Amid stock price fluctuations, where does Mindray Medical's true confidence come from?

Ask AI · How does Li Xiting’s entrepreneurial story illustrate the resilience of a healthcare technology giant?

Produced by | China Interview Network

Reviewed by | Li Xiaoyan

As a leading benchmark in China’s medical device industry, Mindray’s development trajectory has consistently drawn attention from both the industry and capital markets. Recently, the company’s 2025 annual report released performance figures have sparked widespread interest; combined with factors such as periodic stock-price fluctuations and institutional holdings adjustments, outside discussions about its development trend have become multifaceted. But looking back over Mindray’s more than 30-year growth journey—from an entrepreneurial team that emerged from an impoverished county in Anhui to today’s global medical technology giant—what founder Li Xiting has upheld, namely “long-termism” and an original commitment to R&D and innovation, has always been the core confidence for navigating industry cycles and tackling challenges.

Li Xiting’s entrepreneurial life itself is an epic tale of striving that embodies long-termism. He was born in 1951 in Dangshan County, Suzhou City, Anhui Province—an area that had previously been a nationally recognized poverty-stricken county—imbuing him with a resilient and pragmatic temperament. In 1969, after graduating from high school, he threw himself into road construction in the Shennongjia mountain area of Hubei, leaving his hometown for the first time. In 1973, he seized the opportunity brought by the resumption of the national college entrance exam, entered the Department of Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China, and achieved his first major leap in life. After graduation, he worked at the Wuhan Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Later, as a visiting scholar, he pursued further studies in Paris, France—his first exposure to advanced medical equipment—planting the seed for changing the landscape of China’s medical device industry.

In the late 1980s, China’s high-end medical device sector was almost blank. Imported equipment dominated the market, with high prices and slow after-sales support, leaving hospitals and patients suffering. In 1987, Li Xiting joined Shenzhen Anke, starting with medical device import trading. While accumulating industry experience, he became even more firmly convinced of his belief in “breaking the import monopoly and building domestic high-end devices.” In 1991, at age 40, Li Xiting, together with like-minded partners including Xu Hang, Cheng Ming, and others, founded Mindray Medical in Shenzhen with registered capital of HKD 2 million, launching China’s journey toward independent R&D in medical devices.

In the early days of entrepreneurship, Mindray faced the difficult decision of shifting from “import agency” to “independent R&D.” Some advised it to stick to the agency model to make quick money, but Li Xiting understood that without core technology there would be no pricing power or right to survive. Therefore, in the second year after its establishment, the company decisively abandoned high-profit agency businesses and threw itself into independent R&D and building its own brand. This choice became a key turning point in Mindray’s rise. To overcome technical hurdles, Li Xiting set a strict rule: every year, about 10% of operating revenue would be invested in R&D. No matter the market cycle or fluctuations in profitability, this red line was never loosened. From Mindray’s A-share listing in 2018 to the end of the third quarter of 2025, its cumulative R&D investment exceeded RMB 3.93B (21.5566 billion yuan); the R&D investment for 2025 full year was RMB 33.28B, representing as much as 11.80% of operating revenue—continuously maintaining high-intensity R&D spending.

It is precisely this extreme commitment to R&D that enabled Mindray to make the leap from “following behind” to “running alongside,” and then to “leading.” In 1998, the company released China’s first portable multi-parameter patient monitor with independent intellectual property rights, breaking foreign technology monopolies. After that, it successively overcame technical barriers in core areas such as ultrasound diagnosis, in vitro diagnostics, and life information support. With market share, six categories of products ranked among the top three globally, and nine categories ranked first in China. In 2006, Mindray became the first medical device company from China to list on the New York Stock Exchange, kicking off its global expansion. Starting in 2008, it successively acquired international companies such as U.S.-based Datascope, Sweden’s Artema, and U.S.-based Zonare, rapidly filling technology gaps and expanding global channels, gradually growing into an important participant in the global medical technology field. In 2016, Mindray became privately held; in 2018, it listed on the ChiNext of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. After that, its stock price kept rising. In 2021, Li Xiting topped the list of Singapore’s richest with a net worth of US$23 billion, completing the transformation from someone from a farmer’s family to an industry leader.

In recent years, affected by multiple factors such as industry policy adjustments and changes in the global economic environment, Mindray has faced period-specific challenges. The 2025 annual report shows that the company achieved operating revenue of RMB 8.14B for the full year, a year-on-year decrease of 9.38%; and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was RMB 5.38B, a year-on-year decrease of 30.28% . This is the first time since the company’s listing that performance has declined, raising market concerns about its growth prospects. At the same time, the company’s stock price has been in an adjustment cycle since the second half of 2021. As of April 3, 2026, its cumulative drop from the peak exceeded 70%, and its total market capitalization has shrunk significantly. Combined with factors such as institutional holdings adjustments and phased sales by the founding team, outside discussions about the company’s valuation and development outlook continue to heat up.

However, deeper analysis shows that Mindray’s short-term pressure is more the result of the overlap between industry cycles and the external environment, rather than a decline in core competitiveness. From the perspective of the industry environment, the National Healthcare Security Administration has conducted multiple rounds of centralized procurement for medical consumables since 2020. The policy dividend has been gradually fading, and the industry has entered a standardized development stage. Growth in China’s medical device market has slowed, creating short-term pressure on leading companies. From the perspective of global expansion, factors such as high interest rates and stagflation, as well as geopolitical conflicts, have affected international business expansion; procurement budgets in some regions have contracted, leading to a period of slowdown in the company’s overseas business growth. From the perspective of capital markets, institutional investors have re-evaluated the industry’s growth logic; combined with the need to rebalance funds, the number and proportion of institutional shares have declined in stages—by the end of 2025, the number of institutional shareholders was 962, down 164 compared with the end of 2024; the number of fund holdings decreased from 569 in the first quarter of 2021 to 204 by the end of 2025, and the total market value of shares held dropped significantly.

