On March 30, ST Renfu (SH600079, formerly known as Renfu Pharmaceutical), a leading company in the field of domestic anesthetics, disclosed its 2025 annual report: net profit increased by 39.53% year-on-year, and revenue fell slightly by 5.79%.
The "Daily Economic News" reporter learned that the reason behind ST Renfu's "increased profits but not revenue" last year was the core subsidiary, Yichang Renfu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yichang Renfu, ST Renfu holds 80% of the equity), which performed strongly last year: net profit was approximately 2.748 billion yuan in 2025, almost supporting all of ST Renfu's net profits.
In fact, under the background that profits are highly concentrated in the anesthetic drug business, ST Renfu has accelerated the "core focus" strategy, which is also the key reason for the slight decline in the company's revenue last year. Entering 2026, ST Renfu stated that it will continue to deepen this work and further optimize its asset structure and business layout.
Actively promote the "centralization and focus" work in 2025
Public information shows that ST Renfu was founded in 1993 and listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1997. For a long time, ST Renfu has been under the control of Contemporary Group. In July 2025, China Merchants Biotech completed the reorganization of the board of directors of ST Renfu and other procedures. The controlling shareholder of ST Renfu was changed to China Merchants Life Technology (Wuhan) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as China Merchants Biotech), and the actual controller was changed to China Merchants Group Co., Ltd.
In the first fiscal year after the change of ownership, that is, in 2025, ST Renfu achieved operating income of 23.962 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.79%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 1.855 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39.53%. Among them, Yichang Humanfu, the core subsidiary of ST Renfu, achieved revenue of 8.810 billion yuan and net profit of 2.748 billion yuan. This means that ST Renfu's net profit last year was basically contributed by Yichang Renfu, and it also shows that the anesthetic business is still ST Renfu's main source of profit.
In fact, in 2025, ST Renfu will actively promote the "centralization and focus" work, that is, continue to sell assets to "downsize".
ST Renfu's 2025 annual report shows that during the reporting period, the company completed the sale of equity interests in Yichang Renji Maternal and Infant Health Management Co., Ltd., Renfu Pharmaceutical Group Medical Supplies Co., Ltd., Hangzhou Nuojia Medical Equipment Co., Ltd., and canceled Yichang Renfu Medical Equipment Co., Ltd., Wuhan Zhiying Xincheng Enterprise Consulting Co., Ltd. and other subsidiaries.
ST Human Welfare's "increasing profits but not increasing revenue" in 2025 is also closely related to "returning to core focus". ST Renfu explained in its annual report that the company's revenue reduction in 2025 is mainly due to the impact of structural reforms on the payment side of the pharmaceutical industry, as well as the company's implementation of "centralization and focus" work and continued optimization of business structure.
It is worth noting that driven by the "centralization and focus" strategy, the comprehensive gross profit margin of ST Renfu's main business will be 48.21% in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 3.69 percentage points.
The fixed increase will be announced after the Spring Festival in 2026
"Daily Economic News" reporters learned that after the Lunar New Year in 2026, the first major event announced by ST Renfu is the private placement issue: the company plans to issue shares to its controlling shareholder, China Merchants Biotech, with the total amount of funds raised not less than 3 billion yuan and no more than 3.5 billion yuan. The net proceeds after deducting relevant issuance expenses are planned to be used for innovative drug research and development (Yichang Renfu project and headquarters research institute project), construction of gender health and complex preparation manufacturing bases, digital construction, and supplementary working capital.
ST Renfu's announcement shows that based on the issuance cap, after the issuance is completed, China Merchants Biotech and its concerted parties will increase their shareholding ratio in ST Renfu from 28.30% to a maximum of 37.29%.
Regarding matters related to the progress of this issuance, a reporter from "Daily Economic News" contacted the company on the evening of March 30, 2026, but as of press time, no reply was received.
Judging from the announcement issued by ST Renfu, the company stated that it will continue to promote the work related to "centralization and focus" this year. Specifically, the company will continue to clean up non-core assets and use transfer, integration, exit and other market-oriented methods to optimize allocation, thereby focusing on resource development in business areas with competitive advantages and synergies; at the same time, the company will also comprehensively sort out and streamline the equity hierarchy and management structure to improve management efficiency; in addition, the company will closely focus on traditional areas of advantage and key shortcomings in the industrial chain, actively carry out investment target reserve work, and push the "acceleration button" for the company's high-quality development through the dual-wheel drive of connotative growth and extensional mergers and acquisitions.
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