Jiangsu chip designer Maxscend disclosed that one of its controlling shareholders, Xu Zhihan, has transferred 17,152,005 shares to his ex-wife Zhang Yu as part of a divorce settlement. At the company’s closing price on the day of the announcement (Rmb75.16 per share) the transfer is worth roughly Rmb1.3 billion. The move was executed as a non-trade transfer through China’s central securities depository.
Before the transfer Xu directly held 34,304,010 unrestricted tradable shares, representing 6.41% of Maxscend’s total equity; after the transfer both Xu and Zhang will each hold 17,152,005 shares (3.21% apiece). The parties agreed that Zhang will not sell more than 10% of her holdings in any given year, and she additionally undertook that while Xu remains a company director or senior manager her annual transfers will not exceed 25% of her holdings. The company said shareholders’ voting arrangements — an existing voting-entitlement and concerted-action pact among Xu, Feng Chenhui and Tang Zhuang — keep the trio’s combined control unchanged at 31.90%.
The deal echoes a similar episode in mid-2023, when co-controller Tang Zhuang transferred about 32.76 million shares to his former spouse following a divorce — a transaction then valued at roughly Rmb3.4 billion. That precedent has become a reference point for investors assessing how family and personal legal arrangements can move large blocks of stock in Chinese-listed technology firms without immediately altering formal control structures.
The transfer comes at a sensitive tactical moment for Maxscend. The company, founded in 2012 and listed on Shenzhen’s ChiNext board in 2019, has warned that 2025 revenue will decline by about 16–18% year-on-year and that net profit attributable to shareholders will fall sharply into negative territory compared with the prior year. Management attributes the downturn to the firm’s shift toward a Fab‑Lite model, heavier near-term investments in capability building, supply-chain delivery delays for some raw materials, fierce competition and adjustments in downstream customers’ inventory practices.
For market participants the immediate mechanics of the transfer matter as much as the headline value. Because the transaction was a registry transfer rather than an open-market sale, it did not create immediate selling pressure. The contractual sale caps on Zhang’s holdings should further limit short-term liquidity impact, yet they do not eliminate longer-term monetization risk: precedents show ex-spouses can realize substantial value over time through staged disposals or other arrangements.
Beyond the market dynamics, the episode highlights recurring governance questions at Chinese tech listings where founding teams and senior executives hold large stakes: how much influence is exercised through formal shareholdings versus private voting pacts, and how transparent are intra-family asset reallocations to minority shareholders and regulators? Investors will be watching whether Maxscend’s operational turnaround under its Fab‑Lite transition produces a recovery in cashflows that makes future share sales less disruptive, and whether the company maintains its stated roadmap for higher-end RF, satellite and optical communications processes.
Looking ahead, the key signals to monitor are any amendments to the voting-entitlement or concerted-action agreements, disclosures about subsequent disposals by Zhang, and quarterly progress on production and customer demand. If the firm stabilizes its revenue and restores profitability, the transfers will likely be a one-off balance‑sheet reshuffle; if not, repeated insider-related share movements could become a more persistent investor concern.