As of January 20, 2026, *ST Aowei (002231) has preemptively sealed its fate for a market cap delisting, with a closing price of 0.85 yuan per share and a total market capitalization falling below 3 billion yuan, making it the first stock this year to be locked in for "market cap delisting."

Rights protection lawyers indicate that for the nearly thirty thousand investors in *ST Aowei, filing a lawsuit for compensation is the only opportunity to recoup losses. Eligible investors can follow the "Investment Express" public account and join the claim via the "Shareholder Claims" menu on the right.

On January 20, *ST Aowei (002231) hit the limit-down again at the open, closing at 0.85 yuan per share, with its total market cap dropping to 2.95 billion yuan. This marks the 13th consecutive trading day its value has remained under 5 billion yuan. According to relevant regulations, if a company's stock closing market capitalization stays below 5 billion yuan for 20 consecutive trading days, the stock will be terminated from trading by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Even if the stock were to hit the daily limit-up (a 5% gain) for the next seven trading sessions, its total market capitalization would struggle to climb back above 5 billion yuan, essentially locking in the delisting ahead of schedule and potentially making it the first company delisted due to market cap in 2026.

Behind the current delisting warning lie the company's persistently deteriorating financial health and severe skepticism from its auditing firm. The 2024 annual report revealed revenues of 291 million yuan, but net profit attributable to shareholders showed a substantial loss of 46.1147 million yuan, with an even deeper loss of 58.3677 million yuan after non-recurring items were excluded. More critically, the accounting firm issued an audit report expressing an inability to form an opinion on the 2024 financial statements.

Facing the delisting crisis, *ST Aowei has issued four risk warning announcements since January 5, 2026. The company emphasized in its announcements that its 2025 annual financial data is currently being calculated and that it will disclose the 2025 performance forecast promptly as required.

However, behind the continuous risk warnings, there are no signs of improvement in *ST Aowei's fundamental business conditions. The company's board of directors has also candidly admitted that there have been no significant changes recently in the company's operational situation or its internal and external operating environment.

In fact, the plight of *ST Aowei is not an isolated case in the capital markets. With the advancement of the registration-based IPO system reform, the mechanism of "delisting as appropriate" is becoming normalized in the A-share market. Unlike other delisted companies, *ST Aowei will not have a delisting consolidation period; trading will be terminated directly once the criteria are met.

In June 2025, *ST Aowei received a "Decision on Administrative Supervision Measures" from the Liaoning Regulatory Bureau. The regulator pointed out that the company had issues with inaccurate information disclosure in its performance forecast.

Initially, in the 2024 annual performance forecast disclosed on January 24, 2025, the company projected revenues between 450 million and 520 million yuan, with a net loss estimated between 32 million and 45 million yuan. However, by April 22, 2025, the company significantly revised its forecast, downwardly adjusting its revenue expectation to a range of 280 million to 299 million yuan and widening the estimated loss to between 50 million and 75 million yuan.

This sudden "face-change" in performance directly caused *ST Aowei's stock price to hit the limit-down for two consecutive trading days on April 22 and 23, 2025, resulting in a cumulative decline of 19.11%.

As of the third quarter of 2025, the company still had 28,150 shareholder accounts. For these investors, there may be an avenue to recover some losses.

Lawyer Liu Peng from Shanghai Huzi Law Firm stated that investors who purchased shares between April 26, 2024, and April 21, 2025 (inclusive), and subsequently sold them or continued to hold them at a loss after April 22, 2025, are eligible to join the claim.