(Hong Kong, 28 March 2025) – Intron Technology Holdings Limited ("Intron Technology" or the "Group"; HKEX: 1760), a leading automotive electronics solutions provider in China, recorded a 15% growth in revenue year-on-year for the year ended 31 December 2024, which was mainly driven by growth of its new energy vehicle, automated & connected vehicle and safety systems segments. Revenue of the new energy vehicle segment climbed by more than 24% during the year.
For the year ended 31 December 2024, total revenue of the Group increased by approximately 15% year-on-year to RMB6.7 billion. During the year, the Group's gross profit was RMB968.6 million, representing a gross profit margin of 14.5% (2023: 18.7%). This was mainly attributable to the continued price competition among automotive OEMs, which led to continued pressure on the gross profit margin of the entire industry. As a result, the Group continued to expand its market share and achieve economies of scale by increasing production volume, thereby effectively controlling costs and mitigating the pressure on the gross profit margin. At the same time, the Group maintained its market leadership and consolidated its technological edge through continuous R&D to provide customers with more diversified and customized solutions. The Group maintained its total R&D expenditure at 7.4% of total revenue, amounting to RMB493.1 million. Profit attributable to shareholders of the company for the year amounted to RMB208.6 million, as compared to RMB317.4 million in the previous year. The Board has recommended payment of a final dividend of HK6.3 cents per share for 2024, keeping its dividend payout ratio at 30%.
Mr Davy Luk, Chairman, Co-CEO and Executive Director of Intron Technology, said, " With the dual impetus of policy support and technological advancement, China’s new energy vehicle market is expected to maintain steady growth in sales volume and further increase market penetration in 2025. This will create a wide range of opportunities for Intron Technology's new energy vehicle core solutions business. The Group has become the preferred partner of more and more vehicle manufacturers due to its high-quality deliveries on a large scale and increasing market penetration. The Group will continue to focus on enhancing its technological R&D capabilities and optimizing its product portfolio to meet vehicle manufacturers' demand for efficient and reliable solutions."
Benefiting from the continuous growth and penetration of the overall new energy market, the Group's new energy revenue segment continued to expand in 2024, with growth in products related to the subsegments of electronic control, battery management systems, on-board charging, motor controllers, PTC, etc. The steady influx of new projects unlocked further opportunities for business expansion. As of 31 December 2024, revenue from this business segment increased by 24% year-on-year to RMB3,462.0 million, accounting for 52% of total revenue.
The core "Motor Control Unit Power Brick" component developed by the Group has achieved industry leading levels in key indicators such as power density, integration, and reliability. The product has also achieved breakthroughs in power semiconductor application technology and control, and differentiated itself from traditional power module solutions in terms of process solutions with higher integration, which can help customers achieve better cost benefit from simplifying the system development process. The product has been delivered to customers for sample delivery and trial installation on a large scale since 2024, and has successfully completed the development of sample vehicles for several leading enterprises, helping OEMs to improve the power, range, and safety of their products. The Group is expected to achieve rapid growth in both market penetration and vehicle installation rate in the next two to three years.
During the year, the body control system business recorded a year-on-year growth of 11% to RMB1,035.3 million, accounting for 15% of total revenue. Among the solutions in this segment, domain controller application was the main growth driver. Safety system solutions maintained a steady growth of 2% to RMB859.7 million, accounting for 13% of total revenue. Tire pressure products and electric steering were the main growth points. The Group is optimistic about future chassis applications. Revenue from powertrain solutions declined by 11%, accounting for 6% of the Group’s total revenue. As the penetration of new energy vehicles increases, demand for traditional powertrain systems is experiencing cyclical fluctuations, while demand for traditional electronic applications such as water pumps, oil pumps, and cooling fans continues to grow. With continuous technological advancement and policy support, the electrification of commercial vehicles will further promote the transformation and upgrading of the entire industry.
