Customers wait in a queue to enter a Laopu gold store, known for his golden jewelry “Traditional Craftsman” in Shanghai in February.
VCG/VCG through Getty Images
Xu Gaoming, a former China fish employee who launched the Laopu Gold jewelry brand in 2016, has accumulated a $ 9 billion asset as the company’s shares increased almost 1,500% after a public bid less than a year ago. But analysts warn that the stock may have reached high unstable levels.
XU, 60, is chairman of the firm listed in Hong Kong and derives its net value from a company company, according to Forbes estimates. Beijing -based jeweler now has a market capitalization of $ 113 billion HK ($ 14.5 billion), on the rival listed in Hong Kong, Chow Tai Fook’s HK 91.3 billion, although generating a portion of the latter and has only 33 stores in the continent compared to nearly 7,000.
The growth of the growing action has made a company investor, 60-year-old Chen Guodong, a billionaire with a net worth $ 1.2 billion, according to Forbes’ estimates.
Investors are bullies in Laopu because they see it as a unique luxury brand with high growth potential. Laop controls its detailed craftsmanship and models of Buddhism -inspired products. Company stores, with exhibition halls that look like Chinese imperial courts, are located in luxury centers near other high -level stores such as Cartier and Louis Vuitton.
All this has helped hit an “emotional cord” with rich Chinese, who have wanted a luxury home brand, says Mark Tanner, founder of the Shanghai China Skinny -based research firm.
Taping in China’s cultural heritage through its models and marketing called by Lu Yao, a 26-year-old student living in Wuxi, a city less than an hour by train away from Shanghai.
Lu tells Forbes from Wechat that her family recently passed 13,000 yuan ($ 1,800) to buy a Laopu gold ring as a marriage gift for a friend. She says they did not mind paying much more for company products, which keep fixed prices compared to competitors like the Chow Tai Fook, which sell gold jewelry based on the weight of the precious basic metal.
A Laopu necklace, for example, has a price of about 26,000 yuan ($ 3,600), almost 50% more expensive than 23.6 grams of gold used to make it. Lu says Laopu is one of the few brands of golden jewelery he has models he wants.
“For the first time I saw a Laopu shop in 2018, and I was curious as to why a local gold jewelery brand opened a store near Cartier,” she says. “After I went inside, I was really impressed by the models.”
Laopu predicts that his net profit climbed up to 260% to 1.5 billion yuan in 2024, according to a show of February shares that presented investors for the results. The company did not respond to an email request for comment.
Laopu has not yet published more finances for all last year. According to Laurel Gu, a Shanghai -based research director in Minel China, the company generated an average of 300 million yuan for sale from each store in China in 2024. This is a level that exceeds the performance of luxury international jewelery in the world’s second largest economy, she says from Wechat.
Gu says the company’s moment will continue this year, as consumers continue to line up outside Laopu stores to buy a limited number of products. On Chinese social media sites, there are often images of long lines outside its retail stores, with some internet users who say it may take hours to browse products during peak seasons such as Chinese New Year.
However, despite the moment, there are concerns that Laopu’s shares may be precious. Laopu’s shares currently trade with 34 times its prediction revenues for 2025, compared to an average of 11 times for household jewelery brands, according to a March 6 research note by Morgan Stanley.
The company can expand the number of its stores to 60 to 2029, according to Morgan Stanley, which is priced at $ 555 HK per share for Laopu. Since 2pm this pm, the company’s stock price was $ 652 HK.
Laopu attractiveness can be injured if gold prices fall. This can cause the rich Chinese to stop collecting its parts as an investment form, says Kenny NG, a Hong Kong -based securities strategist in Everbright Securities International, says Wechat.
“Laopu is not definitely free among consumer -related shares, as he enjoys a premium over peers,” Ng says. “At such price levels, I think investors should consider risk control.”