Shenzhen Kingkey Smart Agriculture Times Co.,Ltd. (000048.SZ) reported a severely disappointing performance for 2025, impacted by adverse factors including the downturn in the hog cycle and the clearance of remaining real estate inventory. The company experienced a dual decline in both revenue and profit, with its core net profit after extraordinary items plummeting by more than 80% year-on-year.
The significant deterioration in Kingkey Smart Agriculture's 2025 results was driven by simultaneous pressure across its three main business segments. The real estate business, once a primary revenue pillar, saw its revenue plunge by 81.45% year-on-year, severely dragging down overall performance. While sales volume for the core hog farming business increased year-on-year, revenue declined due to falling hog prices. Despite the sharp drop in revenue, limited reductions in costs and expenses severely eroded the company's profitability.
Notably, this marks the second consecutive year of substantial simultaneous declines in both revenue and profit for Kingkey Smart Agriculture. Against this backdrop, and despite facing significant liquidity pressure, the company plans to invest 650 million yuan to increase its capital in Jiangsu Huibo Robot Technology Co., Ltd. and obtain control, aiming to establish a "second growth curve." However, Jiangsu Huibo is currently unprofitable, and the transaction agreement does not include compensation clauses related to its future profitability. Many investors view this cross-sector acquisition as a high-risk gamble.
Real Estate Business Revenue Continues Steep Decline Kingkey Smart Agriculture was listed in 1994. Its main businesses include hog breeding and sales, feed production and sales, breeding chicken and broiler farming and sales, and real estate development. Hog farming is the company's core operation.
Financial reports show that in 2025, Kingkey Smart Agriculture achieved revenue of 4.872 billion yuan, a decrease of 18.26% year-on-year. Net profit attributable to shareholders was 153 million yuan, down 78.59% year-on-year. Core net profit after extraordinary items was 154 million yuan, a decline of 80.39% year-on-year.
Kingkey Smart Agriculture's revenue was once heavily reliant on its real estate business, which at one point accounted for nearly 80% of total revenue. However, since 2019, the company established a strategic shift to focus on its agricultural businesses, with the real estate segment gradually pivoting to inventory clearance.
In 2023, due to the concentrated delivery of real estate projects, Kingkey Smart Agriculture's revenue peaked at 12.42 billion yuan. But in 2024, as the number of real estate projects for sale decreased, revenue from the real estate business fell by over 80% year-on-year, causing a severe drop in the company's overall revenue.
In 2025, revenue from Kingkey Smart Agriculture's real estate business declined sharply once again. During the reporting period, this segment generated only 229 million yuan in revenue, a drastic decrease of 81.45% year-on-year. Its contribution to total revenue shrank from 20.7% the previous year to just 4.7%. Compared to the segment's revenue of 8.582 billion yuan in 2023, the 2025 figure represents a decline of 93%.
Apart from the drop in real estate revenue, Kingkey Smart Agriculture's agricultural segment also saw declining revenue in 2025.
In the hog farming business, due to factors such as industry overcapacity, China's hog cycle has been in a prolonged downturn since 2021. Although domestic hog prices saw a brief rebound in 2024, they fell significantly again in 2025. Data shows the average domestic hog price in 2025 was only 13.74 yuan per kilogram, the lowest in nearly five years.
Amidst low hog prices, although Kingkey Smart Agriculture's hog sales volume reached 2.3129 million heads in 2025 (including 324,200 piglets), an increase of 7.77% year-on-year, revenue from the hog farming business still decreased by 3.48% year-on-year to 3.766 billion yuan. However, due to the severe contraction of the real estate business, the hog farming segment's share of total revenue increased significantly from 65.45% the previous year to 77.29%.
In the feed business, Kingkey Smart Agriculture is primarily engaged in the R&D, production, and sales of pig feed, chicken feed, and aquatic feed. In 2025, due to continued losses in aquaculture sectors such as frog and snakehead farming, some farmers exited the industry or reduced their scale, leading to lower-than-expected sales volumes for the company's related products.
In 2025, Kingkey Smart Agriculture's feed business generated revenue of 685 million yuan, down 3.35% year-on-year. Its contribution to total revenue increased from 11.88% to 14.05%. In fact, revenue from this business has been declining for the past two years, having fallen by 23.3% in the previous year.
Quarterly analysis shows that in Q1-Q4 of last year, Kingkey Smart Agriculture's year-on-year revenue declines were 11.9%, 11.36%, 32.25%, and 12.01% respectively, indicating a persistent downward trend. Compared to the revenue peak in 2023, the company's 2025 revenue was down by 61%.
Gross Margins Across Three Main Businesses All Declined in 2025 High operating costs were a primary reason for Kingkey Smart Agriculture's poor 2025 performance.
In 2025, Kingkey Smart Agriculture's operating costs decreased by only 2.08% year-on-year. This led to a significant drop in the company's gross profit margin from 28.04% the previous year to 13.78%, causing gross profit to fall substantially. Although selling expenses and financial expenses decreased year-on-year, administrative expenses increased by 2.86%. The company's period expenses fell by only 15.39% in 2025, further squeezing profit margins.
This marks the second consecutive year of significant profit decline for Kingkey Smart Agriculture. Compared to the 2023 peak, the company's 2025 core net profit after extraordinary items was only 8.9% of the 2023 level.
