On December 30, 2025, the Awarding Ceremony for the 2025 ESG Value Rankings for Listed Companies, jointly organized by the Global Commercial Newspapers Union, the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and the Hong Kong Economic Herald, was held in Hong Kong. Over a hundred guests from the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, industry associations, listed companies, and investment institutions attended the event. Mr. Dai Jie, Managing Director of Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and Mr. Joseph Chan, Under Secretary for the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, were present and delivered speeches.
At the ceremony, the 2025 ESG Value Rankings for Listed Companies were announced. Global New Material International (or “GNMI”) (06616.HK) stood out among the participating companies for its outstanding practices and long-term value creation capabilities in the environment, social and governance (“ESG”) fields, thereby winning the “ESG Award for Outstanding Investment Value”; Chairman and CEO Dr. Su Ertian was granted the “Award for Outstanding Impact in ESG Leadership” for his visionary leadership in sustainable development.
Winning two awards in the ESG Value Rankings, setting a new benchmark for sustainable development in the new materials industry
Themed “Rooted in Responsibility, Explore the Blue Ocean of Sustainable Value”, the 2025 ESG Value Rankings for Listed Companies focused on the outstanding practices of enterprises in the ESG fields, selecting outstanding enterprises and individuals who have embraced the concept of responsible development as a strategic “ballast” and an action “guiding star”. It is aimed to help enterprises build long-term competitive edges with outstanding ESG practices, navigate through cyclical fluctuations, and sail towards a broader blue ocean of sustainable value.
The annual ESG Value Rankings for Listed Companies adopted an evaluation system with six key elements—strategic governance, environmental friendliness, social responsibility, value co-creation, innovation leadership, and sustainable development. Based on recommendations from the organizing committee and sponsoring institutions, scores were calculated using both objective and subjective indicators provided by shortlisted companies and professional consulting firms. Combining rigorous data analysis, company surveys, and scientific evaluation indicators, the rankings comprehensively assessed companies’ overall performance in areas such as ESG strategy integration, green technology application, achievement of emission reduction targets, promotion of social inclusion, and governance transparency.
Following preliminary review of applications, data collection and research, evaluation by an expert advisory panel, and final selection by the organizing committee, the list of winners for the 2025 ESG Value Rankings for Listed Companies was finalized. GNMI (06616.HK) won two of the awards, which not only represented high praise for its deeply integrating ESG principles into core strategic operations, but also signified the capital market’s recognition of its comprehensive implementation of the ESG green development concept and its firm confidence in its inherent long-term investment value.
A new pattern of sustainable growth driven by ESG initiatives
As a global new materials technology platform enterprise, GNMI's core business encompasses pearlescent pigments, synthetic mica, high-end flake alumina, premium industrial functional materials, and surface-active materials. Its products are widely applied in automotive manufacturing, coatings, cosmetics, new energy, electronics, and electrical appliances. The company holds a leading global position in multiple specialized segments including pearlescent pigments, synthetic mica, and surface-active materials.
In the context of global sustainable development, green manufacturing has become an inevitable choice for business development. GNMI has always adhered to the environmental philosophy of “Green Manufacturing and Eco-Enterprise”, deeply integrating the concept of high-quality, green and sustainable development into its development strategy, and actively practicing the concepts of energy conservation, emission reduction, recycling, and green development. The company saves energy at the source, controls waste in the production process, and reduces pollution at the end, striving to achieve harmless raw materials, clean production, resource utilization of waste, and low-carbon energy.
The company’s environmental friendliness in its products and processes, as well as its fulfillment of social responsibility, directly impact the green transformation of downstream industries and the health and safety of end consumers. For many years, the company has built an ESG governance structure directly overseen by the board of directors, fully integrating ESG goals with R&D innovation, production operations, supply chain management, and customer service to ensure that the concept of sustainable development is adopted in every aspect of value creation.
As the participating unit of the strategic emerging materials - synthetic mica project, “Strong Industrial Foundation Project”, organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in the PRC, GNMI has mastered the world’s leading and core technology for the production of pearlescent materials and synthetic mica. As of June 30, 2025, the company had 156 core patents, and more than 2,000 standard products were exported to over 150 countries and regions globally. Guangxi Chesir Pearl Material Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the company, has been accredited as a “National Green Factory” by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the PRC and a “National Intellectual Property Superior Enterprise”; and CQV, a subsidiary of the company in South Korea, has received the Gold Medal rating from EcoVadis for quite a few years in a row, acknowledging its excellence in sustainability and corporate social responsibility, thereby setting a benchmark for the industry.
