Hunan's department-store leader swung to a ¥335M loss — then bet on chips

Youa Corp, the listed arm of Hunan's Friendship-Apollo retail group, ran the province's department-store heart for decades: its Apollo Commercial Plaza beside the Changsha railway station opened in 1998 and became a 27-year landmark. But the company had layered a property business onto retail, and by 2025 both layers were failing. Real estate revenue collapsed 84.55% to ¥16.9 million, leaving ¥1.86 billion of unsold development products sitting in inventory — 88.57% of all stock on the books.

The retail core cracked with it. Changsha department-store comparable sales fell 25.91% in 2025; outlets and shopping centers fell 8.88%. On March 3 the 68,000-square-meter Apollo Commercial Plaza itself closed for renovation, and the Youa Electrical Appliance Aguang store shut alongside it. Full-year revenue fell 22.98% to ¥988 million, and the company swung from a ¥28 million profit to a ¥335 million loss — writing down ¥260 million of assets and ¥64 million of credit on the way. Operating cash flow fell a third to ¥195 million.

The balance sheet tells the squeeze: ¥164 million of cash against ¥2.545 billion of short-term debt, a quick ratio of 0.09. Youa's answer, planned since December 2024, was to step outside retail entirely — acquiring Shangyangtong, a power-semiconductor designer, to build a 'department store + semiconductor' dual business. The deal carried no performance commitment from the sellers and skipped income-based valuation; the target's revenue had fallen in both 2023 and 2024. Commentators called it a gamble with no safety net — and the goodwill risk lands wholly on shareholders.