Kejian Shares passes its Beijing Stock Exchange review with a 30% gross margin far above larger peers — a niche-track advantage or a temporary gap?
Kejian Polymer Materials Shanghai Co., Ltd. received the approval opinion of the Beijing Stock Exchange Listing Committee on September 23. This is a specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative little giant that makes butyl rubber, water-based coatings, and sealing materials. The first number that jumps out in the prospectus is a 30.69% comprehensive gross margin. This figure is 5 to 10 percentage points higher than the 2025 gross margins of the four comparable companies listed in the prospectus—Silicone Ba Technology, Jitai Co., Huitian New Materials, and Kechuang Xinyuan—while the revenue scale of all four comparable companies is 7 to 9 times that of Kejian Co.
For a much smaller company to significantly outperform larger peers in gross margin, this contrast is the starting point for understanding Kejian Co., and also the core question this article sets out to unpack.
Information cutoff note: the facts described in this article are based on the prospectus and publicly disclosed materials as of September 27, 2026. The listing committee review status is approved, with a review date of September 23, 2026, and it has not yet been submitted for registration. New information added on September 28, 2026 is treated only as a lead pending verification and is not accepted as a conclusion.
First, look at Kejian Co.'s foundation. The company was established in December 2001, headquartered in Sheshan Town, Songjiang, Shanghai, with a registered address at No. 3258 Shenzhuan Highway, Sheshan Town, Songjiang District, Shanghai, and registered capital of 53.900520 million yuan. It was listed on the basic tier of the New Third Board on March 21, 2025, and transferred to the innovation tier on May 20 of the same year. It is now applying for an initial public offering and public issuance on the Beijing Stock Exchange, with Changjiang Securities Underwriting and Sponsorship Co., Ltd. as the sponsor institution.
The actual controllers are the couple Wu Haitao and Song Yuzhen. Wu Haitao directly holds 44.38%, and together with indirect holdings through Shanghai Qiquan and concert party agreements with other shareholders, he controls a total of 89.13% of voting rights. This is a family enterprise with highly concentrated control, which is not uncommon among small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises applying to the Beijing Stock Exchange.
Kejian Co.'s core business is butyl rubber, a functional polymer material used in automotive sealing strips, building waterproofing, and home appliance damping. In 2025, it contributed 52.16% of revenue, with the three-year share stable between 52% and 54%. Over the past three years, revenue rose from 425 million yuan to 518 million yuan, a compound growth rate of 10.42%; net profit attributable to the parent company rose from 59.2456 million yuan to 69.2515 million yuan; and the comprehensive gross margin climbed from 29.79% to 30.69%.
The weighted average return on equity for the three years was 23.39%, 18.67%, and 18.86%, respectively. It has declined from the 2023 high but remains above 18%.
Within the entire chemical new materials sector, this set of figures is not large in scale, but the combination of growth rate and gross margin is worth a closer look. The prospectus states in its original wording that among domestic A-share listed companies, there is currently no listed company that is fully comparable to the issuer in terms of products and application areas. This sentence is worth pausing to read twice. It is both a self-proof of differentiated advantages and another way of describing the scale ceiling.
The four comparable companies listed in the prospectus actually have a much broader business scope than Kejian Co. Huitian New Materials had 2025 revenue of 4.436 billion yuan, 8.6 times that of Kejian Co., with products covering industrial adhesives, electronics and electrical, automotive manufacturing, wind power and photovoltaics, and many other downstream fields; Silicone Ba Technology had 3.751 billion yuan, 7.2 times, mainly engaged in silicone sealants, covering construction, photovoltaics, electronics, and other fields;
Jitai Co. and Kechuang Xinyuan also had revenue scales around 3 billion yuan. These companies operate general-purpose adhesive platforms, while Kejian Co. focuses on the narrower segmented direction of butyl rubber sealing. This difference raises a judgment question worth pursuing: is Kejian Co.'s 30.69% gross margin pricing power brought by product technical barriers, or is it a temporary gap because this niche track is small in volume and has not yet been truly targeted by larger competitors?
The prospectus itself does not answer this question, and this is precisely the part left for the market and subsequent inquiries to continue verifying.
Third-party data can provide a supplementary perspective, but its weight needs to be treated with particular caution. A September 22 report by Sina Finance, citing QYResearch data, stated that in 2025 the top five global butyl rubber adhesive manufacturers together had a market share of about 33.52%, the top five in the Chinese market had a share of about 27.77%, and Kejian Co. ranked third with a share of about 4.43%.
This data point was not found in the text verified in this prospectus review. Its source is a media citation of a third-party consulting firm report, and the product statistical scope, sample boundaries, and whether it is a paid customized report have not been further verified. Such market research reports have a common industry problem: figures from the same report may be cited repeatedly for years and may not necessarily represent estimates under the latest methodology. Therefore, this data point can only be marked as a lead pending verification and cannot be accepted as if it were consistent with the prospectus's original disclosure.
