Major client renewal rate at 96%, initial signs of operating leverage—Learn the six signals from Minglue Technology (2718.HK )2025 Annual Report

When analyzing a company’s annual report, revenue growth rates are often the most visible numbers—and also the most likely to be misread.

Especially for technology companies in the professional services category, revenue growth rate is just a surface-level indicator. Metrics such as gross margin changes, customer mix, renewal quality, and operating leverage are what truly reveal a company’s operational health and long-term competitiveness.

From this perspective, the recently released FY2025 annual report of Minglue Technology (2718.HK) reveals at least six signals worth paying attention to.

Signal One: Gross profit growth is three times revenue growth

In FY2025, Minglue Technology generated operating revenue of 1.426 billion yuan, up 3.2% year over year; gross profit reached 790 million yuan, up 10.8%.

Gross profit growth of 10.8% is more than three times the revenue growth of 3.2%. This ratio points to an important structural change: the company’s profitability efficiency is outpacing the speed at which it is expanding its scale.

In the professional services industry, there are usually two explanations for the phenomenon that “gross profit growth significantly exceeds revenue growth.” Either the share of higher value-added business in the revenue mix is increasing, or there is a systematic improvement in delivery efficiency that reduces unit delivery costs— or both occur simultaneously.

Minglue Technology’s situation in 2025 reflects a combination of both: the newly added Agentic Services business segment (with first-year revenue exceeding 100 million yuan) brought a higher gross profit contribution, while AI-driven internal efficiency improvements lowered the marginal costs of existing business. These two lines together drove a structural improvement in gross margin.

Signal Two: 96% renewal rate for major customers

A 96% renewal rate for major customers is one of the most easily overlooked, yet potentially most important, indicators of operating quality in this annual report.

In B2B professional services, renewal rate is the most direct thermometer for how well a company delivers customer value. It answers the core question: after customers have used the service for a full year, do they still believe it’s worth paying for continued service?

A 96% renewal rate means that among more than 2,100 brand customer accounts and 240,000 enterprise users served by Minglue Technology, the vast majority chose to renew. This number is not only an expression of customer satisfaction, but also an endorsement that customers have “received measurable value.” In an environment where macro budgets are being compressed and enterprises are becoming increasingly cautious when purchasing professional services, this renewal rate is especially worth noting.

According to IAB’s 2026 Outlook survey, among the top six priority areas most focused on by ad buyers, five are directly related to AI. In light of the industry-wide trend toward “delivering measurable results,” service providers that can maintain a 96% renewal rate imply that they have already built sufficient customer trust in this new competitive dimension of “results that can be verified.”

Signal Three: Operating leverage is starting to show

In 2025, Minglue Technology’s adjusted operating profit jumped from 5.8 million yuan in 2024 to 24.98 million yuan, an increase of about 330%; operating losses narrowed sharply from 132 million yuan to 15.72 million yuan.

Revenue grew only 3.2%, while operating profit grew 330%—and this is a hallmark signal that operating leverage has begun to form.

Operating leverage, put simply, means that when fixed costs remain basically unchanged, incremental revenue growth leads to a higher proportion of profit growth. For professional services companies, operating leverage is almost nonexistent under traditional models—because labor costs increase linearly with scale, which limits the expansion space for profit margins.

When AI takes on part of the work that would originally have required human labor, the rate at which fixed costs expand starts to fall below the revenue growth rate, and operating leverage can then be formed. Minglue Technology’s financial data for 2025 is an early signal that this mechanism has started to take effect.

Signal Four: Double-line growth in the data intelligence foundation

The Data Intelligence segment achieved revenue of 1.26 billion yuan. As the company’s core foundation built over more than 19 years, it continues to maintain steady growth.

There are two parallel clues driving the growth of this segment:

First is the iteration and upgrade of its conversational intelligence products. After functional optimization, the products better meet customers’ needs for real-time data access. Combined with the continuous expansion of sales channels, related revenue increased significantly.

Second is the expansion of scenarios for its intelligent store operations system. Continuous strengthening of underlying AI capabilities, along with further expansion of application coverage, drove revenue growth for this product line.

This dual-track structure of “the core base remains stable, while new business explores” reflects the maturity of the company’s operations: existing business provides cash flow and market insight, while incremental business explores new ceilings. Relying jointly on the DeepMiner platform, the two segments create a positive feedback loop between data accumulation and business growth.

Signal Five: Substantive upgrading of the customer mix

The annual report shows that among newly added major customers, more than 30% come from the Agentic Services business segment. Behind this percentage is a substantive shift in customer procurement logic.

Traditionally, brand enterprises purchase data intelligence services mainly to obtain “insights”—to understand the market, understand competitors, and understand consumers. In essence, these services are information products, and customers pay for information.

Agentic Services, on the other hand, means that customers are buying “results”: how much marketing effectiveness improves, how much operating costs decrease, and how much content output efficiency increases. In essence, these services are outcome-based products, and customers pay for results.

From “buying information” to “buying results,” this is not only a change in product form, but also a reshaping of the relationship between customers and service providers. The two sides move from a transactional relationship to a community of shared interests. The depth of this relationship typically leads to higher customer stickiness, longer cooperation cycles, and higher renewal rates. The 96% renewal rate for major customers aligns closely with this logic.

Signal Six: Strategic confidence—moving from a listed company to an operating entity

In November 2025, Minglue Technology officially listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (2718.HK), becoming the “world’s first Agentic AI stock” in the Hong Kong market. On the first day of trading, the stock surged by more than 106%, and the market value exceeded 40 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Listing is not only a financing event, but also an open expression of strategic confidence. Against a backdrop of intensifying competition in the AI industry and continuously upgrading customer expectations for AI delivery outcomes, choosing this timing to enter the capital market—and using “the first Agentic AI stock” as the core narrative—signals that the company has high confidence in the long-term viability of the Agentic Services business model.

From FY2025’s Agentic Services revenue exceeding 100 million yuan and a 96% renewal rate for major customers, to the adjusted net profit turning from loss to profit, and then to FY2026 with the company’s core tasks clearly focused on scaling Agentic Services— the key message conveyed by this annual report is: the new business model has completed its verification from 0 to 1, and the next step is scaling replication from 1 to N.

For investors and industry researchers observing this company, the significance of the 2025 annual report may not lie in the 3.2% revenue growth rate, but rather in the structural changes revealed behind gross margin, renewal rates, operating leverage, and the share of new businesses.