Lucas GC Limited
🔔 Watch stock
Assessment
Our Rating
A journalistic assessment by our editorial team at the time of the deep dive — it rates the company, not the entry point. Not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell.
We found at least one documented issue that threatens the company itself — regardless of how the stock is currently valued.
Why this colour
The red light here is about substance, not about the share price. Three documented findings come together: disclosure controls were, by the company's own statement, not effective as of December 31, 2025. Free cash flow was negative in 2023, 2024 and 2025 (minus RMB 48.5 million, minus RMB 59.8 million, minus RMB 71.8 million) against cash of just RMB 30.3 million — a gap closed with debt and a share sale rather than by the business. And after the tenfold increase of authorized capital, the structure allows the share count to be multiplied again without asking shareholders. The operating business can work, and the equity ratio of 69 percent is a genuine asset; where the evidence sits between two levels, though, the more cautious one applies. The decision is yours.
What the thesis turns on
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
Lucas GC is neither a fraud nor an empty shell: there is a real business with RMB 1,042.3 million in revenue ($149.0 million), 311 employees and a gross margin of 33.8 percent, and in 2025 operations even threw off RMB 35.5 million in cash. But everything happening around it points the same way: profit is down 87 percent in two years, free cash flow has been negative for three years running, the company considers its own controls ineffective, and the share count has more than fifteenfolded within four months. Buying in here is not buying a growth story; it is a bet that $40 million of fresh money will do more than the three years before it did. Not investment advice.
A business quietly swapped out
Revenue fell from RMB 1,474.0 million (2023) to RMB 1,042.3 million (2025), a drop of 29 percent. Behind it lies a complete exchange of the business: recruitment collapsed from RMB 659.0 million to RMB 111.5 million while outsourcing grew from RMB 714.0 million to RMB 897.9 million. The annual report 20-F for 2025 puts outsourcing at 86.1 percent of services, up from 48.4 percent in 2023 — and in the same risk factor names the increased use of artificial intelligence as a reason that market could shrink.
Earnings power is eroding
Net income fell from RMB 78.2 million (2023) to RMB 40.1 million (2024) and RMB 9.9 million (2025) — down 87 percent in two years. The gross margin actually held up slightly better at 33.8 percent (2024: 33.6 percent), so the decline is not the result of price pressure in the core service but of volume and the cost base underneath. As of December 31, 2025.
Solid balance sheet, thin cash
As of December 31, 2025, equity of RMB 314.1 million ($44.9 million) stood against total assets of RMB 453.8 million — an equity ratio of 69 percent that many larger companies do not reach. Cash on the same date, however, was only RMB 30.3 million ($4.3 million), while short-term borrowings of RMB 105.2 million were drawn during 2025. The February 2026 placement of $40.0 million gross closed that gap from the outside, not from the business.
Capital structure and dilution
Within four months the company merged 40 shares into one (October 13, 2025), raised authorized capital tenfold to 2,475,000,000 Class A shares (December 5, 2025) and issued 40,000,000 new shares at $1.00 each (February 10, 2026). Holders from before are left with 6.5 percent of the capital. Only 1.7 percent of the authorized pool is used, and the same meeting authorized the board to carry out further consolidations of up to 5000-to-1 in aggregate.
Controls and reliability of the filings
The chief executive officer and chief financial officer state in the annual report 20-F for 2025 that disclosure controls were not effective as of December 31, 2025, because of a material weakness in internal control. They also conclude that the financial statements fairly present the company's position. For investors that means the numbers are audited while the system producing them is, by the company's own account, not working as intended.
Valuation
With 42,790,404 shares and the closing price of $1.78 on June 18, 2026, documented in the prospectus, the market value comes to roughly $76.2 million. Measured against 2025 revenue of $149.0 million that is a price-to-sales ratio of about 0.5 — low on its own terms. Measured against net income of RMB 9.9 million (roughly $1.4 million) it is about 54 times annual earnings. Cheap depends entirely on the yardstick.
