Growth expectations have been fulfilled, important shareholders have intensively increased their holdings, and the pricing logic changed after Jiantao Laminated Board (01888) was overadjusted?

Driven by strong demand for AI and rising prices of traditional copper-clad plates/PCBs, Zhitong Finance noticed that several copper-clad board/PCB companies in the capital market recently disclosed three quarterly reports with core financial data exceeding expectations. They all say that performance is the best litmus test. The industry's prosperity continues the upward trend, and we can see all the leaps at a glance. Naturally, the leading companies involved are more worthy of attention.

As a leading global copper-clad panel company, Jiantao Laminate (01888) did not directly disclose the third quarter results, but with reference to data from comparable companies in the same industry and the fact that Jiantao Laminate's profit reached HK$1.1 billion in July this year, a record high in a single month since the group set records, it can be expected that the company's performance in the second half of the year will also likely continue its strong performance in the first half of the year. According to the data, in the first half of this year, Jiantao Laminate's revenue and net profit reached HK$14.904 billion and HK$2,887 billion respectively, surging 55% and 209%, respectively.

In addition to strong fundamental support, Jiantao Laminated Board has also recently experienced intensive increases in holdings from important shareholders and executives. At the same time, it is also worth noting that the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will add 12 new stock option categories on the 9th of this month. The original shares in the new categories include Jiantao Laminate. How will the subsequent stock price trend of Jiantao Multilayer Board be interpreted against the backdrop of successful implementation, intensive increases in holdings by important shareholders, and further diversification of investment tools. This is also a topic worthy of continued investors' attention.

The industry's prosperity has been verified again. Can 26H2 results be expected?

For a long time in the past, the PCB industry was regarded as a “supporting link” bound to the consumer electronics cycle, and the rise and fall mostly followed the pace of mobile phones, PCs and other terminals switched. However, in the past two years, as AI-related demand has continued to heat up, scenarios such as computing power infrastructure, AI servers, and high-speed switches have accelerated their volume, driving the PCB industry to upgrade to high-end directions such as high-frequency high-speed, high-multi-layer, and high-end HDI. The industry positioning has also changed as a result. As reflected in the data, according to brokerage statistics, A-share PCB listed companies achieved revenue of 332.46 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2026, an increase of 45% over the previous year; net profit to mother was 45.832 billion yuan, an increase of 108% over the previous year.

Looking upstream from PCB, copper-clad panels are one of the core materials used in printed circuit board manufacturing. They are made of reinforced materials such as wood pulp paper or glass fiber cloth and then hot pressed with copper foil. They mainly play the role of interconductivity, insulation and support for PCBs, and have a decisive influence on transmission speed, energy loss, and characteristic impedance in PCB products. In other words, the high-frequency high-speed upgrade of PCBs first requires that copper-clad boards complete simultaneous iteration in terms of resin systems, glass fiber cloth specifications, and copper foil performance, so the prosperity and profit elasticity of the upstream material sector will even be reflected in downstream board factory reports.

Jiantao laminates are in a critical position in this transmission chain. According to the company's interim report, in the first half of the year, Jiantao Laminate's copper-clad board business achieved revenue of HK$14.775 billion, an increase of 56% over the previous year. Shipments increased 14% year on year, with an average monthly shipment of more than 10 million sheets; the profit of the electronic glass fiber yarn and cloth business was about HK$1 billion, an increase of about 280% year on year. After entering the second half of the year, growth momentum has not stopped. The profit in July was about HK$1.1 billion in a single month, a record high.

Supply constraints at the industry level are an important factor in Jiantao's multilayer board's performance rising to the next level. According to information, the shortage of electronic glass fiber cloth became more serious in the third quarter, and the prices of copper clad sheets and their upstream materials, including electronic glass fiber yarn, electronic glass fiber cloth, and copper foil continued to soar. At the same time, as the wave of AI industrialization progresses further, the scarce pattern of oversupply in the copper-clad plate industry is becoming more and more difficult to mitigate.

