Xinzi Ups the Ante With Larger Nasdaq IPO Even As Delisting Risks Grow For Chinese Firms

Despite reporting a net loss and falling revenue last year, the thin-film solar packaging firm has doubled the size of its Nasdaq share sale

Key Takeaways:

Xinzi Optoelectronics has filed for a Nasdaq IPO, reporting its revenue fell last year as China's solar industry suffers from massive overcapacity

The company is banking on robust demand, citing forecasts that predict sales of its core thin-film solar products will more than double between 2019 and 2029

Hangzhou Xinzi Optoelectronics Technology Co. Ltd.'s (XZ.US) new decision to supersize its Nasdaq IPO may be raising some eyebrows, especially given its weak financials and growing wariness of U.S. investors towards Chinese companies.

Instead of joining the recent stampede by Chinese companies flocking to Hong Kong, the relatively small solar film maker packaging chose the Nasdaq, where it first filed to list in March. Now, Xinzi disclosed last week it is raising its offering by 150%, from an original 1.5 million shares to 3.8 million, giving it a potential market cap of up to $116 million.

Xinzi is a niche player in the market for thin-film products, making packaging that is used to protect standard solar modules. Such films can also be mounted on windows and other transparent surfaces to generate electricity, though their power conversion rates are generally lower than traditional solar panels.

Xinzi's confidence behind its upsized offer may come from a growing market for its thin film products, whose global sales were worth 9.9 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in 2024 and are forecast to rise to 15.5 billion yuan by 2029, according to third-party market research in its prospectus. The company is focusing on customers in the Suqian Economic Development Zone in Jiangsu province, including industry major Trina Solar (688599.SS).

Xinzi says companies in the zone have the annual capacity to produce solar panels with up to 40 GW of power generation, or 400 million square meters of panels annually, which would require 800 million square ...