Xiaomi’s Desperate Buyback and an Untested SUV Bet Fail to Convince Skeptics
12.06.2026 - 04:33:57 | boerse-global.de
The stock has lost more than a third of its value since January, and no amount of share repurchases seems to be changing the narrative. Xiaomi spent 201.9 million Hong Kong dollars on Thursday to buy back 7.8 million of its own shares—part of a 20-billion-HKD program—on the same day the equity plumbed a fresh 52-week low of 2.82 euros. Even after the intervention, the shares have only crawled back to 2.87 euros, still 57% below the year’s peak of 6.69 euros and barely above the recent trough.
The buyback coincides with an aggressive push into China’s most hotly contested auto segment. Xiaomi has applied to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) for production approval of its first extended-range electric vehicle, internally codenamed Kunlun N3. Unlike the battery-electric SU7 and YU7, the new model will be sold under the Skynomad sub-brand and target family-oriented buyers. At over 5.3 meters long, with a battery pack exceeding 70 kWh and a pure-electric range of 400 to 500 kilometers, the SUV is slated for a market debut in the second half of 2026. Sunwoda will supply 60% of the cells, CALB the rest. The public comment period on the MIIT application runs until June 17.
That puts Xiaomi squarely in the crosshairs of Li Auto and Aito, the Huawei-backed brand that dominates the extended-range SUV segment. Seven of China’s ten best-selling extended-range SUVs in 2025 came from those two marques. Li Auto relaunched the revamped L9 in May with a 72.7-kWh battery and 420 kilometers of electric range at a starting price of 459,800 yuan, but its deliveries cratered 74% in the first four months of 2026. Aito’s M9, meanwhile, has been the country’s top-selling luxury vehicle above 500,000 yuan for two years running, and a pre-refresh version racked up 50,000 pre-orders before its own May launch.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Xiaomi?
The challenge is existential for Xiaomi because its core business is buckling. First-quarter profit collapsed 57% as revenue shrank to 99.1 billion yuan. Global smartphone shipments slid 19.2%, though a shift toward higher-priced models pushed the average selling price to a record 1,310 yuan. Costly memory chips added to the margin pressure. At the same time, the fledgling auto division posted a loss of 3.1 billion yuan in the quarter—or roughly $5,600 per vehicle delivered. In May, Xiaomi shipped about 32,800 cars, a 17% year-on-year increase but a 11% sequential decline from April. The full-year target of 550,000 units demands a near-34% jump over the 410,000 delivered in 2025.
With the stock in official oversold territory—the relative strength index touched 29.8 on Thursday before recovering to 30.2—the buyback is the most immediate lever management has to stem the bleeding. But the path to profitability in autos hinges on the Kunlun N3 clearing the MIIT process and hitting assembly lines in the second half of 2026. Until then, the dual weight of a shrinking phone business and a capital-intensive car rollout leaves little room for a sustained recovery.
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