A PhD graduate from Huazhong University of Science and Technology has been an entrepreneur for 18 years, leading a photovoltaic laser equipment company worth 20 billion yuan. Now, they are planning to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange!

Hua Xia Energy Network learned that on March 12, leading photovoltaic laser equipment manufacturer Dier Laser (SZ: 300776) announced its plan to issue overseas-listed shares (H-shares) and list on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Dier Laser stated that this move aims to deeply advance its international strategic layout, create a diversified capital operation platform, and enhance its international brand image and overall competitiveness in the global market.

Dier Laser currently has a total market value of around 20 billion, being the first company in China to introduce laser technology into the photovoltaic solar cell production line. Its business is highly concentrated in the field of photovoltaic laser equipment, holding the number one global market share, with clients including major photovoltaic leaders such as Longi Green Energy (SH: 601012) and Jinko Solar (SH: 688223).

On the same day, Dier Laser also released its preliminary performance report for 2025, reporting a total revenue of 2.033 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year growth of 0.93%; net profit was 519 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 1.59%. Notably, this is the first time in six years since the company went public that it has experienced a profit decline.

Since its establishment, Dier Laser has seized every opportunity during the iterations of photovoltaic technology, achieving rapid growth. In the recent two years of the BC boom, the company has once again maintained its leading position. However, the performance has not reflected the BC opportunities, and the company has instead encountered a growth “bottleneck.”

At this time, the push to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and initiate the internationalization process may be a good breakthrough strategy for Dier Laser.

PhD from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, precisely seizing the industry dividend period

Dier Laser’s Chairman and General Manager Li Zhigang was born in June 1976. He holds a PhD in Physical Electronics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (referred to as “HUST”) and was selected in 2002 for a joint training program between the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, studying for two years at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Subsequently, Li Zhigang also served as General Manager at Zhuhai Yuemao Laser.

In 2008, Li Zhigang founded Dier Laser in Wuhan. In 2019, Dier Laser was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s Growth Enterprise Market. Currently, Li Zhigang directly holds 39.87% of Dier Laser’s shares and indirectly controls 1.67% of Dier Laser’s shares through Wuhan Suneng Enterprise Management Partnership (Limited Partnership), totaling 41.54% control of Dier Laser’s shares.

Li Zhigang’s specialty is lasers. After graduation, he worked in laser companies and started his own business in lasers. It can be said that Dier Laser’s technical strength is quite good. Perhaps also due to his confidence in his technical capabilities, after starting the business, Li Zhigang did not choose to develop laser marking equipment with a low technical threshold, but instead plunged into the research and development of photovoltaic laser equipment.

Dier Laser Chairman Li Zhigang

However, unfortunately, shortly after Li Zhigang started his business, the photovoltaic industry entered a downturn, and Dier Laser quickly fell into a situation of insufficient funds. Before 2015, to survive, Dier Laser expanded its business into precision laser processing equipment for consumer electronics such as ceramics and glass while also working on photovoltaic laser equipment.

In 2016, Chinese photovoltaic companies began large-scale PERC production line layouts; by 2018, the global market share of PERC cells exceeded 50%, officially replacing aluminum back contact cells as the market mainstream. Seeing the industry opportunity, Dier Laser focused all its efforts on solar cell laser processing equipment, achieving significant breakthroughs.

Dier Laser successfully developed PERC ablation equipment and PERC SE doping equipment in 2014 and 2016 respectively, becoming the first domestic company to apply laser equipment to the mass production of PERC processes. PERC cells using SE equipment can achieve an absolute increase in photoelectric conversion efficiency of 0.2% to 0.3% compared to ordinary PERC cells, making them popular with customers.

Relying on these two pieces of equipment, Dier Laser quickly rose to become the absolute leader in the field of photovoltaic laser equipment. By the end of 2018, approximately 77% of the PERC process capacity of major photovoltaic cell manufacturers used Dier Laser’s equipment, while about 86% of the SE process capacity also utilized Dier Laser’s equipment.

In 2022 and 2023, TOPCon capacity surged, initiating a new wave of technological iteration, with SE doping equipment playing another important role in the technological transition. In May 2023, Jinko Solar (SH: 688223) stated on an interaction platform that TOPCon cells were primarily enhanced by laser SE, improving efficiency by over 0.2% to 0.3%.

Dier Laser once again seized the dividend from this technological iteration. By early 2023, Dier Laser’s TOPCon photovoltaic cell SE single-laser doping equipment orders had cumulatively exceeded 100 GW.

Subsequently, Dier Laser also developed laser selective thinning (TCP) equipment, laser isolation passivation (TCI) equipment, and laser-induced sintering (LIF) equipment for TOPCon cell technology. In August of last year, Dier Laser announced that TCP equipment had received mass production orders for TOPCon cells, and the mass production introduction of TCI equipment was progressing smoothly.

BC laser equipment appears lively, but the benefits are not obvious

Having repeatedly captured the dividends of photovoltaic technology iterations, Dier Laser has recently stood at the forefront of the rise of BC technology in the last two years.

Currently, Dier Laser’s main products in BC technology are the laser micro-etching series equipment, referred to as “laser patterning technology” by battery manufacturing companies. This technology replaces traditional photolithography technology and is considered a key to the industrialization of BC by many industry experts.

Due to this technology significantly reducing the process flow, it can greatly lower the manufacturing cost of BC cells. Taking Aiko Solar as an example, after applying laser patterning technology, the production steps of its ABC cells were reduced from over 20 to 12, and the overall production cost of the cells decreased by more than 60%, solving the problem of mass production difficulty for ABC cells.