Looking at the main business segments, all three of Kingkey Smart Agriculture's primary businesses faced gross margin pressure in 2025.
In the real estate business, due to limited declines in major costs such as operating costs, construction and installation costs, and infrastructure fees, the segment's gross margin plummeted by 35.47 percentage points from 49.84% the previous year to 14.37%, hitting a five-year low.
In the hog farming business, although revenue declined year-on-year, major costs including operating costs, employee compensation, depreciation, and amortization all increased. This resulted in a 9.63% year-on-year increase in the segment's operating costs against the trend. Its gross margin fell sharply from 23.69% to 13.33%, a drop of 10.36 percentage points.
In the feed business, as operating costs decreased by only 0.02% year-on-year during the reporting period, the gross margin also declined from 12.81% to 9.81%.
Kingkey Smart Agriculture's gross profit margin was as high as 38.72% in 2023, but the metric has seen substantial consecutive declines over the past two years.
On a quarterly basis, Kingkey Smart Agriculture was profitable in the first three quarters of last year, but a loss in Q4 dragged down the full-year result.
In Q4 2025, Kingkey Smart Agriculture achieved revenue of 1.202 billion yuan, down 12.01% year-on-year. Core net profit after extraordinary items was a loss of 140 million yuan, a decrease of 181.17% year-on-year. In Q4, operating costs increased by 11.95% year-on-year, leading to a significant quarterly decline in gross profit. Furthermore, administrative expenses and asset impairment losses surged by 25.9% and 867% year-on-year respectively, severely eroding profits.
In Q1-Q4 of last year, the year-on-year changes in Kingkey Smart Agriculture's core net profit after extraordinary items were +102.38%, -36.11%, -84.37%, and -181.17% respectively. The accelerating decline in performance over the last three quarters highlights the severe reality of accumulating operational pressures and insufficient momentum for profit recovery.
Major Cross-Border Investment in Loss-Making Target Sparks Debate Facing sustained performance pressure, Kingkey Smart Agriculture is attempting to diversify into the "robotics + AI" sector to seek a "second growth curve."
At the end of 2025, Kingkey Smart Agriculture announced plans to increase its capital in Jiangsu Huibo and acquire existing shares to obtain control. The company signed an Investment Intent Agreement with relevant parties. According to the announcement, Jiangsu Huibo is headquartered in Suzhou and focuses on the R&D and industrialization of key technologies in robotics, smart manufacturing, and artificial intelligence. It primarily provides intelligent equipment, technology, and solutions to leading clients in industries such as energy and smart manufacturing.
On March 31 this year, Kingkey Smart Agriculture disclosed progress on the matter. The company has signed a Capital Increase Agreement and a Joint Action Agreement with Jiangsu Huibo, its founding shareholder team, and other shareholders of Jiangsu Huibo. Kingkey Smart Agriculture plans to increase its capital in Jiangsu Huibo directly or through designated wholly-owned/controlled subsidiaries. The pre-money valuation for Jiangsu Huibo in this round is 1.5 billion yuan, and Kingkey Smart Agriculture intends to invest 650 million yuan to subscribe for new registered capital.
Upon completion of the capital increase, Kingkey Smart Agriculture will become the largest shareholder of Jiangsu Huibo, holding a 30.23% stake. Additionally, through the Joint Action Agreement with the founding shareholder team, Kingkey Smart Agriculture will control approximately 50.77% of the voting rights in Jiangsu Huibo.
Kingkey Smart Agriculture stated that the transaction is a decision based on considerations including its diversified strategic development. If completed, it is expected to help balance the cyclical fluctuations of the main hog farming business and promote the company's external growth. Simultaneously, it could facilitate the gradual intelligent transformation of the hog farming operations, enhancing sustainable development momentum and core competitiveness, aligning with the company's long-term strategic plan.
It is noteworthy that Jiangsu Huibo has not yet achieved profitability. The announcement shows that from 2023 to 2025, Jiangsu Huibo's revenues were 286 million yuan, 380 million yuan, and 327 million yuan respectively. During the same periods, its net profit attributable to shareholders was -157 million yuan, -64.9529 million yuan, and -99.0334 million yuan respectively.
Although the transaction includes performance commitments, Jiangsu Huibo only commits to achieving revenues of no less than 430 million yuan, 560 million yuan, and 730 million yuan in 2026-2028 respectively. The agreement does not include compensation clauses related to Jiangsu Huibo's future profitability.
Kingkey Smart Agriculture's current liquidity is not ample. As of the end of 2025, the company held monetary funds of 496.8 million yuan, while short-term borrowings and current portions of non-current liabilities totaled 1.129 billion yuan, indicating a significant short-term debt gap. To fund this transaction, the company has recently undertaken a series of actions including asset sales and capital reductions in wholly-owned subsidiaries to raise cash.
Kingkey Smart Agriculture's cross-border acquisition has raised concerns among some investors. On one hand, the company's core farming business, its main revenue pillar, has shown unstable performance in recent years, while Jiangsu Huibo, the acquisition target, lacks a clear path to profitability. The absence of a profit compensation mechanism in the deal undoubtedly introduces risk. On the other hand, the vast operational gap between hog farming and robotics makes it difficult to predict whether synergistic effects can be achieved. Whether this diversification will bring a substantive turnaround for Kingkey Smart Agriculture remains a significant question mark.
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