The Beijing Stock Exchange's resumption of inquiry-based issuance is raising expectations, who is the top favorite?

The Daily Economic News Reporter: Wang Haimin The Daily Economic News Editor: Peng Shuiping

Over the past three years, more than 100 new stocks have listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange, all completed through direct pricing methods. However, this situation may be about to change.

The Daily Economic News reporter noticed that recently, there has been a strong market voice suggesting that Zhongke Yi, a new stock on the Beijing Stock Exchange, may adopt a private inquiry issuance method. The reasons include the company’s outstanding growth in recent years and its independent and controllable thematic features.

Photo taken by Chen Mengyu from the Media Asset Library

Some opinions believe that if the Beijing Stock Exchange continues to use direct pricing for new stock issuance, it may not be fair to high-quality new stocks. Since last year, some relatively high-quality new stocks listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange have had secondary market stock prices long-term more than 10 times the issuance price, indicating that the relevant pricing mechanism is not entirely reasonable.

However, during interviews, some industry insiders also believe that the resumption of inquiry-based issuance by the Beijing Stock Exchange is an inevitable trend, but restarting inquiry at this current time may not be the most optimal.

Regarding the above market concerns, a staff member from Zhongke Yi responded that they are not currently able to disclose the specific issuance method and that relevant announcements should be watched for later.

Beijing Stock Exchange Resumes Inquiry-Based Issuance, “First Stock” on the Horizon?

According to the reporter’s observations, recently, many market opinions suggest that Zhongke Yi, a quasi-new stock on the Beijing Stock Exchange, may list through inquiry-based issuance. Some industry insiders from the Beijing Stock Exchange also share similar views.

The prospectus shows that Zhongke Yi’s fundamentals feature typical “hard technology” characteristics. The company is a leading provider of core semiconductor manufacturing equipment components and vacuum scientific instrument equipment in China. Its innovative features are mainly reflected in the following aspects:

First, the company is the largest domestic manufacturer of dry vacuum pumps in the integrated circuit field and the only domestic enterprise achieving mass application in advanced processes, covering cleaning, medium, and harsh processes.

Second, in the field of dry vacuum pumps, the company’s R&D innovations have broken long-term monopolies held by European, American, and Japanese companies: its dry vacuum pump products meet the production needs of 14nm advanced logic chips and 128-layer or more 3D NAND storage memory processes, and have been widely used in leading wafer manufacturing enterprises in China.

Third, as a subsidiary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the company owns three national R&D platforms, including the National Engineering Research Center for Vacuum Technology Equipment.

Additionally, the company’s operating performance has continued to grow in recent years. From 2021 to 2025, net profit attributable to the parent increased from 65 million yuan to 840 million yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of nearly 90%. In the first quarter of 2026, the company’s performance surged again.

It is worth noting that, from the IPO process of Zhongke Yi this time, some aspects appear different: First, the company chose the fourth set of listing standards of the Beijing Stock Exchange for this IPO, which is the first time since June 2023 that a new stock on the Beijing Stock Exchange has adopted the fourth set of standards (expected market value not less than 1.5 billion yuan, with R&D investments totaling no less than 50 million yuan over the past two years); second, on January 16, 2026, the Beijing Stock Exchange Listing Committee held its 4th review meeting, approved Zhongke Yi’s listing application, and registered with the China Securities Regulatory Commission on February 10. Meanwhile, companies like Saiying Electronics, which also completed IPO registration recently, have already completed issuance.

However, some industry insiders believe that these phenomena are just basic facts and do not constitute sufficient conditions for the resumption of inquiry-based issuance.

Liu Zimu, founder of Zimu Research, believes that the valuation-based pricing method of the Beijing Stock Exchange may be unfair to high-quality enterprises: “For example, some new stocks on the Beijing Stock Exchange like Xingtu Measurement & Control and Hengdong Optical, which completed IPO last year, have had their secondary market stock prices long-term more than 10 times the issuance price, indicating that these companies may not be suitable for pricing issuance and should adopt inquiry-based issuance.”

