Research Report Interpretation | Dongwu Securities: Ruqi Mobility (9680.HK) shows a trend of "strong growth, narrowed losses, and optimized structure" in its performance, initially rated as "Buy"

On March 15, Dongwu Securities released its initial coverage research report on Ruqi Mobility (9680.HK), giving the company a “Buy” rating, optimistic about its advantages in ride-hailing expansion and Robotaxi commercialization through shareholder synergy and a mixed operation model.

Dongwu Securities analyzes that Ruqi Mobility’s performance has shown a significant trend of “strong growth, narrowing losses, and structural optimization.” The company is expected to become profitable by 2027, with projected revenues of RMB 5.3 billion, 10.5 billion, and 15.8 billion for the years 2025-2027, corresponding to current market valuations of 0.3x, 0.1x, and 0.1x PS over three years.

There are market views suggesting that Ruqi Mobility’s current PS is significantly lower than the average PS of mainstream listed companies in the domestic mobility service and Robotaxi sectors. Combined with the company’s recent trend of improving profitability, the current valuation appears to have certain attractiveness.

Previously, on March 3, Ruqi Mobility issued a positive profit forecast stating that it expects a substantial improvement of over 43.4% year-on-year in profits for the fiscal year 2025, with total revenues exceeding RMB 5 billion, a year-on-year increase of over 100%.

PS for 2025-2027 is below comparable company averages

Dongwu Securities believes that Ruqi Mobility’s performance has shown a significant trend of “strong growth, narrowing losses, and structural optimization.”

The company’s revenue structure has evolved from a single mobility service to a “mobility + technology” dual-driven model, with technology services as the company’s second-largest source of income, increasing from 8.5% in 2022 to 10.0% in 2024. Furthermore, due to the scale effects brought about by business expansion, the company has significantly diluted the expense ratios reflecting operational efficiency, such as sales and marketing expenses, and general and administrative expenses, decreasing sharply from 26.1% and 9.9% in 2021 to 8.0% and 5.5% in 2024, and down to 3.9% and 2.9% by the first half of 2025, with gross margin turning positive for the first time in the first half of 2025, indicating a continued improvement in the profitability structure.

Dongwu Securities points out that multiple core financial indicators reflecting operational quality continue to improve, signaling that the company is accelerating towards breakeven under the dual drivers of scalable expansion and refined operations, with Ruqi Mobility expected to achieve profitability by 2027, and projected revenues of RMB 5.3 billion, 10.5 billion, and 15.8 billion for the years 2025-2027.

Based on the PS valuation method, Dongwu Securities estimates that Ruqi Mobility’s current market value corresponds to PS values of 0.3x, 0.1x, and 0.1x for 2025-2027, significantly lower than the three-year average PS of 18.4x, 13.0x, and 6.6x for comparable companies such as Didi, Caocao Mobility, Pony.ai, and WeRide. Given Ruqi Mobility’s stable expansion of its ride-hailing business from the Greater Bay Area to the whole country and the extensive space for its Robotaxi platform to integrate with mainstream L4 technology suppliers, the initial coverage gives a “Buy” rating.

Market analysis suggests that based on the average PS of other companies in the industry mentioned in the report, Ruqi Mobility is currently undervalued, and coupled with the future growth potential in Robotaxi, the company’s market value has significant upside potential.

The ripple effect of the mobility business has shown results

Public information indicates that in the past two years, Ruqi Mobility’s mobility service sector, including ride-hailing and Robotaxi, has maintained a rapid growth momentum, with year-on-year revenue growth expanding from 21.2% for the whole year of 2024 to 86% in the first half of 2025. By the end of 2025, its service coverage is expected to extend to over 110 cities nationwide.

On March 3, Ruqi Mobility published its first positive profit forecast since its listing, expecting a substantial year-on-year improvement of over 43.4% in profits for the fiscal year 2025, with total revenues exceeding RMB 5 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of over 100%. The company stated that the revenue increase was mainly driven by a significant growth in ride-hailing order volume, while profit improvement was primarily due to enhanced operational efficiency in ride-hailing and cost structure optimization driving continuous gross margin growth.

The balanced growth in scale and efficiency is attributed to Ruqi Mobility’s early decision to expand using the “ripple effect” model—initially focusing on the high-value market in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, optimizing its operational system in core areas, and then efficiently replicating and gradually expanding to multiple cities nationwide from surrounding markets. Dongwu Securities believes that the Greater Bay Area, with its ultra-high population density, high consumption capability, and increasing support for L4 Robotaxi policies, provides a solid market hinterland for ride-hailing and an ideal testing ground for Robotaxi, facilitating the company’s efficient nationwide market expansion.

