Over two years, losses exceeded 19 billion yuan. Is the leading photovoltaic company seeking survival through executive leadership changes?

Radar Finance Report | Zhou Hui Editing | Meng Shuai

With a market value exceeding 37 billion yuan, the photovoltaic leader TCL Zhonghuan is undergoing a significant management reshuffle.

On March 24, TCL Zhonghuan announced personnel changes, including the resignation of several non-independent directors, including veteran figure Shen Haoping.

At the same time, CEO Wang Yanjun also submitted a written resignation, after which he will remain in the position of vice chairman and will focus on managing the company’s semiconductor materials business.

Just as the company’s management undergoes a dramatic change, TCL Zhonghuan has also released its performance report for 2025. During the reporting period, the company achieved a revenue of 29.05 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.22%, but recorded a net profit loss attributable to shareholders of 9.264 billion yuan during the same period.

Although TCL Zhonghuan’s losses narrowed by 5.56% year-on-year last year, when combined with the staggering loss of 9.818 billion yuan in 2024, TCL Zhonghuan has accumulated losses exceeding 19 billion yuan over the past two years.

Specifically, the new energy photovoltaic business, which is the main revenue driver for the company, saw its revenue decline by 0.28% to 22.725 billion yuan last year, with a gross loss of 2.932 billion yuan.

During the same period, the semiconductor materials business achieved a revenue growth of 21.75% to 5.707 billion yuan, with a gross profit of 1.081 billion yuan, but this was not enough to completely offset the performance “gap” of the photovoltaic business.

Radar Finance noted that shortly before the announcement of this performance and personnel changes, several key business information changes occurred at TCL Zhonghuan’s semiconductor subsidiary, Zhonghuan Leading.

Li Dongsheng and Wang Yanjun succeeded Shen Haoping as chairman and legal representative of Zhonghuan Leading, respectively. Meanwhile, Zhonghuan Leading’s registered capital was increased from 5 billion yuan to 5.394 billion yuan.

As of the market close on March 27, TCL Zhonghuan’s stock price was 9.36 yuan per share, down more than 20% from its high earlier in the year, with a latest market value of approximately 37.8 billion yuan.

TCL Zhonghuan Faces Major Personnel Changes: “Veteran” Resignation and CEO Transition

On March 24, TCL Zhonghuan announced that its board of directors recently received resignation applications from non-independent directors Shen Haoping, Liao Qian, and Zhang Changxu.

For personal reasons, the former applied to resign from the position of director and corresponding committee member of the board, while Zhang Changxu will continue to serve as the company’s Senior Vice President (SVP).

TCL Zhonghuan emphasized that the resignation of the aforementioned directors will not result in the board falling below the legal minimum number and will not affect the company’s legal and standardized operations, nor its normal business development.

Among them, the resignation of director Shen Haoping is particularly noteworthy. As a veteran figure at TCL Zhonghuan, Shen Haoping has worked at Zhonghuan since graduating from the Department of Physics at Lanzhou University in 1983, for over 40 years.

During this period, Shen Haoping held various positions including workshop director, deputy factory manager (chief engineer), factory manager, general manager, and chairman, spanning both the “state-owned enterprise era” and the “TCL era” of Zhonghuan.

In 2020, TCL Technology Group completed its acquisition of Tianjin Zhonghuan Group. Four years later, Shen Haoping stepped back, resigning as CEO while retaining the position of vice chairman.

With the end of the “Shen Haoping era,” the CEO position was briefly held by Li Dongsheng, the founder of TCL Technology Group.

In September 2024, Li Dongsheng handed over the role to Wang Yanjun, marking the arrival of the company’s first “post-80s” CEO.

Public information shows that Wang Yanjun, born in 1983, holds a doctoral degree and is a senior engineer. After joining TCL Zhonghuan, he similarly started from the front lines.

Under the guidance of predecessors like Shen Haoping, Wang Yanjun gradually demonstrated exceptional management capabilities, serving in various key roles such as SVP, CEO, and vice chairman.

However, in this personnel change, Wang Yanjun also submitted a written resignation to the company: to focus on managing the company’s semiconductor materials business, he applied to resign from the positions of CEO and legal representative.

TCL Zhonghuan stated that after resigning, Wang Yanjun will focus on the company’s semiconductor materials business and continue to support the company’s long-term strategies and business development as vice chairman.

At the same time, based on the company’s business management needs, the board of directors approved the appointment of Ouyang Hongping as the new CEO and legal representative, who will also serve as the company’s COO (Chief Operating Officer).

In addition, TCL Zhonghuan has appointed Zhang Haipeng as the company’s SVP, focusing on the management and development of new energy photovoltaic materials.

Over 9 billion in losses for the year, semiconductor business struggles to fill the photovoltaic “gap”

As the management undergoes intensive adjustments, TCL Zhonghuan is facing significant performance pressure, recently delivering an annual report showing losses exceeding 9 billion yuan.

The financial report indicates that in 2025, TCL Zhonghuan achieved a revenue of 29.05 billion yuan, reversing the decline in revenue over the previous two years, but the year-on-year growth rate was only 2.22%.

In terms of profit, TCL Zhonghuan’s net profit attributable to shareholders for the entire year, although narrowed by 5.56% year-on-year, still reached a high loss of 9.264 billion yuan. In the fourth quarter alone, the company’s single-quarter loss exceeded 3.4 billion yuan.

