Junpu Intelligence: With an unstable main business, how can its robot dream continue?
Junpu Intelligence (688306.SH) makes another move in its robotics business.
Recently, Puzhi Future Robotics, a subsidiary of Junpu Intelligence, announced the official establishment of its Wuxi subsidiary, Puzhi Robotics (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. Relevant person in charge said that the annual production capacity of this subsidiary can reach more than 2,000 units.
As the robot wave continues to sweep across, countless automobile, especially automobile parts enterprises, are crossing over into the robotics field, and Junpu Intelligence is one of them. However, judging from the development of its main business and overall performance, Junpu Intelligence doesn't seem to be on a solid footing.
Acquisitions to Make up for Technological Shortcomings
Junpu Intelligence was formerly known as Joyson Group (renamed in 2019). It was established in 2004 and went public in 2022. It is a globally - deployed provider of intelligent manufacturing equipment and digital solutions, focusing on new - energy vehicle equipment and also vigorously expanding into new fields such as medical, consumer goods, and industrial machinery and electronics.
According to Junpu Intelligence's official website, in the early years, the company gradually completed its technological path and improved its global layout through acquisitions. Looking at the specific timeline, in 2014, it acquired IMA Amberg in Germany, obtaining the most advanced precision manufacturing, digital twin, and flexible production line technologies of German Industry 4.0; in 2016, it acquired Evana in the United States, supplementing North American engineering standards, powertrain automation, and medical automation technologies, and quickly entering the North American high - end manufacturing market, gaining North American vehicle and parts customers such as General Motors, Ford, and Tesla; in 2017, it acquired M&R in Austria, obtaining the full - stack powertrain automation technology for traditional fuel vehicles and new - energy electric drives, and established an engineering center in Austria to serve the Central and Eastern European markets, forming a dual - center in Europe with Amberg in Germany; in the same year, it acquired Preh IMA Automation in Germany again, obtaining automation technologies for automotive electronics, autonomous driving sensors, and safety systems, and entering the fields of high - end consumer goods (razors, toothbrushes) and medical and health equipment, reducing its dependence on the single automotive industry.
Multiple acquisitions have enabled Junpu Intelligence to integrate four major technological systems: German precision manufacturing, North American engineering standards, Austrian powertrain, and German automotive electronics, forming a full - stack intelligent manufacturing technological capability. And it has expanded from single automotive equipment to four major business segments: automotive, medical, consumer goods, and industrial machinery and electronics. The 2024 financial report data shows that the proportion of Junpu Intelligence's medical, consumer goods, and industrial machinery and electronics business is about 11.86%.
Serious Losses of Overseas Subsidiaries
Relying on acquisitions, Junpu Intelligence has risen from a local Chinese manufacturer to a global leader in intelligent manufacturing equipment, and its business has become more diversified. It can be said that it has achieved a qualitative leap. However, judging from the performance, acquisitions all the way have not made Junpu Intelligence earn much money. Instead, it has once plunged the company into a large - scale loss.
Taking the listing as the dividing line, before listing, the highest annual net profit of Junpu Intelligence was only 89.24 million yuan, and the net profits in 2017, 2018, and 2020 were all in the red; after listing, the company's profitability has declined further. In 2022, the net profit was 42.28 million yuan, a year - on - year decrease of 2.09%. Although it increased by 103.98% in 2024, it was only 8.198 million yuan, and the significant increase in performance was based on the significant decline in 2023. It is worth noting that in 2023, Junpu Intelligence began to cross - border layout in the robotics business.
The main reason for Junpu Intelligence's loss in 2023 was the unfavorable progress of the GKN project of its US subsidiary and the ZF IBC project. Among them, the GKN project mainly provides automated production lines or key manufacturing equipment for GKN, a global automotive parts giant. The project was taken over in 2020, with an initial gross profit margin of 16.1%. The technical difficulty was extremely high, and the expected delivery time was May 1, 2022. However, due to design changes, logistics delays and other reasons, the pre - acceptance of the factory was postponed to September 2022. In 2022, an asset impairment loss of 10.84 million yuan was recognized. By the end of 2022, the project's gross profit margin was - 11.3%.
In 2023, in response to the system linkage problems in the project, the group assigned the software engineering team of its Austrian subsidiary to conduct data system joint debugging on the customer's MES system. Due to the different software code standards of the US and Austrian subsidiaries, the software codes of multiple workstations needed to be re - developed. By the end of 2023, the project's gross profit margin dropped to - 73.37% again. In December 2023, the US subsidiary and the customer GKN re - set the technical parameters required for delivery and signed an amended contract, and completed the final acceptance process in March 2024. As of the end of 2023, the project had accumulated a loss of 67.27 million yuan, directly devouring the annual profit.
The other ZF IBC project was signed in March 2022. It is reported that ZF is one of Junpu Intelligence's major customers. This project was one of the major projects accessed by the US subsidiary in 2022 and is also a global cooperation project of Junpu Intelligence. During the implementation process, due to the lack of management of the US subsidiary, the technical team of the US subsidiary and the technical teams of other subsidiaries had insufficient and untimely communication in the early stage of the project, and major technical problems occurred during the pre - acceptance. After evaluation, in 2023, the cost of this project deteriorated and the loss expanded to 17.65 million yuan, and the gross profit margin dropped to - 30.53%.
In addition, in 2023, among the 9 overseas companies of Junpu Intelligence, except for PIA Croatia, the other 8 companies were in the red.
Restricting the Development of the Robotics Business
Whether from the overall performance or the performance of its subsidiaries, Junpu Intelligence appears very unstable, which directly restricts the funds, resources, rhythm, and commercialization of the humanoid robot business, forming a negative cycle of "bleeding in the main business - new business restricted".
On the one hand, although Junpu Intelligence regards robotics (especially embodied intelligence and humanoid robots) as the "second growth curve" and has invested 551 million yuan in the private placement project, the sluggish main business may weaken its long - term support ability for the robotics business; on the other hand, although the joint - venture company "Puzhi Robotics" has received orders worth 28 million yuan and mass - produced three types of robots, the order scale is still small, and the market questions whether it has become a "contract manufacturer" rather than being driven by independent technology. Data shows that in the first half of 2025, the R & D expenses decreased by 20% year - on - year. Although the number of R & D personnel increased slightly, the average salary decreased, indicating that if the main business cannot achieve stable profitability, the continuous R & D investment in the robotics business may be restricted.
In addition, due to short - term performance pressure, Junpu Intelligence may be forced to prioritize short - term profitable projects (such as new - energy vehicle equipment) over the robotics business, and the long - term strategy is kidnapped by short - term performance.
Therefore, some voices believe that for Junpu Intelligence, the intelligent manufacturing main business is the foundation, and robotics is the future. If the main business is unstable, the foundation is not solid, and the robotics business is difficult to grow independently; only when the main business first achieves profit repair and positive cash flow can it provide continuous funds, resources, and strategic determination for the robotics business. Judging from Junpu Intelligence's current performance trend, achieving the goal of stable growth still faces considerable challenges.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Lanfu Financial Network", author: Lanfu Financial Network. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.