Just 18 days have passed since the founder and actual controller Lin Xiucheng was investigated. Lin Kechuang, the general manager and vice chairman of Sanan Optoelectronics, was also detained by relevant departments. On the same day, the company's equity was also frozen, and combined with its first loss from listing last year, this global LED company is experiencing its "darkest moment."
On the evening of April 8, Sanan Optoelectronics announced that Lin Kechuang, the company’s vice chairman and general manager, was detained by the Chongqing Yuzhong District Supervisory Committee on April 7, and a notice of filing was issued.
The announcement specifically mentioned that the company has not received any documents targeting the company or cooperating with the investigation, and has made appropriate arrangements for relevant work. Other directors and senior managers are performing their duties normally, the board of directors is operating normally, and production, operation, and management are normal.
Just on March 22 this year, Lin Xiucheng, the founder and actual controller of Sanan Optoelectronics, was detained by the National Supervisory Commission, causing an uproar in the market. However, less than 20 days later, the news that general manager Lin Kechuang had also been placed on probation once again caused a shock in the market.
It should be mentioned that although corporate leaders have been detained frequently in recent years, it is also rare for both actual controllers and senior executives to be detained within the company at the same time.
According to the company’s earlier announcement, Lin Kechuang is 50 years old and joined the company before it went public in 2008. In addition to being an executive of Sanan Optoelectronics, Lin Kechuang's other identity is Lin Xiucheng's son-in-law.
According to the company’s personnel structure, although founder Lin Xiucheng has retired, he is still the actual controller of the company. Legal person and chairman Lin Zhiqiang is Lin Xiu's eldest son, vice chairman and general manager Lin Kechuang is his son-in-law, and deputy general manager Lin Zhidong is his second son. It can be seen that Sanan Optoelectronics is a typical family business.
It is worth noting that when it was announced that Lin Kechuang was being detained, the equity of the indirect controlling shareholder Sanan Group and the controlling shareholder Sanan Electronics were waiting to be frozen by the Chongqing High Court and the Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court respectively.
Among them, a total of about 257 million shares held by Sanan Group were frozen, accounting for 5.14% of the listed company Sanan Optoelectronics; 1.12 billion shares held by Sanan Electronics were frozen in batches, accounting for 92.28% of its shareholding ratio, accounting for 22.46% of Sanan Optoelectronics. A total of 27.6% of Sanan Optoelectronics was waiting to be frozen on that day.
In addition to the equity interests of Sanan Electronics and Sanan Group that were previously frozen by law, all equity interests in Sanan Optoelectronics held by the two major shareholders have actually been frozen.
Sanan Optoelectronics is a global leader in the LED industry. The company is mainly engaged in the research, development, production and sales of full-color ultra-high brightness LED epitaxial wafers and chips, compound solar cells, PIN photodetector chips, etc. LED refers to light-emitting diodes, which are solid-state semiconductor devices. Its wide application is concentrated in the three major fields of lighting, display screens and signal indication, and extends to special scenarios such as medical treatment and agriculture.
According to the company's 2024 financial report, the company's revenue that year was 16.11 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to the parent company was 253 million yuan, of which the LED chip epitaxial business revenue was approximately 6.037 billion yuan.
As recently as March 30, Lin Kechuang made a public appearance at the company's press conference. At the press conference, Sanan Optoelectronics tried to dissociate itself from Lin Xiucheng’s retention incident, saying that it was an incident involving the actual controller and had nothing to do with Sanan Optoelectronics.
Lin Kechuang also stated at the time that the company had conducted in-depth exchanges with major customers in South Korea and the United States, making it clear that it was an independent incident of the actual controller and would not affect the development of Sanan Optoelectronics as an independent legal entity. Faced with the market's doubts about the company's "mainly relying on government subsidies," he also responded that it is still receiving relevant subsidy payments normally. The government's support for high-tech entities such as San'an Optoelectronics, which is deeply involved in the field of compound semiconductors, has been as strong as ever, emphasizing that the company's operations are legal and compliant and have the ability to self-generate.
At the press conference, Lin Kechuang also focused on the company's capital and debt status, saying that the company maintains close communication with various banks. The company's asset-liability ratio currently remains at a low level and its cash flow is stable, trying to send a signal to the outside world that the company is operating steadily.
However, just a few days after the press conference, Lin Kechuang suddenly encountered a lien situation, which undoubtedly deepened the outside world's doubts about the company's ability to maintain stable operations in the future. This has already been reflected in the stock price of Sanan Optoelectronics.
Since the announcement of Lin Xiucheng’s lien on March 22, Sanan Optoelectronics’ stock price has continued to fall. The stock price dropped from 16.54 yuan per share before the lien to 11.89 yuan per share at the midday closing on April 9.
Affected by the Lin Kechuang lien and equity freeze incident, the company's stock price also fell by 4.19% on the morning of April 9. In less than 20 days, Sanan Optoelectronics’ stock price has fallen by 4.65 yuan per share, a drop of nearly 30% of the stock price before the incident. The total market value has also fallen below 60 billion yuan, falling to 59.319 billion yuan, and the market value has evaporated by more than 23 billion yuan.
In terms of performance, Sanan Optoelectronics has not announced its full-year results for 2025, but judging from the performance forecast released in January this year, the company suffered its first loss since its listing last year, with a net loss attributable to the parent company of between 200 million and 300 million yuan.
At this time, there have been cases in which key personnel of the company have been detained and equity interests have been frozen. The operating conditions of this leading domestic LED company will undoubtedly make it worse.
