Produced by Leida Finance Text by Ding Yu Edited by Meng Shuai

Recently, Wang Feng, the chairman of Linglong Tire, a leading company in the tire industry, presented his wife with an "extravagant gift of affection."

According to an announcement disclosed by Linglong Tire on July 31, Wang Feng transferred all of his 14.551% stake in Linglong Group, the controlling shareholder of the listed company, to his spouse, Dai Yunxia, at a price of 0 yuan.

Calculated based on the closing price of Linglong Tire's shares at 11.61 yuan per share on the announcement date, the equity gift from Wang Feng to his wife is valued at over 1 billion yuan. At the same time, Dai Yunxia also signed a "Concerted Action Agreement" to become a concerted actor with the Wang family, the company's actual controllers.

However, while the chairman was "flaunting his affection," Linglong Tire recently faced a performance dilemma of increasing revenue but decreasing profits.

In the first quarter of this year, the company achieved revenue of 6.057 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.33%; however, its net profit attributable to the parent company was only 17 million yuan, a sharp year-on-year decrease of 95.04%; the net profit after non-recurring items even turned negative, with a single-quarter loss of 27 million yuan.

In the first half of this year, the company expects to achieve a net profit attributable to the parent company of 110 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 87%; the net profit after non-recurring items is only 9 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 99%.

Regarding the significant decline in the company's net profit, Linglong Tire mainly attributed it to the sharp fluctuations in exchange gains and losses. In the first half of the year, the company incurred exchange losses of approximately 342 million yuan, causing the total profit to decrease by approximately 1.033 billion yuan year-on-year. Excluding the factor of exchange gains and losses, the company's main business performance actually improved year-on-year.

As of the close on August 4, Linglong Tire's share price was 11.53 yuan per share, having fallen nearly 80% from its historical high, with a total market capitalization of 16.874 billion yuan.

Chairman "Flaunts Affection" and Gifts Wife Shares Worth 1 Billion Yuan

On July 31, Wang Feng, Chairman of Linglong Tire, and his spouse, Dai Yunxia, signed the "Equity Transfer Agreement of Linglong Group Co., Ltd." Wang Feng transferred all of his shares in Linglong Group to Dai Yunxia.

Leida Finance learned that Linglong Group is the controlling shareholder of the listed company, Linglong Tire. Prior to this equity change, Wang Feng held a 14.551% stake in Linglong Group and indirectly held approximately a 6% stake in Linglong Tire through Linglong Group, with an indirect shareholding of 87.79 million shares.

After this equity change, Wang Feng no longer holds any shares in Linglong Group, and the aforementioned shares were instead fully acquired by Dai Yunxia, who previously did not hold any shares in the listed company.

All parties agreed that since this equity transfer is between spouses, the consideration for this equity transfer is 0 yuan.

Calculated based on the company's closing price of 11.61 yuan per share on the announcement date, this portion of shares is valued at 1.019 billion yuan.

Linglong Tire emphasized that this change in the upper-level equity structure of the controlling shareholder will not result in a change in the company's controlling shareholder or actual controller. The company's controlling shareholder remains Linglong Group, and the actual controller remains the Wang family (members of the Wang family include Wang Xicheng, Zhang Guangying, Wang Feng, and Wang Lin).

At the same time, Dai Yunxia signed a "Concerted Action Agreement" with Wang Xicheng, Zhang Guangying, Wang Lin, and Wang Feng, becoming a concerted actor with the Wang family, the actual controllers of the listed company.

It is understood that Wang Xicheng and Zhang Guangying are Wang Feng's parents, and Wang Lin is Wang Feng's younger brother.

However, after this equity change, Wang Feng did not completely withdraw from the shareholder sequence of the listed company. He indirectly holds shares in the listed company through holding a 30% stake in Yingcheng Trading Co., Ltd.

As of July 19, Yingcheng Trading Co., Ltd. held 201 million shares in the listed company. Based on this estimate, Wang Feng indirectly holds 60.42 million shares in Linglong Tire, accounting for approximately 4% of the company's total share capital.

It is worth mentioning that just before this equity change, Linglong Tire released an "Announcement on the Progress of the Controlling Shareholder's Increase in Shares of the Company" on July 19.

