A well-known brand sold 160 million phones last year, with major shareholders cashing out over 1.8 billion.

On March 28, Shenzhen Transsion Holdings Co., Ltd. (688036.SH, hereinafter referred to as “Transsion Holdings”) released its annual report for 2025. The financial report shows that Transsion Holdings achieved an annual operating income of 65.591 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 4.5%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 2.581 billion yuan, a significant drop of 53.49%, facing a “halving” of its profit scale.

Against the backdrop of pressure on performance, Transsion Holdings proposed a dividend plan that accounts for 40% of its net profit. The company intends to distribute a cash dividend of 9 yuan (tax included) for every 10 shares to all shareholders, totaling a cash dividend of 1.036 billion yuan (tax included), which accounts for 40.15% of the net profit attributable to the parent company for the year.

Rising storage costs have led to profit “bleeding.”

The “king of African smartphones” continues to maintain a vast sales network and shipment scale.

According to the financial report, Transsion Holdings’ overall smartphone shipment volume in 2025 was approximately 169 million units. Its main product lines, the three major brands TECNO, itel, and Infinix, still maintain a high market penetration rate in target areas. According to the announcement, Transsion ranks first in market share in emerging smartphone markets such as Africa, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, stabilizing its core regional base.

However, the scale advantage has not been successfully converted into profit growth. Quarterly financial data shows that in the fourth quarter of 2025, Transsion Holdings had an operating income of 16.048 billion yuan, but the net profit for the quarter was only 432 million yuan, with the net profit excluding non-recurring gains and losses dropping to 241 million yuan, resulting in a squeezed profit margin for the quarter.

The more than 53% drop in profit is mainly due to rising upstream component prices and intensified downstream market competition, which are the two core constraints currently facing Transsion Holdings.

Transsion Holdings stated in its annual report that the decline in net profit was mainly affected by market competition and supply chain costs. In particular, the sharp rise in prices for components such as storage directly increased the company’s product costs, leading to a decline in both operating income and gross profit margin. For Transsion, which has long focused on extreme cost performance and deepened penetration into lower-tier markets, it is extremely challenging to pass upstream supply chain cost pressures onto end consumers.

While external costs remain high, the increase in internal expenses further compresses profit margins. The financial report points out that to enhance the terminal experience for smartphone users and product competitiveness, the company continues to increase R&D investment; at the same time, to cope with fierce market competition, it has intensified efforts in market expansion and brand promotion, ultimately leading to a significant increase in both R&D expenses and sales expenses compared to the same period last year.

Major shareholder cashes out over 1.8 billion.

On the other side of the pressure on main business profitability, Transsion Holdings is experiencing significant share reductions at the shareholder level.

According to publicly disclosed data, in September 2025, the controlling shareholder of Transsion Holdings, Shenzhen Transsion Investment Co., Ltd., implemented a share reduction. The transfer price was 81.81 yuan per share, with a total transfer of 22.807 million shares, resulting in a cash-out amount of up to 1.866 billion yuan.

This block trade attracted 20 investment institutions to take over, with a lock-up period of 6 months. Among them, Xingzheng Global Fund Management Co., Ltd. had the highest subscription amount, reaching 832 million yuan; Ruizhong Life Insurance Co., Ltd. subscribed for 300 million yuan; institutions such as Guotai Junan Securities, Invesco Great Wall Fund, and GF Fund also invested tens of millions to over 100 million yuan to participate in the subscription.

However, alongside the decline in performance, Transsion Holdings faces a revaluation in the secondary market. As of the latest closing date, Transsion Holdings’ stock price was reported at 56.89 yuan per share, with a total market value of approximately 65.5 billion yuan. Compared to the transfer price of 81.81 yuan in September last year, the book value has fallen by over 30%. This means that many institutions, including Xingzheng Global Fund, which participated in the high-level acquisition at that time, are currently facing paper losses.

Overall, with a massive volume of 169 million units, Transsion still builds a solid scale barrier in global emerging markets. However, in the cyclical volatility of consumer electronics hardware costs, how to cope with the impact of rising supply chain prices and break through the profit bottleneck while maintaining high cost performance will be a core issue it must solve in the future.