Citibank: Haitian International (01882) received an increase in shares by the chairman, which means a good opportunity to renew the “purchase” target price of HK$27

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Citibank released a research report saying that it is a good time for Haitian International (01882) to increase its shares by the chairman. The bank believes that the management aims to show a high level of confidence in the company's current low position, and interprets that the timing of the increase is that management agreed that profit recovery and valuation in the second half of the year were not expensive, and reiterated the “buy” rating, with a target price of HK$27.

After the announcement of the interim results, Company Chairman Zhang Jianming purchased a total of 3.431 million shares, with an average price of HK$17.59, and a total cost of US$7.7 million. The shareholding has risen from 33.32% previously to 33.53% as of now, according to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The bank expects revenue for the second half of this year to rise 2.3% year on year to 8.912 billion yuan (same below), and net profit to rise 5% year on year to 1.67 billion yuan, which is better than the revenue increase of 0.9% year on year in the first half of the year and net profit falling 7.7% year on year. At the results meeting, management guided revenue growth in 2026 to a flat to a low number of units. Affected by the high base due to early delivery driven by last year's tariffs, the bank expects overseas sales to still fall by double digits year on year; domestic sales are expected to rise by double digits year over year, mainly driven by export-oriented orders rather than domestic demand, and should roughly offset the overseas decline. MA5/Ultra PIMM was launched at the beginning of the second half of the year, which may lead to a slight acceleration in order momentum.

The bank expects the company's gross margin to recover to 31.8% in the second half of the year, narrowing to a year-on-year decline of 80 basis points due to the easing of the RMB; under control of operating expenses, the EBIT profit margin is expected to reach 21.8%, up 40 basis points year on year.