NewTimeSpace | IPO Watch: Eastroc Beverage, the King of Functional Beverages, Lists in Hong Kong with a Star-studded Cornerstone Investor Roster Setting a Hong Kong Stock Consumer Sector Record

Eastroc Beverage (Group) Co., Ltd.（09980.HK）officially launched its H-share offering on January 26, 2026, with an offer price range of not more than HK$248.00 per share. Each trading lot consists of 100 shares with an entry fee of approximately HK$25,050.11, and the company is expected to list on the main board of the HKEX on February 3, 2026. It plans to offer a total of 40.88 million shares globally, with a maximum fundraising of about HK$9.994 billion. The most eye-catching part of this offering is its star-studded cornerstone investor roster that has set a historical record for the Hong Kong stock consumer sector—a total of 16 cornerstone investors have been introduced, with a total subscription amount of up to US$640 million (about HK$4.990 billion), accounting for approximately 49.2% of the shares issued in this offering. As the "king of functional beverages" already listed on the A-share market, Eastroc Beverage is knocking on the door of the Hong Kong stock market with its strong growth momentum and recognition from top-tier capital.

Core Highlights: Solid Leading Position in Functional Beverages and a Well-established Second Growth Curve

Eastroc Beverage's story began with the slogan"Tired and sleepy? Drink Eastroc Energy Drink". After more than 30 years of in-depth cultivation, the company has successfully built "Eastroc Energy Drink" into a phenomenal blockbuster product in China's soft drink market. According to a Frost & Sullivan report, the company has ranked first in China's functional beverage market by sales volume for four consecutive years since 2021, with a market share of as high as 26.3% in 2024. Its core product, the 500ml bottled Eastroc Energy Drink, is not only the first PET-packaged energy drink to obtain the national "Blue Hat" health food certification, but also ranked second among single products in China's soft drink market in 2024. This national-level brand strength and market position form the company's deepest moat.

While consolidating its leading position in the energy drink market, the company has successfully incubated a strong second growth engine. Launched in January 2023, the sports drink"Eastroc Hydrate", with its precise positioning of "rapid electrolyte replenishment", achieved revenue of nearly RMB 1.5 billion in its second year on the market, with a year-on-year growth rate of as high as 280.4%. In the first nine months of 2025, the product's revenue continued to grow by 134.8% year-on-year. This success demonstrates the company's strong capabilities in brand extension, channel reuse and blockbuster product development, dispelling the market's concerns about its "single category dependence" and opening up broad space for long-term growth.

Beyond its products, Eastroc Beverage's core advantage lies in achieving cost leadership across the entire industry chain through the country's top production and sales scale, efficient production-supply-sales synergy and digital refined operations. As of September 30, 2025, the company has built a three-dimensional network covering more than 4.3 million terminal sales outlets, reaching nearly 100% of prefecture-level cities in China, and conducting in-depth cooperation with more than 3,200 distribution partners through a strong sales team of over 7,500 people. Meanwhile, the company took the lead in the industry to launch the "one product one code" and "five-code linkage" digital systems, connecting more than 280 million consumers, and realizing precise sales-driven production synergy and accurate expense control. This enables the company to maintain industry-leading profitability while adhering to a high cost-performance positioning and ensuring reasonable profits for distributors. This win-win model for "consumers-channels-manufacturers" is the key to the stability and continuous expansion of its channel network.

Financial Performance: A Model of High Growth, High Profitability and Strong Cash Flow

Eastroc Beverage's financial data is a benchmark for consumer goods companies, showing characteristics of high-quality growth.

Sustained and robust revenue growth: The company's revenue increased from RMB 8.50 billion in 2022 to RMB 15.83 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.5%. In the first nine months of 2025, revenue reached RMB 16.838 billion, a year-on-year increase of 34.1%. Maintaining a growth rate of over 30% on a huge base demonstrates its strong market expansion and penetration capabilities.

Even more impressive profit quality: Net profit surged from RMB 1.441 billion in 2022 to RMB 3.326 billion in 2024, with a staggering CAGR of 52.0%, far outpacing revenue growth. The net profit margin rose steadily from 16.9% in 2022 to 22.3% in the first nine months of 2025, reflecting excellent economies of scale and expense control capabilities. It is particularly rare to achieve a rising profit margin while continuously increasing brand investment (with an advertising and promotion expense ratio of about 8%).

