Just recovered 330 million yuan, but ST Xifa encounters a black swan: the chairman suddenly goes missing, and the acquisition of Lhasa Beer is only one step away from completion.

                        Luo Qi went missing suddenly, and Xizang Development’s operations may face more uncertainties.                        

Photo source: Tu Chuang Creative

On the evening of April 2, ST Xifa (000752.SZ, hereinafter referred to as “Xizang Development”) issued an announcement stating that the company was unable to get in touch with its chairman, Luo Qi, recently, and is temporarily unable to perform the duties of chairman, nor is it certain about the specific reasons why the company cannot reach Luo Qi.

During this period, the duties of chairman are performed by the company’s vice chairman, Liao Chuan.

At the opening of trading on April 3, ST Xifa’s stock hit a one-word limit down. Before that, it had already hit the limit down for two consecutive days. Over three trading days, ST Xifa’s market value evaporated by more than 400 million yuan, and its latest market value is 2.4 billion yuan—leaving investors who had already been seeing signs of getting the shell kept once again in a passive position.

The sudden black swan incident occurred at a critical juncture in Xizang Development’s operational turning point.

The Lhasa Brewery Factory established in 1988 was, in the early years, the only beer producer in the Tibet Autonomous Region. It was listed in 1997, later injected into other assets, and was renamed as today’s Xizang Development. Lhasa Beer Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Lhasa Beer”) is Xizang Development’s core asset and also an important piece in Carlsberg’s push into China’s western market.

As early as last July, Xizang Development announced its plan to acquire the other 50% equity interest in Lhasa Beer held by Carlsberg by paying cash. After the transaction is completed, the company will achieve 100% control of Lhasa Beer. After more than half a year, the acquisition matter has made major progress.

On the evening of January 29, Xizang Development issued 34 announcements related to the acquisition of Lhasa Beer, disclosing that the transaction price is 292 million yuan.

Lhasa Beer is the core support for Xizang Development’s main business and the pillar of the company’s profitability. Based on the data disclosed in the announcements, in 2024, Lhasa Beer generated operating revenue of 390 million yuan and net profit of 102 million yuan, becoming the key for Xizang Development to turn losses into profits. In the same year, Xizang Development’s revenue was 421 million yuan, up 25.11% year over year; attributable net profit was 26 million yuan, up 201.64% year over year.

Photo source: ST Xifa announcement

The “2025 Annual Performance Forecast” released on the same evening shows that the company expects its attributable net profit in 2025 to be 110 million yuan to 160 million yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 319.91%–510.77%. Xizang Development said that in 2025, the company and its holding subsidiaries recovered large amounts of accounts receivable, reversing bad debt provisions to result in credit impairment loss decreasing significantly year over year; this is the main reason for the substantial increase in attributable net profit during the reporting period.

Before and after the announcement, the market voted with real money. ST Xifa’s share price staged a three-day winning streak from January 28 to 30.

Meanwhile, at the key stage of moving forward with the asset acquisition matter, Xizang Development again released major positive news from the perspective of compliance.

On March 25, the company announced that its former controlling shareholder, Tianyilongxing, has settled the outstanding balance of the company’s funds occupation of 7.3655 million yuan; the relevant entities such as the former controlling shareholder and related parties fully settled all 331 million yuan of funds occupation of the listed company through cash and creditor offset.

This resolved the compliance risks that had been troubling Xizang Development continuously since 2019. Because the funds occupation by Tianyilongxing triggered relevant provisions under the “Rules Governing the Listing of Stocks on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange,” Xizang Development’s stock has been subject to other risk warnings since April 10, 2019.

With three major positives—improved earnings, resolved funds occupation risks, and the acquisition of core assets—combined with the continued advancement of the pre-reorganization matter, investors expected that Xizang Development is only one step away from successfully completing reorganization and getting its delisting risk status lifted.

Since July 2023, when Xizang Development received the pre-reorganization decision letter from the Intermediate People’s Court of Lhasa City in the Tibet Autonomous Region, it has been advancing the pre-reorganization work for nearly 3 years. Until December 2025, Xizang Development signed the “Reorganization Investment Agreement” with 24 investors, among which the industrial investors are Tibet Shengbang Development Co., Ltd., which is actually controlled by Luo Qi, and the other 23 are financial investors.

According to the announcement, Luo Qi was born in October 1973 and holds a master’s degree. After Tibet Shengbang Holding Co., Ltd. became the largest shareholder of Xizang Development in 2020, Luo Qi became the company’s actual controller. From January 2020 to now, he has served as chairman of Xizang Development; from May 2020 to now, he has served as chairman of Lhasa Beer.

During his tenure, Luo Qi spearheaded a series of capital actions including rectifying historical issues of funds occupation, promoting pre-reorganization procedures, and acquiring equity interests in Lhasa Beer. His sudden disappearance means that these key matters may face even more uncertainties.

An analyst in the alcohol industry, Cai Xuefei, believes that Luo Qi’s disappearance will directly affect the stability of control and investors’ confidence.

“ The core of pre-reorganization is ‘using time to create space.’ By introducing new capital and adjusting debts, it is possible to make a rebirth. But as the helmsman who is both the actual controller and the industrial investor, Luo Qi’s sudden absence will undoubtedly cause key decisions to be delayed, and reduce the efficiency of communication and coordination with the court, the administrators, and investors from all sides, thereby casting the biggest variable into the pre-reorganization process.” Cai Xuefei analyzed in an interview with the reporters of Times Weekly.

Regarding Luo Qi’s disappearance, Xizang Development stated that its board of directors still has 8 directors performing their duties normally, that the board’s operations are normal, that the company and its subsidiaries’ production and business operations are normal, and that the management team has made proper arrangements for matters related to daily business and management. The matter will not have a material impact on the board’s operation and the company’s normal business operation.

However, Cai Xuefei believes that although the company’s announcement states that the vice chairman performs the duties in his place and that the board operates normally, this is more of a “loss-control” measure at the level of legal procedures and cannot fully eliminate the market’s doubts about whether the core strategy can be carried out continuously. As for acquiring the remaining equity interests in Lhasa Beer, which is originally a key step after reorganization to focus on the main business and boost profitability, its advancement also depends on a stable and execution-capable decision-making tier. From the medium- to long-term perspective, it remains to be seen whether the temporary administrator and the existing management can rapidly fill the power vacuum and stabilize investors with more transparent communication.

In addition, Shen Meng, executive director of Shàng Xiàng Capital, also pointed out that the chairman of a private enterprise is a key person for enterprise operations, and disappearance would have a significant impact on the decision-making chain, especially because Xizang Development, as a pre-reorganization target, needs the listed company to cooperate closely with the reorganization investors.

Looking back at more than 30 years of development of Xizang Development, it once was a scarce beer-listed company in Tibet, holding the well-known regional brand of Lhasa Beer. Yet it fell into a swamp of illegal guarantees by the former controlling shareholder, funds occupation, and disputes over control. Revenue declined for many years starting from 2013, and only until 2023 did operations gradually improve.

As of the time this article was published, Xizang Development has still not disclosed the specific reasons for Luo Qi’s disappearance or the latest progress. On April 3, the reporter of Times Weekly made multiple calls to the company’s securities department. The lines were constantly busy, and the only message heard was: “The user you dialed is busy. Please try again later.”

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