The announcement showed that from May 21, 2026, to July 19, Linglong Group increased its holdings of 6.68 million A-shares of the company through centralized bidding on the Shanghai Stock Exchange using its own funds and self-raised funds (including special re-loans for share increases), accounting for 0.46% of the company's total share capital, with a cumulative increase amount of approximately 79.94 million yuan. This share increase plan has not yet been fully implemented.

Father Works Hard to "Build the Empire," Brothers Work Together to "Guard the Empire"

Tianyancha shows that Shandong Linglong Tire Co., Ltd. was registered and established in 1994 and is a specialized and large-scale tire manufacturer. The company was listed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in July 2016.

Reviewing the development of Linglong Tire, Wang Feng's father, Wang Xicheng, played a crucial role. Public information shows that Wang Xicheng was born in 1948. At the age of 20, Wang Xicheng came to work at Luoshan Gold Mine in Zhaoyuan County.

In 1970, he was transferred to Zhaoyuan County Chemical Factory and worked there for more than ten years. During this period, Wang Xicheng was promoted continuously through his own efforts, serving as the deputy platoon leader of the sulfuric acid platoon, the director of the sulfuric acid workshop, the deputy company commander of the militia company, the commander of the iron smelting headquarters, the deputy secretary of the Party branch, and the deputy factory director.

In December 1985, Wang Xicheng was transferred to Zhaoyuan County Gold Smeltery as the deputy factory director and the chief commander of factory construction.

In 1987, Wang Xicheng once again faced a turning point in his life. At that time, he was appointed at a critical moment to the nearly defunct Zhaoyuan County Tire Repair Factory as the factory director. Zhaoyuan County Tire Repair Factory, founded in 1975, is the predecessor of Linglong Tire.

Before Wang Xicheng took office, this factory had already had seven factory directors. At that time, the factory had more than 100 workers, several simple earth workshops, a few outdated equipment, and total assets of less than 500,000 yuan.

Faced with such a dilemma, Wang Xicheng actively sought a way out. After research, he keenly realized that with the development of the national economy, tires would have a large market and great opportunities in the future. Therefore, he resolutely continued to focus on tires and did not choose to switch to producing neoprene gloves.

At that time, Wang Xicheng was known as a "dauntless person." He used his own personality to guarantee a loan of 50,000 yuan and personally supervised and commanded the production line day and night. Infected by his leadership, the cadres and workers in the factory were unprecedentedly united and full of energy.

With the joint efforts of the entire factory, this company newly involved in tire production successfully produced 92,000 sets of tires in just one year, achieved an output value of 6.5 million yuan, and realized a profit of 450,000 yuan.

In 1991, under Wang Xicheng's leadership, the tire factory's annual output value successfully exceeded 100 million yuan. Three years later, Zhaoyuan Leo Rubber Products Co., Ltd. (now Linglong Tire) was officially established.

In 2001, the state promoted the deepening of institutional reforms, and Linglong Tire responded to the national policy by taking the lead in completing shareholding reform.

In the same year, at the young age of 29, Wang Feng took over the leadership and became the general manager of the company. He launched a 600 million yuan project with 16 million yuan, and the company's radial tire production line was subsequently put into operation rapidly, setting a new industry speed.

It is reported that Wang Feng and Wang Lin, the two brothers, were born in 1972 and 1975, respectively. They both studied at Shandong University and Harbin Institute of Technology, and Wang Feng later obtained a Ph.D. in industrial economics from Beijing Jiaotong University.

After graduating from undergraduate studies, Wang Feng joined the tire factory and gradually rose from an ordinary worker to a workshop director. In 1996, after being evaluated by the organizational department, Wang Feng was appointed as the deputy factory director of the factory and the manager of the import and export company, becoming the youngest deputy department-level cadre in Zhaoyuan at that time.

In 1998, Wang Feng left the factory and worked in the system for a period of time. In 2001, he returned to the company to take over the position of general manager and became the chairman of the company in 2006.

Wang Feng's younger brother, Wang Lin, joined Linglong Group in 2004 and Linglong Tire in 2007, later serving as the vice chairman of the listed company for a long time.

After taking over the company from their father, the two brothers worked together to further expand and strengthen the company. By 2008, Linglong Group's annual output value reached 10.6 billion yuan. The following year, the company established a research and development office in North America, initiating its internationalization process.