Worth Noting
This analysis was triggered by our daily Reddit mention scan of July 25, 2026 — 2 mentions, the smallest of the values reported that day. It was not a scanner hit: until that date LGCL was not in our stock universe at all.
Data basis: annual report 20-F for 2025, filed April 20, 2026 (balance sheet date December 31, 2025); capital and price data from the prospectus supplements 424B5 of June 4, June 5 and June 22, 2026, and the interim reports 6-K of February 10, June 4, July 2 and July 10, 2026.
All operating figures are reported in renminbi (RMB); the U.S. dollar amounts are the company's own conversions in the annual report. Mixing renminbi and dollar figures produces entirely different orders of magnitude.
Lucas GC is a foreign private issuer: there is no quarterly report 10-Q, only the annual report 20-F and informal interim reports on Form 6-K. Between two annual reports the data can therefore be sparse for months.
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of August 26, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at LGCL since then.
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Price history
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
52-week range: 0.035 $ to 4.40 $ · Last price: 3.30 $ (As of: September 17, 2026)
Key figures
Key figures at a glance
Every figure we hold for this stock, grouped by topic. The question mark next to a label explains what the number means.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 09/18/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
This stock currently pays no dividend.
Quality & Screener
Comparison
Industry comparison
The stock alongside the largest companies in the same group. The median row is the middle value of the companies shown above — not of the whole industry.
Industry: Software - Application
| Company | Market cap ($B) | P/E | EV/EBITDA | Gross Margin % | EBIT Margin % | Sales Growth (Year) % | Perf. 1Y % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucas GC Limited LGCL | 0.2 | – | 2.4 | 33.8 | 0.7 | -4.7 | -99.5 |
| Salesforce.com Inc CRM | 194.7 | 24.2 | 14.3 | 77.3 | 21.8 | 9.6 | 1.1 |
| Uber Technologies Inc UBER | 144.3 | 18.9 | 19.7 | 40.8 | 14.6 | 18.3 | -23.8 |
| ServiceNow Inc NOW | 138.5 | 82.3 | 40.2 | 74.8 | 13.3 | 20.9 | -27.2 |
| Snowflake Inc. SNOW | 115.4 | – | -76.6 | 67.0 | -22.2 | 29.2 | 55.3 |
| Automatic Data Processing Inc ADP | 108.8 | 25.1 | 16.4 | 48.7 | 30.2 | 7.1 | -3.0 |
| Adobe Systems Incorporated ADBE | 99.2 | 14.3 | 9.8 | 89.3 | 35.3 | 10.5 | -30.2 |
| Intuit Inc INTU | 86.0 | 20.0 | 12.2 | 81.0 | 47.0 | 15.6 | -52.2 |
| Datadog Inc DDOG | 84.3 | 631.8 | 268.8 | 79.5 | 0.8 | 27.7 | 75.8 |
| Median of companies shown | 108.8 | 24.2 | 14.3 | 74.8 | 14.6 | 15.6 | -23.8 |
Based on the most recently reported figures. Only stocks from the same trading venue are lined up, so the market caps are counted in one currency. Compare in a chart →
Fiscal years
Annual Figures
Fiscal years from the audited annual reports, oldest first. EBIT is the operating profit before interest and taxes; total assets are everything the company owns.
Revenue, operating income and net income per fiscal year CNY m
Revenue Operating income Net income
| Fiscal Year | Revenue (CNY m) | EBIT (CNY m) | Net Income (CNY m) | EPS (CNY) | Operating Cash Flow (CNY m) | Equity (CNY m) | Total Assets (CNY m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 750.21 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| 2016 | 40 | 4 | 3 | 2,700.93 | 6 | 6 | 25 |
| 2017 | 48 | 7 | 7 | 5,800.88 | 5 | 13 | 29 |
| 2020 | 230 | 3 | 5 | 288.82 | 2 | 3 | 63 |
| 2021 | 652 | 37 | 40 | 2,482.81 | 61 | -31 | 226 |
| 2022 | 767 | 32 | 36 | 2,271.22 | -15 | 116 | 241 |
| 2023 | 1,474 | 68 | 78 | 4,974.57 | -36 | 194 | 292 |
| 2024 | 1,063 | 28 | 40 | 2,548.45 | 20 | 263 | 403 |
| 2025 | 1,014 | 19 | 10 | 493.64 | 35 | 311 | 454 |
Quarters
Quarterly Figures
Each bar is one quarter, the last one is the most recent. Use the switch to step through the individual figures.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
Click the chart or tab into it, then use ← and → to step through the periods.
