Amid the backdrop of two successive chairmen falling from grace and massive losses for the company, China’s state-owned liquor enterprise Wuliangye is being questioned for its “slash and burn” approach to financial reporting, suspected of intentionally downplaying the performance base of 2025 in order to achieve a substantial growth in the first quarter of this year.
Wuliangye, a listed A-share company (Yibin Wuliangye Co., Ltd.), originally scheduled to disclose its 2025 annual report and first quarter report for 2026 on April 29, but on the evening of the 28th, it suddenly announced a delay until after market close on April 30. In the announcement regarding the delay, Wuliangye stated that it was to further improve the preparation and review of the periodic reports.
On April 30, Wuliangye released its 2025 annual report and 2026 first quarter report.
The annual report showed that Wuliangye achieved operating income of 40.529 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year decrease of 54.55%; and a net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company of 8.954 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 71.89%.
However, the company concurrently issued a “prior-period accounting error correction notice,” retrospectively revising the financial data for the first three quarters of 2025.
After the “correction,” Wuliangye’s cumulative revenue for the first three quarters of 2025 was lowered by almost half from about 60.945 billion yuan to 30.638 billion yuan. The first quarter net profit attributable to the parent company was adjusted from 14.86 billion yuan to 4.416 billion yuan.
The company stated that this adjustment was made after a reorganization of the 2025 business model and, based on the prudence principle, adjusted certain business income recognition related accounting.
With a low base number from the same period last year, Wuliangye’s net profit for the first quarter of 2026 increased by a significant 82.57% year-on-year.
Many investors have raised doubts about this, calling it nothing short of a “blatant financial bath.” Some shareholders commented, “Is this how a listed company operates?,” “Changing financial reports at will, lawlessness”…
Wuliangye Group is a Baijiu enterprise controlled by the Sichuan Yibin State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, wholly owned by Yibin Development Holding Group. It is reported that Wuliangye saw a decline in both revenue and net profit in 2025 for the first time since 2015.
Explaining the decline in performance, Wuliangye stated: “In 2025, the Baijiu industry entered a deep adjustment period, and the company took the initiative to adjust to the market and actively assisted channels to alleviate pressure and solve difficulties.” Several mainland media outlets mentioned that in February of this year, Zeng Congqin, who had been in charge of Wuliangye for four years, was investigated.
Zeng Congqin entered Wuliangye in 2019 and took over as chairman after Li Shuguang in February 2022, becoming the “head” of Wuliangye. Li Shuguang was announced to have fallen from grace in January of last year after stepping down.
Wuliangye’s stock price plummeted on April 30. As of the close of April 30, Wuliangye was trading at 97.08 yuan, down 1.28%, with a total market capitalization of 376.8 billion yuan.