A-shares see another shareholder clearance-style reduction again, the Gu family from Taicang takes action, "Monkey Moutai" Zhaoyan New Drug suffered a limit-down crash, with market value evaporating 20.53 hundred million yuan in a single day! Under the cover of the monkey cycle, shareholders of Zhaoyan New Drug intensively cash out.

A-shares once again see shareholder panic selling!

On March 17, Zhaoyan New Drug, known as the “Monkey Maotai” of the A-share market, opened sharply down 6%, then continued to decline, and in the afternoon was directly pushed to the daily limit down. By the close, Zhaoyan New Drug was trading at 29.32 yuan per share, down 10.01%, with a transaction volume of 855 million yuan. Its market capitalization fell below 20 billion yuan to 18.48 billion yuan, losing over 2.053 billion yuan in a single day.

The sudden plunge in Zhaoyan New Drug was triggered by an announcement of a complete liquidation sale.

On the evening of March 16, Zhaoyan New Drug suddenly announced that shareholders Gu Xiaolei and their concerted action partner Gu Meifang each hold 20.42 million and 10.32 million shares of the company, representing 2.7251% and 1.3775% of the shares. They plan to reduce their holdings through the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s centralized bidding method, starting three trading days after the announcement, from March 20, 2026, to June 19, 2026, with a maximum reduction of 20.42 million and 10.32 million shares respectively, totaling no more than 30.74 million shares, accounting for 4.1026% of the company’s current total share capital.

This means Gu Xiaolei and Gu Meifang will completely liquidate their holdings in Zhaoyan New Drug. Based on the closing price on March 16, their total reduction amount is approximately 840 million yuan.

Regarding this cash-out, Zhaoyan New Drug stated in the announcement that it is due to the personal financial needs of the two shareholders. Their holdings are all acquired before the company’s initial public offering and were obtained through capital reserve share conversion.

Taicang Gu Family Moves

It is worth noting that Gu Xiaolei and Gu Meifang are uncle and niece, both from Taicang Xiangtang Group. Gu Xiaolei is the son of Gu Zhenqi, founder of Xiangtang Group, and Gu Meifang is the sister of Gu Zhenqi. In 2002, Zhaoyan New Drug introduced investment from Xiangtang Group.

At the time of the company’s listing, Gu Xiaolei, Gu Meifang, and Lhasa Xiangtang held a combined 17.19% of the shares, after which both individuals and Lhasa Xiangtang began reducing their holdings.

According to incomplete statistics, on September 17, 2018, Zhaoyan New Drug announced that director Gu Xiaolei, Gu Meifang, their concerted action partner Lhasa Xiangtang, and Gu Zhenqi planned to reduce their holdings by no more than 900,000, 840,000, respectively, over the next two months, accounting for 0.78% and 0.73% of the total share capital.

On June 10, 2022, Zhaoyan New Drug announced that its fourth-largest shareholder and director Gu Xiaolei and his concerted action partner, the sixth-largest shareholder Gu Meifang, planned to reduce their holdings by no more than 2.28 million and 6.53 million shares respectively, due to personal funding needs, representing 0.6% and 1.71% of the total share capital, totaling 8.81 million shares.

On September 21, 2022, Zhaoyan New Drug announced that director Gu Xiaolei planned to reduce no more than 3.273 million A-shares through block trading, representing no more than 0.61% of the current total share capital. The block trading was scheduled to be implemented within three months after the announcement, within three trading days.

Major shareholder also intensively cashing out

Besides the Gu family’s exit, the actual controller of Zhaoyan New Drug is also rapidly cashing out. The announcement shows that between January 22 and January 23, 2026, Zhou Zhiwen reduced a total of 4.1537 million shares through the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s centralized bidding, accounting for 0.55% of the company’s current total share capital; through block trades, he reduced a total of 5.95 million shares, accounting for 0.79%. Based on the market conditions at that time, Zhou Zhiwen cashed out over 370 million yuan.

Zhaoyan New Drug’s core business underperforming, relying on monkey breeding

Behind the wave of shareholder cash-outs is Zhaoyan New Drug’s poor core business performance and reliance on breeding monkeys.

On January 21, 2026, Zhaoyan New Drug released its 2025 earnings forecast. The company expects to achieve operating revenue of approximately 1.573 billion to 1.738 billion yuan, a decrease of about 13.9% to 22.1% compared to 2024; net profit of about 233 million to 349 million yuan, an increase of approximately 214% to 371%; and non-recurring net profit of 246 million to 370 million yuan, up about 945.2% to 1467.7% compared to 2024.

The main reason for the significant increase in net profit despite declining revenue is the breeding of experimental monkeys.

The announcement states that due to price increases and natural growth value appreciation, the market fair value of the biological assets held by Zhaoyan New Drug increased in 2025, contributing a net profit of about 452 million to 499 million yuan. Meanwhile, laboratory services and other businesses recorded losses of approximately 130 million to 206 million yuan.

In 2022, driven by the COVID-19 research boom, the price of a single experimental monkey once exceeded 200,000 yuan; subsequently, the industry entered a correction period, and prices halved in 2023; by 2025, with the revival of biotech investment and financing, monkey prices rebounded strongly, with some scarce varieties quoted above 150,000 yuan each.

Under the influence of the monkey cycle, various shareholders began to act, and later investors, realizing the trend, chose to vote with their feet.