YIHAI INTL (01579) rose nearly 5% before noon. As of the time of writing, the stock was up 4.19% to HK$14.91, with a turnover of HK$75.0413 million. On the news front, a Guotai Haitong research report noted that in recent years, amid a weak recovery in the catering sector, overall demand in the food supply industry has been relatively pressured, and competition for market share has intensified. However, the marginal benefits from price competition have now significantly diminished, and leading companies have been conveying rational competitive views. The rebound in the sector's profit margin in the third quarter of 2025 also supports this view. As the peak season of the fourth quarter of 2025 and January 2026 approaches, competition continues to moderate. Looking ahead to 2026, the core factor for a significant improvement in the sector's structure still lies on the demand side; if demand changes little, the bottoming-out period may be prolonged, while a marked improvement could lead to significant optimization.

A CICC research report stated that it forecasts YIHAI INTL's 2025 revenue/net profit to increase by 0.7%/13.9% year-on-year to 6.58 billion yuan/840 million yuan, with second-half 2025 revenue/net profit up 1.2%/23.5% year-on-year. Profits may exceed market expectations, primarily due to second-half 2025 gross profit margins benefiting from efficiency gains that are better than anticipated. The report pointed out that the company has been continuously advancing efficiency improvements on the supply chain side since July, with notable results. Additionally, the settlement method with distributors has been adjusted: ex-factory prices were raised while equivalent promotional discounts were provided. However, in actual implementation, the discount intensity was lower than the magnitude of the ex-factory price increase, which is favorable for gross margins. The gross profit margin for the second half of 2025 is expected to increase by approximately 3 percentage points, with improvements seen in both related-party and third-party gross margins.