This is also true. Last month, Jiantao Laminate released the latest round of price increase letters. The document shows: “Due to strong demand in the thin cloth market, the upstream supply of glass cloth and glass yarn is tight, and prices have risen sharply. Therefore, from receiving the order today, our company will increase the sales price of sheets and PP (semi-cured sheets) using thin cloth below 2116 (inclusive) as raw materials for production by 15%.” According to reports, this is the eighth price increase notice issued by Jiantao Laminate during the year.

At this stage, risk aversion dominates, and stock prices are being overstated or new opportunities hidden?

However, the popularity of eight consecutive price increases on the industrial side has failed to resonate simultaneously in the secondary market. After accumulating huge gains in the early stages, risk aversion began to dominate the market, and the stock price rhythm of Jiantao Multilayer Board showed a significant divergence from strong fundamentals. Looking at the K line, Jiantao Laminate hit a high of HK$107.2 during the year. The biggest increase was over 700%, then quickly fell back to around HK$26. Currently, it is running around HK$33, which is a significant retracement from the high point during the year. The author believes that what boosted Jiantao's multilayer board valuation in the early stages was a combination of the triple logic of AI computing power demand, copper-clad cycle recovery, and Hong Kong stock's revaluation of leading Chinese manufacturing companies. Therefore, the increase in stock prices at the time far exceeded the increase in performance. However, as short-term stock prices have been overadjusted, the valuation moisture of Jiantao Laminated Board under the influence of risk aversion mentality has been drastically squeezed, and the company's pricing logic in the next phase may also change.

First, let's look at micro trends in terms of capital. The author noticed that since late August, Jiantao Laminated Board has ushered in an intensive increase in holdings from major shareholders and executives. Core shareholders, including Hallgain Management Limited, Kingboard Holdings Limited (Kingboard Holdings Limited), and Jamplan (BVI) Limited, have taken steps many times to increase their holdings by hundreds of thousands of shares. In the same period, Chairman of the Board Zhang Guohua and executive director Zhang Guoping also increased their holdings. In the capital market, industrial capital often has a deeper insight into the true undertones of a company's operations. Significant shareholders and executives have increased their positions intensively in the range of falling valuations, not only conveying recognition of the company's long-term intrinsic value to the market, but also objectively providing a certain “value anchor” for current stock prices. This may suggest that the emotional release of the sharp one-sided decline in the previous period is nearing its end.

In addition to this, the further enrichment of trading tools may provide the market with new countermeasures. According to reports, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will add 12 new weekly and monthly stock option categories on the 9th of this month. Jiantao Multilayer Board (KBL) is among them. According to the introduction, the new stock options launched this time will simultaneously provide weekly and monthly maturing contracts from the first trading day, further expanding investors' choices, so that market participants can choose the most suitable maturity contract according to their trading and risk management needs. In recent years, stock options have become one of the fastest-growing derivatives on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The average daily turnover for the first nine months of 2026 reached 899,056 contracts, up 1.4% year on year and reaching a record high for the period. Along with this addition, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's weekly stock options will cover 66 listed companies and ETFs. For Jiantao's multi-layer board, which is in a state of high volatility, the launch of KBL options means that the market has more diverse hedging and strategy expression tools.

Taken together, Jiantao Laminated Board is currently in a period of misalignment between high fundamentals and a deep correction in stock prices. The current stage of stock price overadjustment has eliminated the market's previous excessive optimism premium to a certain extent, while the intensive increase in industrial capital has drawn a reference line for safety margins from the side. Coupled with the abundance of supporting tools such as KBL options, the market's pricing for Jiantao laminated boards is expected to become more three-dimensional and efficient. Looking ahead to the future market, Zhitong Finance will continue to pay attention to whether the stock price trend of Jiantao Laminated Board will usher in a new inflection point in the multiple contexts of performance realization, valuation falling back to a reasonable range, and further improvement of investment tools.