During the year, revenue from the automated & connected vehicles business amounted to RMB513.9 million, representing an increase of 27% over the same period last year, and accounting for 8% of total revenue. As OEMs continued to increase their installation rates, the automated & connected vehicles segment continued to grow at a high rate. Technological advancement, policy support and consumer demand were the main driving forces. With the continuous improvement of the ecosystem, automated & connected vehicle technology is expected to achieve large-scale commercialization in the next few years and become an important direction of development.
Through cooperation with many leading domestic semiconductor companies, including Horizon Robotics, the Group continued to launch a portfolio of domestic ADAS solutions to meet the growing demand for domestication and localization in the domestic automotive market. In terms of overseas business, the Group has successfully established long-term relationship with leading international component supplier for cooperation on an intelligent driving development project, and has not only provided services for domestic joint venture vehicle models, but has also begun to provide services for overseas model platform projects. In addition, the Group has also reached preliminary agreement with some other internationally renowned Japanese Tier 1 suppliers for subsequent technical business cooperation, which will strongly support future export and globalization.
The Group's revenue from cloud server-related electronics solutions increased by 5% to RMB212.3 million, primarily driven by the increase in AI server-related revenue. While the demand for general-purpose servers is stabilizing, AI is gaining market share. Looking ahead to 2025, AI will continue to dominate the market, and the AI server-related business is expected to record at least double-digit growth. Moreover, in addition to power supply solutions for core AI components, demand for high-speed signal integrity products is also expected to increase.
R&D is a core part of the Group's development strategy. In 2024, R&D expenses for the year decreased by 5.2% year-on-year to RMB493.1 million, accounting for approximately 7.4% of the Group’s revenue. As at 31 December 2024, the Group had a total of 921 full-time R&D engineers, representing 70.4% of our entire workforce. During the same period, the Group had a total of 358 patents and 327 software copyrights, an increase of 90 and 110, respectively, over the same period last year.
In order to meet the testing needs of a wide range of electronic control products such as inverter bricks and domain controllers, etc., the R&D center continued to expand and optimize its testing capabilities during the year. The Group achieved results in the product design of all-in-one power domain controller, the localization construction of BMS product platform and the localization construction of MCU product platform. Pujiang Lab passed the extended audit by China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS) and is now capable of EMC testing, electrical performance testing, environmental reliability testing, mechanical stress testing and electric drive bench testing. The new site of Nantong Lab was accredited by CNAS for electrical performance testing and environmental reliability testing. In order to increase production capacity and further expand its functions, the second phase construction of the Nantong R&D base will commence soon and is expected to be completed in 2026. The second phase construction will cover production, storage, office and other uses, as well as equipment upgrades and infrastructure improvements. In the future, Nantong base will achieve mass production capacity of power brick products, providing strong support for the sustainable development of the Group.
Mr Eddie Chan, Co-CEO and Executive Director of Intron Technology, said, "The Group will continue to focus on our core products such as motor controllers and domain controllers, step up investment in testing equipment, and further enhance the level of intelligent and digital testing to fully optimize testing capabilities and meet the Group's growing demand for product testing, and will continue to invest in R&D to reinforce our leading position in the industry. While consolidating the domestic market, the Group will accelerate its international expansion and leverage its technological advantages to achieve long-term sustainable growth and deliver satisfactory returns to shareholders."
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About Intron Technology Holdings Limited (Stock code: 1760.HK)
Intron Technology Holdings Limited is a leading automotive electronics solutions provider in China focuses on providing solutions targeting critical automotive electronic components applied in New Energy, Automated Driving, Connectivity, Body Control, Safety and Powertrain systems. The Group leverages its engineering and R&D expertise, combined with advanced semiconductor devices, to offer industry-leading productized solutions for customers, thereby fostering the sustainable development of Automotive Industry in China. Intron Technology has been included in the FTSE Global Equity Index Series ("GEIS"). For more information, please visit: www.intron-tech.com.
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