File photo/NBD

Early in the morning on March 28, Xiaomi Corporation (HK.01810) said in an announcement with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that the company's board of directors awarded a total of 190 million shares to 4,110 selected participants pursuant to the equity incentive plan on March 27, 2023. The shares, calculated based on the closing price of HK$12 on March 27, were valued at HK$2.28 billion, with each selected participant receiving shares worth HK$554,700 on average.

In fact, this is not the first time for the tech giant to provide equity incentive. According to incomplete statistics, since its listing, Xiaomi Corporation has issued 18 equity incentive plans, including 4 in 2019, 5 in 2020, and 4 in 2021. Of those, the company rewarded employees with about 267 million shares in 2021 alone.

Equity incentive is one of the common ways for listed companies to motivate employees. Analysts point out that equity incentive is conducive to improving the subjective initiative and enthusiasm of the management of listed companies and forming a community of interests, so as to further promote the company to achieve long-term and stable development goals.

On March 24, Xiaomi Corporation released its annual results for 2022, reporting a total revenue of 280 billion yuan and adjusted net profit of 8.5 billion yuan. 

The company's annual R&D expenditure reached 16 billion yuan, with the compound growth rate over the past 5 years reaching 38.4%. The proportion of R&D personnel has further expanded to nearly 50% of the workforce.

According to the financial report, Xiaomi Corporation's innovative businesses including smart electric vehicles are progressing as scheduled, with financial input hitting 3.1 billion yuan in 2022.

As of press time, Xiaomi Corporation's shares were up 0.17% to HK$12.02, with a market cap of HK$300.265 billion.