Ceyear Technologies
China’s largest electronic test-and-measurement instrument maker by revenue — a CETC-controlled national research institute’s transformation into a listed ChiNext issuer
Ceyear Technologies (中电科思仪科技股份有限公司) is not a founder-led venture in the Silicon Valley sense. It is a state-owned holding company in electronic measurement instruments, carved out of a national research institute under China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), the country’s principal defense-and-electronics conglomerate. We think the correct entry point for understanding this investment case is not an entrepreneurial narrative but the institutional mechanics of China’s “mixed-ownership reform” (混合所有制改革) program.
The company’s direct predecessor, CETC Instruments Co., Ltd. (中电科仪器仪表有限公司), was incorporated on May 8, 2015. In 2019, CETC’s 41st Research Institute transferred its entire instrument-related business — assets, personnel, and IP — into this entity and its wholly owned subsidiary, Anhui Instruments (安徽仪器), completing the operational consolidation that underlies today’s business. The company then completed a mixed-ownership reform on March 31, 2020, converting to a state-controlled limited liability company, and completed a joint-stock conversion on December 31, 2020, adopting its current name, Ceyear Technologies Co., Ltd. The company holds the symbolic distinction of being CETC’s first second-tier subsidiary to convert to joint-stock form.
This is the company’s second attempt at a public listing. It filed for a STAR Market (科创板) listing in December 2022, but the Shanghai Stock Exchange terminated the review on June 21, 2023 — in substance, a withdrawal. The company re-registered IPO guidance with the Qingdao securities regulator in July 2025 and switched tracks to ChiNext, with its application accepted in December 2025, approved by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange listing committee on April 28, 2026, and cleared for registration by the CSRC on June 12, 2026, ahead of final listing. We flag that the specific reasons for the initial STAR Market withdrawal — whether qualitative eligibility criteria, disclosure gaps, or other factors — are not clearly disclosed in public filings, and we treat this as an information asymmetry risk.
Born 1966; undergraduate degree from Tianjin University; recipient of a State Council Special Allowance, a national-level expert honorific. Rose through CETC’s 41st Research Institute as a staff engineer, deputy head of the technology division, assistant to the institute director, and deputy director, before serving as general manager and chairman of CETC Instruments (Ceyear’s predecessor). His trajectory is a textbook case of research-institute leadership carrying directly into the listed entity’s board.
Born 1971; undergraduate degree from Guilin University of Electronic Technology. Held roles at CETC’s 20th Research Institute from staff engineer up through director of comprehensive planning and director of human resources, then served as deputy general manager of CETC Avionics and director of the military-industrial coordination office within CETC’s defense-industry department, before being appointed Ceyear’s general manager in June 2025. His 2025 disclosed compensation for his partial year in the role was RMB 751,400.
On the pre-IPO cap table, CETC (China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, a wholly state-owned enterprise) directly held 50.54% of shares, while the 41st Research Institute and CETC Investment Holdings (电科投资) — both CETC-controlled affiliates — held additional stakes, bringing CETC’s aggregate control to 69.27% and cementing its position as controlling shareholder and actual controller. State-affiliated industrial investment funds, including the Hefei CETC-Guoyuan Industrial Investment Fund (国元基金) and the CETC Electronic Information Industry Investment Fund (中电基金), participated as financial investors during the reform process.
Ceyear is a research, development, manufacturing, and sales business organized around three product lines: complete instruments (整机), automated test systems (测试系统), and core components (整部件). By the company’s own account in its prospectus, it offers the broadest product category coverage and widest spectrum coverage of any domestic electronic-measurement manufacturer, and is the only Chinese vendor able to benchmark against international leaders across all four of microwave/millimeter-wave, optoelectronic, communications, and basic general-purpose measurement instrument categories.
