Unitree Robotics’ initial public offering drew a record 9.78 million online subscription accounts for Shanghai’s STAR Market, yet its retail winning rate was only 0.01809759%, placing it among the most difficult Chinese IPOs to obtain this year. The figures point to exceptionally concentrated demand for the robotics company’s limited share allocation ahead of its expected market debut.
The company opened subscriptions on Aug. 10 and published allocation results the following day. About 19,414 retail winning numbers were issued, while 313 institutions received 22.65 million shares through the offline placement tranche, according to the offering filing.
Valid online subscriptions totaled 53.637 billion shares, producing an initial oversubscription multiple of 8,288.82 times. Unitree shifted 3.236 million shares from the offline tranche to the online pool through a callback mechanism, equivalent to 10% of the shares remaining after strategic placements. The adjustment lifted the final retail winning rate from roughly 0.012% to 0.018%, but it remained the lowest winning rate recorded for a STAR Market offering.
Record participation meets limited allocation
The 9.7846 million online subscription accounts exceeded the previous STAR Market record of 9.4288 million set by Changxin Technology in July. Unitree’s winning rate, though, was a fraction of Changxin’s 0.47141739% rate.
Among 93 newly listed Chinese stocks this year, Unitree’s online winning rate ranked near the bottom. Its offline placement ratio of 0.03341824% ranked sixth-lowest among 46 offerings that included offline bookbuilding, another sign that institutional demand was similarly intense.
The company issued 40.4464 million shares at 150.8 yuan each, representing 10% of its enlarged share capital. Gross proceeds totaled about 6.099 billion yuan, 45.15% above the 4.202 billion yuan fundraising target disclosed in its original plan.
The offer’s timetable was also unusually short. Unitree’s application was accepted on March 20, and the company reached approval in 73 days. The period between acceptance and the Aug. 10 subscription date was under five months, described in the offering materials as the fastest approval process for a new listing this year.
Strategic placements leave a tight initial float
Strategic placement participants included entities affiliated with the national social security fund, state-owned groups, technology companies, and securities firms using several participation structures. Employees also subscribed through two asset-management plans that raised 2.185 billion yuan and 530 million yuan.
The larger employee plan included 161 participants, including chief financial officer Wang Feng. A second plan included 10 people, among them chairman Wang, who subscribed for 15 million yuan.
Following the callback adjustment, the offline issuance totaled 25.886148 million shares, or about 80% of the offering excluding the final strategic allocation. Ninety percent of those offline shares carry no lock-up period and can trade from the first day of listing, while the other 10% are restricted for six months.
Based on a post-offering share count of about 404 million, the materials estimated the first-day free float at roughly 29.77 million shares, equal to 7.36% of total equity. More than 90% of Unitree’s shares would therefore remain locked at listing.
That structure could make early trading highly sensitive to order flow. A record number of retail accounts sought access to an allocation that yielded fewer than 20,000 winning numbers, while the freely tradable share pool will represent only a small part of the company’s equity.
Robotics growth supports a premium valuation
Unitree plans to direct 85% of IPO proceeds toward research, development and production capacity. Its disclosed spending plan includes 2.022 billion yuan for intelligent robot model research and development, 1.110 billion yuan for robot-body research and development, 445 million yuan for new intelligent robot products, and 624 million yuan for a manufacturing base.
The fundraising plan places most of the new capital behind product development rather than near-term financial engineering. Unitree is seeking to expand across the software, hardware and manufacturing layers needed to build intelligent robots at scale, a capital-intensive strategy that depends on converting rapid shipment growth into sustained revenue.
The company reported revenue of 159 million yuan in 2023, rising to 1.699 billion yuan in 2025. That represents a compound annual growth rate of 226.78%, according to its financial disclosures. Over the same period, non-GAAP net profit moved from a loss of 18.0191 million yuan to a profit of 591 million yuan.
Gross margin increased from 44.22% in 2023 to 60.13% in 2025. Unitree reported a 63.18% gross margin for its humanoid robot business, suggesting that its higher-end products have become a larger contributor to its business mix.
For the first half of 2026, Unitree forecast revenue of 1.052 billion yuan to 1.128 billion yuan, representing year-over-year growth of 35.62% to 45.41%. It projected profit attributable to owners of 258 million yuan to 306 million yuan, with non-GAAP profit attributable to owners expected at 236 million yuan to 283 million yuan.
The first-quarter numbers show the pressure behind those targets. Revenue reached 423 million yuan, up 68.49% from a year earlier, while non-GAAP net profit fell 52.55% to 40.2536 million yuan. The divergence indicates that rapid sales expansion has not removed the costs associated with research, product development and operational scaling.
Valuation leaves little room for execution setbacks
Unitree’s offering documents referenced a non-GAAP price-to-earnings multiple of 219 times, compared with an industry average of 38.56 times. In roadshow remarks, chairman Wang said the 150.8 yuan offer price equated to 92.92 times 2025 non-GAAP profit, using a different calculation basis.
The range illustrates how heavily the company’s valuation rests on future growth assumptions. Unitree generated 1.699 billion yuan in revenue in 2025, while some market projections cited in the materials assumed revenue could eventually reach 11.5 billion yuan under a 20-times-sales framework. Such a target would require revenue to rise almost sevenfold from the 2025 level.
Wang said Unitree shipped more than 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025, excluding wheeled dual-arm robots, and described the figure as the highest global shipment volume in the category. The company’s ability to retain that lead while protecting margins will be central to whether its public-market valuation can be sustained after the initial scarcity-driven trading period.
Unitree ended 2025 with 670 million yuan in net operating cash flow and 1.419 billion yuan in cash, while its filings said it carried almost no interest-bearing debt. Those figures give the company more flexibility to fund its research program after listing, though the IPO also raises expectations for faster commercialization of humanoid robots and related systems.
Curious how markets react to hyped listings like Unitree’s? Learn to read these moves in our in-depth guide.
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