Revenue and net profit hit record highs; Sanhua Intelligent Controls bets big on the new robotics track, with a market value loss of over 50 billion yuan this year.

What is the reason behind the market value evaporating over 50 billion yuan after the stock price surged?

Source: Times Finance Author: Zhou Li

Image source: Tuchong Creative

As a “hidden champion” in the global thermal management field, Sanhua Intelligent Control (002050.SZ; 02050.HK) has once again validated its market position with its performance. The latest disclosed 2025 annual report shows that last year, Sanhua Intelligent Control achieved record highs in both revenue and net profit.

Specifically, the company realized a revenue of 31.012 billion yuan in 2025, an increase of 10.97% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to shareholders was 4.063 billion yuan, up 31.10% year-on-year, with the profit growth rate significantly higher than the revenue growth rate. Notably, Wind data shows that Sanhua Intelligent Control’s net profit margin has reached 13.24%, a new high in nearly 16 years.

Regarding the reasons for the performance growth, Sanhua Intelligent Control mentioned in its earlier performance forecast that during the reporting period, the company continued to consolidate its leading position in the refrigeration and air conditioning electrical components business, fully seizing the opportunity of market demand growth, coupled with the deep technical accumulation and large-scale production advantages of core products, driving the sustained growth of this business.

“At the same time, the company is relying on its leading market layout in the global thermal management field for new energy vehicles, continuously expanding high-quality orders through the demonstration effect of benchmark customers, further consolidating the performance growth momentum of the automotive components business. The synergy between the two major business segments provides solid support for the company’s annual performance growth,” stated Sanhua Intelligent Control.

According to the regular report, Sanhua Intelligent Control focuses on the research and application of heat pump technology and thermal management systems, concentrating on developing environmental thermal management solutions that achieve efficient heat exchange and intelligent temperature control. The business spans two major segments: refrigeration and air conditioning electrical components and automotive components, and based on long-term technological accumulation and research and development innovation, it is expanding into emerging fields such as bionic robot electromechanical actuators.

By product classification, the refrigeration and air conditioning electrical components business is the “pillar” of Sanhua Intelligent Control’s performance, with operating revenue of 18.585 billion yuan, an increase of 12.22% year-on-year; while the “second-in-command,” the automotive components business, achieved operating revenue of 12.427 billion yuan, an increase of 9.14% year-on-year, accounting for about 40% of total revenue. Although there is a revenue gap, the gross profit margins of the two are not far apart, at 28.77% and 28.79%, respectively.

From a regional perspective, domestic sales revenue reached 17.688 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.51%, with an increased revenue share, while foreign sales revenue also grew by 6.58% year-on-year to 13.323 billion yuan, with a gross profit margin of 31.19%, higher than the domestic margin of 26.96%.

It is noteworthy that Sanhua Intelligent Control’s cash funds increased from 5.249 billion yuan at the beginning of 2025 to 14.912 billion yuan at the end of 2025, with the proportion of total assets rising from 14.44% to 30.18%. The company stated that this was mainly due to the successful completion of its Hong Kong stock issuance and the raising of funds.

On June 23 last year, Sanhua Intelligent Control successfully went public in Hong Kong. At that time, Sanhua Intelligent Control mentioned in the allocation results announcement that its total fundraising amount was 9.336 billion Hong Kong dollars. Of this, about 10% will be used for the research and development of bionic robots and related technologies. This is also what Sanhua Intelligent Control mentioned in its regular reports since last year as a strategic emerging business.

According to public information, Sanhua Intelligent Control has been a tier-one supplier to Tesla since 2017, primarily providing core components of thermal management systems for Tesla Model 3, Model X, Model S, and other models. After 2020, Sanhua Intelligent Control further expanded its cooperation to provide thermal management integrated components for Tesla’s new energy vehicles.

Elon Musk has publicly stated that Tesla’s future “long-term value” will come from humanoid robots like Optimus. One of the unlocking conditions for Tesla’s trillion-dollar equity incentive plan proposed by its board to Musk is to cumulatively deliver 1 million humanoid robots within 10 years.

To seize new business opportunities in the bionic robot industry, Sanhua Intelligent Control plans to invest in research and development of electromechanical actuators and other main components of bionic robots, aiming to recruit about 200 R&D talents by 2028.

In this year’s business plan, Sanhua Intelligent Control has focused significantly on the bionic robot business— the company will concentrate on electromechanical actuators, continue to cooperate with customers on key product research and development, trial production, iteration, and sample delivery, and increase development efforts on key components of electromechanical actuators. At the same time, it will actively expand overseas production of electromechanical actuators and continuously expand the R&D team to consolidate its first-mover advantage in the emerging market of bionic robot electromechanical actuators.

Whether the robotics business can bring performance growth to Sanhua Intelligent Control in the short term, the capital market has already reacted in advance.

In the booming year of 2025 for robot concepts, Sanhua Intelligent Control’s stock price has been impressive. Wind data shows that Sanhua Intelligent Control’s A-shares rose from around 20 yuan/share at the beginning of 2025 to 55.19 yuan/share on December 31, with an annual increase of 137.27%. The upward trend continued into early 2026, peaking at a historic high of 60.77 yuan/share on January 19 before fluctuating downwards, with the stock price dropping over 20% within the year and a total market value evaporating by over 50 billion yuan; while the Hong Kong stock has increased by 28.33% since its listing.

It is noteworthy that during the stock price surge in 2025, some shareholders of Sanhua Intelligent Control were reducing their holdings. Among the top ten shareholders in A-shares, the concerted action person of the actual controller Zhang Yabo—Zhejiang Sanhua Green Energy Industrial Group Co., Ltd. reduced its holdings by 78.3828 million shares in 2025.