The gambling deadline for listing is pressing, and Century Digital's performance declines is "breaking through" the Beijing Stock Exchange

every reporter| Chen Qing     every edited| wenduo    
At the critical moment of rushing for listing on the Beijing Stock Exchange, Zhengzhou New Century Digital Technology Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Century Digital"), a manufacturer of digital printing equipment, has welcomed changes in investors.
After more than three years of hard work, the original institution cleared its position in April this year. Almost at the same time, the new investor signed a gambling agreement with the actual controller Jin Lifeng, stipulating that the company's listing application must be accepted before the end of June 2025. It will be successfully listed before the end of June 2027, otherwise a repurchase will be triggered.
Although the company's listing application was accepted on June 30, it is difficult to conceal the recent weak performance: in the first half of this year, the company's revenue and net profit both fell, and non-net profit deducted fell by more than 20%.
Century Digital takes digital jet printing technology as its core, and its main business focuses on the industrial applications of textile digital printing, advertising logos and corrugated carton packaging digital printing. It specializes in digital inkjet printing machines, digital printers, corrugated color box digital printing machines, etc. Research and development, production and sales of jet printing equipment and related accessories and consumables.
Photo source: Screenshot of Century Digital's prospectus (application draft)
The controlling shareholder and actual controller of Century Digital is Jin Lifeng, who directly holds 88.24% of the company's shares. The company was listed on the New Third Board in 2016, and was listed twice in January 2024 after delisting in 2019.
In October 2021, the company started capital increase, and Henan Zhongchuangxin Environmental Protection Industry Venture Capital Fund (Limited Partnership)(hereinafter referred to as Zhongchuangxin Fund) subscribed for 3.34 million shares, with a total investment of 40.08 million yuan. By the completion of the capital increase in November of the same year, the shareholding ratio of China Chuangxin Fund reached 10.02%.
The above investment is accompanied by a gambling clause, stipulating that Century Digital's net profit targets from 2021 to 2023 are 28 million yuan, 36 million yuan and 44 million yuan respectively. If the company fails to achieve an IPO (initial public offering) before the fund liquidation period, or the performance completion rate for any annual period from 2021 to 2023 is less than 60%(inclusive), the fund has the right to request Jinlifeng to repurchase shares.
Photo source: Screenshot of Century Digital's 2023 Public Transfer Instructions
After that, even though Century Digital was in the critical period of listing, China Chuangxin Fund still chose to "withdraw step by step": in March 2023, it transferred 1.34 million shares it held to Jinlifeng at a price of 13.38 yuan per share. The total consideration is approximately 17.93 million yuan.
Among the remaining 2 million shares, China Chuangxin Fund reduced its holdings of 100 shares through collective bidding in April 2025, with the remaining 199.990,000 shares were transferred to Jinan Quanyun Huguang Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership)(hereinafter referred to as Jinan Quanyun, which transferred 1.35 million shares at that time, accounting for 4.05% of Century Digital's total shares) and Shandong Huiyi Venture Capital Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as Huiyi Venture Capital, which transferred 649,900 shares at that time, accounting for 1.95% of the company's total shares), and the transfer price was 14.77 yuan/share.
Century Digital explained in the announcement that the withdrawal of China Chuangxin Fund was due to the company's failure to complete the IPO before its liquidation period, triggering a gambling repurchase clause.
It is worth mentioning that when transferring shares, Jinan Quanyun and Huiyi Venture Capital both re-signed a gambling agreement with Jinlifeng: if Century Digital fails to complete the listing application acceptance before June 30, 2025, or fails to implement the listing in 2027. The issuance and listing are realized before June 30, the two institutions have the right to request a repurchase.
Although Qi Enhui, general manager of Huiyi Venture Capital, and Li Hongmei, partner of Jinan Quanyun Limited, are husband and wife, the company's prospectus (application draft) states that Huiyi Venture Capital and Jinan Quanyun have not signed a concerted action agreement and do not constitute a concerted action person. This change in equity structure has attracted regulatory attention. The Beijing Stock Exchange recently sent an inquiry letter to Century Digital, requiring the company to explain the rationality of Huiyi Venture Capital and Jinan Quanyun not acting in concert, and whether there are cases of circumventing shareholder commitments and restrictions on reducing shareholding ratios by reducing the shareholding ratio.
From 2021 to 2024, Century Digital achieved revenue of 363 million yuan, 414 million yuan, 571 million yuan and 569 million yuan, and the net profit attributable to owners of the parent company was 20.6766 million yuan, 31.7929 million yuan, 49.8781 million yuan and 57.2966 million yuan. Although the overall growth trend is showing, compared with the previously agreed gambling performance targets with China Chuangxin Fund (i.e., net profit from 2021 to 2023 shall not be less than 28 million yuan, 36 million yuan and 44 million yuan respectively), we can find that Century Digital has not achieved its goals in 2021 and 2022.
Not only that, Century Digital's revenue in 2024 will decline slightly year-on-year. The company said this was based on two reasons: First, the company concentrated its resources on core technology products and businesses, reducing sprinkler sales; second, advertisers 'budgets tended to be conservative, and downstream manufacturers' willingness to purchase equipment decreased, resulting in a decrease in digital printer revenue in 2024 compared with 2023. The decrease was approximately 22.0674 million yuan.
Entering the first half of 2025, Century Digital's performance declined even more year-on-year: in the first half of the year, the company achieved revenue of 311 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.4%; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 24.1085 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.45%; After deducting non-profit, the net profit was 22.7908 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 20.04%.
It is noteworthy that Century Digital, which previously emphasized "concentrating resources on core technology products and businesses" in 2024, spent 13.0365 million yuan in R & D expenditures in the first half of 2025, a year-on-year decrease of 5.32%.
Looking at 2022 to 2024, the company's R & D expenses are 14.5636 million yuan, 18.4865 million yuan and 24.1999 million yuan respectively, accounting for 3.52%, 3.24% and 4.25% of revenue respectively.In the same period, the R & D expenses of comparable companies-Honghua Digital Technology(688789.SH) and Runtianzhi (832246.NQ) both accounted for more than 6%. Century Digital's R & D investment level has long been lower than the industry average.
Photo source: Screenshot of Century Digital's prospectus (application draft)
In contrast to the contraction in R & D investment, the company's sales expenses increased. In the first half of this year, the company's sales expenses were 12.7653 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47.73%. The company explained that this was mainly due to the increase in sales staff salaries, as well as the increase in participation in exhibitions and advertising fees. However, the company's revenue in the first half of the year fell 4.4% year-on-year, indicating that sales investment did not effectively boost revenue.
From the perspective of product structure, digital inkjet printing machines and digital printers are the core products of Century Digital. From 2022 to 2024, the combined revenue of the two accounted for more than 70% of the company's main business income. In the first half of 2025, revenue from these two products fell by 10.7% and 16.36% respectively.
Regarding issues related to the listing, a reporter from "Daily Economic News" called Century Digital on September 16 and sent an interview email to the company. The company replied that public information such as the prospectus should prevail.