Yibin, known as the "First City of the Yangtze River," is set to welcome a new Hong Kong Stock Exchange IPO.

On the evening of August 20, Sichuan Yingfa Ruineng Technology Co., Ltd., headquartered in Yibin, Sichuan Province, officially submitted its main board listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, seeking to debut on Hong Kong's capital markets. CITIC Securities International and Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) Limited serve as joint global coordinators.

This company, established less than a decade ago, is accelerating simultaneously on both the capital markets and photovoltaic industry chain stages.

**From Farming Family to Solar Cell Giant**

Yingfa Ruineng's parent company is Shanghai Yingfa Group, founded by Zhang Fayu, who was born in September 1963 in an ordinary rural family in Tianchang, Anhui Province.

His life trajectory underwent several turning points: from military service and returning home as a driver after discharge, to quitting his job in 1986 to start a family workshop, earning his first fortune by processing high-voltage caps, high-voltage packages, and other TV component accessories.

In 1991, during Pudong's development and opening up, he seized the opportunity by investing over 3.5 million yuan to purchase 20 acres of land near Pudong Airport, building factories and establishing Shanghai Pudong Yingfa Electronics Co., Ltd.

After years of development, Yingfa Group has grown into a large comprehensive enterprise covering photovoltaic cells, new energy power stations, electronic operations, and industrial operations, with over 6,000 employees and annual output value of approximately 20 billion yuan.

In 2016, as China's photovoltaic industry was in rapid development, Zhang Fayu made another astute move, establishing Anhui Yingfa Ruineng Technology Co., Ltd. in his hometown Tianchang in June that year, beginning solar cell production and formally entering the photovoltaic cell sector.

In May 2025, Yingfa Ruineng relocated its headquarters to Yibin and renamed itself Sichuan Yingfa Ruineng Technology Co., Ltd., establishing its industrial focus in this southwestern city along the upper Yangtze River.

Currently, Yingfa Ruineng has established four major production bases in Yibin, Sichuan; Tianchang, Anhui; Indonesia; and Mianyang, Sichuan, with Yibin being the largest domestic base and Indonesia serving as the company's first overseas manufacturing base.

According to the prospectus, Yingfa Ruineng plans to allocate approximately 60% of net fundraising proceeds toward expanding and upgrading its Indonesian base to increase production capacity for N-type TOPCon cells and P-type PERC cells.

As an important hub in the Southeast Asian market, Indonesia is expected to become the company's overseas expansion outpost.

**Industry Dark Horse**

With numerous photovoltaic cell manufacturers, standing out is not easy. Yingfa Ruineng's rise was perfectly timed with industry rhythms.

In 2021, the company astutely captured market opportunities for P-type PERC large-format cells, becoming one of the earliest photovoltaic cell manufacturers to deploy 210mm large-format cell production lines.

In 2022, when N-type cell opportunities began emerging, Yingfa Ruineng quickly pivoted again, accelerating development of N-type TOPCon cell technology and production base construction.

In 2024, Yingfa Ruineng signed strategic cooperation agreements with major customers for N-type HPBC cells, with the first phase 6.0GW N-type xBC cell production line beginning trial production in May 2025.

According to Frost & Sullivan data, by August 2025, Yingfa Ruineng had become the world's first professional manufacturer to achieve commercial production of N-type xBC cells.

The prospectus shows that as of April 2025, the company's production capacity had all converted to mainstream 182mm and larger format cells, primarily including 32.7GW annual capacity for N-type TOPCon cells.

Supported by capacity and technological breakthroughs, Yingfa Ruineng's market share rapidly increased. Frost & Sullivan data shows the company achieved 14.7% global market share for N-type TOPCon cells in 2024, ranking third globally.

InfoLink Consulting statistics show that in the first half of 2024, Yingfa Ruineng first entered the global Top 5 cell shipment rankings, tying for fourth place with A-share listed Shanghai Aiko Solar Energy Co.,Ltd. (600732.SH).

Previously, Yingfa Ruineng had always been among the "others" in rankings. By the first half of 2025, Yingfa Ruineng had leaped to third place globally in photovoltaic cell shipment rankings.

The "GEI China Unicorn Enterprise Research Report 2025" compiled by Great Wall Strategy Consulting shows Yingfa Ruineng's valuation has reached $1.1 billion.

**Financial Data Volatility and Transformation**

Financially, Yingfa Ruineng has experienced both growing pains and demonstrated resilience.

According to the prospectus, from 2022 to 2024, company revenues were 5.643 billion yuan, 10.494 billion yuan, and 4.359 billion yuan respectively, with 2.408 billion yuan recorded in the first four months of 2025.

From 2023 to 2024, company revenue declined sharply by 58.5%, primarily due to exiting P-type PERC cell business.

The Tianchang base's P-type PERC cell production lines shut down in September 2024, with the company no longer recognizing related revenues.