TCL Zhonghuan pointed out in its financial report that in 2025, the imbalance between supply and demand in the photovoltaic industry continued, and the rush to install in the terminal market caused temporary disturbances in industry demand. Despite the anti-involution efforts pushing the prices of silicon materials and wafers up in the third quarter, weak demand and insufficient price transmission, along with new scenarios and applications not materially improving the supply-demand relationship, led to increased operational pressure in the fourth quarter.

In response to these challenges, TCL Zhonghuan is focusing on its core businesses in new energy and photovoltaic semiconductor materials, maintaining strategic determination, addressing business shortcomings, continuing to promote organizational change, improving operational efficiency, and reshaping its competitive advantage.

According to TCL Zhonghuan, in 2025, the company’s market share of photovoltaic silicon wafer business maintained its leading position in the industry; the revenue and shipment volume of the semiconductor materials business also remained among the top in the domestic industry.

However, in terms of overall performance, TCL Zhonghuan’s semiconductor materials business failed to reverse the situation.

During the reporting period, the revenue from the company’s new energy photovoltaic-related business accounted for 78.23%, but the total revenue decreased by 0.28% to 22.725 billion yuan compared to 2024, with a gross loss of nearly 3 billion yuan and a gross margin of -12.9%.

During the same period, the semiconductor materials-related business contributed revenue of 5.707 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.75%, with a gross profit of 1.081 billion yuan and a gross margin of 18.94%. However, the former’s revenue accounted for only 19.64%, making it difficult to fill the performance “gap” of the new energy photovoltaic-related business.

Moreover, on the financial side, TCL Zhonghuan’s performance is also concerning. In 2025, the net cash flow from operating activities was 1.144 billion yuan, a significant decrease of 59.72% year-on-year.

In this regard, TCL Zhonghuan explained that this was mainly due to the increase in sales scale of photovoltaic products, increased receivables turnover, and decreased sales collections.

As of the end of 2025, TCL Zhonghuan’s total assets were 117.997 billion yuan, a decrease of 6.05% compared to the end of the previous year.

Of this, cash and cash equivalents decreased by 7.24% to 11.889 billion yuan, and financial assets held for trading fell sharply by 50.55% to 1.215 billion yuan.

During the same period, TCL Zhonghuan’s total liabilities reached 78.738 billion yuan, with a debt-to-asset ratio of 66.73%, an increase of 3.73 percentage points from the end of 2024, and an increase of 14.9 percentage points from the end of 2023.

Photovoltaic Leader Intensifies Focus on Semiconductor Materials Sector

Radar Finance noted that under the pressure of substantial losses, TCL Zhonghuan is further increasing its investment in the semiconductor materials sector.

According to Tianyancha, on March 19, several significant changes occurred in the business information of TCL Zhonghuan’s subsidiary, Zhonghuan Leading Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Zhonghuan Leading”).

The company’s registered capital was increased from 5 billion yuan to approximately 5.394 billion yuan, with former chairman and legal representative Shen Haoping stepping down, and Li Dongsheng appointed as chairman, while Wang Yanjun took over as legal representative.

The aforementioned changes in business information may also confirm the arrangement in TCL Zhonghuan’s personnel change announcement, stating that Wang Yanjun will “focus on the management of the company’s semiconductor materials business.”

It is worth noting that TCL Zhonghuan originally started with the semiconductor materials business, with its predecessor being the Tianjin Semiconductor Materials Factory established in 1958. Starting in 1969, the company began developing monocrystalline silicon, known as the “king of semiconductor materials.”

In 1981, Zhonghuan entered the photovoltaic industry. In 1984, under Shen Haoping’s leadership, Zhonghuan overcame numerous difficulties, innovating independently in the zone melting method for silicon single crystal technology and successfully pulling out the first large-diameter zone-melted silicon single crystal in the workshop.

After the company went public in 2007, Zhonghuan significantly expanded its production, entering a phase of rapid development.

The aforementioned Zhonghuan Leading, which saw its registered capital increase, was established in December 2017 and serves as the core carrier of TCL Zhonghuan’s “new energy + semiconductor” dual-drive strategy.

According to Tianyancha, Zhonghuan Leading’s business scope includes the research and development, manufacturing, and sales of semiconductor materials, electronic specialty materials, semiconductor devices, and specialized equipment for semiconductor devices.

According to Yixing Daily, as the largest semiconductor silicon wafer manufacturer in China with the most complete product structure, Zhonghuan Leading has built several key projects, including 8-12 inch semiconductor silicon wafers, large diameter semiconductor silicon wafers, and high-speed low-power silicon-based material research and production projects.

In 2024, Zhonghuan Leading’s revenue approached 4.8 billion yuan, accounting for over 40% of domestic silicon wafer output, with a global market share of 7%, ranking first in domestic shipment area and sixth globally.

In 2025, Zhonghuan Leading will continue to expand its capacity, planning an annual investment of 1.134 billion yuan, primarily for the expansion of the semiconductor large wafer project, adding polishing production lines for 8-inch and 12-inch wafers, aiming to achieve a monthly production capacity of 900,000 8-inch wafers and 700,000 12-inch wafers. Once fully operational, it will generate additional annual sales of approximately 2.7 billion yuan.

Additionally, according to TCL Zhonghuan’s financial report, Zhonghuan Leading’s semiconductor materials business achieved a revenue growth of 21.75% during the reporting period, with significantly improved operational efficiency and enhanced product coverage capabilities, maintaining a leading position in revenue and shipment domestically.

After the major management reshuffle, can TCL Zhonghuan successfully overcome its performance challenges? Radar Finance will continue to monitor the situation.