After its initial public offering application was deemed "invalid" on March 29 due to reaching six months of validity, Chando quickly updated its financial data and reactivated its listing process.

ThroughLatest UpdateJudging from the resonance between the prospectus and the overall industry trend, the core issues for its successful IPO and long-term development are how to maintain the advantages of the main brand, incubate new growth points, and comply with the standardization requirements of the capital market.

01 Performance is solid, but structural balance still needs to be improved.

Updated prospectusDisclosureWhile Chando's financial performance in 2025 showed strong resilience, its revenue structure, channel evolution, and industry positioning also reflected the multidimensional challenges faced by established domestic brands during their transformation period.

In 2025, Natural Beauty Group delivered a commendable performance.

Data showsIn 2025, the group's revenue was approximately RMB 5.318 billion, with the overall gross profit margin increasing from 69.4% in the previous year to 70.6%, and net profit for the year being approximately RMB 351 million. Based on 2024 retail sales, Chando Group ranked tenth in the overall Chinese cosmetics market with a market share of 0.8%, making it the third largest domestic cosmetics group in China with a market share of 1.7%.

Judging solely from revenue scale, Chando's sizeAchievedWith a threshold of 5 billion yuan, it ranks third among domestic beauty brands.

However, when considered within the overall competitive landscape of the industry, its position is not secure. In 2024, Proya, a leading domestic cosmetics brand, surpassed the 10 billion yuan revenue mark, while Shanghai Jahwa Co., Ltd., with a revenue of approximately 6.8 billion yuan, also surpassed Chando.

In terms of revenue growth, from 2022 to 2024, Natural Beauty's revenue increased from RMB 4.292 billion to RMB 4.601 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 3.5%, significantly lagging behind the growth rates of Proya and Shanghai Jahwa during the same period.

Net profit, however, showed significant fluctuations.

From 2022 to 2024, Chando's net profit was RMB 139 million, RMB 302 million, and RMB 190 million, respectively. Net profit surged by 117% year-on-year in 2023, but then declined by 37.1% in 2024.

Net profit for the first half of 2025 was RMB 191 million, exceeding the total profit for the whole of 2024. Full-year profit rebounded to RMB 351 million, indicating that profitability is recovering.

From the perspective of the brand matrix, the prospectus further highlights Chando's heavy reliance on a single brand.

In 2025, the main brand Chando recorded revenue of RMB 5.07 billion, accounting for as much as 95.3% of the group's total revenue. Although the company has established sub-brands such as Maysu and Profuyan, which cover different market segments, their combined share is still small.

In the rapidly evolving beauty market, established companies typically rely on a multi-brand strategy to diversify risk and cover consumer needs throughout the entire product lifecycle. Natural Beauty (自然堂)Urgently neededIt demonstrates to the capital market its systematic ability to replicate the success of its main brand to its sub-brands.

In terms of distribution channels, Natural Beauty still needs to balance its traditional offline advantages with its online direct sales.

As a brand with over 20 years of history, its vast offline distribution network was once the moat that propelled Chando's rise. However, with the shift in consumer spending, the refined operation of online channels has become the key to success.

Natural HallProspectusChina indicatesIn recent years, the company has been continuously increasing its investment in direct e-commerce and emerging social e-commerce. How to properly balance the interests of online pricing systems and offline distributors, and complete the smooth transition from offline distribution as the main method to omnichannel integration, is a major test for its internal operations.

Another financial characteristic that has attracted much market attention is the huge gap between Chando's investment in marketing and R&D.

According to its previous prospectus, Natural Beauty's sales and marketing expenses have consistently accounted for more than 55% of its revenue.likeIn the first half of 2025, this expenditure reached 1.347 billion yuan, accounting for 55% of revenue.

Compared with the same industry,Natural Beauty's marketing investment ratio remains relatively high..Also inIn the first half of 2025, the sales expense ratios of Proya and Shanghai Jahwa were 49.59% and 43.8%, respectively..

