July 8 debut on Hong Kong's Chapter 18C specialist technology listing lane for unprofitable frontier tech issuers, at a market cap ceiling of about HK$13 billion.
On July 8, EACON Group will debut in Hong Kong through the exchange's 18C specialist-tech route. The Chinese autonomous-mining company runs 1,617 active autonomous mining trucks a month on average, against 159 two years earlier. It is also losing more money in 2025 than it did in 2023.
The company, formally EACON Group Co., Ltd. and listed under stock code 7687, will list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's Main Board through Chapter 18C of the listing rules, the specialist-technology route the bourse opened in March 2023 for pre-revenue or unprofitable frontier-tech issuers. At the top of the indicated range, HK$87.92 a share, EACON would carry a market capitalization of about HK$13 billion, with cornerstone commitments from Fidelity, JPMorgan and Barings.
EACON now runs two commercial models. In the heavy-asset one, the company owns the trucks and charges miners by volume hauled; gross margin was 1.5% in 2025. In the light-asset one, the miner owns the trucks and EACON sells the software, integration and operating service; gross margin was 16%, per the prospectus. Light-asset revenue rose from 41.7% of the total in 2023 to 56.8% in 2025, according to the prospectus, a meaningful mix shift, but heavy-asset work still contributed 42.7% of last year's top line. The blended 10.1% gross margin is the weighted average of those two businesses, in a transition that is not yet finished.
Monthly average active autonomous mining trucks reached 1,617 in 2025, up from 159 in 2023, according to the company's Hong Kong listing prospectus. Annual material hauled rose from 30.6 million cubic meters to 308 million; total driven distance climbed from 4.6 million kilometers to 61.8 million. Frost & Sullivan ranks EACON first among China's commercial-vehicle autonomous-driving companies by 2025 revenue, a figure the prospectus cites from a third-party commissioned study. Revenue moved from ¥271 million in 2023 to ¥1.435 billion in 2025, a 130% compound rate, with 2024 alone up 264% year on year.
Net loss widened from ¥334 million in 2023 to ¥390 million in 2024 to ¥516 million in 2025, roughly ¥1.24 billion over three years, per the prospectus. Adjusted net loss reached ¥484 million last year. Gross margin flipped from minus 18.6% in 2023 to 10.1% in 2025, an improvement, but a thin one for a company spending heavily on sensors, integration, and on-site engineering. Operating cash flow has been negative every year of the prospectus window: minus ¥251 million in 2023, minus ¥713 million in 2024, minus ¥394 million in 2025.
Lan Shuisheng, EACON's chairman, made his first large exit in 2017 when Baotong Technology acquired Guangzhou Yihuan Network, his mobile-games overseas-publishing vehicle, for more than ¥1.7 billion, with related parties reportedly realizing about ¥1.5 billion in proceeds, according to 36Kr's prospectus walkthrough. In 2018 he pivoted into a different line of business: autonomous haulage for open-pit mines, where trucks run on private haul roads rather than public highways. By 2025 the operation had absorbed eleven funding rounds from Pre-A to D++, with state-linked investors including Zijin Mining's Ziniu and Zidi vehicles, Minxi Xinghang and the Zhengzhou high-tech fund, alongside Fidelity, Eight Roads and NIO Capital.
Three numbers will define the post-listing debate. First, the loss: at ¥516 million in 2025, net loss is wider than it was two years earlier, and adjusted net loss rose for the third straight year. Second, the receivables: trade receivables plus notes receivable grew from ¥115 million in 2023 to ¥1.042 billion in 2025, and turnover days stretched from 48.8 to 168.5, a sign that miners are paying slowly, per the prospectus. Third, the legacy hardware drag: in September 2025 the company signed an intent to sell 190 older-generation trucks and took a one-time ¥118 million impairment, according to 36Kr. The write-down is a marker that the earlier fleet is being retired as the platform generation turns.
Chapter 18C was designed for exactly this kind of company: an unprofitable specialist-technology issuer whose value sits in a frontier hardware-plus-software stack rather than current earnings. Hong Kong has run several 18C listings since 2023, but none with an industrial-AI balance sheet of this scale, and none whose customers are state-owned or state-linked open-pit miners waiting 168 days to pay. EACON's cornerstones have already committed. The float gets to vote on July 8.