Buyback of "marginal" B-shares and preparing for a big sports year: How BOE will break through in 2026

This newspaper (chinatimes.net.cn) reporter Lu Xiao, Beijing reports

Stock buybacks seem to have become a fixed “sidekick” in the annual reports of A-share companies. On March 31, BOE announced that its 2025 revenue would exceed 200 billion yuan, and it also rolled out a dual buyback plan for both A-shares and B-shares. For its B-share buyback limit, it is close to three-tenths of the total B-share outstanding shares, drawing market attention.

Why, this year, has BOE started a big buyback of B-shares, which have been “marginalized” for a long time? Why did its Q4 performance last year decline? With ongoing price surges in upstream and downstream components such as copper and storage, how will panel makers be doing this year? On April 2, BOE’s management discussed its thinking on the capital markets and the industrial market in its 2025 annual results online briefing (hereinafter referred to as the “online briefing”).

An Unexpected Feast in the “Marginalized” Market

Boosting confidence and lifting stock prices are the usual goals of companies buying back and canceling shares, but after announcing the same buyback plan, BOE’s A-shares and B-shares did not perform the same way over the following two trading days.

B-shares were clearly much more enthusiastic. After hitting the daily limit on April 1, during trading on April 2 BOE’s B-shares saw a 52-week high of HK$3.56, and ultimately closed at HK$3.46, up 1.76%. By contrast, on the A-share market, after closing up 2.56% on April 1, BOE closed at 3.95 yuan on April 2, down 1.5%.

One important reason for the different attitudes toward A- and B-shares is that, compared with BOE’s buyback price for A-share holders of no more than 6 yuan, the buyback price BOE offered to B-share holders of no more than HK$4.81 is obviously a particularly pleasant surprise.

According to a reporter with Huaxia Times, as a foreign-investor share listed on domestic securities exchanges, B-shares were created in 1992. In June 1997, BOE successfully issued and listed its B-shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, nearly three and a half years earlier than its A-share listing.

But with measures such as QFII (Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors) and the Stock Connect channel (Hong Kong Stock Connect) being rolled out one after another, the A-share market has become increasingly open and diverse. Meanwhile, the B-share market, which is not very liquid, has gradually turned into a “forgotten corner.” Based on this reporter’s observations, BOE’s B-share price has long hovered around HK$2–3. And compared at the April 2 share price, BOE’s B-share price is about 23% lower than that of A-shares.

Even more notable is the number of shares BOE is seeking to repurchase in B-shares. The announcement shows that BOE plans to use no less than HK$500 million and no more than HK$1 billion to repurchase B-share stock. Under the condition that the buyback price is no more than HK$4.81, and assuming the maximum buyback amount of HK$1 billion, the expected number of repurchased shares would be no less than 200 million shares—close to three-tenths of the entire B-share share capital. Kong Yuqing, founder of Lens Research, said in communication with a reporter from Huaxia Times that it feels strange because BOE “still hasn’t cleared” its remaining B-shares: “The financing function of B-shares has long been marginalized, and keeping them around doesn’t really have much meaning.”

It should be mentioned that at the online briefing held on April 2, when BOE Chairman Chen Yanshun answered the question of whether the company is considering resolving the B-share issue in one go, he said that BOE’s B-share market value is currently about HK$2 billion, and it will seriously consider relevant suggestions.

Behind Last Year’s Q4 Performance Decline

Along with announcing the buyback plan, BOE also delivered its 2025 results.

Last year, BOE’s revenue was 204.6 billion yuan, up about 3% year on year. Net profit attributable to shareholders was 5.857 billion yuan, up more than 10% year on year. Net cash flow from operating activities was 48.824 billion yuan, up 2.28% year on year. Basic earnings per share were 0.16 yuan per share, up 14.3% year on year.

Among them, BOE’s Q4 performance last year is particularly worth attention: for the quarter, its revenue was 50.042 billion yuan and net profit attributable to shareholders was 1.255 billion yuan. Not only did it rank at the bottom among the four quarters of that year, but it also fell year on year by 8.4% and 37.6%, respectively.

On April 2, during the online briefing, BOE’s Vice Chairman and CEO Feng Qiang answered relevant questions from reporters from Huaxia Times and said that the display panel market usually goes low at the beginning and high later, but in 2025, due to the stimulus from national subsidies, the market showed a pattern of high at the beginning and low later.

BOE’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Yang Xiaoping also said on the same day, when answering similar questions, that last year was affected by the international economic environment and market changes. Brand inventory replenishment demand in the panel industry was released earlier in the first quarter, pushing up prices. In the second quarter, demand contracted and prices stabilized. In the third quarter, demand recovered due to year-end promotional activities, and after inventory replenishment ended, demand slowed in the fourth quarter.