The market generally believes that mastery of compliant operational capacity will be the key to winning in the future competition among mobility platforms. The report mentions that Ruqi Mobility’s order volume for mobility services ranks among the top ten nationally and has formed a leading advantage in compliant operations. In the monthly order compliance rate ranking released by the Ministry of Transport, the company has the most frequent top ranking among mobility platforms. With the accelerated rollout of Robotaxi, China’s ride-hailing market has transitioned from “barbaric growth” to a new phase of “compliant intelligence.” Dongwu Securities predicts that this market will expand to RMB 850.79 billion by 2030, while the rise of aggregating platforms will accelerate the dispersion of traffic, and Robotaxi will become a new growth pole.

Mixed operations enhance risk resistance during industry reshuffling

As a disruptive technology in the mobility service sector, Robotaxi is reconstructing the value logic of global mobility service platform companies.

Dongwu Securities analyzes that with the combined effects of improved safety in autonomous driving technology, reduced single-vehicle hardware costs, and the gradual improvement of the policy system, the Chinese Robotaxi market will reach a turning point by 2027, with the market size expected to reach RMB 83.1 billion by 2030, and further increase to RMB 709.6 billion by 2035.

As one of the earlier entrants in the Robotaxi business in the domestic market, Ruqi Mobility has positioned “mixed operation of human-driven and driverless vehicles” as its core differentiated strategy since 2022, creating an open operational platform that simultaneously develops both human-driven ride-hailing and Robotaxi services.

Dongwu Securities is optimistic that the mixed operation strategy will enhance the company’s risk resistance during the industry reshuffle. Through the complementary synergy of human-driven and driverless fleets, Ruqi Mobility can meet users’ real daily travel needs while maintaining profitability, gradually increasing the acceptance of Robotaxi in the market and the ratio of operational capacity, reducing user experience and operational risks during the initial commercialization phase of Robotaxi, while improving overall asset utilization, effectively advancing the commercialization process of Robotaxi, and laying the foundation for future fully driverless operations.

The report notes that Ruqi Mobility’s Robotaxi operational network in the Greater Bay Area has begun to take shape and is in a rapid expansion phase. By the end of December 2025, the Robotaxi fleet is expected to exceed 300 vehicles, with service coverage extending to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and the Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone, with the self-owned fleet achieving nearly 6 million kilometers of safe operational mileage.

In July 2025, Ruqi Mobility launched the “Robotaxi+” strategy, planning to invest approximately 1 billion yuan over the next five years to build a three-tier operation and maintenance network covering 100 cities, supporting an operational capacity of 100,000 Robotaxis annually, while also building a Robotaxi fleet of over 10,000 vehicles with partners.

Dongwu Securities points out that Ruqi Mobility’s “Robotaxi+” model does not involve self-developing L4 autonomous driving technology but integrates autonomous driving enterprises and other ecological resources through a fully open operational platform, forming a full-chain synergy of “R&D - technology - platform,” which is expected to effectively solve common problems in the early development of the Robotaxi industry by aggregating advantageous resources from different segments of the industry chain and accelerating the scaled implementation of autonomous driving technology.

Ruqi Mobility’s unique shareholder ecosystem is the foundation of its core competitiveness—founded in 2019 by GAC Group and Tencent, followed by the introduction of shareholders such as Pony.ai, WeRide, Didi Autonomous Driving, Hengjian Holdings, and Guangzhou Industrial Investment, forming a “three-way structure” of “complete vehicle + internet + intelligent driving,” achieving strong synergy in terms of traffic, technology, government relations, and supply chain, creating a commercial closed loop for Robotaxi. Currently, Ruqi Mobility has integrated WeRide and Pony.ai, while also promoting the integration of third-party Robotaxi fleets such as LoBo Quick Run.

（Editor: Jiao Yue）

【Disclaimer】This article only represents the author’s personal views and is unrelated to Hexun.com. Hexun.com maintains a neutral stance on the statements and viewpoints expressed herein and does not provide any explicit or implied guarantees regarding the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of the content included. Readers are advised to reference at their own discretion and assume all responsibility. Email: news_center@staff.hexun.com