15x Bull Stock Roboteck Reports Losses: Shareholders Plan to Cash Out 800 Million, Silicon Photonics Orders Face Major Test

From the bottom price level of 28.24 yuan in 2024 to a peak that touched 458 yuan in 2025, Robotech (300757.SZ) delivered a gain of over 15 times at its high point within more than two years.

However, contrasting sharply with the surge in the stock price, on the evening of March 30 the company disclosed its 2025 annual report, turning from profit to loss year over year. The company said the main reasons for the performance decline are two aspects. During the downturn cycle in the photovoltaic industry, equipment demand dropped dramatically, causing related business revenue to plunge by more than 50%. Meanwhile, its optoelectronics business is in a stage of heavy upfront investment, and the soaring period expenses have swallowed up net profit.

Amid the AI silicon photonics and CPO technology wave, the core support for Robotech’s stock-price celebration is the order book held by ficonTEC, a wholly owned subsidiary the company acquired last year. On March 25 of this year, the company announced a mass-production coupling equipment order worth 600 million yuan for silicon photonics equipment, accounting for 54.23% of 2024 revenue.

But the eye-catching industry story and orders have not yet been translated into tangible profitability. The ongoing pressure on its photovoltaic main business and the high expenses needed for new business development have left this leading company, heavily favored by the market, standing at the crossroads between valuation and earnings realization.

“Dual drag” from photovoltaic business pressure and high expenses

The annual report shows that in 2025 Robotech achieved total operating revenue of 950 million yuan, down 14.14% year over year from 1.11B yuan in 2024. Net profit attributable to shareholders was a loss of 664.4B yuan, turning to a loss year over year. After excluding non-recurring items, net profit attributable to shareholders declined further to a loss of 101 million yuan, showing a significant drop from the profit position in 2024.

Photovoltaic cell equipment, optoelectronics and semiconductors are Robotech’s two major business segments. In 2025, the industry conditions for these two sectors diverged markedly, which is the main factor behind the earnings decline.

In 2025, the photovoltaic industry was in a phase of excess capacity and a deep industry adjustment cycle. Downstream customers’ willingness to spend on capital expenditures was weak. Overall equipment demand shrank, leading to fewer new orders for Robotech’s photovoltaic business and a sharp revenue decline. Although the revenue from its optoelectronics and semiconductor packaging and testing equipment business grew strongly year over year, it has not yet formed large-scale effects, making it unable to effectively offset the decline in photovoltaic business.

According to disclosures, Robotech’s photovoltaic business generated revenue of 460 million yuan in 2025, versus 1.05B yuan in the same period last year, a year-over-year decrease of 56.25%. Gross margin was 29.79%, up slightly by 1.31 percentage points year over year. Revenue from the optoelectronics and semiconductor packaging and testing equipment business increased from 50.17 million yuan in 2024 to 440 million yuan, a year-over-year increase by 7.75 times, with gross margin of 39.24%.

The company said the rapid growth of its optoelectronics business mainly benefited from the fast development of the artificial intelligence industry, which drove demand surges in high-performance computing, data centers, and high-speed optical communications. Demand for optoelectronic devices such as silicon photonics modules, CPO (co-packaged optics), and optical chips has risen rapidly.

While deepening its layout in optoelectronics and semiconductor business, Robotech’s period expenses also rose significantly, eroding profit margins. The annual report shows that in 2025, the company’s four period expense items totaled 344 million yuan, up about 75.5% year over year from 195 million yuan in 2024.

Among them, due to the consolidation impact from the acquisition of FiconTEC and its subsidiary ficonTEC, management expenses surged to 110 million yuan, up as much as 185.98% year over year. To expand the semiconductor and silicon photonics equipment markets, selling expenses increased from 54.4504 million yuan to 93.8315 million yuan, up 72.32% year over year. R&D expenses reached 106 million yuan, up 25.98% year over year. On top of that, affected by exchange-rate fluctuations, finance expenses increased by about 80% year over year to 33.7797 million yuan.

Silicon photonics narrative of a 15x rally—can earnings be realized?