At the online briefing, Chen Yanshun also did a price calculation. He said that last year BOE’s display device revenue was 166.4 billion yuan, overall up about 1%. Specifically, LCD shipment volume increased 8%, revenue increased 5%; OLED shipment volume increased 8%, but revenue fell 10%. Average prices were all lower than in the same period last year, and especially in the second half of 2025, the price declines for major products were evident.

It should be mentioned that BOE still made impairment provisions in 2025. In that period, it recorded total impairment provisions for various assets of about 6 billion yuan, affecting last year’s net profit attributable to shareholders by about 6.6 billion yuan. Inventory price write-downs are usually the biggest reason for panel companies to make impairment provisions: in 2025, BOE’s provision for inventory price write-downs was close to 5.7 billion yuan, accounting for 95% of the total impairment provisions made that year.

This reporter also observed that last year BOE’s inventory of LCD and AMOLED both increased year on year. Specifically, TFT-LCD inventory was 6,851K㎡, up 16.41% year on year. AMOLED inventory was 201K㎡, up 23.21% year on year. Both growth rates were higher than sales volumes and production volumes. When answering related questions at the online briefing, Yang Xiaoping said that the Group’s overall inventory increased compared with the beginning of the period. On the one hand, inventory increases accordingly as sales volumes grow; on the other hand, it considered changes in future market demand and production arrangements.

What Will the Trend Look Like This Year

Between the risks of currency devaluation and increased inventory, an important driver for panel companies’ production is that 2026 is an undisputed “sports mega-year.” Besides the Milan Winter Olympics that have already concluded, there are many major events to follow, such as the US-Canada-Mexico World Cup to be held between June and July, and the Nagoya Asian Games scheduled for September to October.

This is clearly good news for panels—especially large-size TV panels.

On March 31, TCL Technology, in response to questions from investors, expressed optimism about the TV panel price trend. It said that from January to March this year, the prices of TV panel products generally rose. Feedback from downstream showed strong demand. In addition, due to the effect of upstream commodity price increases passing through, it expects that in the second quarter prices will still have continuing momentum for increases. Regarding utilization rates, TCL Technology also said that during the Spring Festival in the first quarter this year, the industry saw some production line holiday arrangements, but so far it has mostly been in full production.

However, this does not mean that this year is an undisputed boom year for panels.

One example is that, as storage prices continue to rise sharply, the industry generally expects that global smartphone sales in 2026 will fall significantly. IDC expects that the smartphone market will face pressure in 2026, with global shipments forecast to decline 12.9% year on year to 1.1 billion units, the lowest level since 2013.

Regarding questions from Huaxia Times about this year’s supply-demand situation and price trends for LCD and OLED, Feng Qiang said during the online briefing on April 2 that due to storage shortages and the pressure of rising prices, the overall demand for LCD panels is expected to decline somewhat throughout 2026. Except for TV panels, due to the impact of storage shortages, brand confidence is insufficient, and shipment targets are relatively conservative. For OLED, with a weak global macro economy and the impact of storage price increases since 2025, it is expected that in 2026 the growth pace of flexible AMOLED panels in the mobile phone sector will slow down. The first half of the year may become the main window for price cuts, and as the traditional peak season arrives in the second half, prices will gradually stabilize.

It should also be mentioned that this year is a key moment for BOE’s Chengdu OLED 8.6-generation line, with total investment of 63 billion yuan. During the online briefing, Feng Qiang disclosed that the production line is expected to achieve phase-one mass production in the second half of 2026. At present, it is actively promoting cooperation projects with well-known domestic and international customers in the fields of notebooks, tablets, and mobile phones. The first product is currently under sample submission and verification, and progress is going smoothly.

TrendForce analyst Fan Boyu also told Huaxia Times that, overall, due to the impact of rising memory prices, the rhythm of customers’ inventory stocking this year differs from previous years, with a clear trend toward stocking earlier. However, after terminal products adjust their selling prices upward in response to rising costs, it remains to be seen whether the slowdown in consumption demand in the second half of the year will occur—if it does, it would reduce demand and then transmit to the component links in the midstream and upstream supply chains. “Display application demand is significantly affected by memory, but considering specification configuration and each client’s contribution to revenue, the market share of mid-sized or small-sized OLEDs in the overall market may instead have an opportunity to increase slightly.”

Responsible editor: Huang Xingli Chief editor: Han Feng