Additionally, Dier Laser has developed a new component laser welding process, which can simplify the production process, reduce damage to the cells, improve welding quality, and enhance component efficiency. “This technology is particularly suitable for designs without main grid lines and for BC cells with high precision requirements,” Dier Laser stated.

In October of last year, Dier Laser revealed that the new laser welding for BC components had achieved pilot orders with good verification results, and they expected to achieve breakthroughs in GW-level mass production orders in the fourth quarter. The application of this technology in non-BC processes is also being advanced and has been verified across different clients.

It is worth noting that this component welding technology is compatible with both silver paste processes and copper paste processes. Currently, with the skyrocketing price of silver, which constitutes the largest share of non-silicon costs in photovoltaic cells, photovoltaic companies are intensifying their research to replace silver with metals like copper. In this context, the market prospects for this component welding technology appear even broader.

In addition to technological advantages, from a quantitative perspective, currently, no other BC laser equipment can compete with Dier Laser’s products, and Dier Laser holds an absolute monopoly in the BC laser equipment field.

Hua Xia Energy Network noted that in October 2024, Dier Laser announced that it had signed contracts worth over 1.2 billion yuan for “laser equipment and renovations” with leading photovoltaic companies and their controlled entities. Dier Laser predicts, “The domestic BC market is expected to have a demand for 40-50 GW of capacity expansion by 2026.” This also provides room for the company’s revenue growth.

However, the BC iteration seems lively, but Dier Laser’s actual benefits are not substantial. The company’s slight revenue increase and profit decline in 2025 is evidence of this.

2020-2024 Dier Laser profit fluctuation

Additionally, Dier Laser responded to investors on its investor relations platform last December, stating, “In 2025, the company will continue to secure mass production orders for BC laser equipment from leading clients. If the major contracts signed reach the information disclosure standard, we will strictly adhere to the disclosure obligations as per the ‘Shenzhen Stock Exchange Growth Enterprise Market Listing Rules’ and other regulations.”

This means that Dier Laser’s order volume for BC laser equipment in 2025 may not be large, at least below the 1 billion yuan disclosure threshold.

The reasons behind this may include two aspects: first, BC capacity has not increased as expected by external parties, and BC companies’ actual demand for laser equipment is lower than anticipated; second, several leading BC companies have chosen other laser equipment suppliers, leading to insufficient orders for Dier Laser.

Regardless, Dier Laser’s actual benefits from the current BC boom are not significantly evident, and compared to the glory of the PERC era, they are no longer comparable.

Leading position faces challenges, Hong Kong listing hopes to break the situation

In the third quarter of 2025, Dier Laser’s revenue was 1.781 billion yuan. During the same period, Jiejia Weichuang (SZ: 300724) and Jing Sheng Electromechanical (SZ: 300316) reported revenues of 13.106 billion yuan and 8.273 billion yuan, respectively. In contrast, Dier Laser can only be considered “small but beautiful.”

In terms of gross margin, Jiejia Weichuang’s gross margin is 29.07%, Jing Sheng Electromechanical’s is 25.82%, Aotwei’s is 30.17%, while Dier Laser’s gross margin reaches an impressive 46.2%. Among laser companies, competitors like Haimeixing (SH: 688559) have a gross margin for photovoltaic laser equipment of only 28.09%, which is significantly lower.

2021-2025Q3 Dier Laser gross margin

A high gross margin is an intuitive reflection of the company’s market position and product technological advantages. However, these advantages of Dier Laser are being overtaken. Since the explosive growth of the photovoltaic industry in 2020, Dier Laser’s competitors have been rapidly catching up, beginning to threaten Dier’s leading position.

In the area of TOPCon technology, as early as 2021, Haimeixing leveraged its precision processing technology cultivated in the power battery sector to enter the field of laser doping equipment for photovoltaic TOPCon cells, quickly securing orders from leading clients; upstream laser giant Han’s Laser is also pursuing a full industrial chain layout for downstream applications, introducing boron doping equipment for TOPCon cells.

Even in the BC field, Dier Laser is feeling the pressure. Hua Xia Energy Network noted that in September of last year, Shengxiong Laser signed a supply contract for GW-level mass production equipment for BC cells with a leading photovoltaic company, providing domestically produced 80W ultraviolet picosecond 300µm large spot laser patterning equipment.

To respond to these numerous competitors eyeing its position, Dier Laser likely needs to invest more significantly in market development and product research and development, which may be a deeper reason behind its desire to list in Hong Kong.

As of the end of the third quarter of 2025, Dier Laser had accounts receivable of 1.145 billion yuan and inventory of as much as 1.6 billion yuan. These two items alone accounted for 41% of total assets. This indicates that the company has limited operational funds available for flexible use, and listing for financing is one of the solutions.

Additionally, to alleviate competitive pressure in the photovoltaic industry and diversify risks, Dier Laser is actively laying out laser equipment for new displays, integrated circuits, and other fields. All of these new technology developments require funding. Data shows that in 2024, Dier Laser’s R&D expenses will reach 280 million yuan, accounting for 14.03% of revenue, and this expenditure is expected to be even higher in 2025 and 2026. At the same time as announcing its plans for a Hong Kong listing, the company also disclosed plans to invest 3 billion yuan in the “Phase III Project of Dier Laser R&D Production Base.”

At this crucial time, Dier Laser’s initiation of the Hong Kong listing plan holds multiple strategic significances, not only as a key move to advance its internationalization strategy but also as an important layout to address the cyclical pressures of the photovoltaic market and break through growth bottlenecks. Whether Dier Laser can successfully navigate this step remains to be seen!

Author’s statement: Personal opinions only, for reference.