What is the first major risk: What exactly happened to the company?

Ask AI · Why did Hexin Instruments slide from industry pioneer to ST edge?

Text | Li Delin

With the halo of being the first stock in the industry, it was expected to “break foreign monopoly.” Five years have passed, and the company has been constantly transforming and acquiring, with decreasing revenue and increasing losses—completely different from before going public—and now it’s on the verge of ST. What exactly happened?

Today’s main character is Hexin Instruments, which was listed on the STAR Market in September 2021 and was praised by the market as the “Number One Stock in Mass Spectrometers.” The stock surged 420% on its debut. The company’s main business is integrated research, production, and sales of mass spectrometers. Why was the market so enthusiastic at the time? It is said that their mass spectrometers are high-end analytical instruments that identify and quantify substances by measuring the mass of charged particles. Mainly used in environmental, pharmaceutical, food, and national security fields. Previously, they relied on imports worth billions annually.

Before Hexin Instruments went public, the mass spectrometer field was monopolized by giants like Danaher and Thermo Fisher, with 90% of the global market share in the hands of these giants. Imagine the shock to investors when Hexin Instruments went public: the founder returned from a renowned U.S. national laboratory, and within four years developed a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, then for years developed multiple products, breaking foreign monopolies and even exporting to the West. Industry’s first stock, domestic substitution, a market worth billions annually.

Financial statements are the company’s health report. In 2017, Hexin Instruments had revenue of 92.52 million yuan, gross profit of 64.49 million yuan, net profit of 15.42 million yuan, and a non-recurring loss of 4.79 million yuan. By 2018, the company entered a growth phase, with revenue rising to 124 million yuan, gross profit 85.09 million yuan, net profit 20.04 million yuan, and non-recurring profit of 10.06 million yuan. Whether due to genuine improvement in fundamentals or preparations for listing, by 2020, revenue and profits grew year after year, with net profit doubling, looking prosperous.

In the year Hexin Instruments listed, its performance started to change. Despite a record-high revenue of 464 million yuan and gross profit of 239 million yuan, net profit after non-recurring items dropped to 44.33 million yuan. By 2022, it simply fell apart: revenue plummeted to 280 million yuan, net loss of 63.33 million yuan, and non-recurring loss of 92.18 million yuan. After that, revenue, gross profit, net profit, and non-recurring net profit all plunged. The 2025 performance forecast shows revenue of 9.7 million yuan and a net loss of 89 million yuan.

It’s over. According to the rules of the stock exchange, companies listed on the ChiNext or STAR Market with net profit negative in the last year, revenue below 100 million yuan, negative net assets, or reports with unqualified opinions or adverse audit opinions, will be ST. Based on the quick report, Hexin Instruments, as the first stock in mass spectrometers, is just a matter of time before ST. Time is a good remedy. Before the market on September 24, 2024, Hexin Instruments’ stock price was around 15 yuan, with a market value just over 1 billion yuan. When the market arrived, some started to stir.

The September 24, 2024 market saw a winter offensive in A-shares, and Hexin Instruments also began to rise steadily, doubling in the fourth quarter of 2024. Although the company’s revenue that year was only 203 million yuan, with a loss of 45.99 million yuan, accounts receivable reached 108 million yuan—over 50% of revenue—and operating cash flow was negative 8.21 million yuan. Imagine: the company has orders but no cash; the goods sold can’t be collected. Is this a good business? Yet, the market was crazy about the first stock in mass spectrometers.

Is money really that foolish? No, money is smart. If money is smart, then the boss of Hexin Instruments is the smartest. In October 2024, the company announced the acquisition of Shanghai Liangxi Technology. The company mainly focuses on ultra-low temperature, ultra-weak signal measurement and control equipment for quantum computing. China has achieved breakthroughs like “Zuchongzhi No. 3” in superconducting quantum chips, and the market is optimistic that the global quantum computing market will reach 811.7 billion USD by 2035—too tempting.

Liangxi Technology was only two years old at the time, and Hexin’s boss really invested heavily in this deal. As for their main business, mass spectrometers, in 2020—the year before listing—R&D investment accounted for over 21% of revenue, which was 310 million yuan, meaning R&D expenses exceeded 60 million yuan that year. By 2024, it dropped to 32.8 million yuan—a decline of over 50%. In 2023, the company had 684 employees; by 2024, only 276 remained, cutting 102 R&D staff. Now, Hexin Instruments has only 43 R&D personnel.

As the industry’s first stock to break international monopoly, technology was the key pricing anchor. During the acquisition of Liangxi Technology in 2024, the company also drastically cut R&D staff, from 302 in 2023 down to 151. The company explained that they had basically achieved full coverage of the technical route and that product lines were nearly complete, so they gradually adjusted R&D resource allocation. The company mentioned in annual reports that high R&D investment impacts overall performance, so adjustments were necessary.

Hexin Instruments’ desperate survival seems to have no hope in the 2025 financial report. However, its stock price rose from a peak in the second half of 2025 to 166 yuan, a tenfold increase from before September 24, 2024. This might be related to a promotional report from Minsheng Securities in August 2025 titled “Traditional Main Business Losses Significantly Narrow, Quantum Leap Forward.” Promotions are always short-lived; the stock quickly fell from 166 yuan to over 90 yuan. Unexpectedly, after the earnings forecast, it rebounded to around 138 yuan—still a quantum concept.

Promoters really have two faces.

They predicted Hexin Instruments’ 2025 revenue could reach 213 million yuan with a loss of 19 million yuan. Clearly, they were wrong. According to the company’s forecast, revenue would be less than 100 million yuan with a loss of 89 million yuan. The promoters probably felt embarrassed about their hype and said that in 2026 and 2027, the company would still be losing money. They issued a “cautious recommendation.” In the industry jargon, that means: if it rises, they will boast, “Look, we recommended it”; if it falls, they will say, “I was cautious, you didn’t listen.”

The industry’s first stock, after cutting a large part of R&D, has lost its halo of domestic substitution and breaking monopolies. Revenue and profit have fallen into the ST zone. If the forecast isn’t far off, ST is just a matter of time. Now, Hexin Instruments’ stock price is rollercoastering. Can quantum concepts save it? Revenue and profit are always the measures of a company’s value. Facing Hexin Instruments on the verge of ST, perhaps the public will say it’s like a clay Buddha crossing the river—unable to protect itself.