With the accelerated advancement of high-end production capacity layout upstream and downstream, a number of major projects have been successfully implemented. The Phase 2 Pearlescent Material Plant of Chesir Pearl has been gradually put into operation. This green production base was built by adopting globally advanced technology and the highest environmental standards. Equipped with advanced production management platform data center, it has achieved intensified, process-oriented, standardized and intelligent management. In addition, the synthetic mica project in Tonglu, Hangzhou, has entered the equipment installation phase.
Leading a green revolution in the new materials industry through key technology upgrades
Against the backdrop of global carbon neutrality goals and growing consumer awareness of environmental protection, green, safe, and traceable raw materials have become a rigid demand for downstream manufacturing industries. In particular, being “low-carbon and environmentally friendly” has become a key development trend in the pearlescent materials industry.
The company holds core patents for synthetic mica manufacturing and is currently the only enterprise in the world to achieve full-category industrialization of mid- and high-end pearlescent materials such as high-performance synthetic mica-based products, flake aluminum oxide-based products, pearlescent flake-based products, and silicon dioxide-based products. It addresses the “bottleneck” challenges of depleted natural mica resources and reliance on imported high-end mica.
On July 31, 2025, GNMI added another well-known brand to its portfolio by acquiring Merck’s Surface Solutions Business (SUSONITY) with €665 million. The company’s main business lines have expanded from pearlescent materials to cosmetic active materials and high-end industrial functional materials.
Currently, SUSONITY maintains over 15-year partnerships with its top 10 clients, including top international clients in automobile and cosmetics industries, some of which with collaborations exceeding 30 years. This demonstrates profound brand credibility which ensures a stable presence in high-end markets. SUSONITY’s production bases in Germany, Japan and USA, combined with CHESIR and CQV manufacturing factories in China and South Korea respectively, have formed a globally integrated production network. Through acquiring SUSONITY, GNMI has obtained Merck’s global patent portfolio, proprietary formula library, and key R&D platforms in Europe, Japan and USA in the related fields. This breakthrough fully integrates the technology chain for high-end surface materials, establishing end-to-end R&D, production and commercialization capabilities from raw material development to end-use application innovation. Moving forward, the company will further integrate the worldwide sales network, broaden market coverage, enrich the product portfolio, optimize the global supply chain, and enhance the R&D capabilities.
SUSONITY actively promotes responsible sourcing, running schemes of announced and un-announced audits of mines and processors, all to ensure optimal transparency in the supply chain. Meanwhile, it prioritizes sourcing programs that anticipate evolving legislation and align with the company values, and actively engages in partnerships that promote sustainable practices, improve processes and harmonize behaviors. As a co-founder of the Responsible Mica Initiative (“RMI”), the company supports the sustainable sourcing of natural mica in its supply chain. It subscribes to the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact (“UNGC”) and has incorporated these in its internal guidelines for good behaviors and practices.
Rooted in responsibility, sailing towards a broader blue ocean of sustainable value
According to Dr. Su Ertian, the company’s leader, in an era of deep integration between technology and industry, new materials are becoming a key driving force for global sustainable development. As a pioneer in this field, GNMI is committed to empowering various industries with innovative materials and technologies and helping to build a greener, smarter, and lower-carbon future.
As the chief architect of the company’s ESG strategy, and also the most active implementer and promoter of the ESG concept, Dr. Su Ertian led the relevant R&D program and invested R&D resources to promote breakthroughs in low-carbon and environmentally friendly pearlescent materials and synthetic mica technologies, ensuring that the company’s products always stay at the forefront of the industry’s green upgrades.
“Rooted in Responsibility, Explore the Blue Ocean of Sustainable Value”. For GNMI, these awards represent a milestone and a new starting point. Under the leadership of Dr. Su Ertian, the company is actively leading the transformation and upgrading and the reshaping of the value chain of the global new materials industry, and is committed to creating long-term, shared, and outstanding value for shareholders, employees, customers, and the community, as it embraces the vast blue ocean of high-quality development.
