Can AI photovoltaic business become a new engine for Skyworth’s trillion-yuan goal?

Produced by | Bullet Finance

Author | Wang Yajing

Editor | Egg Boss

Design | Qian Qian

Review | Song Wen

At 70 years old, Huang Hongsheng still enjoys “tinkering.”

Since the beginning of 2026, Skyworth Group has repeatedly announced several major moves:

In January, announced plans to privatize and delist, and spin off the photovoltaic business for a separate listing;

In February, reached a strategic partnership with Panasonic to take over Panasonic’s TV business in North America and Europe;

In March, following the trend of technological innovation, stated it would become the first home appliance manufacturer to integrate “OpenClaw.”

From leading Skyworth to going public, then facing imprisonment, and now embarking on a second entrepreneurial journey into new energy vehicles… Huang Hongsheng has been fighting in the business arena. He boldly set a target of 100 billion yuan in revenue and also conveyed plans to list several subsidiaries separately.

Undeniably, Skyworth has experienced glory in the past. However, times have accelerated and shifted gears. TVs are no longer the most profitable sector. Currently, Skyworth Group is betting on photovoltaics while seeking capital operations, clearly unwilling to remain just a traditional home appliance manufacturer.

To find new growth engines, Skyworth Group has once again taken the lead in transformation. Will Huang Hongsheng’s “trillion-yuan dream” come true this time?

1. Profit expected to decline 30% in 2025, accelerating capital shifts

The just-passed 2025 may see Skyworth Group ending the year with another profit decline.

On February 12, Skyworth Group issued a profit warning, estimating a roughly 30% year-on-year decrease in profit for 2025.

Skyworth explained that this was mainly due to the ongoing downturn in China’s real estate market and sluggish sales, which increased provisions for real estate inventory impairments. Additionally, under market competition, the overall profitability and gross margin of the smart system technology business segment declined compared to 2024.

In fact, this is not the first time Skyworth has experienced profit decline.

In the first half of 2025, Skyworth’s profit sharply fell—net profit of 365 million yuan, down 48.9% year-on-year; attributable net profit to shareholders was 125 million yuan, a drop of 67.4%.

(Chart / Skyworth Group Financial Report)

As early as 2022 and 2024, the attributable net profit to shareholders had already declined by 49.4% and 46.9%, respectively, shrinking from 1.634 billion yuan (2021) to 568 million yuan (2024), a reduction of over 1 billion yuan in three years.

(Chart / Skyworth Group 2024, 2022, 2021 Financial Reports)

In the capital market, Skyworth Group is also in a “value depression.” Over four years from 2022 to 2025, its stock price mostly hovered below HKD 5 per share, with the lowest below HKD 3. During this period, this TV giant with revenue over 50 billion yuan had a market value that long remained below HKD 10 billion.

For Skyworth Group, changing the downward profit trend and sluggish stock price has become an urgent task.

At this critical juncture, a key turning point emerged. On January 11, Huang Hongsheng revealed in an interview that in 2025, photovoltaic business revenue is expected to surpass the TV business for the first time.

Nine days later (January 20), Skyworth Group announced plans to delist through a share buyback scheme and to spin off Skyworth Photovoltaic for a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s main board.

In this process, shareholders can choose to exchange each share for HKD 4.03 in cash or for a new share. Meanwhile, all shareholders will receive approximately 0.37 shares of Skyworth Photovoltaic.

Currently, Skyworth Group mainly engages in four major businesses: smart home appliances, smart system technology, new energy, and modern services. Through this “restructuring,” Skyworth can spin off its other three major businesses from the listing platform, leaving the “shell” for the new energy business.

In fact, Skyworth’s entry into new energy is relatively recent. Skyworth Photovoltaic was established in 2020, mainly focusing on distributed photovoltaic power stations for residential and commercial use.

However, Skyworth Group believes that the current market valuation does not fully reflect the intrinsic value of its assets, and persistent undervaluation limits its ability to raise the large amounts of capital needed to accelerate expansion in the photovoltaic and energy storage markets.

Compared to the fiercely competitive and profit-driven home appliance sector, the market clearly has higher expectations for new energy prospects. On the day of resumption (January 21), Skyworth Group’s stock price surged to HKD 7.59 per share, closing up 37.45%. However, by March 18, the stock closed at HKD 7.09, a 6.6% decline over two months.

Whether Huang Hongsheng’s strategic bet on new energy can proceed smoothly remains to be seen.

2. Abandon TV, partner with Panasonic, overseas story is complicated

The home appliances that are about to be spun off from the listing platform are actually the foundation of Skyworth Group’s origins.

In the past, Skyworth developed China’s first recordable LCD TV and launched the country’s first 3G-USB LCD TV, firmly establishing itself as a leader in color TVs.

However, Skyworth’s heavily invested OLED technology did not become mainstream in the TV industry, and it missed the window for Mini LED’s rise.

According to AVC data, in 2025, OLED TVs accounted for only 0.2% of retail volume and 0.5% of retail sales, while Mini LED TVs made up 31.8% of retail volume and 55.4% of retail sales.

Skyworth admits that due to market saturation, weakening customer demand, and fierce competition, growth in traditional smart home appliances and smart system technology businesses has slowed in recent years.

Data also supports this view. In the first half of 2025, its smart home appliance business achieved revenue of 17.074 billion yuan, up 9.4% year-on-year, but the growth rate slowed from 10.1% in the same period of 2024.

(Chart / Skyworth Group 2025 H1 and 2024 H1 Financial Reports)

It is understood that Skyworth’s smart home appliance business mainly includes smart TVs, smart white appliances, other smart devices, and internet-connected services for Coocaa system. In the first half of 2025, smart TVs contributed about 56% of revenue, making it the main pillar of this segment.

