On the 13th, the China Association for Public Companies released the "Report on the Development of High-End Manufacturing among Chinese Listed Companies (2024)" (hereinafter referred to as the Report), stating that in recent years, benefiting from policy support and the historic opportunities of industrial structure transformation and upgrading, the number of Chinese high-end manufacturing listed companies has continued to increase, with remarkable operating results.

The Report shows that as of the end of 2023, there were a total of 2,445 high-end manufacturing listed companies in China's A-share market, accounting for 45.74% of the total number of A-share listed companies.

As of the end of 2023, the total assets of A-share high-end manufacturing listed companies reached 25.69 trillion yuan (RMB, the same below), an increase of 12.03% over the end of 2022 and 89.54% over the end of 2019. The compound growth rate over the past five years was 17.33%, higher than the overall compound growth rate of the A-share market, indicating rapid growth in asset scale.

In addition, over the past five years, the revenue of high-end manufacturing listed companies grew from 8.24 trillion yuan in 2019 to 14.66 trillion yuan in 2023, with a compound growth rate of 15.50%. The Report states that the revenue growth rate is significantly higher than the GDP growth rate, indicating that high-end manufacturing listed companies are still in a stage of rapid development and remain a strong driving force for China's economic growth.

Regarding the closely watched R&D investment, the Report points out that in 2023, the R&D expenditure of high-end manufacturing listed companies reached 888.218 billion yuan, with a compound growth rate of 22.11% over the past five years, and annual growth rates remained at a relatively high level. R&D investment has continued to increase rapidly, indicating that China's high-end manufacturing industry attaches importance to technological iteration and industrial upgrading and continues to intensify its efforts in tackling key problems.

Statistics also show that in 2023, the total dividends of high-end manufacturing listed companies amounted to 302.649 billion yuan, an increase of 8.301 billion yuan over 2022. In 2023, the dividend payout ratio of high-end manufacturing listed companies reached 37.91%, an increase of 4.52 percentage points over 2022. The sub-sector with the highest dividends was the power equipment industry, with total dividends of 78.612 billion yuan.

In terms of overseas business, the Report states that over the past five years, Chinese high-end manufacturing listed companies have continuously expanded their overseas business and sought broader market space. Their year-on-year overseas revenue growth rates have remained at a relatively high level of above 15%, higher than the overseas revenue growth rate of all A-share listed companies during the same period.