| Product Line | Sub-Segment | Market Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complete Instruments | Microwave / mmWave measurement | #1 domestic | “Tianhengxing” series launched 2022; includes signal generators and analyzers |
| Complete Instruments | Optoelectronic measurement | Technical breakthrough | Proprietary O-band tunable laser source completed in 2025 |
| Complete Instruments | Communications & general-purpose measurement | Full-band coverage | Next-generation mobile communications test R&D is a named use of IPO proceeds |
| Automated Test Systems | Microwave component/IC test systems; antenna test systems | Customized integration | Bespoke automated test solutions via in-house software development and systems integration |
| Core Components | Microwave/mmWave components | Foundational R&D | Company claims one of the world’s earliest research teams in terahertz (THz) technology (per prospectus) |
Value chain positioning: Midstream competitors include international leaders Keysight, Rohde & Schwarz, and Anritsu, alongside domestic players Rigol Technologies, Saintom Technology (Dingyang), and Ceprei-affiliated Kunheng Shunwei. Downstream customers span Huawei, ZTE, the three major state telecom carriers, SMIC, Will Semiconductor, BYD, and CETC and Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation-affiliated defense and aerospace entities.
Ceyear’s capital history is not a sequence of Western-style venture rounds; it is a state-enterprise reform process punctuated by two separate IPO attempts on two different exchange boards. We note that this path is materially longer and more dependent on political and administrative approval sequencing than a typical high-tech startup’s fundraising timeline.
CETC Instruments Co., Ltd. was incorporated on May 8, 2015 as a wholly CETC-owned entity, establishing the legal vehicle that would later house the consolidated instrument business.
CETC’s 41st Research Institute transferred its entire instrument-related business into CETC Instruments and its wholly owned subsidiary, Anhui Instruments. This is the point at which today’s operating entity was substantively formed.
The company completed its mixed-ownership reform on March 31, converting to a state-controlled limited liability company, then completed joint-stock conversion on December 31, renaming itself Ceyear Technologies Co., Ltd. State-affiliated investors including CETC Investment Holdings and the Guoyuan Fund took equity stakes during this process.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange accepted the company’s STAR Market listing application on December 29, 2022, but announced termination of the review on June 21, 2023. CITIC Securities served as sponsor for this attempt.
The company re-registered IPO guidance with the Qingdao securities regulator on July 24, disclosed completion of guidance on December 8, and had its ChiNext listing application accepted by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange late on December 24. Guotai Haitong Securities replaced CITIC as sponsor.
The Shenzhen listing committee approved the offering on April 28, and the CSRC cleared registration on June 12. Final IPO price was set at RMB 16.00/share on August 28 (44.81x issue P/E, a discount to the 63.1x industry reference). The company listed on ChiNext on September 10, opening up 250.63% on day one and closing with a day-one market capitalization of approximately RMB 52.055bn (~$7.76bn).
36.13% of net proceeds (approximately RMB 542M) is earmarked for general working-capital replenishment, despite the company reporting RMB 1.652bn in cash and cash equivalents at year-end 2025 (39.46% of total assets) and no short-term borrowings on its balance sheet. Operating cash flow was positive across 2023–2025 at RMB 114M, RMB 232M, and RMB 505M, respectively. We flag that several Chinese financial-media outlets have questioned the necessity of a large working-capital raise given the company’s already ample cash position and self-financing capacity.
The global electronic test-and-measurement market is a duopoly-leaning oligopoly dominated by Keysight and Rohde & Schwarz. Per the company’s prospectus, the global market was worth RMB 89.35bn in 2021, with Keysight generating RMB 31.576bn and Rohde & Schwarz RMB 17.533bn — together more than half of global share — while Ceyear generated RMB 1.513bn, ranking first among domestic Chinese vendors. We view the resulting scale gap — Ceyear’s 2021 revenue was under 5% of Keysight’s and roughly 8.6% of Rohde & Schwarz’s — as a persistent structural risk, even as the company holds clear competitive advantages within the domestic market and the broader import-substitution theme.