But amid frequent price wars and intense industry competition in China, Skyworth’s TV sales in mainland China have shown signs of fatigue. In the first half of 2025, revenue from smart TVs in mainland China was 5.536 billion yuan, a slight decrease of 0.2% year-on-year.

(Chart / Skyworth Group Financial Report)

When TV sales in mainland China face obstacles, Skyworth turns to overseas markets for growth.

According to multiple media reports, on February 23, Skyworth reached a strategic cooperation with Panasonic, and Skyworth will take over the production, sales, marketing, and channel expansion of Panasonic-branded TVs in Europe and North America.

How exactly will the cooperation unfold, and how will Skyworth plan its overseas expansion? Within Skyworth, what is the positioning of the TV business? How will sales in mainland China be boosted amid sluggish performance? If the TV and white goods businesses are spun off from the listing platform, will they be re-listed together?

We attempted to get clarification from Skyworth Group but have not received a response as of publication.

Objectively, it is industry consensus that home appliance manufacturers are looking overseas. In January 2026, TCL and Sony announced a strategic partnership to establish a joint venture for Sony’s home entertainment business, expanding into global markets with TVs and home audio products. Before that, Toshiba had already been acquired by Hisense.

TCL and Hisense’s global expansion has been faster, and newcomer Xiaomi has also gained ground. Skyworth’s overseas TV sales are beginning to show pressure.

In the first half of 2025, Skyworth’s overseas smart TV revenue was 4.1 billion yuan, up 3.8% year-on-year. However, the company clarified that actual TV sales declined year-on-year, but increased average selling price and gross margin helped maintain a slight overall revenue growth.

(Chart / Skyworth Group Financial Report)

According to AVC data, in 2025, the top five global TV brands by shipment volume were Samsung, TCL, Hisense, LG, and Xiaomi, with Skyworth ranking sixth.

At this point, the effectiveness of Skyworth’s overseas TV strategy remains uncertain.

3. Repeated delays of the trillion-yuan goal, Huang Hongsheng’s dream remains elusive

Whenever Skyworth Group is mentioned, Huang Hongsheng is often unavoidable.

In 1988, Huang Hongsheng left his government job to start his own business, founding Skyworth Industrial Co. in Hong Kong, initially making TV remote controls. In an interview with China Business Journal, he said, “Starting a business involves big pitfalls, betrayal, and paying tuition fees—it’s normal. I compare it to ‘life and death’.”

From remote controls to color TVs, Huang Hongsheng gradually built Skyworth into a major player, taking it public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, only to face imprisonment at the peak of his career. After release, he launched a second venture into new energy vehicles. Over nearly 40 years, he has experienced many ups and downs but has never stopped “tinkering.”

As the founder, Huang Hongsheng’s current position within Skyworth Group is somewhat “ambiguous.” The 2025 mid-year report shows his wife, Lin Weiping, serves as an executive director, and their son, Lin Jin, is chairman of the board. Huang Hongsheng himself is a controlling shareholder but does not appear in the management team or board.

However, this does not prevent Huang Hongsheng from publicly “endorsing” and “speaking for” Skyworth Group. In recent years, he has repeatedly announced Skyworth’s trillion-yuan target and revealed plans to spin off subsidiaries for listing.

According to multiple media reports, Skyworth has planned to achieve a trillion-yuan revenue target in 2020, 2023, 2024, and 2025 respectively. Currently, the peak revenue was in 2023 at about 69 billion yuan, still short of the trillion mark.

(Chart / Skyworth Group Financial Report)

In August 2025, Huang Hongsheng told the media he hopes to build Skyworth into an ecosystem platform and promote the independent listing of its industries, aiming to spin off 5 to 8 listed companies within five years.

Currently, Skyworth has two listed platforms: Skyworth Group and Skyworth Digital. Relying solely on Skyworth Group has already brought huge benefits to Huang Hongsheng’s family.

According to incomplete financial data, from 2021 to 2023, Skyworth Group paid dividends of 497 million, 69 million, and 176 million yuan respectively, totaling 742 million yuan over three years.

(Chart / Skyworth Group Financial Report)

During this period, Huang Hongsheng and his wife Lin Weiping, through trusts and personal holdings, maintained a shareholding ratio above 46%. Even at 46%, they took more than 300 million yuan in dividends.

In addition, Lin Weiping and their son Lin Jin received high salaries. From 2022 to 2024, Lin Jin’s compensation was 14.479 million, 33.383 million, and 12.897 million yuan; Lin Weiping’s was 6.641 million, 6.321 million, and 5.417 million yuan, totaling nearly 79.138 million yuan over three years.

(Chart / Skyworth Group Financial Report)

While the company distributes generous dividends and family members receive high salaries, Skyworth’s own cash flow is under pressure.

As of mid-2025, Skyworth’s cash and cash equivalents stood at 10.627 billion yuan, with other financial assets at 1.515 billion yuan, but short-term bank loans reached 12.967 billion yuan. Roughly, the company’s liquidity cannot cover short-term borrowings, with a shortfall of over 800 million yuan.

(Chart / Skyworth Group Financial Report (unit: million yuan))

Despite being 70 years old, Huang Hongsheng remains on the front line, trying to turn Skyworth into a trillion-yuan business empire. But behind this ambition, he still faces many challenges: the photovoltaic business, though leading in revenue, has yet to withstand industry cycles; overseas TV markets face uncertainties, with competition and barriers in Europe and America…

Is this transformation centered on photovoltaics a new starting point for Skyworth to break through difficulties, or just another tough exploration? Bullet Finance will continue to monitor closely.

Images in the article are from Skyworth official website.