Ma Xuejun, the actual controller of Breo, has resigned. He was fined 10 million yuan and banned from the securities market for 5 years for manipulating the securities market.

On the evening of November 4, Breo released an announcement that Ma Xuejun, chairman and general manager of the company, submitted a written resignation report, applying to resign from all positions including director, chairman, general manager, member of each special committee of the board of directors, and acting chief financial officer for personal reasons. He will no longer hold any position in the company after the resignation, and the resignation report will take effect from the date of delivery to the board of directors.

The announcement shows that the company's board of directors has elected director Liu Zhihua to perform the relevant duties of chairman and general manager before the election and appointment of the new chairman and general manager are completed. The company stated that the work in charge of Ma Xuejun has been properly handed over, this personnel change will not adversely affect daily operations, and the company will complete the by-election of legal representative and senior executives in accordance with relevant regulations subsequently.

At the same time when this personnel announcement was released, a heavy regulatory penalty was also implemented, which is the core background of this resignation.

The regulatory document disclosed on the same day shows that Ma Xuejun, as the controlling shareholder and actual controller of the company, has received the Administrative Penalty Decision issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

According to the announcement, the CSRC determined that Ma Xuejun, Yu Hongshou, Hu Feng, Chen Tianming, Song Lifeng, Huang Rongxiang and Hu Wen manipulated the trading of "Breo", decided to confiscate 10.1183 million yuan of illegal gains and impose a fine of 30.3548 million yuan, the total sum of illegal gains and fines reached 40.4731 million yuan. Among them, Ma Xuejun shall bear a fine of 11.8419 million yuan.

Meanwhile, due to the serious circumstances of his illegal acts, Ma Xuejun has been subject to a 5-year securities market entry ban and a 5-year securities trading ban. The company stated that this matter is a personal issue of the controlling shareholder and actual controller, and has nothing to do with the company's production, operation and business activities. As of the date of the announcement disclosure, all operating activities and businesses of the company are being carried out normally.

According to public information, Breo focuses on portable massage hardware, with head, eye and neck massagers as its core categories. Its product design integrates the concept of traditional Chinese medicine massage, and it became popular in the early stage relying on the model of airport experience stores plus online social media content marketing.

As the founder of Breo, Ma Xuejun has long led the company's operation, led Breo to list on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, and is the core soul figure of Breo.

He was born in April 1971, with a vocational high school education background. He started his career in consumer goods sales positions, and successively served as sales supervisor of Taiwan Fuhao Food and sales manager of Shenzhen Sigma, accumulating rich experience in offline channel operation.

In 1996, Ma Xuejun founded the predecessor enterprise of Breo, and officially established Breo Technology in 2001. He has been in charge of the company for more than 20 years, built the product system, brand marketing and channel network by himself, and led the enterprise to list on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board in 2021, creating the "first listed stock of portable massager".

In the same year of listing, the company's revenue reached 1.191 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to shareholders was 91.14 million yuan, which was the peak performance after listing. However, in 2022, it suffered its first loss, its performance continued to be under pressure, and it fell into loss for three times within four years.

The total annual revenue in 2025 was 779 million yuan, down 28.21% year on year, and the net loss attributable to shareholders was 97.2622 million yuan, the revenue scale shrank significantly compared with its peak period.

The company explained that the weakening of consumer demand superimposed with strategic adjustment led to revenue decline and gross profit shrinkage; rigid costs such as store rent and labor are difficult to be reduced synchronously, and the high marketing investment failed to meet expected input-output ratio, which continued to drag down profits. On the product side, the sales volume of neck massage products increased, but the unit price declined, and the revenue still decreased year on year.

In terms of business structure, the vast majority of revenue comes from the domestic market, with overseas revenue of only 70.7174 million yuan, and the overseas gross profit margin is slightly higher than that in China. The company tries to layout directly-operated and franchised stores in Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam as the second growth curve, but the scale is still too small to hedge the pressure of domestic business.

In the first three quarters of 2026, the operating pressure of Breo continued, the revenue in the first three quarters was 490 million yuan, down 11.18% year on year, and the net loss attributable to shareholders was 85.5195 million yuan, the loss continued to expand. Although the overall gross profit margin still remains at a high level of about 58%, the high gross profit cannot cover the continuously rising fixed costs and sales expenses, and the profit dilemma has not been reversed.

While the performance is under pressure, the risk signal at the shareholder level of Breo is also worthy of attention.

As of the end of the reporting period, Ma Xuejun holds 32.2353 million shares of the company, accounting for 37.92% of the total shares, making him the largest shareholder; among them, 595,923 shares were judicially frozen on May 25, 2026, and 4,015,647 shares were judicially frozen on October 12, 2026, both of which were triggered by the property preservation application arising from his personal contract dispute.

In terms of other shareholders, Ningbo Heting Investment Co., Ltd. holds 6.44 million shares, accounting for 7.58%, which is an enterprise controlled by Ma Xuejun who holds 80% of its equity, and the 80% capital contribution share is under industrial and commercial pledge registration; Ningbo Risun Enterprise Management Partnership holds 3.7653 million shares, accounting for 4.43%, which is also an enterprise controlled by Ma Xuejun.

In terms of cash flow, the net cash flow from operating activities of Breo in the first three quarters was -21.9959 million yuan, the net cash flow from investment activities was 43.8865 million yuan, the net cash flow from financing activities was -120.0616 million yuan, and the net decrease in cash and cash equivalents was 98.2493 million yuan.

On November 5, the opening price of Breo was 14.5 yuan per share, and the opening market value was 1.233 billion yuan, which has evaporated by nearly 89% compared with its peak period.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Direct to IPO", written by Sun Yuan, authorized for release by 36Kr.