← All companies ← NCI Manual NEGG → ← NAVI Capital Markets & Asset Management NDAQ →
NCTY, The9 Limited American Depository Shares
A balance-sheet business, read on book value, net interest margin and credit losses rather than an earnings multiple.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- Situation
- Unprofitable. No sustained operating profit across the record; an earnings multiple has nothing to rest on. What the record does show is revenue, the gross-margin trajectory, and the burn against the cash on hand.
- What moves the needle
- Net interest margin, loan losses, and book value. A lender is read on the quality of its balance sheet, not an earnings multiple, and the worst year of credit losses matters more than the best. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on supplier & input dependence, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on equity has sat below the cost of equity (median -8%, above 12% in only 4 of 10 years). The cycle and the loan book decide this one; weigh the recession years in the record, not the average, and read the 10-K.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 20-F →Asia/Eastern Europe is 60% of revenue, so this is largely a single-region business.
- Asia/Eastern Europe60%CN¥64M
- China33%CN¥35M
- North America7%CN¥8M
From the segment footnote of the company's own 20-F. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMDec 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| CN¥56M | CN¥73M | CN¥17M | CN¥341K | CN¥625K | CN¥136M | CN¥105M | CN¥174M | CN¥112M | CN¥108M | CN¥108M | RevenueRevenue |
| (CN¥667M) | (CN¥112M) | (CN¥239M) | (CN¥196M) | CN¥393M | (CN¥417M) | (CN¥979M) | CN¥13M | (CN¥74M) | (CN¥409M) | (CN¥409M) | Net incomeNet inc. |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| -190.1% | -34.7% | -145.3% | -108.1% | 812.2% | -31.8% | -163.5% | 3.5% | -11.6% | -68.9% | -68.9% | Return on assetsROA |
| — | — | — | — | — | -54% | -2162% | 6% | -22% | -214% | -214% | Return on equityROE |
| — | — | — | — | — | −54% | n/m | 6% | −22% | −214% | −214% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| — | — | — | — | — | -54% | -2162% | 6% | -22% | -214% | -214% | Return on tangible equityROTCE |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| CN¥351M | CN¥323M | CN¥165M | CN¥181M | CN¥48M | CN¥1.3B | CN¥599M | CN¥364M | CN¥637M | CN¥594M | CN¥594M | Total assetsAssets |
| CN¥0 | CN¥0 | CN¥0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | CN¥0 | GoodwillGoodwill |
| (CN¥340M) | (CN¥474M) | (CN¥712M) | (CN¥839M) | (CN¥288M) | CN¥776M | CN¥45M | CN¥206M | CN¥339M | CN¥191M | CN¥191M | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 35.8M | 33.4M | 62.1M | 106M | 164M | 495M | 720K | 1.01B | 1.40B | 2.27B | 1.68B | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| CN¥-18.63 | CN¥-3.35 | CN¥-3.85 | CN¥-1.84 | CN¥2.40 | CN¥-0.84 | CN¥-1359.96 | CN¥0.01 | CN¥-0.05 | CN¥-0.18 | CN¥-0.24 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| CN¥-9.48 | CN¥-14.17 | CN¥-11.46 | CN¥-7.89 | CN¥-1.76 | CN¥1.57 | CN¥62.91 | CN¥0.20 | CN¥0.24 | CN¥0.08 | CN¥0.11 | Book value / shareBVPS |
| CN¥-9.48 | CN¥-14.17 | CN¥-11.46 | CN¥-7.89 | CN¥-1.76 | CN¥1.57 | CN¥62.91 | CN¥0.20 | CN¥0.24 | CN¥0.08 | CN¥0.11 | Tangible book / shareTBVPS |
Share counts before 2017 are restated ×1.5 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.
The diluted share count moved ×1.86 into 2018 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
The diluted share count moved ×1.71 into 2019 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
The diluted share count moved ×1.54 into 2020 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
The diluted share count moved ×3.03 into 2021 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
The diluted share count moved ×1/687.7 into 2022 — shares retired, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
The diluted share count moved ×1403.56 into 2023 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
The diluted share count moved ×1.62 into 2025 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
“To remedy our identified material weaknesses and significant deficiency, we will prepare the period-end closing and financial reporting process earlier to ensure we have sufficient time on these.”
The figures below are only as sound as the controls that produced them. read the note →
Is it a good business?