None of the selected stocks reports this metric. Pick another metric or switch between annual and quarterly.
· Total · per year
These companies report in different currencies — switch on “Indexed” or pick a margin for a fair comparison.
The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales (CNY m) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF (CNY m) | FCF (CNY m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022: Q2 | – | – | 303 | 19.70 | 6.50 | -10 | -22 |
| 2022: Q4 | – | – | 232 | 16.20 | 7.20 | 4 | -10 |
| 2023: Q2 | – | – | 820 | 170.90 | 6.50 | -15 | -15 |
| 2023: Q4 | – | – | 327 | 41.00 | 3.70 | -11 | -17 |
| 2024: Q1 | – | – | 654 | 59.50 | 3.70 | -22 | -34 |
| 2024: Q2 | – | – | 606 | -26.20 | 8.80 | – | – |
| 2024: Q4 | -7.06 | – | 458 | 40.10 | -3.00 | 20 | -57 |
| 2025: Q2 | – | – | 382 | -36.90 | 5.50 | – | – |
What Do These Terms Mean?
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Screening
Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 3 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Quality & Balance Sheet
Research
Only genuine hits from verified scanners count; pure ranking metrics (P/E, P/S, and similar, which just sort the whole universe) don't count as a hit. View all scanners
AI classification
AI Rating
Lucas GC beschreibt sich nach außen als KI-getriebenes Plattform-Unternehmen (Platform-as-a-Service) und verweist auf 24 erteilte Patente sowie über 75 registrierte Softwarerechte in den Bereichen KI, Datenanalyse und Blockchain. Abgerechnet wird davon nichts: Der Jahresbericht 20-F für 2025 führt den Umsatz ausschließlich auf drei Dienstleistungsarten zurück — Personal-Vermittlung, Auslagerungsdienste und sonstige Dienste wie IT und Schulung; 2025 entfielen 86,1 Prozent der angebotenen Leistungen auf die Auslagerung. Ein eigenständig abgerechnetes KI-Produkt (Lizenz, Abonnement, Nutzungsentgelt) weisen die Berichte nicht aus. KI ist belegt die Technik hinter der Vermittlungsplattform: Der Bericht macht die Kernfunktion der Plattform — personalisierte Empfehlungen — ausdrücklich von den eigenen KI-Fähigkeiten abhängig und beschreibt, dass Nutzerreaktionen unmittelbar von den KI-Modellen verarbeitet werden. Damit ist die Firma ein KI-Anwender, kein KI-Verkäufer. Gegen „bedroht“ spricht, dass die KI-Nutzung das eigene Produkt verbessert; erwähnenswert bleibt aber, dass dasselbe Risikokapitel den zunehmenden Einsatz künstlicher Intelligenz als möglichen Grund für einen Rückgang des Auslagerungsmarktes nennt, von dem das Unternehmen zu 86,1 Prozent lebt. Marketing-Sprache in Pressemitteilungen wurde nicht als Beleg gewertet.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
„We generate revenues from (i) recruitment services including flexible employment recruitment services and permanent employment recruitment services, (ii) outsourcing services, and (iii) other services including information technology services and training services."
Wir erzielen Umsätze aus (i) Vermittlungsdiensten, einschließlich der Vermittlung flexibler und fester Anstellungen, (ii) Auslagerungsdiensten und (iii) sonstigen Diensten, darunter Informationstechnologie- und Schulungsleistungen.
