In capital markets, stock price movements often serve as leading indicators. For newly listed companies, if their investment value is recognized by savvy early investors, the post-IPO performance typically remains resilient. Take the recent example of CAOCAO INC (02643), which completed its Hong Kong listing in late June this year at an IPO price of HK$41.94 per share. Within just a few months, CAOCAO INC's stock price reached a peak of HK$92.5, with this doubling performance sending strong value signals to the market.

The immediate capital rush for CAOCAO INC upon listing reflects the company's solid fundamentals and robust growth potential, as evidenced by the recently disclosed interim results for 2025. Additionally, it's worth noting that CAOCAO INC has new positive catalysts on the horizon. On August 22, CAOCAO INC was approved for inclusion in the Hang Seng Composite Index, with the change taking effect on September 8. Given that medium and large-cap components of the Hang Seng Composite Index are directly included in Stock Connect, this means CAOCAO INC will simultaneously be included in Stock Connect on September 8.

This development is expected to help CAOCAO INC attract incremental mainland capital, with the proportion of trading and allocation funds in the stock likely to become more balanced going forward. With this "new liquidity" flowing in, CAOCAO INC's future stock performance becomes even more worthy of attention.

**First Half GTV Surges 50% to Over 10 Billion, Adjusted Net Loss Rate Significantly Improved**

Reviewing CAOCAO INC's interim report, the company operated over 37,000 customized vehicles across 31 cities during the reporting period, while also entering 27 new cities by selling customized vehicles to capacity partners. The GTV for CAOCAO customized vehicles reached approximately 2.5 billion yuan, up 34.7% year-over-year. By the end of June, CAOCAO INC operated in 163 cities, with total GTV growing 53.6% year-over-year to 10.954 billion yuan.

Simultaneously, the company's daily order volume, average monthly active users, and average monthly active drivers all grew by over 50% year-over-year. This significant operational expansion naturally translated into substantial revenue growth. In the first half, CAOCAO INC recorded revenue of 9.456 billion yuan, a robust 53.5% year-over-year increase.

While scaling significantly, the company's profitability metrics simultaneously improved, with gross margin rising 1.4 percentage points to 8.4%, demonstrating continuous optimization of CAOCAO INC's profitability. Moreover, CAOCAO INC's adjusted net loss continued its narrowing trend, reaching -330 million yuan in the first half, corresponding to an adjusted net loss rate of 3.5%, a significant 4.6 percentage point year-over-year improvement.

Furthermore, CAOCAO INC's operating cash flow achieved a net inflow of 325 million yuan in the first half, up 164.6% year-over-year, confirming the company's significantly enhanced self-generating cash flow capability.

It's worth noting that CAOCAO INC is becoming increasingly versatile based on the interim report. In the first half, the company's vehicle sales business contributed 743 million yuan in revenue, up 137.32% year-over-year. Vehicle sales volume increased 182.8% year-over-year to 7,993 units, primarily driven by the outstanding low TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) advantages of models like CAOCAO 60, which gained market favor. Data shows that the Maple Leaf 80V and CAOCAO 60 models have TCOs of 0.53 yuan/km and 0.47 yuan/km respectively, approximately one-third lower than other commercial electric vehicle models.

Based on CAOCAO INC's performance, analysts predict the company may achieve positive adjusted net profit next year. Considering CAOCAO INC's plan to expand to 200 new cities this year and the planned external sales of 15,000-32,000, 25,000-45,000, and 40,000-60,000 CAOCAO 60 customized vehicles from 2025 to 2027 respectively, the company's GTV is expected to maintain over 40% growth in the next two years, leveraging the low TCO advantages of customized vehicles and close cooperation with aggregation platforms.

**Robotaxi May Transform Ride-hailing Competition, Contributing Key Incremental Growth**

Looking ahead, with Robotaxi on the verge of explosive growth, CAOCAO INC, having made strategic preparations, is expected to benefit significantly. Data shows that the penetration rate of L2+ level new energy passenger vehicles increased from 12.2% in the same period last year to 21.7% in January-April this year.

