On the evening of October 10th, Nanjing Kosmé Chemical Co., Ltd. (Kosmé-CHEM, stock code: 300856) announced with deep sorrow that Zhou Jujing, one of the company's actual controllers, recently passed away due to illness at the age of 82. Zhou Jujing was one of the founders of Kosmé-CHEM and had led and witnessed the company's successful listing on the Shenzhen ChiNext board.

It is noteworthy that while Kosmé-CHEM experienced a period of rapid growth after its IPO, the company is currently facing pressure from declining performance. The latest financial report shows that in the first half of 2025, both the company's revenue and net profit declined by more than 40%.

**Company's Actual Controller Structure to Change**

According to public information, Kosmé-CHEM was established in April 2000 and is one of the world's major sunscreen ingredient manufacturers. The company primarily engages in the research, development, production, and sales of daily chemical raw materials, with products including sunscreen agents and other cosmetic active ingredients, synthetic fragrances, covering multiple categories such as sunscreen agents, anti-dandruff agents, amino acid surfactants, and synthetic fragrances. Kosmé-CHEM is also one of the few domestic daily chemical raw material manufacturers that has passed U.S. FDA audits and European cosmetic ingredient specifications (EFfCI) certification.

Zhou Jujing was known to be relatively low-key, rarely appearing in public view. Public information shows that he established Nanjing Kesheng Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd. in February 2000 (cancelled in November 2020) and served as the company's legal representative. In April of the same year, Zhou Jujing co-founded Nanjing Dijie Technology Co., Ltd. with Yang Dongsheng and others, starting his entrepreneurial journey with domestic trade in fine chemicals, which became the predecessor of Kosmé-CHEM.

Subsequently, Kosmé-CHEM entered a phase of technological accumulation and market expansion, starting from trading business and gradually building its own production base. In November 2010, the company established Anhui Saint-Gobain Chemical Technology Co., Ltd., officially entering the sunscreen agent field. The subsidiary focuses on the research and development of sunscreen intermediate products, with main products including octocrylene and homosalate ultraviolet absorbers.

At the same time, Kosmé-CHEM invested heavily in R&D, obtained certifications such as FDA and EFfCI qualifications, and successfully entered the global mainstream supply chain. In 2016, Kosmé-CHEM completed its joint-stock transformation and successfully listed on the New Third Board, terminating its listing in May 2017. Subsequently, Kosmé-CHEM began targeting A-share listing, until July 22, 2020, when the company rang the bell on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange ChiNext board, becoming the "first cosmetics sunscreen stock."

According to Kosmé-CHEM's announcement, "Zhou Jujing, as one of the company's actual controllers, made important contributions to the company's establishment, growth, and development." As of the announcement date, Zhou Jujing directly held 23.1 million shares of Kosmé-CHEM, accounting for 4.86% of the company's total shares, making him one of the company's two actual controllers. The other actual controller is Zhou Xuming, Zhou Jujing's son, who directly holds 4.41% of the shares.

According to the announcement, "After Zhou Jujing's death, his company shares will be disposed of in accordance with laws and regulations, which will lead to changes in the company's actual controller structure. The company will fulfill its information disclosure obligations regarding subsequent related matters in accordance with relevant laws and regulations." Zhou Jujing did not hold any specific positions at Kosmé-CHEM before his death.

The announcement stated: "The company's board of directors, supervisory board, and senior management are performing their duties normally, and all the company's business management activities are operating normally. This matter will not have a significant impact on the company's production and operations."

It is worth mentioning that in July this year, Zhou Jujing had intended to reduce his company shareholdings. On July 17, Kosmé-CHEM issued a "Pre-disclosure Announcement on Share Reduction by One of the Actual Controllers," stating that Zhou Jujing planned to reduce no more than 14,270,611 shares (not exceeding 3% of the company's total share capital) through block trading or centralized bidding due to personal funding needs.

**Performance Under Pressure: Revenue Declined Nearly 49% Year-on-Year in First Half**

As the "first cosmetics sunscreen stock," Kosmé-CHEM's rise actually began with synthetic fragrances. The company has been engaged in the research, development, production, and sales of synthetic fragrances for more than 20 years. Its products mainly include lily aldehyde, synthetic anethole, 2-acetonaphthone, and p-methoxybenzaldehyde, which can be formulated into various fragrances for use in cosmetics, detergents, oral care products, and other daily chemical products.