The sharp surge in Robotech’s stock price did not come from its traditional photovoltaic business, but from the market’s extreme expectations for its silicon photonics coupled equipment business.

Pluggable optical modules are the core components used to achieve optical-to-electrical conversion in optical communication. The coupling process is the core link in optical module packaging, with its value share accounting for about 40% of the packaging segment. It is a key factor determining optical module yield and production capacity.

With the rapid development of AI, sustained expansion of optical module capacity and technology iteration are progressing in parallel. The penetration of 800G and 1.6T optical modules is accelerating, and the large-scale deployment of silicon photonics and CPO technologies is taking shape. Requirements for optical link precision are continuously increasing, making coupling equipment the most core beneficiary segment during optical module process upgrades.

In May 2025, Robotech officially achieved 100% control over ficonTEC. With this acquisition, the company quickly entered the fields of optoelectronics and semiconductor equipment. finconTEC is an equipment manufacturer in the field of automated packaging and testing for optoelectronics and semiconductors. The equipment it produces is mainly used for micro-assembly and testing of photonic components, including silicon photonics chips, quantum devices, optical modules, and more. The biggest highlight of this acquisition is ficonTEC’s silicon photonics equipment business, which is expected to contribute a new growth driver to the company’s performance.

According to disclosures, as of the date of the annual report disclosure, the order book value for Robotech’s optoelectronics and semiconductor business is approximately 1.105 billion yuan. On March 25, the company also announced that ficonTEC and its subsidiaries signed a 600 million yuan contract with a company F listed on Nasdaq and its subsidiaries. This is an order for mass-production coupling equipment and services applicable to the pluggable silicon photonics technology route.

However, the lively industry narrative and order book have not yet translated into an increase in the company’s profit. Regarding why revenues and profits for the optoelectronics business have fallen short of expectations, Robotech explained that in 2025, ficonTEC developed new technology applications in cooperation with key core customers, which lengthened the equipment delivery cycle for that year, resulting in revenue not reaching expectations. In addition, the extended production cycle increased equipment costs, leading to a year-over-year decline in gross margin for this segment.

Given the uncertainty in order conversion, the market has begun to diverge in views. Looking at the changes in the top 10 tradable shareholders at the end of 2025, the market’s game-driven funding behavior is apparent. The Northbound Trading program slightly increased its holding by 72.2k shares, continuing to buy for two consecutive quarters. Its shareholding at period end reached 968.9k shares, making it one of the few institutional funds that increased positions.

Index funds as a whole showed a net selling tendency. The Southern CSI 500 ETF reduced holdings by 32.5k shares, while the Huatai-PineBridge CSI Photovoltaics Industry ETF cut by 165.7k shares. Individual shareholders Wang Mo and Zheng Xiaofeng newly entered the top 10 tradable shareholders, holding 0.83% and 0.62%, respectively.

After the stock surged, Robotech’s controlling shareholder’s parties acting in concert also recently issued a plan to reduce holdings. The second-largest shareholder Ningbo Kejun Enterprise Management Consulting Center (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as “Kejun Investment”) plans to reduce its holdings by no more than 2.2051 million shares through block trades. The reason for the reduction is personal capital needs. Based on the closing price on March 30, the shareholder plans to cash out about 1.11B yuan.

According to disclosures, Robotech’s three shareholders—Dai Jun (actual controller), Yuan Xie Sheng (controlling shareholder), and Kejun Investment—are acting in concert. Dai Jun’s direct shareholding proportion in Kejun Investment is 24.43%.

At present, Robotech’s total market capitalization exceeds 64 billion yuan, while the company’s net profit for the full year is still in a loss state. The divergence between valuation and performance has reached an extreme. For this 15x “bull stock,” the delivery progress of silicon photonics equipment orders, revenue recognition, and profitability conversion will become the core factors determining where valuation goes. If market expectations for the silicon photonics business can be realized as scheduled, the company is likely to achieve a match between earnings and valuation. But if orders land behind expectations and profits continue to fail to turn positive, this stock-price celebration fueled by an industry story may face substantial downward correction pressure, and the risk of a “Davies double kill” cannot be ignored.

(This article comes from First Financial Media)

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