The 33-year odyssey of stock code 600696, a company famously dubbed the 'Phoenix of the A-share market' for its uncanny ability to survive delisting crises, has finally reached its terminal point. On May 22, 2026, the Shanghai Stock Exchange issued a definitive delisting order for *ST Yan Shi, signaling the end of an era defined by speculative shell-chasing and corporate chameleonism. The company is set to enter a delisting grace period on June 1, eventually moving to the over-the-counter National Equities Exchange and Quotations system.
This collapse is more than a simple business failure; it represents a hard collision between a legacy 'shell' strategy and China’s increasingly rigid regulatory environment. For decades, Chinese companies with failing operations could survive by pivoting to whatever trend was hottest in the market, utilizing name changes and thematic pivots to pump valuations. However, under the current 'triple-threat' regulatory regime—spanning revenue floors, audit integrity, and market capitalization thresholds—the maneuvering room for such entities has vanished.
Financial data from 2025 illustrates the depth of the decay, with revenues collapsing by over 86% to a mere 39 million RMB. This performance triggered a mandatory delisting threshold for main-board companies whose revenue falls below 300 million RMB while remaining unprofitable. Compounding this was a negative internal control audit, highlighting a 'long-standing disease' of chaotic capital management and irregular related-party transactions that the company failed to remediate.
The history of 600696 reads like a textbook on the evolution of Chinese market speculation. Since its 1993 debut as a ceramics manufacturer, the firm changed its identity over ten times, hopping from real estate to internet finance, and finally to the white liquor (Baijiu) sector. Each pivot was timed to exploit the prevailing market bubble of the day. In 2015, the firm infamously renamed itself 'P2P' (translated literally as 'Pei-Tu-Pei') at the height of the peer-to-peer lending craze, a move that resulted in massive fines and market bans for its leadership.
The final act of this drama focused on a pivot to 'Guijiu' (Gui Liquor), attempting to ride the coattails of the premium sauce-aroma liquor boom. This strategy disintegrated under the weight of a trademark infringement lawsuit from industry giant Yanghe, which forced the company to abandon its brand name. Stripped of its branding, its sales channels, and the protection of its 'shell' status, the company found itself unable to meet the new 500 million RMB market cap floor, making its exit from the exchange inevitable.
The departure of the 'Phoenix' marks a significant milestone in the institutional maturation of China’s capital markets. In the old regime, an IPO quota was a scarce resource that made even a hollowed-out company valuable as a vessel for back-door listings. Today, with the full implementation of the registration-based system and a 'zero tolerance' approach toward zombie firms, the market is finally prioritizing operational substance over speculative agility.