According to a recent disclosure by the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, Shanghai Shengsheng Medical Cold Chain Technology Co., Ltd. ("Shanghai Shengsheng") has submitted a listing application for the Main Board, with CICC and Guojin Securities (Hong Kong) acting as joint sponsors. Notably, this is not its first attempt at an IPO: in June 2023, the company filed an application for a Main Board listing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange, once poised to become the "first medical cold chain stock" on the A-share market. However, after a round of inquiries, the company voluntarily withdrew its application in 2024, pausing its A-share listing journey. Explaining the shift to Hong Kong, Shanghai Shengsheng stated it was due to future business expansion needs, asserting that a Hong Kong listing would provide an international platform to attract foreign capital and promote the group to overseas investors. From a practical standpoint, however, fluctuating performance might be a more immediate consideration: in 2024, due to a significant increase in share-based payment expenses, the company's profit saw a notable decline. In contrast, the Hong Kong market is often more tolerant of profit volatility in growth enterprises. Against the backdrop of sustained fervor in innovative drug R&D, as a "water seller" serving this sector, Shanghai Shengsheng's Hong Kong listing attempt is likely to attract considerable investor attention.

Public information reveals that Shanghai Shengsheng is an integrated temperature-controlled supply chain service provider for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries, primarily focused on clinical trial temperature-controlled supply chain services. It also extends to commercial-stage medical product temperature-controlled supply chain services, as well as the R&D and manufacturing of temperature-controlled equipment and materials, aiming to build comprehensive capabilities covering the entire lifecycle and application scenarios. Financial performance over the past three years has been characterized by "steady revenue growth alongside significant profit fluctuations." For 2023, 2024, and the first nine months of 2025, revenue was approximately RMB 614 million, RMB 654 million, and RMB 538 million, respectively, while net profit for the same periods was RMB 92.033 million, RMB 26.396 million, and RMB 113 million. Specifically, the company's revenue grew 6.56% year-on-year in 2024, but profit plummeted by 70%, primarily due to RMB 72.123 million in share-based payment expenses. Additionally, sales and marketing expenses rose 56.8% year-on-year, administrative expenses increased by 96.1%, and impairment losses on trade and other receivables grew by over 60%, collectively squeezing profit margins. Entering 2025, the company's revenue resumed double-digit growth, increasing 10.97% year-on-year for the first nine months, with adjusted net profit surging 70.29% year-on-year. Gross profit margin also improved significantly, rising to 37.6% from 31.7% in the same period last year, attributed to increased clinical trial service revenue, economies of scale from digitalization and optimized business processes, and improved operational efficiency.

Regarding its network, as of January 5, 2026, the company had established three clinical drug warehouses and one biospecimen repository in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, operating over 130 sites, including more than 40 regional operation centers in logistics hubs such as Wuhan, Xi'an, and Chengdu. Its network supports door-to-door delivery services, achieving a 24 to 48-hour delivery cycle in most regions and 48 to 72 hours in remote areas. Despite a solid operational foundation, Shanghai Shengsheng faces several business challenges. Prospectus data indicates high customer concentration; from 2023 to the first nine months of 2025, the sales contribution from the top five clients gradually increased from 15.9% to 19.5%, with the largest single client's share rising from 6.0% to 9.6%. Although the company states that most of its top five clients have maintained multi-year relationships, any changes in key clients could significantly impact performance. Furthermore, the scale of trade receivables has continued to expand, reaching RMB 221 million as of the end of September 2025, with the days sales outstanding (DSO) extending from 98 days to 105 days. This indicates that alongside business expansion, the company bears considerable pressure from collection and bad debt risks.

In terms of revenue structure, clinical trial temperature-controlled supply chain services are undoubtedly the core pillar, accounting for over 82% of revenue since 2023. This business primarily serves innovative drug R&D, covering highly temperature- and time-sensitive biopharmaceutical therapies such as monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, recombinant proteins, nucleic acid drugs, and cell and gene therapies. Other business segments, namely commercial medical product temperature-controlled services, contribute only about 15% of revenue, while sales of temperature-controlled products account for less than 4%, indicating relatively small revenue scales. As a company deeply intertwined with the innovative drug industry, Shanghai Shengsheng's performance is poised to benefit from the sector's high growth trajectory in the foreseeable future. Data from the National Medical Products Administration shows that in 2025, 76 innovative drugs were approved for marketing in China, exceeding the 48 approved in 2024 and hitting a record high; the total value of out-licensing deals for Chinese innovative drugs exceeded $130 billion for the year, with over 150 transactions, also setting a new record. In capital markets, the innovative drug sector remained active; the Hong Kong Stock Connect Innovative Drug Index rose 66.52% throughout 2025, significantly outperforming the Hang Seng Index's 27.77% gain, while the CSI Innovative Drug Index in the A-share market rose 19.34%, also beating the CSI 300 Index's 17.66% increase.

