The Zhitong Finance App learned that this week, CITIC Securities released the 2026 semi-annual report review of Huitongda Network (09878), maintaining an “increase” rating and giving a target price of HK$15. In addition, Cinda Securities also recently published a review of the company's interim results. Both reports believe that Huitongda is actively promoting transformation and upgrading, and that the new “FMCG retail chain+AI technology” strategy is gradually opening up incremental space.
In the first half of 2026, Huitongda achieved revenue of 23.58 billion yuan, net profit of 153 million yuan (YoY +10.5%); gross profit of 1.06 billion yuan (+6.8% YoY). Gross margin increased 0.5 percentage points to 5.1% year over year. The three core financial indicators of gross profit margin, net interest rate and net profit margin to mother all reached record highs. Net cash from operating activities during the same period reached 367 million yuan, which has been flowing in for 8 consecutive years.
The judgments in the two research reports point to the same main line — CITIC Securities pointed out that the company is accelerating its transformation to a “FMCG retail chain+AI technology”; Cinda Securities believes that through a strategic layout, the company has built a new industrial layout with “FMCG retail chain+AI technology” as the core, adding a new engine for future continuous growth.
The FMCG retail chain is a new business format built “from zero to one” in this round of transformation. Huitongda has accumulated supply chain, digitalization and channel operation capabilities based on 250,000+ member retail stores. In the first half of the year, it initially formed a FMCG retail chain network covering multiple business formats such as mass-selling snacks, hard discount supermarkets, and convenience stores. It has successively reached strategic cooperation with “Preferred Snacks”, “Orange Blossoms”, and “Can Be Convenient”, and developed nearly 5,000 new stores.
Cinda Securities believes that with the expansion of the store network and deepening supply chain penetration, this business is expected to become a new driving force for the company's growth in the future.
In terms of AI, the company has positioned 2026 as a “key year for value release” for the AI strategy. The self-developed “Thousand Orange Cloud AI Smart Model” has been registered by the National Internet Information Office and has completed a comprehensive AI upgrade of the store management system and app; the enterprise side launched the one-stop AI management platform “LeapoAI”, which integrates more than 100 out-of-the-box skills and entered commercial promotion. At the same time, Huitongda formed an online and offline collaboration with self-developed Qianchengyun AI through the acquisition of “Cognitive Frontier” (Darby AI). At the commercial level, revenue from AI products and services in the first half of the year was 79 million yuan, up 32.3% year on year, and the number of paying users increased 15.5% year over year to 40,700. The payment model was upgraded from traditional subscription to a “subscription+pay-as-you-go” comprehensive payment model.
CITIC Securities said that Huitongda covered a large number of customers and application scenarios in sinking retail stores, providing a good commercialization foundation for the launch of AI products. AI is expected not only to improve the monetization capacity of service businesses, but also to further empower supply chain and store operation efficiency, becoming an important driving force for the company's medium- to long-term business structure upgrading.