- Return on equity -214%Loss on equityNet income (CN¥409M) ÷ equity CN¥191MIndustry peers: median -12%
In the filing’s words The filing discloses a material weakness in its financial controls — the reported numbers here, and the record built on them, are only as reliable as the controls that produced them.
What this means
The bank's north star, what it earns on shareholders' capital. Cost of equity is roughly 10%, so a return durably above that builds value and below it destroys it. One year is noisy; the durability across a full credit cycle is what counts.
- LossNet income ÷ (equity − goodwill CN¥0 − intangibles CN¥0)Industry peers: median -12%
What this means
The cleaner return, stripping out the goodwill paid for past acquisitions. This is the number a buyer of the whole bank actually earns on the hard capital.
- Not enough data
What this means
Noninterest expense or revenue missing.
Is it sound?
- Capital (equity / assets) 32.1%Well capitalizedEquity CN¥191M ÷ assets CN¥594M
What this means
A plain-English leverage read: how much of the balance sheet is the owners' own money. This is a rough proxy; the regulatory figure is the CET1 ratio, which is risk-weighted and reported in the filing. The point is the same, how much loss the bank can absorb before depositors are at risk.
- Funding —Not enough data
What this means
Deposits or total assets missing.
- Credit cost —Not enough data
What this means
Provision or net interest income missing.
The franchise and the credit cycle
- Not enough data
What this means
The deposit mix isn't cleanly tagged in the filings' structured data; the funding read above carries what is.
- Not enough data
What this means
Not derivable from the filings' structured data — some filers carry recoveries only on segment axes, and a gross figure dressed as net would be a wrong number.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2025Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
- Cash & short-term investmentsCN¥59M
- ReceivablesCN¥56K
- Other current assetsCN¥283M
- Accounts payableCN¥6M
- Other current liabilitiesCN¥338M
From the company's latest filing.
Peers, Capital Markets & Asset Management
The same industry, side by side on the bank lens. Each column names the period it is read over, and a median resting on fewer than three years carries that count beside it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.
| Company | Revenuelatest FY, USD | ROEmedian over the record | ROTCEmedian over the record | NII / assetsmedian over the record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UPSTUpstart | $1.0B | -7% | -8% | 0.0% |
| YRDYiren Digital Ltd. | $848M | 20% | 20% | 0.8% |
| KEELKeel Infrastructure Corp. | $229M | -17% | -17% | 0.7%2y |
| VELVelocity Financial Inc. | $186M | — | — | 2.5%1y |
| NCTYThe9 Limited American Depository Shares | $16M | -54% | -54% | 0.6%1y |
| LDIloanDepot Inc. | $10M | — | — | 0.1%1y |
| TRONTron Inc. | $5M | -50% | -50% | -0.0%2y |
| CDChaince Digital Holdings Inc. | $2M | -15%2y | -15%2y | 0.8%2y |
| Group median | — | -16% | -16% | 0.6% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
price / tangible bookEnter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. Per the filing's own cover, “American Depositary Shares , each representing 300 Class”; The9 Limited American Depository Shares reports in CNY, so every figure in this tool is stated per ADS and translated at CNY 1 = $0.148 (2026-08-20, reference rate) so your dollar quote reconciles exactly. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed, in CNY.
A bank is worth a multiple of its tangible book value, and the multiple it deserves is set by the return it earns on that book. Type today’s price; we show what you would be paying against what The9 Limited American Depository Shares’s record justifies.
Tangible book / share, delivered−68%/yr’20→’25
The justified multiple is (return on tangible equity − growth) ÷ (cost of equity − growth). A bank earning exactly its cost of equity is worth about one times tangible book; the premium above that prices each point of durable excess return. A higher cost of equity lowers the justified multiple for a bank.
Enter a price above to run it.
Graham applied the same standards to financial enterprises (Intelligent Investor ch.14): the 15× multiple cap on averaged earnings, and P/E times price-to-book at most 22.5. The gate marks the bargain-hunter’s floor, not a verdict.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Tangible book $28M on 15M shares, a −54% normalized return on it. The dials set the multiple such a return would justify; your price sets the multiple you are paying. It assumes the bank keeps earning that return; a credit cycle, a rate shock or a bad acquisition changes it, which is what the record and the 10-K are for.
Manual order: ← NCI its page in the Manual NEGG →
Industry order: ← NAVI the Capital Markets & Asset Management chapter NDAQ →