Simultaneously, relevant policies have been intensively introduced. The "Management Measures for Road Testing and Demonstration Application of Autonomous Vehicles (2025 Revised Edition)" released this year first allows L4 autonomous vehicles to conduct full-domain commercial passenger and freight services in five pilot cities including Shanghai, removing the mandatory requirement for "safety personnel on-board supervision."

More regions have recently issued similar guidance documents, marking China's autonomous driving technology transition from closed testing scenarios to large-scale commercial deployment. Shanghai's "Leading Zone for High-Level Autonomous Driving 'Speed Intelligence' Action Plan" proposes that by 2027, Shanghai will open over 5,000 kilometers of autonomous driving roads, with L4 autonomous driving passenger volume exceeding 6 million trips.

Regarding CAOCAO INC's layout, the CAOCAO Smart autonomous driving platform launched in February this year. By the end of June, CAOCAO Smart completed over 15,000 kilometers of autonomous driving testing in Suzhou and Hangzhou. Going forward, CAOCAO plans to launch L4 Robotaxi customized models by the end of next year and achieve large-scale operations by 2027.

With the rapid cost decline of hardware components like LiDAR, sensors, and MCUs, industry experts believe Robotaxi cost per kilometer may match traditional manned ride-hailing services by 2026. According to CAOCAO INC's prospectus, "driver income and subsidy costs" accounted for 80% of mobility service revenue from 2022-2024, representing the largest cost component.

Large-scale Robotaxi deployment will effectively reduce operating costs, significantly improving CAOCAO INC's gross margin. Institutions predict CAOCAO INC's Robotaxi per-vehicle gross profit may turn positive in 2028-2029, reaching 50,000-72,000 yuan per vehicle annually by 2030.

Frost & Sullivan predicts China's Robotaxi market will reach 1.6 trillion yuan by 2035. Considering CAOCAO INC currently leads in customized vehicle market share nationally, in the era of "customized vehicles + intelligent driving," if CAOCAO INC can capture 15% market share with its Robotaxi self-research and proprietary application scenario advantages, this segment alone would be worth 240 billion yuan.

**"Stock Connect Effect" Expected to Bring Liquidity Support, Quality Stocks May Face "Buying Pressure"**

Although CAOCAO INC has continuously set new stock price records since its Hong Kong listing, the company's average daily turnover rate remains around 0.1%-0.2%, with trading activity far below A-share intelligent driving concept stocks. This relates to Hong Kong market style and liquidity characteristics while reflecting that CAOCAO INC's institutional investors are primarily value-oriented with significant "stock hoarding" characteristics.

However, with CAOCAO INC's inclusion in Stock Connect, this situation is expected to improve. Looking at recent Stock Connect inclusions, BLOCO's turnover rate surged from 0.5% to 3.22% on June 9, closing up 22.34%. Gumian and Mixue Group, also included in Stock Connect on the same day, rose 4.34% and 5.03% respectively.

Earlier Stock Connect inclusions like Maogeping, Weilong, and Duodian all experienced varying degrees of gains around their inclusion due to improved liquidity expectations.

Considering CAOCAO INC's quality fundamentals, strong growth expectations, and technology attributes as additional advantages, sustained "northbound capital" buying after Stock Connect inclusion is likely. This is expected to attract both long-term allocation funds from mainland China and growth-oriented trading funds, potentially positively transforming CAOCAO INC's "stock characteristics."

Finally, multiple securities firms including Guosen Securities and Dongwu Securities have recently given CAOCAO INC ratings of "Outperform" and "Buy." Guosen Securities analysts believe CAOCAO INC's customized vehicle business is steadily approaching a profitability inflection point, with Robotaxi opening up profit space. They see the company's reasonable stock price in the HK$98-108 range over the next year, representing significant upside potential from current levels.