly drawn to technology stocks represented by AI, vaccine stocks—long overlooked—have caught the eye of discerning capital. What are the draws of Watson Biotech?

For years with no actual controller, and business performance under pressure

Watson Biotech is a biopharmaceutical company that specializes in human vaccines, integrating R&D, production, and sales. In November 2010, the company listed on the ChiNext board, and its listing period has now exceeded 15 years.

The shareholding ratios of Watson Biotech’s major shareholders, Liu Junhui and Li Yunchun, had previously been 11.39% and 15.05%, respectively. After successive reductions in holdings, as of the end of Q3 2025, both their shareholding ratios are below 2%.

Watson Biotech staff members have previously acknowledged that since the company was founded, it has had an equity structure with no actual controller.

From an operating perspective, in recent years Watson Biotech’s performance has been under overall pressure.

In 2021, Watson Biotech’s revenue increased 17.82% year over year, while its net profit attributable to the parent company fell 57.36% year over year. The performance showed “higher revenue but no increased profit.” Increased R&D expenses and losses from fair value changes dragged down profits that year.

In 2022, Watson Biotech’s performance rebounded: revenue grew 46.89% year over year, and net profit attributable to the parent company rose 70.35% year over year.

In 2023, Watson Biotech’s revenue fell 19.12% year over year, and net profit attributable to the parent company decreased 42.44% year over year. Reasons for declines in both revenue and net profit included, among others, a year-over-year drop in sales volume of its 13-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine product, and that sales volume of the bivalent human papillomavirus vaccine (Pichia yeast) did not meet expectations.

In 2024, Watson Biotech’s revenue decreased 31.41% year over year, and net profit attributable to the parent company fell 66.10% year over year. The 2025 performance forecast shows that net profit attributable to the parent company is expected to increase 13% to 34% year over year. However, after excluding non-recurring items, net profit still fell 9% to 22% year over year. On the revenue side, it is expected that total revenue from vaccine products will decline by about 8% year over year. In addition to the company’s performance pressure in recent years, the long-standing situation of highly dispersed “unowned” equity has also created governance risks.

For example, in November 2024, a proposal involving the transfer of minority interests in a subsidiary at Watson Biotech failed to pass. When the board considered it earlier, there were also abstentions, and conflicts between management and certain shareholders were brought to the surface.

In December 2025, because the directors and executives’ compensation for 2023 and 2024 was not submitted for consideration by the shareholders’ meeting or the board of directors in accordance with regulations, Watson Biotech received, in succession, a “regulatory letter” from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and an “administrative regulatory measures decision” from the Yunnan Securities Regulatory Bureau.

It can be said that resolving the long-standing situation of dispersed and “unowned” equity and improving the company’s performance have become issues Watson Biotech must address.

Capital heavyweight plans to take control—will a new chapter begin?

In 2026, it will become a turning point in Watson Biotech’s operating history and may end the company’s long-standing pattern of having no actual controller.

The announcement shows that Tengyun Xinwo, under Century Jinyuan, will subscribe to all the shares of Watson Biotech in the private placement. The subscribed shares are about 208 million shares. After the transaction is completed, it will directly hold 11.51%. Combined with an action-in-concert agreement signed with other shareholders, it will control a total of 14.46% of voting rights. In addition, Tengyun Xinwo will nominate more than half of the directors to Watson Biotech.

After Tengyun Xinwo becomes the controlling shareholder of Watson Biotech, Huang Tao, the actual controller of Tengyun Xinwo, will also become the actual controller of Watson Biotech.

One detail is that Tengyun Xinwo was established on February 12, 2026, very close to the timing of the disclosure of this private placement announcement. Judging from Tengyun Xinwo’s capital contributions, Century Jinyuan will contribute RMB 1.6 billion; Watson Biotech’s chairman, Li Yunchun, will contribute RMB 240 million; and Xishen Asset, which has long cooperated with Watson Biotech, will contribute RMB 160 million. Based on this, Tengyun Xinwo’s setup was very likely intended to participate in this private placement.

For Huang Tao and Century Jinyuan, they will obtain another listed platform, further expanding their layout in the capital market and their layout in the biopharmaceutical sector.

According to media reports, Huang Tao is the son of Huang Rulun, the founder of Century Jinyuan, and Huang Rulun is a well-known Min businessman. As a “second-generation business heir,” Huang Tao tends to keep a low profile in public settings. By contrast, he has been active in the capital market.

In February 2022, Huang Tao obtained the actual controller of Wan tong Technology through Xizang Jingsyuan Enterprise Management Co., Ltd., giving him the first listed platform in the A-share market. In June 2025, Huang Tao acquired 13.03% of Annai’er through Shenzhen Xinchuangyuan Investment Partnership. With his move into Watson Biotech, Huang Tao may complete the capital layout of a third A-share listed company.

据媒体报道，黄涛持有多家港股上市公司的股权：比如持有中国金融国际9.11%股份、信铭生命科技10.84%股份、第一服务控股12.53%股份等。

It’s not hard to see that Century Jinyuan, managed by Huang Tao, may be planning the next round of a “capital chess game”—building its own operating system in the capital market.

One of the core strategies after Huang Tao took over Century Jinyuan is to push the company to transform toward the big health sector, a people’s livelihood demand area. Tengyun Big Health, as the unit under Century Jinyuan dedicated to coordinating and laying out a big health industry system, has three service platforms: Tengyun Family Doctor, Tengyun Specialty, and Tengyun Elder Care.

Taking down control of Watson Biotech this time may be Huang Tao’s further push for Century Jinyuan’s transformation and development in the big health sector.

The outside world is very concerned whether Huang Tao’s move into Watson Biotech can generate an effect of 1+1>2. For now, it is not possible to set the tone. In the future, there may be two scenarios: either Huang Tao serves only as the actual controller and hands day-to-day management and operations to a team of professional managers; or he directly participates in operational decision-making. If, after Huang Tao moves in, he continues to help Watson Biotech focus on its core business—providing high-quality resources or injecting more high-quality assets—then for Watson Biotech it would be “the icing on the cake.”

The arrival of a new actual controller can directly bring enhanced funding support and improved decision-making efficiency. However, whether it can also bring improved performance and enhanced value in the capital market needs to be verified over a longer period. Whether Watson Biotech’s private placement transaction will ultimately be completed—we will continue to follow related progress.

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责任编辑：杨红卜