IPO Outlook | AI Application Boom: Hand Information (300170.SZ) Submits Listing Application, Second Growth Curve's 'Value' Awaits Validation

Since the beginning of the year, the AI application concept sector in the capital market has remained repeatedly active. In terms of news, at the end of 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the 'Action Plan for Promoting High-Quality Development of Industrial Internet Platforms (2026-2028)' which set an 'ecosystem-level' construction goal for industrial internet platforms, proposing to form a multi-level platform system of 'specialized + industry-specific + collaborative' by 2028. According to Zhitong Finance, this action plan is expected to form a policy synergy with the previously released 'Industrial Internet and Artificial Intelligence Integration Empowerment Action Plan' and the 'Special Action Implementation Opinions on Artificial Intelligence + Manufacturing,' systematically driving the demand release for industrial software, platform enterprises, data services, and computing power supply.

Under the guidance of this series of top-level designs, vendors with deep understanding of industrial scenarios and comprehensive service capabilities of 'platform + AI + data' will undoubtedly be the most direct beneficiaries of policy dividends. Recently, Hand Information (300170.SZ), a leading domestic supplier of enterprise IT consulting and digital solutions services, $Hand Enterprise Solutions (300170.SZ)$ submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. According to Frost & Sullivan, based on 2024 revenue, Hand Information ranks first among local companies in the highly competitive and fragmented Chinese enterprise IT consulting and digital solutions services market.

As a leading player in the industry, Hand Information has resolutely pursued an 'A+H' listing during this critical development period. The underlying intention is presumably to leverage the strength of the Hong Kong market to further consolidate its existing advantages and strive to continue driving overall business transformation and scale expansion amid the historic process of AI reshaping industry value. As for how the company’s new capital story will unfold, Zhitong Finance will continue to monitor developments closely.

Optimization of business structure, with room for enhancing profitability stability

The history of Hand Information can be traced back to 2002. After more than two decades of deep cultivation in the industry, the company has accumulated substantial expertise in products, technology, and customer base. Currently, Hand Information primarily provides comprehensive digital and intelligent solutions for large and leading enterprises. In recent years, with the rapid development of AI technology, Hand Information has assisted companies in achieving digital and intelligent transformation through AI applications, proprietary products, and ERP implementation services, improving operational efficiency, and thereby establishing core competitiveness.

Looking at the types of solutions provided by Hand Information, they can roughly be divided into industrial digitalization solutions, financial digitalization solutions, ERP consulting and implementation, and IT outsourcing. As a 'service provider,' Hand Information's revenue and profitability have experienced some fluctuations over the past few years. Data shows that from 2022 to 2024, Hand Information’s total revenue was RMB 3.007 billion, RMB 2.98 billion, and RMB 3.235 billion respectively; in the first half of 2025, the company's revenue reached RMB 1.574 billion, continuing a slight upward trend on a year-over-year basis.

Breaking down the revenue structure, the income contribution from industrial digitalization solutions grew steadily from 25.5% in 2022 to 31.6% in 2024, further expanding to 33.8% in the first half of 2025, making it Hand Information's largest business segment. Conversely, the revenue share of the company's ERP consulting and implementation business dropped from 35.7% in 2022 to 33% in 2024, and narrowed further to 31.2% in the first half of 2025. Meanwhile, the revenue proportion of financial digital solutions remained relatively stable, fluctuating slightly within the 22%-24% range during the period; the revenue share of IT outsourcing also showed a slight decline, shrinking from 15.7% in 2022 to 11.7% in 2024, and further dropping to 11.2% in the first half of 2025.

In my view, the changing trends in Hand Information's various businesses undoubtedly reflect new changes in the company's business structure — a gradual transition from traditional operations towards strategic emerging fields. Another related change is the source of the company’s income. From 2022 to the first half of 2025, the revenue share from overseas countries and regions increased continuously from 8.9% to 14.9%. This data suggests that the company’s strategy of basing itself in China while serving globally, leveraging its global service network and extensive overseas implementation experience to build differentiated competitive advantages, has achieved positive interim results.

Hand Information's profitability has similarly shown some fluctuations over the past few years. From 2022 to the first half of 2025, Hand Information’s gross profit was RMB 885 million, RMB 773 million, RMB 1.059 billion, and RMB 535 million respectively, corresponding to gross margins of 29.4%, 25.9%, 32.7%, and 34%.

The company's peak net profit attributable to shareholders remains in 2022 when the annual net profit attributable to shareholders reached RMB 497 million, but the following year saw a loss. In the first half of 2025, Hand Information's net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 85.007 million, showing a small year-on-year increase. According to the company’s previously disclosed third-quarter report, last year's net profit attributable to shareholders for the first three quarters was RMB 145 million. The Q3 single-quarter net profit growth rate rose to 15%, indicating an upward trend in profit growth.

Accelerating commercial application of AI, with future growth potential yet to materialize

Based on Hand Information's disclosed third-quarter report, which continues the trend of optimizing the business structure seen in previous years, the company generated approximately RMB 210 million in AI application revenue in the first three quarters of 2025, with RMB 100 million realized in Q3 alone, surpassing the full-year level of 2024.

It is understood that Hand Information started its AI layout relatively early, having attempted to integrate AI with business as early as 2019. In terms of commercial progress, considering the aforementioned performance trends, the commercial deployment of Hand Information’s AI application products is currently in a phase of continuous acceleration.

When viewed in the context of the industry, the key to the effective empowerment of enterprise-level AI agents lies in their ability to deeply integrate into a company’s unique organizational structure and workflow rather than relying on generic templates. A high-quality enterprise-level agent must possess strong integration capabilities and operability, seamlessly connecting with the existing IT ecosystem such as ERP, CRM, and HRM systems, while dynamically adapting to the organization's permission framework. Clearly, this implies the need for an in-depth understanding of the internal organizational structure and workflows of the enterprise. Unlike general large model providers, Hand Information, with years of experience implementing complex ERP systems and accumulated industry know-how from its derivative business operations, holds an inherent advantage.

A closer breakdown of the revenue generated by Hand Information’s AI applications last year reveals that the AI middleware platform contributed approximately RMB 50-60 million, while the remaining RMB 150-160 million came from intelligent agent-related products and related consulting implementation services. From a business perspective, the 'Delight' series of products complements the AI middleware platform, forming a systematic AI capability ecosystem to help clients build comprehensive AI application systems. Looking ahead, Hand Information’s AI business is likely to become a pivotal factor influencing the company’s growth momentum and secondary market valuation.

From the capital markets perspective, although Hand Information is considered a promising AI application concept stock, over time, A-share investors may have already priced in some optimistic expectations into its stock performance. For Hand Information, which aims to complete an “A+H” listing, future stock movements will largely depend on the realization of its AI application business. The true value of Hand’s second growth curve may require more time to be fully evaluated.

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