What is worth noting is that Mindray’s core operational resilience and long-term value have not changed. In terms of R&D innovation, the company continues to break through technical bottlenecks. In 2025, emerging businesses (minimally invasive surgery, minimally invasive interventional procedures, animal healthcare, etc.) achieved revenue of RMB 17.65B, up 38.85% year-on-year, accounting for 16% of total revenue, becoming an important growth engine. Ultra-high-end ultrasound product series generated annual revenue exceeding RMB 700 million, up 70% year-on-year, continuing to break the import monopoly in the high-end market. In global expansion, the company’s international business revenue reached RMB 5.31B, up 7.40% year-on-year, and its share of total revenue first exceeded 53%. The European market achieved 17% growth; the growth rate of international emerging businesses was nearly 30%, continuously strengthening its ability to withstand cycles in globalization. In terms of operating quality, the company’s asset-liability ratio remained at a low 24.8%, with ample cash reserves. In 2025, it planned to distribute cash dividends of RMB 5.310 billion, with a payout ratio of 65.27%. Since its listing in 2018, it has cumulatively distributed over RMB 37.3 billion in dividends—more than six times the amount raised in the IPO—showing its commitment to long-term returns to shareholders.

Regarding stock-price volatility and market-cap adjustments, Li Xiting has always maintained a rational understanding. He has publicly emphasized that “medical devices are a matter of life and death; they do not allow speculation or luck. Only by doing R&D with dedication and guarding quality can we get through the cycle.” Faced with market skepticism, the company did not blindly pursue short-term growth in performance, but instead focused on building core capabilities. On one hand, it continuously deepened three strategies—“industrialized/streamlined operations, internationalization, and digital intelligence”—and, through an “equipment + consumables” integrated model, improved customer stickiness and expanded into high-growth segmented tracks. On the other hand, it accelerated the layout of an intelligent medical ecosystem. The “Qiyuan” model has been deployed in multiple hospitals. The three ecological platforms, “Ruijian, Ruiying, and Ruijian,” have continued to empower medical institutions and increase product value-added.

As the helmsman of Mindray, Li Xiting’s long-termism is reflected not only in sustained investment in R&D, but also throughout all aspects of corporate governance, strategic planning, and responsibility. In terms of equity management and capital operations, Li Xiting and the founding team have always balanced “long-term development” and “shareholder returns.” During periods when the stock price was high, they optimized the equity structure through compliant share reductions, cumulatively cashing out over RMB 20 billion and avoiding the risk of asset impairment. At the end of 2025, they also increased their holdings by RMB 200 million in company shares, conveying confidence in long-term holding. This rational approach of “increase holdings when aligned, reduce holdings when not” not only demonstrates a firm recognition of the company’s value, but also conforms to the rules of capital markets.

In terms of industry responsibility, Mindray has always practiced its corporate mission and helped achieve balanced allocation of medical resources. In response to the shortage of medical equipment at domestic primary-level facilities, the company launched high value-for-money products suitable for grassroots settings, improved its after-sales service network, and promoted the downward shift of high-quality medical resources. In response to global imbalance in medical development, it advanced localized initiatives in emerging markets, helping local medical institutions improve diagnosis and treatment capabilities, and participated in the training of international medical talent. At the same time, the company remains committed to the bottom line of compliant operations, established a stringent quality management system, and its products have passed certifications in major global markets. It provides reliable equipment to medical institutions in more than 190 countries and regions worldwide, fulfilling the corporate promise of “using technology to protect life.”

At present, Mindray is in a critical stage of transitioning from “a China leader” to “a global giant.” Li Xiting has proposed that over the next 5–10 years, the company’s goal is to enter the global top 20 medical device companies, and raise the share of international business revenue to 70%. Achieving this goal faces competitive pressure from global giants, but it also brings historical opportunities for domestic substitution and global expansion. From the perspective of the domestic market, policy dividends continue to be released, including the medical equipment renewal action plan and the advancement of new medical infrastructure. There is still significant room for improvement in the domestic market share of the company’s core products—within the domestic market, the core in vitro diagnostics business has only a 10% share, with a goal to increase it to 20% within three years. From the perspective of the international market, high-end hospitals in Europe and the U.S. face shortages of doctors and nurses, and emerging markets are upgrading medical infrastructure, providing broad growth space for the company.

From the difficult exploration in the early days of entrepreneurship, to perseverance and innovation during industry cycles, Mindray and Li Xiting have proven through more than 30 years of practice that truly leading companies are never those that surge forward only in good times. Instead, they uphold their original mission in adversity and find breakthroughs against the trend. In the short term, performance fluctuations and market-cap adjustments are normal cyclical phenomena in industry development. What supports a company to move steadily and go far is always the operating philosophy of core technology, global expansion, and long-termism.

In the future, as the company’s R&D results continue to be transformed, its intelligent medical ecosystem gradually improves, and its global channels deepen, Mindray is expected to gradually move out of the adjustment cycle and return to a growth trajectory. And the “straight-line overtaking” philosophy upheld by Li Xiting—grounding R&D on the basics, delivering products with excellence and continuous refinement, and holding a sense of reverence to guard the long term—will also continue to guide Mindray along the global medical technology track, writing a new innovation legend for Chinese companies.