Around 2010, Kosmé-CHEM foresaw the enormous potential of the sunscreen market and, through long-term technological research, successfully developed process routes for various sunscreen agents independently, achieving a complete product system, which laid the foundation for the company's later development.

Kosmé-CHEM's sunscreen products not only cover mainstream market categories but also continuously expand new categories, achieving full UVA and UVB spectrum protection coverage, suitable for sunscreen product development in different scenarios. Its sunscreen products include avobenzone (AVB), octocrylene (OCT), octyl methoxycinnamate (OMC), homosalate (HMS), octyl salicylate (OS), bis-ethylhexyloxyphenol methoxyphenyl triazine (P-S), ethylhexyl triazone (EHT), diethylamino hydroxybenzoyl hexyl benzoate (PA), phenylbenzimidazole sulfonic acid (HS), and titanium dioxide.

Currently, Kosmé-CHEM's main customers in the field of sunscreen agents and other cosmetic active ingredients include international giants such as DSM-Firmenich, Beiersdorf, Procter & Gamble, L'Oréal, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson, having deeply integrated into international mainstream market supply chains.

Based on its leading technology and market share in the sunscreen field, Kosmé-CHEM experienced a period of rapid development after its listing in July 2020. Financial reports show that the company's revenues from 2020 to 2023 were 1.008 billion yuan, 1.09 billion yuan, 1.765 billion yuan, and 2.4 billion yuan respectively, with year-on-year growth rates of -8.35%, 8.13%, 61.85%, and 35.99% respectively. Particularly in 2022 and 2023, the company not only achieved significant revenue growth but also saw net profits surge by 192.11% and 89.02% year-on-year to 388 million yuan and 734 million yuan respectively.

However, starting from the third quarter of 2024, Kosmé-CHEM's revenue and net profit began experiencing four consecutive quarters of decline. The company's full-year 2024 revenue declined 5.16% year-on-year to 2.276 billion yuan; net profit decreased 23.33% to 562 million yuan.

In the first half of this year, Kosmé-CHEM's performance came under further pressure. Financial reports show that from January to June 2025, the company's revenue was 721 million yuan, down 48.67% year-on-year; net profit was 65.3 million yuan, down 84.51% year-on-year; non-GAAP net profit was 55.19 million yuan, down 86.22% year-on-year; operating cash flow was 59.68 million yuan, down 89.59% year-on-year.

Among Kosmé-CHEM's three major business segments, the "cosmetic active ingredients and raw materials" business segment declined most severely, with revenue falling 54.76% to 544 million yuan in the first half of the year.

Regarding performance fluctuations, Kosmé-CHEM stated that due to slowing demand growth in the sunscreen market and downstream customers digesting previous inventory, sunscreen agent shipments declined compared to the same period last year. At the same time, affected by customer inventory reduction and increased market competition, sunscreen product market prices in the first half of 2025 fell compared to the same period last year.

Under the combined effect of these factors, Kosmé-CHEM's gross margin also declined to 32.05% in the first half of the year, a decrease of 15.79 percentage points from 47.84% in the same period of 2024.

Kosmé-CHEM has also responded publicly to performance declines multiple times. For example, in investor relations documents in May this year, Kosmé-CHEM explained that part of the reason for the 2024 performance decline was that amid intensified competition in the sunscreen market, the company chose to lower product prices. Additionally, on September 15 this year, Kosmé-CHEM responded to investor questions on an interactive platform, stating that "the company's competitors in the sunscreen field include BASF and Symrise; in terms of care products, the company mainly faces competition from international and domestic companies such as Ajinomoto, Clariant, and Tinci Materials."

Although from Kosmé-CHEM's current organizational structure, Zhou Jujing's death will not significantly impact the company's operations, given the company's current performance and intense market competition pressure, returning to performance growth and maintaining a place in the cosmetic raw materials market will require sustained efforts on multiple fronts.