20-F · 2026-04-20 · View SEC filing
„The core functionality of our platforms, namely personalized recommendations of products and services to our users, is dependent on our technology capabilities in AI, data analytics and blockchain."
Die Kernfunktion unserer Plattformen — personalisierte Empfehlungen von Produkten und Diensten an unsere Nutzer — hängt von unseren technologischen Fähigkeiten in KI, Datenanalyse und Blockchain ab.
20-F · 2026-04-20 · View SEC filing
„These feedbacks, conveying each individual's current likings and preferences, are instantly processed by our AI models and immediately reflected in the new job openings or candidates recommended to the users."
Diese Rückmeldungen, die die aktuellen Vorlieben und Neigungen jeder einzelnen Person widerspiegeln, werden unmittelbar von unseren KI-Modellen verarbeitet und sofort in den neu empfohlenen Stellenangeboten beziehungsweise Bewerbern berücksichtigt.
20-F · 2026-04-20 · View SEC filing
Filings Reviewed: 20-F 2026-04-20
Rated on July 26, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Growth
Growth Score
Ten checks against the annual reports — each one passed counts a point.
- Revenue grows by more than 15% a year over three years 9.8%
- More than 10% revenue growth is expected for the coming year no data
- Share count grows by less than 3% a year 6.6%
- Revenue growth plus cash-flow margin add up to at least 40 ("Rule of 40") -9.2%
- Gross margin at 40% or higher and without meaningful erosion 33.8%
- Goodwill from acquisitions does not grow faster than revenue 0.0%
- Net debt below twice EBITDA 1.9 x EBITDA
- Operating cash flow covers the profits of the last three years -108 m
- Return on capital at 15% or higher, or up versus two years ago 6.1%
- Insiders hold at least 10% or are net buyers 96.3%
A criterion without figures counts neither as passed nor as failed; a score is only produced from 7 judgeable criteria upwards. Source: fundamental data. All ten criteria in detail
Quality check
AAQS
3/10The AAQS (AlleAktien Quality Score) checks 10 quality criteria on growth, profitability, and balance-sheet strength — per the methodology developed and published by AlleAktien, calculated by us from our own fundamental data. A stock counts as a quality stock from 9 out of 10 points. Where a company has a shorter listing history, we calculate over the fiscal years available (at least five).
- Sales growth 10Y > 5% 60.8%
- Exp. sales growth 3Y > 5% –
- EBIT growth 10Y > 5% 32.1%
- Exp. EBIT growth 3Y > 5% –
- Net debt < 4x EBIT 3.1x
- EBIT positive, 10Y straight –
- Max. EBIT decline < 50% –
- Return on equity > 15% 3.4%
- ROCE > 15% 6.1%
- Expected return > 10% –
View stocks with the full AAQS score · Read the methodology at AlleAktien
Source: fundamental data
The company
About the Company
Lucas GC Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides online agent-centric human capital management services based on platform-as-a-service (PaaS) in the People's Republic of China. It offers recruitment services, including flexible and permanent employment recruitment services through its Columbus and Star Career platforms; outsourcing services comprising IT-related services, such as construction of IT systems and development of module or software with specific functions; and other services that include information technology and training services. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Beijing, China. Lucas GC Limited operates as a subsidiary of HTL Lucky Holding Limited.
- Employees
- 311
- Headquarters
- Beijing, China
- Address
- No. 8 Wangjing Street, 100102 Beijing, China
- Phone
- 86 18 5009 76532
- Website
- hunter.lucasgchr.com
- IPO Date
- 03/05/2024
- ISIN
- KYG570371149
- Stock Split
- 1:125 on 09/01/2026
- Stock Split
- 1:40 on 10/13/2025
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Howard Lee C.F.A. | Founder, Chairman of the Board & CEO | 1969 |
| Wang Leong Lee | Chief Financial Officer | 1980 |
| Wang-Chan Wong Ph.D. | Executive Director | 1954 |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Data as of: September 17, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.