HK Stock Market Move | Lee & Man Paper (02314) rose nearly 3% after profit, with expected annual profit expected to increase by up to 47% year-on-year, benefiting from strong rebound in profit margins of its two main products.

LEE & MAN PAPER (02314) rose nearly 3% after the market, and as of the time of the report, it had risen by 2.44%, closing at 3.78 Hong Kong dollars, with a trading volume of 238,100 Hong Kong dollars. On the news front, on February 4th, LEE & MAN PAPER announced that the group is expected to achieve a profit of approximately 1.88 billion to 2.0 billion Hong Kong dollars by 2025, representing a year-on-year growth of 38% to 47%. This profit growth is mainly due to the rise in the group's margin. Citigroup's research report stated that the most difficult period for the paper industry may have passed, and there may be moderate improvements in the future. The report also mentioned that LEE & MAN PAPER is expected to announce its full-year 2025 performance in early March 2026, which Citigroup believes could be a positive catalyst for the stock price in the near term. Citigroup also pointed out that from a business perspective, LEE & MAN PAPER's profit recovery will be mainly driven by the recovery in the profit margins of its linerboard and tissue paper businesses. The bank expects that, benefiting from the strong rebound in the profit margins of these two major core products, LEE & MAN PAPER's gross profit margin will show a similar improvement trend to its peers: it is expected that the gross profit margin in the second half of 2025 will significantly expand by 4.3 percentage points year-on-year and by 1.1 percentage points compared to the first half of the year. At the same time, sales are also expected to recover, with sales in the second half of 2025 expected to rise by 5.9% year-on-year to approximately 14.288 billion Hong Kong dollars, reversing the decline recorded in the first half of the year due to a decrease in product prices.