Broadest product category coverage and widest spectrum coverage of any domestic electronic-measurement manufacturer. Ranked #1 among domestic peers by revenue in 2024 (RMB 2.052bn) and #1 in the microwave/mmWave sub-segment specifically (RMB 1.017bn).
Per the prospectus, the only Chinese vendor capable of benchmarking against international leaders across microwave/mmWave, optoelectronic, communications, and basic measurement instrument categories, with claimed internationally leading performance in select niche segments.
Electronic measurement instruments are classified as a foundational, strategic national industry. The company’s track record spans 300+ national- and provincial-level programs, including crewed spaceflight, lunar exploration, and BeiDou navigation, creating a structural barrier to entry in defense and aerospace-linked demand.
Stable domestic component supply-chain relationships support cost control and price competitiveness relative to foreign brands. The company is positioned as a candidate beneficiary of domestic substitution demand for test equipment amid ongoing US-China technology tensions.
The prospectus states the company hosts one of the world’s earliest research teams focused on terahertz (THz) technology and instrumentation. In 2025 it announced breakthroughs including a proprietary O-band tunable laser source and a 10MHz–120GHz vector network analyzer.
Government subsidies within other income totaled RMB 41.99M, RMB 26.46M, and RMB 137M in 2023–2025, respectively — 23.03%, 9.89%, and 30.56% of pre-tax profit in those years. State-enterprise status affords policy-funding access that partially dampens earnings volatility.
Reading the governance duality: CETC’s controlling stake (69.27%) is a powerful advantage in winning national programs and gaining access to the defense supply chain, but it simultaneously heightens structural dependence on related-party revenue and procurement. We view this ownership structure as carrying two faces at once — a stable revenue anchor and a constraint on commercial independence — and believe any valuation exercise should explicitly resolve whether the market applies an SOE discount or an SOE premium to this name.
Ceyear’s revenue moved from RMB 2.153bn to RMB 2.052bn (-4.7%) to RMB 2.398bn (+16.9%) across 2023–2025, while net profit attributable to the parent rose from RMB 190M to RMB 275M to RMB 438M over the same period — a clear recent earnings inflection. First-half 2026 revenue of RMB 966M was down 2.78% year-on-year, but net profit of RMB 167M was up 4%, extending the margin-improvement trend even as top-line growth softened.
Accounts receivable rose from RMB 513M to RMB 781M to RMB 749M across the reporting period, with overdue proportions of 60.73%, 50.71%, and 58.49%, respectively. As of year-end 2025, disclosures noted an increase in receivables overdue more than one year at affiliated customers including CETC’s 54th and 29th Research Institutes. Separately, revenue concentration among the top five customers declined from 66.28% to 64.35% to 48.31% to 47.37% across the reporting periods disclosed — a positive trend, but still close to half of total revenue, meaning customer-concentration risk has not been fully resolved.
Opportunities include: potential long-term tailwinds from import substitution in electronic test equipment amid intensifying US-China technology competition; structurally sticky demand tied to national strategic programs such as crewed spaceflight, BeiDou, and next-generation mobile communications; further share-gain runway building on the company’s #1 domestic position in microwave/mmWave instruments as of 2025; and potential product-mix upside from breakthroughs in next-generation technologies such as terahertz instrumentation.
Risks include: a persistent absolute scale and technology gap versus Keysight and Rohde & Schwarz (Ceyear’s 2021 revenue was roughly 5–8.6% of these peers’ levels); commercial-independence and related-party pricing concerns arising from heavy revenue and procurement concentration with CETC-affiliated entities; cash-flow variability tied to a receivables book with elevated overdue rates; a company-stated claim that its R&D-to-revenue ratio trails industry averages only because its absolute revenue base is larger than peers’ — an unverified self-reported explanation we treat with appropriate skepticism rather than as established fact; valuation overheating and potential liquidity unwind risk following the +250.63% day-one pop; and regulatory and review uncertainty implied by the company’s earlier withdrawn STAR Market listing attempt in 2023.