Autonomous vehicle unicorn "Shine" appears in A-shares, Jiushi Intelligent invests 1.1 billion yuan to acquire a stake in Xinghui Environmental Materials

Ask AI · Jiushi Intelligent Cross-industry Investment in Xinghui Environmental Materials, What Strategic Collaborations Are Behind It?

Produced by | Damo Finance

Chaozhou-Shantou billionaire Chen Yansheng’s family-owned listed company Xinghui Environmental Materials (300834.SZ) has introduced strategic shareholder Jiushi Intelligent.

On April 2nd, Xinghui Environmental Materials’ stock price hit the 20% daily limit, closing at 43.49 yuan per share, with a total market value reaching 8.4 billion yuan. Since March 31st, the company’s stock has consecutively hit the daily limit for three trading days, with a total increase of 72.79%.

Behind the sharp stock price increase, Xinghui Environmental Materials recently received indirect investment from Jiushi Intelligent, a star enterprise in autonomous driving.

On the evening of March 30th, Xinghui Environmental Materials announced that the company’s actual controllers Chen Yansheng, Chen Dongqiong, Chen Chuanghuang, and their concerted action partner Chen Yueping plan to transfer part of their shares in Xinghui Holdings and Xinghui Hong Kong to a company under Zelos Group Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “Jiushi Intelligent”), with a total transfer price of about 1.18B yuan.

Before this transaction, Chen Yansheng, Chen Dongqiong, Chen Chuanghuang, and Chen Yueping directly or indirectly held 64.44% of Xinghui Environmental Materials.

Among them, Chen Yansheng, Chen Chuanghuang, and Chen Yueping wholly own Xinghui Holdings, the controlling shareholder of Xinghui Environmental Materials, while Chen Dongqiong wholly owns Xinghui Hong Kong, a shareholder of Xinghui Environmental Materials. Xinghui Holdings and Xinghui Hong Kong hold 29.28% and 19.25% of the listed company’s shares, respectively. Additionally, Chen Yansheng, Chen Chuanghuang, and Chen Yueping also directly hold 2.14%, 2.88%, and 0.88% of the company’s shares.

In this equity transfer, Chen Yansheng, Chen Chuanghuang, and Chen Yueping will transfer 45% of Xinghui Holdings’ shares to a company under Jiushi Intelligent, Jiangsu Jiushi, with a consideration of about 760 million yuan; Chen Dongqiong will transfer 51% of Xinghui Hong Kong’s shares to a company under Jiushi Intelligent, Zelos HK, with a consideration of about 422 million yuan. The total consideration amounts to approximately 1.18B yuan.

After the transfer, Jiushi Intelligent will hold shares in Xinghui Holdings and gain control of Xinghui Hong Kong, thereby controlling 19.25% of the voting rights of Xinghui Environmental Materials. The voting rights held by the Chen Yansheng family will decrease to 45.19%, but they will still maintain control over the listed company.

Through a penetration calculation, the Chen Yansheng family indirectly holds approximately 36.94% of Xinghui Environmental Materials, while Jiushi Intelligent indirectly holds 27.49% of the listed company’s shares.

Jiushi Intelligent stated that within the next 12 months, the company and its concerted action partners may increase their holdings of the listed company’s shares slightly but will not cause a change in control of the company. Jiushi Intelligent also promised that within 36 months after this equity transfer, it will not seek to acquire control or actual control of the listed company by any means, nor does it plan to inject assets into the company.

Who is Jiushi Intelligent?

Jiushi Intelligent, which indirectly invested in Xinghui Environmental Materials, is a well-known domestic autonomous driving company.

Founded in 2021, Jiushi Intelligent specializes in artificial intelligence and L4-level autonomous driving technology research and development. Currently, the company owns the Z series and L series driverless logistics vehicles, as well as sightseeing autonomous vehicles, security autonomous vehicles, and inspection autonomous vehicles.

The founder of Jiushi Intelligent, Kong Qi, has extensive experience in autonomous driving. Kong Qi graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Computer Science Department, then joined Baidu, participating in Baidu’s autonomous driving research. In 2018, Kong Qi joined JD.com, involved in JD’s unmanned delivery vehicle business. In 2021, Kong Qi started his entrepreneurial journey and founded Jiushi Intelligent.

