Baima Tea has passed the hearing at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and has lost over 300 franchisees since 2022

The information updated on October 12 by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's disclosure website shows that the IPO application of BaMa Tea has passed the hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. According to the post-hearing information submitted by BaMa Tea, it is a Chinese tea supplier, with products covering six major categories of tea in China as well as non-tea products such as tea sets and tea snacks. BaMa Tea's revenue shows a trend of sluggish growth. The hearing materials indicate that BaMa Tea's revenue for 2022, 2023, and 2024 is projected to be RMB 1.818 billion, RMB 2.122 billion, and RMB 2.143 billion, respectively. Based on this, BaMa Tea's revenue growth rates for 2023 and 2024 are 16.72% and 0.99%, respectively, showing a significant slowdown. In the first half of this year, BaMa Tea's performance even experienced a year-on-year decline. During the reporting period, the company achieved revenue of RMB 1.063 billion, a decrease of approximately 4% year-on-year; profit and total comprehensive income amounted to RMB 120 million, a year-on-year decrease of 17.81%; the net profit margin was 11.3%, down from 13.2% in the same period last year. Behind the slowdown in performance growth is the sluggish increase in the number of BaMa Tea's franchisees. BaMa Tea previously stated in its prospectus that franchisees are crucial to its business, and the franchise model will remain an important part of the company's sales network. In 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first six months of 2025, the revenue generated from sales to franchisees accounted for 50.2%, 50.6%, 50.9%, and 49.1% of the total revenue during the same period, respectively. During the corresponding periods, BaMa Tea had 1,033, 1,202, 1,252, and 1,228 franchisees, respectively. Thus, the growth rates of the number of franchisees for BaMa Tea during 2023 and 2024 are 16.36% and 4.16%, respectively, indicating a significant slowdown. In addition, the loss of existing franchisees for BaMa Tea is also increasing. From 2022 to 2024, the number of franchisees decreased by 77, 94, and 133, respectively; in the first half of this year, BaMa Tea lost a total of 72 direct franchisees and regional composite franchisees. This means that since 2022, BaMa Tea has lost more than 300 franchisees