But if this ranking and share figure can withstand further verification, it at least shows that Kejian Co. has already established a recognizable industry position in this niche track, which is also a reference dimension that cannot be ignored when judging the sustainability of gross margin.
Kejian Co.'s technical accumulation is the verifiable support behind this niche positioning. As of the end of 2025, the total number of patents was 122, including 34 invention patents, and there were 49 R&D personnel, accounting for 11.29% of total employees. It is a national-level specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative little giant enterprise. The prospectus discloses that the company has cooperative relationships with some universities and research institutions, covering technical fields such as butyl rubber modification formulas and weather-resistant sealing materials.
The downstream customer list includes Hande Automotive Sealing Systems, Xingyu Automotive Parts, and Three Trees Coatings, among other automotive parts and building materials enterprises. Entering the supply chains of these customers usually requires corresponding supplier certification processes, but the prospectus does not disclose in detail the specific certification cycles and assessment standards.
In its review on September 23, the listing committee asked the issuer to explain the sustainability of operating performance based on five directions: changes in downstream market demand, industry competition, stability of cooperation with major customers, orders in hand and new customer development, and trends in raw material price changes. These five questions together point to the regulator's routine concern about whether the growth curve of a small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprise can continue. The issuer disclosed the cooperation years of major customers in its inquiry reply, but the public materials do not show the complete specific amounts of orders in hand or detailed figures on new customer development. This part can currently only be marked as a gap to be further verified through subsequent inquiry reply documents or annual reports.
The risk factors section of the prospectus proactively discloses several operational risks that need attention. The water-based coatings business contributed 22.76% of revenue in 2025, a clear year-on-year increase; in 2023 this proportion was 18.11%. Of that, 16.70% to 20.83% of revenue came from distributing water-based coating products of the German brand Stahl, which is trading rather than self-production, and the distribution agreement is renewed annually.
More noteworthy is that in February 2026 Stahl's equity was acquired by Germany's Henkel. This means that about one-fifth of Kejian Co.'s water-based coatings revenue is based on a distribution agreement that may not be renewed at any time and whose upstream brand owner has just changed shareholders, creating uncertainty about the continuity of subsequent authorization.
Accounts receivable is another clearly traceable curve. The balance at the end of the three years rose from 141 million yuan to 159 million yuan and then to 204 million yuan, and its proportion of revenue climbed from 33.13% all the way to 39.36%, growing faster than revenue itself. The prospectus did not avoid this trend and included it in the risk factors, but it did not give a clear attribution for the increase. Whether it is lengthened payment terms for downstream customers or the company proactively loosening credit policy to secure orders, the prospectus itself does not provide an answer. This is a part to watch for whether subsequent disclosure materials will further explain.
Regarding raw material cost sensitivity, the prospectus provides a specific measurement range. When butyl rubber prices rise by 30%, 60%, and 100%, the gross margin of the main business will decrease by 1.03, 2.05, and 3.38 percentage points respectively, and net profit will correspondingly decrease by 3.7808 million, 7.5616 million, and 12.6026 million yuan. For a company whose net profit has just exceeded 69 million yuan, this elasticity coefficient means that raw material price fluctuations caused by international oil prices and geopolitical factors can have a substantial impact at the financial statement level.
In addition, Kejian Co. enjoys a 15% high-tech enterprise income tax preference. This tax incentive policy itself is also listed as a risk factor in the prospectus, meaning it is not a permanent guarantee.
The trend in R&D investment shows a divergence worth recording. In absolute amount, there was a decline in 2024, from 17.4362 million yuan in 2023 to 16.7859 million yuan, then rebounding to 19.1203 million yuan in 2025; but its proportion of revenue fell from 4.10% all the way to 3.69%, indicating that revenue growth continued to outpace R&D investment growth.
This trend alone does not constitute a negative conclusion, but for a company positioning itself as specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative, whether it will affect the pace of technological iteration in the future is an indicator worth continuously observing in subsequent financial reports.
The final review conclusion of the listing committee is that Kejian Co. meets the issuance conditions, listing conditions, and information disclosure requirements, and its initial public offering application is approved. This is a stage result submitted by a specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative enterprise that has carved out a differentiated gross margin in a niche market by focusing on a single product direction. Next it must complete the procedural hurdle of submitting for registration, which is not very difficult. But the complete version of this report card also contains a distribution agreement that may change at any time, a continuously rising accounts receivable curve, a yearly shrinking R&D investment ratio, and the prospectus's own admission that there is currently no fully comparable listed company.
Taken together, these matters point to the same question that still awaits time to verify: is Kejian Co.'s gross margin in the low 30s a moat built on technical barriers, or a niche market gap period that has not yet been truly targeted by larger competitors? The answer will likely become clear only after it truly lands in the capital market and experiences a complete industry cycle.