It is worth mentioning that since the beginning of this year, the pace of new stock issuance on the Beijing Stock Exchange has significantly accelerated compared to 2024 and 2025. According to Choice data, in the first quarter of 2026, 16 new stocks have listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange. Based on this pace, the total number of new stocks issued this year may far exceed that of 2024 and 2025, when 23 and 26 stocks respectively were listed.

Regarding the above market calls, recently, the reporter contacted Zhongke Yi, and a relevant staff member stated that they are not able to disclose the specific issuance method and that relevant announcements should be watched for later.

Resumption of Inquiry-Based Issuance Timing Sparks Industry Debate

From publicly available information, since OneWorx completed its IPO on the Beijing Stock Exchange in April 2023, the pricing method for new stocks on the exchange has not changed in the subsequent three years.

At that time, OneWorx used a private inquiry issuance during its IPO. There were also some controversies and rumors in the market about OneWorx’s issuance at that time.

In the three years following OneWorx’s IPO, over 100 new stocks have listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange, all using direct pricing methods, with issuance P/E ratios generally around 15 times. If inquiry-based pricing is restarted, the valuation space could be expanded.

However, in recent interviews, some industry insiders from the Beijing Stock Exchange did not confirm the imminent restart of inquiry-based issuance. Senior New Third Board commentator Zhou Yunnan said, “This is still just market speculation. The specific companies and timing for restarting inquiry-based issuance depend on official announcements from the issuing companies.”

A securities firm analyst specializing in the Beijing Stock Exchange said, “Resuming inquiry-based issuance is an inevitable trend, but restarting now may not be the best timing. First, the current market is in a downward phase; second, the pace of new stock issuance this year is quite fast; third, Zhongke Yi has some controversies, with significant non-recurring gains and low gross profit margins.”

According to Zhongke Yi’s 2025 annual report, the company’s net profit attributable to the parent reached 840 million yuan, but this includes 740 million yuan of non-recurring gains and losses. These non-recurring gains mainly come from fair value changes of financial assets and liabilities held. Based on the prospectus disclosures, last year, the company’s fair value change gains reached 752 million yuan, mainly due to the sharp rise in the stock price of listed company Tuojing Technology, which Zhongke Yi holds.

From the perspective of net profit excluding non-recurring gains, Zhongke Yi’s performance growth rate from 2022 to 2025 was only 18.4%.

Additionally, in recent years, the company’s cash flow and profits have not been well matched. In some reporting periods, there was a significant discrepancy between net profit attributable to the parent and net cash flow from operating activities, reflecting that the profitability’s “gold content” needs improvement.

In fact, inquiry-based and pricing-based issuance, as well as competitive bidding, are all recognized IPO pricing methods by the Beijing Stock Exchange. However, since the exchange officially opened in November 2021, only five new stocks have adopted inquiry-based issuance, accounting for less than 3%. Industry opinions suggest that the high proportion of direct pricing is due to its higher efficiency and suitability for the characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises on the Beijing Stock Exchange.

In the analyst’s view, “It’s not too late to restart inquiry-based issuance once certain conditions are met: first, the market is stable; second, the pace of new stock issuance slows down; third, the industry sectors of IPO companies are good and there are no major controversies.”

“He said, ‘You can’t just do inquiry because you want to. Some high-quality companies previously had low issuance prices due to pricing methods, but their secondary market prices rose high, and the companies had no complaints. If inquiry is really adopted, there might be overfunding, and post-listing risks like falling below the issuance price could occur.’ He further pointed out, ‘The core is to enhance market attractiveness to investors, just like now, when the Beijing Stock Exchange’s IPOs are popular, no one is invited, just because there’s a profit-making effect, with frozen funds of 7 trillion to 10 trillion yuan being normal.’”