Jiushi Intelligent has developed rapidly in recent years. Since 2022, the company has completed six rounds of financing, with investors including Baidu Venture Capital, Ant Group, Blue Lake Capital, and other well-known institutions. By the end of 2025, the company’s unmanned delivery vehicle business will cover over 300 cities nationwide, with more than 15,000 vehicles deployed.

Since 2025, Jiushi Intelligent has accelerated integration with Alibaba’s ecosystem. In addition to receiving investment from Ant Group, the company also reached a strategic cooperation with Cainiao’s unmanned vehicles in January this year. According to Jiushi Intelligent’s official website, Cainiao will inject its unmanned vehicle business and cash investments, becoming a shareholder of Jiushi. After this strategic cooperation, Cainiao will no longer directly produce or sell unmanned vehicles, while Jiushi will obtain the “Cainiao Unmanned Vehicle” brand authorization, launching dual-brand operations.

Earlier this year, Kong Qi told media that the company began achieving positive cash flow and gross profit margin growth in November and December last year. “We expect nearly tenfold growth in 2025 compared to 2024, and we are confident that 2026 will see even greater scale growth.”

From the public information released by Jiushi Intelligent and Xinghui Environmental Materials, it appears that the two have no direct business interactions prior to this. According to Xinghui Environmental Materials’ announcement, Jiushi Intelligent stated that this indirect investment in the listed company is based on recognition of its intrinsic value and optimism about its future prospects. The Chen Yansheng family said that this equity transfer aims to introduce Jiushi Intelligent as a strategic shareholder.

Prior to this indirect investment in Xinghui Environmental Materials, Jiushi Intelligent had little activity in the capital markets. There were rumors that the company might launch a Hong Kong IPO in the second half of 2025, but no progress has been reported so far.

Chaozhou-Shantou Capital Game

One of the actual controllers of Xinghui Environmental Materials, Chen Yansheng, is a well-known businessman from Chaozhou-Shantou. Chen Yansheng and Chen Dongqiong are married, and Chen Chuanghuang is their son. Chen Yueping is Chen Dongqiong’s elder brother.

Public information shows that Chen Yansheng, after graduating from high school, worked at a fishing gear factory where he met his wife, Chen Dongqiong. In 1995, Chen Yansheng and Chen Dongqiong established Xinghui Plastic Factory, earning their first fortune from toy footballs. Later, the company shifted to producing toy car models. In 2010, Xinghui Car Models (now “Xinghui Entertainment”), controlled by Chen Yansheng and Chen Dongqiong, was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market.

Since 2012, Xinghui Entertainment has undertaken major capital operations, including multiple capital increases and acquisitions of Aise Kai’s controlling stake, which was later spun off to Xinghui Holdings in 2015. Aise Kai is the predecessor of Xinghui Environmental Materials, which was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market in 2022.

Currently, Xinghui Environmental Materials mainly focuses on polystyrene-related business, which is mainly used in electronics, appliances, toys, packaging, and other fields. Since its listing in 2022, its performance has continued to decline. From 2022 to 2024, the revenue was 1.87 billion yuan, 1.6B yuan, and 1.69B yuan, respectively; net profit attributable to shareholders was 140 million yuan, 80 million yuan, and 97 million yuan. In the first three quarters of 2025, revenue was 1 billion yuan, down 21.05% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 40 million yuan, down 44.29% year-on-year.

Regarding future development, Xinghui Environmental Materials previously stated that it will base its growth on the polystyrene industry, expand into other synthetic resin fields, and develop in-depth modifications to create a multi-category, specialized product structure. The goal is to become an internationally renowned supplier of high-polymer new materials. Additionally, leveraging the company’s capital platform, it plans to adjust development strategies and actively explore mergers and acquisitions aligned with high-quality development.

It is noteworthy that, as Xinghui Environmental Materials introduces strategic investors, the Chen Yansheng family’s other listed company, Xinghui Entertainment, is also planning capital operations.

On March 31st, Xinghui Entertainment announced that the board would propose to the shareholders’ meeting to authorize a simplified issuance of shares to specific targets, raising no more than 300 million yuan for projects related to the company’s main business and working capital.