Clinical trial innovative drugs and therapies typically demand high standards for temperature control, transport stability, and compliance, representing an industry with considerable technical barriers. Shanghai Shengsheng currently provides solutions supporting a wide temperature range, with a technology portfolio covering refrigeration, freezing, dry ice, and liquid nitrogen. The company's PCM technology covers 18 phase change points from -70°C to +37°C, meeting diverse temperature requirements. It holds over 60 patents and patent applications in areas such as composite integration, thermal performance enhancement, and structural design, forming a certain technological moat. Focusing solely on the clinical trial temperature-controlled supply chain service business, Shanghai Shengsheng has established a leading position in this niche. According to a Frost & Sullivan report, based on 2024 revenue, Shanghai Shengsheng is the largest clinical trial temperature-controlled supply chain service provider in China and the only Chinese company among the global top ten. By the end of the reporting period, the company had cumulatively served over 7,000 clients and more than 260 multi-center clinical trials, and had provided services for over 4,400 New Drug Clinical Trial Applications (INDs), accounting for approximately 34% of the total IND applications in China.

Beyond its core business, Shanghai Shengsheng is also exploring other growth avenues. Judging from the proposed use of IPO proceeds disclosed in the prospectus, the company's future focus may lie in two main areas: expanding overseas markets and extending application scenarios. The prospectus indicates that IPO funds will be used to upgrade and expand regional operation centers, clinical drug warehouses, and purchase refrigerated transport vehicles both domestically and overseas. Plans include adding approximately 20,000 square meters of floor space domestically and 3,600 square meters in overseas markets like Europe and Australia. However, the global market for clinical trial temperature-controlled supply chain services is relatively concentrated; the top ten players held a combined market share of over 60.3% based on 2024 revenue. Although Shanghai Shengsheng ranks among the top ten globally, its market share by revenue was only 1.5% in 2024, indicating it faces stiff competition in overseas markets. In 2024, the company's overseas revenue was RMB 47.517 million, a surge of 135.99% year-on-year; for the first nine months of 2025, overseas revenue was RMB 37.206 million, a increase of only 10.36% compared to the previous year, showing significantly slowed growth. The contribution of overseas markets to total revenue also decreased by 0.1 percentage point, reflecting challenges in its international expansion.

Furthermore, besides developing commercial medical product temperature-controlled supply chain services and temperature-controlled product sales, the company mentioned in its prospectus future plans to extend the application of its temperature control technologies from the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries to advanced manufacturing and new energy sectors. It is noteworthy, however, that the medical cold chain logistics industry is crowded with competitors. Besides leading logistics companies dominating the market with their established networks, some pharmaceutical companies opt to build their own cold chain systems. Cross-sector applications like new energy also present significant differences in technical requirements and management standards, making substantial short-term contributions to performance difficult. Additionally, the company's R&D expenditure for the first nine months of 2025 decreased by 5.5% year-on-year, accounting for only 3% of total revenue, which the company attributed mainly to optimized IT personnel structure under its digitalization strategy. This reduction in R&D investment could potentially impact long-term technological reserves.

Overall, Shanghai Shengsheng's main business is deeply tied to the promising innovative drug industry, featuring high customer stickiness and a certain technological moat, with a clear business logic. Simultaneously, the company faces risks such as significant profit volatility and a singular business structure. Given the challenges in overseas market penetration and new business development, any future slowdown in innovative drug R&D investment or intensification of industry competition could directly impact its growth momentum. For Shanghai Shengsheng, while the narrative of being a "water seller" to the innovative drug industry is compelling, whether it can achieve stable, sustainable high growth, build a second growth curve beyond its existing business, and enhance its long-term potential remains a question that only time can answer.