However, on March 16 this year, Linglong Tire announced that Wang Feng had resigned from his position as president of the company more than two years ahead of schedule, citing the optimization of the company's governance structure as the reason for his departure.

After Wang Feng's resignation, he still held other positions such as chairman in the company, while the position of president was taken over by Zhou Lingkun, a professional manager who "parachuted in."

Zhou Lingkun's personal resume shows that he graduated from Zhejiang University and has served as an SAP implementation consultant at Andersen, a business process design and SAP consultant at IBM, the general manager of the Enterprise Application Consulting Department and the director of the Global Delivery Center at HP China, the East China Regional Leadership Partner, Chief Talent Officer of Management Consulting, President of the Digital Business Group, Leadership Partner of the Automotive Industry in China, President of the Enterprise Technology and Performance Business Group, and a member of the Deloitte China Board of Directors at Deloitte China.

Profits Plummet in the First Half of the Year, Are Exchange Losses to Blame?

While Wang Feng resigned from his position as president, Linglong Tire's performance continued to be under pressure.

Looking back at 2025, Linglong Tire's revenue reached a new high, increasing by 11.72% year-on-year to 24.642 billion yuan; however, the company's net profit attributable to the parent company decreased by 21.88% year-on-year to 1.369 billion yuan, even falling short of the 1.391 billion yuan profit level in 2023.

Entering 2026, Linglong Tire's performance continued the trend of "increasing revenue but decreasing profits" from the previous year. In the first quarter, the company achieved revenue of 6.057 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.33%; however, its net profit attributable to the parent company was only 17 million yuan, a sharp year-on-year decrease of 95.04%; the company's net profit after non-recurring items even turned negative, recording a loss of 27 million yuan.

On July 14, Linglong Tire released a performance pre-reduction announcement for the first half of 2026. The company expects to achieve a net profit attributable to the parent company of 110 million yuan in the first half of the year, a decrease of 744 million yuan from 854 million yuan in the same period last year, a year-on-year decrease of 87%; the expected net profit after non-recurring items is only 9 million yuan, a decrease of 763 million yuan from the same period last year, a year-on-year decrease of 99%.

In the performance forecast, Linglong Tire mainly attributed the cliff-like drop in the company's profitability in the first half of the year to the sharp fluctuations in exchange gains and losses.

The announcement showed that due to the continuous appreciation of the RMB and the depreciation of the USD and EUR, the company incurred exchange losses of approximately 342 million yuan in the first half of the year, compared to exchange gains of 691 million yuan in the same period of 2025.

The aforementioned factors caused the company's total profit to decrease by approximately 1.033 billion yuan year-on-year. However, excluding the factor of exchange gains and losses, the company's main business performance actually improved year-on-year.

According to Linglong Tire's 2025 financial report disclosed earlier, the company's export and overseas sales revenue reached 11.93 billion yuan last year, a year-on-year increase of 11.18%, accounting for 48.41% of the company's total revenue.

However, the gross profit margin of the company's export and overseas sales segment was 19.63% last year, a year-on-year decrease of 9.76 percentage points, with a much larger decline than that of the domestic segment.

In its 2025 annual report, Linglong Tire also pointed out frankly the exchange rate fluctuation risks it faces, "The company's tire products are mainly traded in USD for export. The impact of exchange rate fluctuations on the company is mainly manifested in the following aspects: first, exchange gains and losses arising from export sales; second, it affects the price competitiveness of export products. If the RMB appreciates, it will narrow the profit margins of foreign customers and weaken the price competitiveness of the company's export products compared to similar products from other exporting countries; third, exchange gains and losses arising from the import of natural rubber and other raw materials."

Linglong Tire also stated that the company's raw material imports are settled in USD, which can provide a certain hedge against the exchange gains and losses from product exports in the same period.

In addition, the company will also moderately increase foreign currency borrowings to offset the exchange gains and losses arising from foreign currency asset items such as accounts receivable formed by overseas sales.

"Although raw material imports and adjustments to the scale of foreign currency borrowings can partially offset the adverse effects of exchange rate fluctuations, they may still bring a certain degree of uncertainty risks to the company's operations in the future," Linglong Tire said.

After the new president takes office, can Linglong Tire's performance be restored? Leida Finance will continue to pay attention.