International Business Surges, SF Holding's 2025 Revenue Surpasses 300 Billion Yuan Mark, Net Profit Attributable to the Parent Company Significantly Grows | Earnings Watch

SF Holding's full-year performance shows steady growth, with international business expanding rapidly. The company plans to distribute a final cash dividend of 4.3 cents per share.

SF Holding achieved an annual operating revenue of 308.23 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 8.4%. Profit attributable to owners of the company was 11.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.3%. Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) were 32.78 billion yuan, largely flat compared to the previous year. Basic earnings per share were 2.23 yuan, an increase of approximately 5.7% from 2.11 yuan in 2024.

Same-city instant delivery business's net profit doubled, and supply chain and international businesses achieved a turnaround from losses to profitability. Amidst the complex and dynamic competitive landscape of the global logistics market, the company has maintained strong operational resilience by dynamically switching between scale expansion and value-driven strategies.

The board of directors proposes a final cash dividend of 4.3 cents per ordinary share (tax inclusive). Combined with the interim cash dividend of approximately 2.32 billion yuan already distributed, the total cash dividend for 2025 is expected to be 4.46 billion yuan, accounting for about 40% of the profit attributable to owners of the company, in line with the company's previously announced five-year shareholder return plan.

International Business Achieves High Growth, Contributing the Second Growth Curve

International business was one of the most outstanding sources of incremental growth for SF Holding's performance in 2025. SF Holding's (excluding the consolidated subsidiary KLN Logistics Group Limited) international express, cross-border e-commerce logistics, overseas warehousing, and international supply chain businesses collectively achieved high growth of 55.4%.

The company continued to deepen its "Asia's Only, Global Coverage" strategy. Throughout the year, new international freighter routes were opened to Oslo, East Midlands, Miami, Hanoi, and other destinations. The company operated a total of 69 freighter routes, with nearly 14,000 international flights, a year-on-year increase of 53%.

The supply chain and international business segment achieved an operating revenue of 72.94 billion yuan for the full year, a year-on-year increase of 3.5%.

It is worth noting that the international freight forwarding subsidiary KLN dragged down the overall segment revenue growth due to fluctuations in international trade and a significant drop in ocean freight rates. Excluding KLN, the revenue of the supply chain and international business segment increased by 32.3% year-on-year. The segment's net profit turned from a loss of 760 million yuan in 2024 to a profit of approximately 190 million yuan, a turnaround of 950 million yuan.

The company stated that approximately 65% of the companies on the Fortune China 500 list are already using SF International services. The upgrade trend of cross-border e-commerce fulfillment models toward "overseas warehousing + local fulfillment" continues to bring incremental opportunities to the company.

Same-City Instant Delivery Profitability Significantly Improved

The same-city instant delivery business achieved an operating revenue of 12.72 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 43.4%. The segment's net profit was approximately 280 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 109.7%, doubling its net profit and setting a new historical high.

The company stated that the performance growth was driven by the expansion of the instant retail industry, which led to a rapid increase in order demand. Concurrently, through lean management and technology enablement, the operational foundation was optimized, leading to a nearly doubling of the profitable business circle scale year-on-year.

SF Intra-city's active merchant base reached 1.12 million in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 72%. The overall timeliness achievement rate was approximately 95%, with an average delivery time of 22 minutes for orders within 3 kilometers.

Gross Profit Margin Under Pressure, Strategy Adjustments in the Second Half Showed Results

SF Holding's overall gross profit in 2025 was 40.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%. However, the gross profit margin slightly decreased from 13.68% in 2024 to 13.07%, a drop of 0.61 percentage points. The company attributed this to the early-year "business activation" mechanism, increased incentives at the front-end, and strategic resource investment, leading to a 2.46 percentage point increase in labor costs as a percentage of revenue.

In the second half of the year, the company dynamically adjusted its market strategy, shifting the incentive orientation from "scale-driven" to "value-driven." The gross profit margin in the fourth quarter rebounded to 14.01%, the highest quarterly level of the year. The net profit attributable to the parent company in the fourth quarter increased by 9.3% quarter-on-quarter, outperforming the market expectations conveyed by the company at the third-quarter earnings call.

Transportation costs as a percentage of revenue decreased by 0.97 percentage points year-on-year, reflecting the company's continuous efforts in optimizing land transportation models and improving network efficiency.

Express and Bulk Freight Business Scale Grows, Profits Face Some Pressure

The express and bulk freight business segment achieved an annual revenue of 217.55 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%. Among this, time-definite express revenue was 131.05 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.2%; economy express revenue was 32.05 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.6%; and bulk freight revenue was 42.13 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.9%. The growth rate of bulk freight volume exceeded 27% year-on-year.

The segment's net profit was approximately 10.60 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.5%, mainly due to increased front-end incentives under the business activation mechanism and additional strategic investments. The annual business volume exceeded 16.7 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 25.4%, with a growth rate higher than the industry average.

Capital Structure Continuously Optimized, Free Cash Flow Remains Ample

As of December 31, 2025, the group's total assets were 216.47 billion yuan, and the asset-liability ratio decreased to 49.03%, down 3.11 percentage points from the end of the previous year, reaching its lowest level in recent years.

The net cash flow generated from operating activities for the full year 2025 was 27.56 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.4%, mainly due to increased tax expenses and changes in business structure. The company's free cash flow net inflow was 17.93 billion yuan, indicating ample overall liquidity. At the end of the period, cash and cash equivalents, fixed-income certificates, and structured deposits totaled approximately 41.66 billion yuan.

The company also completed an H-share placement in July 2025, raising net proceeds of approximately HK$2.934 billion; and issued convertible bonds, raising net proceeds of approximately HK$2.909 billion, mainly to strengthen international and cross-border logistics capabilities.

Strategic Layout: Deepening Supply Chain Integration and AI-Driven Development as Two Main Pillars

In the fourth quarter of 2025, SF Holding officially established the Supply Chain Business Group (BG) at the group level, focusing on seven industries: high-tech, industrial equipment, automotive, consumer goods, retail food, retail catering, and life sciences and pharmaceuticals. It established a "Sales—Solutions—Operations" triangle mechanism. The company stated that the comprehensive logistics revenue in these industries achieved high growth of over 20%.

In terms of artificial intelligence applications, SF Holding's specialized logistics large model's daily token consumption has exceeded 10 billion, and the number of active internal AI agents has surpassed 5,000, covering more than 30 core business scenarios including forecasting, planning, marketing, fulfillment, customer service, and customs. SF Technology was selected as one of the "Top 50 Tech Companies in China" by Fortune in 2025, being the only logistics technology company on the list.

Notably, on January 15, 2026, the company signed a subscription agreement with J&T Express, intending to subscribe for J&T Express's Class B shares at HK$10.10 per share and issue 225,877,669 H shares to J&T Express at an issue price of HK$36.74 per share, expecting to raise net proceeds of approximately HK$8.299 billion.

This transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions precedent and may create strategic synergy for SF Holding's international business layout.