Ample operating cash flow and generous shareholder returns: The company's net cash flow generated from operating activities has been significantly higher than its net profit for a long time, reaching RMB 5.789 billion in 2024, demonstrating the excellent "gold content" of its profits. Since its A-share listing in 2021, the company has insisted on paying dividends every year, with a cumulative dividend of approximately RMB 6 billion during the performance record period and a dividend payout ratio of about 60%, reflecting the management's firm commitment to rewarding shareholders.

IPO Details: High-Valuation Offering and a Record-breaking Cornerstone Investor Roster

Eastroc Beverage plans to offer 40.88 million shares globally in this H-share listing, with an issue price of not more than HK$248.00 per share. Based on this upper limit, the offering will raise a maximum of approximately HK$9.994 billion. Each trading lot consists of 100 shares with an entry fee of HK$25,050.11, slightly higher than the average level of recent new Hong Kong stocks. The company plans to close the public offering on January 29 and list on the market on February 3.

The core highlight of this offering is its record-breaking cornerstone investor roster. The company has successfully introduced 16 cornerstone investors who have subscribed for a total of US$640 million (about HK$4.990 billion based on the maximum offer price), accounting for about 49.2% of the shares issued in this offering, providing extremely strong support for the stock price.

The lead investor is Al-Rayyan Holding LLC under the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which subscribed for US$150 million, accounting for 11.5% of the offered shares. This set multiple "firsts" in the fund's history: the first cornerstone investment in an A to H-share IPO, the first cornerstone investment in a consumer IPO, and the largest cornerstone investment amount in its history. Singapore's sovereign fund Temasek also participated through its affiliated entities.

BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, subscribed for US$60 million; UBS Asset Management (UBS AM) and JPMorgan Asset Management (JPM AM) subscribed for US$50 million and US$30 million respectively. Among them, JPMorgan Asset Management participated in a Hong Kong stock IPO as a cornerstone investor for the first time, which is of significant signal meaning.

In addition, a galaxy of first-tier long-term institutional investors gathered, with the cornerstone roster also including top domestic and foreign investment institutions such as Sequoia China, Taikang Life Insurance, Boyu Capital and Fidelity (FMR), as well as a number of boutique funds focusing on the Greater China consumer track.

Such top-tier international capital entering the market on a large scale with a long-term lock-up period (cornerstone investors usually have a 6-month lock-up period) not only represents extremely high recognition of Eastroc Beverage's individual value, but also reflects international long-term capital's firm confidence in the resilience of China's consumer market and the structural growth opportunities in the functional beverage track.

Risk Focus: Growing Pains and Market Tests

Despite its strong fundamental and capital performance, investors still need to pay attention to the challenges it faces.

Risk of over-reliance on core categories: Although the second growth curve is growing rapidly, energy drinks (mainly Eastroc Energy Drink) still contributed 74.6% of the revenue in the first nine months of 2025. The company's short-term performance and brand reputation remain highly dependent on the market performance of this single product. Any changes in regulatory policies for energy drinks, major food safety incidents or fierce market competition may have a significant impact on the company.

Complexity of channel management and cost pressure: The company has more than 3,200 distributors and 4.3 million terminal outlets, and managing such a huge sales network is extremely challenging. Ensuring the stability of the channel price system, preventing cross-region resale, and continuously motivating distributors require an extremely high level of refined management. At the same time, the continuously expanding sales team (over 7,500 people) and increasing brand marketing investment (advertising and promotion expenses reached RMB 1.373 billion in the first nine months of 2025) also constitute long-term cost pressure.

Fierce market competition: The functional beverage market, especially the sports drink track, has become a battleground for major players. In addition to competing with established rivals such as Red Bull and Luhoo, the company also faces challenges from cross-border entrants including Nongfu Spring and Genki Forest. The success of the new productEastroc Hydratehas attracted a large number of imitators, and the company needs to continue product innovation and marketing investment to maintain its advantages in the future.

Conclusion

Eastroc Beverage's H-share listing this time demonstrates a model path for a Chinese local consumer brand to expand from regional to national, and from single category to diversified layout. Its solid financial performance, clear growth logic and the star-studded cornerstone investor roster recognized by global top-tier capital with real capital contributions jointly form the core attraction of this IPO.

For investors, this is not just subscribing for a functional beverage company, but participating in a core asset of China's consumer market endorsed by international sovereign funds and long-term capital. The strong cornerstone subscription provides a relatively high margin of safety, but the high valuation and inevitable industry competition also require investors to have the patience for long-term holdings. After listing, whether Eastroc Beverage can leverage the advantages of the dual A+H platform to further consolidate its leading position and successfully expand into overseas markets will be the key to the release of its long-term value.