At the same time, R&D investment has shown a trend of shrinking year by year.From 2022 to the first half of 2025, Natural Beauty's cumulative R&D expenditure was RMB 348 million. Specifically, it was RMB 120 million in 2022, RMB 93.82 million in 2023, RMB 91.21 million in 2024, and RMB 42.38 million in the first half of this year. The R&D expenditure accounted for 2.8%, 2.1%, 2.0%, and 1.7% of revenue, respectively, with the R&D expense ratio decreasing year by year.

In comparison, in the first half of 2025, Bloomage Biotech invested RMB 231 million in R&D, accounting for 10.22% of its revenue; Betaine's R&D expenses were RMB 116 million, accounting for 4.91% of its revenue; and although Shanghai Jahwa's R&D expenditure was relatively lower, it still exceeded RMB 100 million, accounting for 2.5%.

This "heavy marketing, light R&D" model is facing increasing scrutiny as the competitive logic of the beauty industry changes.

As consumers become increasingly demanding in their expectations regarding product efficacy and ingredient research, R&D reserves directly determine a brand's new product launch speed and pricing power. With platform promotion dividends reaching their peak, the sustainability of the strategy of exchanging high marketing investment for growth is becoming a common challenge facing the industry.

02 A new cycle, new challenges

Natural Beauty filed its initial public offering prospectus on September 29, 2025.

According to Hong Kong Stock Exchange rules, if a company intending to list fails to complete the listing hearing or listing process within six months of submitting its prospectus, its application status will automatically change to "lapsed." March 29th marked the expiration of the six-month period.

There was some speculation about why the prospectus had previously changed to "invalid".

However, judging from the practical experience of Hong Kong IPOs, this is more of a routine stage in the listing process for companies..Companies only need to submit the latest audit report to rejoin the IPO queue. In recent Hong Kong consumer IPOs, it's common for companies to resubmit their applications due to audit cycles and other reasons; this doesn't necessarily indicate a significant downturn in the company's fundamentals. Natural Beauty also quickly resubmitted its prospectus.

However, the story of Chando is not so simple. A deeper question that is of widespread concern in the market is: why did Chando fail to complete the hearing within the stipulated six-month period?

According to publicly available information, prior to this expiration, Chando had already faced rigorous inquiries from the International Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Key issues of concern to regulators include the compliance of the company's red-chip structure, its equity history, and the differences in share prices paid by different investors in the pre-IPO round of financing.,This includes the difference in the share price paid by L'Oréal and Canadia Capital, as well as the family trust structure.

For a company with a long operating history and a certain family-run character, comprehensively reviewing its complex historical equity structure and clarifying the details of financing compliance before listing on the capital market is a routine action taken by regulators to ensure the transparency of the capital market and protect the rights and interests of investors.

From a macro perspective, Chando's listing in Hong Kong is not only a capitalization sprint for an individual company, but also a microcosm of the Chinese beauty industry entering a new development cycle. Currently, the industry is undergoing a profound transformation from marketing-driven to comprehensive strength-driven growth.

Over the past decade, the rise of domestic beauty brands has largely relied on the traffic dividends of e-commerce platforms or short video platforms. However, with the soaring cost of user acquisition, simple marketing strategies are no longer sustainable. Consumers' increasingly sophisticated understanding of ingredients and efficacy has prompted the industry to enter a phase of competition based on technological research and development.

In the future, how to further optimize the cost structure and substantially shift the financial inertia of focusing on marketing towards focusing on R&D will determine its chances of success in breaking through in the high-end market.

From an industry competition perspective, the domestic beauty market has shifted from a period of explosive growth to a period of competition for existing market share. During this phase, foreign brands are accelerating their expansion into lower-tier cities and increasing promotional efforts, while price wars and mindshare battles among domestic brands are intensifying.

To break through the fierce competition, companies cannot rely on a single strength; instead, they must achieve versatility in R&D reserves, brand portfolio, omnichannel operations, and supply chain responsiveness.

In summary, Chando's updated prospectus, backed by over 5 billion yuan in revenue, also carries the challenges of relying on a single brand and upgrading its governance structure. Listing in Hong Kong is not only about broadening financing channels, but also about acquiring the resources and platform needed for the next round of industry reshuffling.

As domestic beauty brands enter the second half of the all-around competition era, the capital market expects to see a company like Natural Beauty that can continuously evolve new growth curves beyond its scale.