Reported by NUPIAO
On July 28, Zhongji Innolight, already a trillion-yuan market cap company on the A-share market, released its latest announcement, officially setting the global offering price for its H-shares at HKD 980 per share. This move locks in the top spot on Hong Kong’s fundraising scale leaderboard for 2026.
This pricing represents a 3% discount from the upper limit of HKD 1,010 disclosed in the previous prospectus. The base issuance of 54.5 million shares corresponds to fundraising of about HKD 53.4 billion. If the underwriter fully exercises the 15% over-allotment option, issuing an additional 8.175 million H-shares, the total fundraising scale could approach HKD 61 billion.
According to the announcement, on July 29, the company will publicly disclose the subscription enthusiasm, allocation basis, and placement results for its Hong Kong public offering. If the global offering becomes unconditionally effective by 8:00 AM on July 30, the H-shares will begin trading on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at 9:00 AM that day, with a board lot size of 50 shares and an entry threshold of approximately HKD 49,000. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is also introducing a derivatives mechanism, listing multi-cycle options on the first trading day and including the stock as a short-selling target to further boost liquidity.
Some market traders analyzed that, against the backdrop of significantly higher oversubscription multiples, the company’s decision to voluntarily set a small discount on pricing is a pragmatic choice to balance primary market fundraising with secondary market returns. This approach leaves room for the stock price to breathe after listing.
Zhongji Innolight initially submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 30 this year. It received the overseas listing filing notice from the China Securities Regulatory Commission on July 8, passed the listing hearing on July 16, and officially published its Chinese and English prospectuses on July 22, kicking off the public offering. The subscription period ended on July 27. During the public offering phase, market sentiment was red hot, with international placement closing early. Long-term global institutions like Temasek, BlackRock, Hillhouse, Alibaba, and Tencent all jumped on board as cornerstone investors, showing strong faith in the long-term value of the AI optical module track.
The company plans to allocate about 35% of the net proceeds to research and development of optical interconnect products, focusing on cutting-edge technologies like 3.2T optical modules, co-packaged optics (CPO), and near-packaged optics (NPO). About 30% will go toward expanding global production capacity, with the goal of boosting annual capacity from roughly 40 million units to about 90 million units by 2029—over 80% of which will be for 1.6T and higher-speed products. Around 15% will be used for strategic acquisitions and investments along the optical communication value chain, about 10% to strengthen supply chain resilience, and the remaining 10% for working capital.
As a global leader in optical interconnect solutions, Zhongji Innolight was formed through the restructuring of traditional manufacturer Zhongji Equipment and optical communication tech firm Suzhou Innolight. In 2016, the listed company acquired 100% of Suzhou Innolight, officially renamed itself Zhongji Innolight in 2017, and fully pivoted to the computing and optical communication track.
Since 2021, the company has held the top spot in global optical interconnect market revenue for five consecutive years. According to data from third-party firm LightCounting, its overall market share hit 21.2% in 2025, with a global share of over 40% in 800G high-speed optical modules. Its 1.6T high-end products are deeply tied to global AI cloud giants like Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft. The company’s full product line covers optical modules from 10G to 1.6T, while it’s also pushing forward R&D on 3.2T and CPO co-packaging technology, with an R&D team of over 2,200 people.
Zhongji Innolight’s financial reports show that for the full year of 2025, the company achieved operating revenue of RMB 38.24 billion, up 60.25% year-over-year, and net profit attributable to parent company of RMB 10.797 billion, a whopping 108.78% increase—doubling for the second straight year. Its net operating cash flow stood at RMB 10.896 billion, and the gross margin for its optical module business rose to 42.61%. The growth was mainly driven by an optimized product mix, with a rising share of high-priced 800G and 1.6T products in shipments, offsetting the operational pressure from exchange rate losses.
In the first quarter of 2026, as industry enthusiasm surged again, Zhongji Innolight posted single-quarter revenue of RMB 19.496 billion, skyrocketing 192.12% year-over-year, and net profit of RMB 5.735 billion, up a staggering 262.28%. That single-quarter profit already accounted for 53.1% of the entire 2025 net profit. Plus, the company’s gross margin climbed to 46.06%, with net margins breaking 32%, marking a historic high in profitability quality.
Zhongji Innolight revealed that its clients have already provided demand guidance for 2026-2027, with some key customers planning for 2028 needs. This could lead to further increases in capital spending by 2028, with more diverse product types and higher volumes. The main driver behind this is the rapid growth in AI computing demand, with some AI applications already forming closed loops, giving key customers the confidence to ramp up capital investment.
As of the A-share market close on July 27, Zhongji Innolight’s stock traded at RMB 1,076.94, up 2.91%, with a market cap of RMB 1.20 trillion. Recently, the London Stock Exchange released its latest ESG rating, awarding Zhongji Innolight an A- grade, up from a C+ rating the previous year.