Transformation costs were reflected in profitability. In 2023, the company recorded gross profit of 920 million yuan with an 8.8% gross margin; in 2024, it recorded a gross loss of 322 million yuan with gross margin turning to -7.4%.

However, with N-type TOPCon cell business scaling up, the company recorded gross profit of 573 million yuan in the first four months of 2025, with gross margin recovering to 23.8%.

Simultaneously, the company's business structure underwent significant changes: N-type TOPCon cells' revenue contribution rose from 0% in 2022, to 7.1% in 2023, rapidly climbing to 81.2% in 2024, and reaching 95.5% in the first four months of this year, becoming the absolute core business.

**Major Customer Strategy and Capital Support**

The photovoltaic industry chain has high concentration, making binding with leading customers crucial. The prospectus discloses that from 2022 to 2024, among the top ten global photovoltaic module suppliers by shipment volume, Yingfa Ruineng covered 4, 9, and 9 customers respectively. Leading enterprises including LONGi Green Energy and Trina Solar are on the customer list.

In terms of financing, since June 2022, Yingfa Ruineng has completed four funding rounds with cumulative consideration of approximately 2.224 billion yuan.

Investors include Yibin High-tech Investment, Yibin Green Energy, National Green Development Fund, Donghe Venture Capital, Jianxin Investment, Jinyumao, Pengying Venture Capital, and Qiancheng Phase II, among other institutions.

Regarding equity structure, the Zhang Fayu family collectively controls approximately 49.10% voting rights of Yingfa Ruineng's shareholders' meeting, Yibin state-owned related enterprises collectively hold 26.51% equity, and the National Green Development Fund holds 7.86% shares.

This structure gives the company both private enterprise flexibility and state-owned background resource support.

It should be noted that the Zhang Fayu family controlling Yingfa Ruineng has four members:

Zhang Fayu, 61 years old, serves as Yingfa Ruineng's Chairman and Executive Director;

Zhang Min, Zhang Fayu's daughter, 36 years old, serves as Executive Director and General Manager;

Zhang Jie, Zhang Fayu's son, 32 years old, serves as Executive Director and Deputy General Manager;

Luo Baoying, Zhang Fayu's wife and mother of Zhang Min and Zhang Jie, does not hold positions on Yingfa Ruineng's board or management team.

Additionally, Wu Qingbao, Zhang Min's spouse, while not among Yingfa Ruineng's controlling shareholders, serves as Non-executive Director at the company.

**Second-Generation Leader Zhang Min Takes the Helm**

Yingfa Ruineng's rapid rise is closely related to second-generation leader Zhang Min's leadership.

Born in September 1988 in rural Tianchang, Zhang Min describes herself as a left-behind child, with her parents taking her brother to Shanghai while she grew up with her grandparents.

After elementary school graduation, Zhang Min was brought to Shanghai by her father. Worried about keeping up with big city teaching standards, she repeated fifth grade.

At 17 during her second year of high school, Zhang Min went to the UK, beginning completely independent living away from family, and completed university in London.

In July 2010, Zhang Min obtained a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Banking and International Finance from Cass Business School (now Bayes Business School) under City University of London (now City, University of London).

After graduating and returning to China, she didn't immediately join the family business, instead using her study abroad professional knowledge to work at fund companies and securities firms.

She subsequently joined Yingfa Group, handling finance and foreign trade. In 2018, Zhang Fayu assigned Zhang Min to shoulder Yingfa Ruineng's responsibilities.

Since serving as General Manager in 2021, Zhang Min has led the construction of the Yibin base and N-type TOPCon cell capacity transformation.

At work, she's known for high efficiency, barely taking lunch breaks. She has expressed hopes to build Yingfa into "the CATL of the photovoltaic industry."

In the industry, Zhang Min has received numerous honors, including "PVBL2024 Global Photovoltaic Industry Person of the Year" and "AsiaSolar 2024 Asian Photovoltaic Innovation Figure."

In her personal life, she married her childhood friend Wu Qingbao and currently has three children: twin sons over seven years old and a daughter over five.

Despite having three children, Zhang Min maintains excellent physical fitness. She believes that if you can't manage yourself well, how can you manage a company well?

**Conclusion**

From a global market perspective, photovoltaic cells are in a rapid expansion period, with N-type TOPCon quickly replacing P-type as the mainstream technology route and expected to continue scaling over the next five years.

Both globally and in the Chinese market, N-type TOPCon cell scale is steadily climbing.

For Yingfa Ruineng, established less than a decade ago, listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is not only a crucial leap in capital operations but also a strategic advantage in technology iteration and market competition.

From obscurity to global top three, Yingfa Ruineng has fully demonstrated its dark horse industry qualities.

Whether it can maintain its position during industry consolidation and realize its vision as "the CATL of photovoltaics" remains to be verified by time and market.