China National Nuclear International ( 02302.HK ) 2025 Annual Report: Core Business Profit Surged by 38%, a Scarce Asset Under the Energy Powerhouse Strategy

In 2025, the global natural uranium market, amidst complex geopolitical and macroeconomic changes, painted a picture of “long-term opportunities clear, short-term volatility still present.”

Spot prices fluctuated within the range of $70 to $80 per pound, while long-term contract prices steadily climbed to $88 per pound by the end of the year, reflecting the market’s pricing of uranium resources’ long-term value and future supply-demand gap. The resurgence of nuclear power and the AI industry’s explosive demand for stable baseload power has increasingly solidified the strategic position of natural uranium as the “energy cornerstone” of nuclear power.

Against this backdrop, China National Nuclear International, as the only overseas listed platform for uranium resources under the China National Nuclear Corporation, has continuously focused on its core business, delivering a resilient and high-quality financial report for 2025. The company’s uranium trading scale maintained expansion, core business profitability significantly improved, financial structure was notably optimized, and operating cash flow showed impressive performance, demonstrating strong development momentum through cycles.

Core Data Performance Shines, High-Quality Growth Background Highlighted

Focusing on China National Nuclear International’s latest performance report, several core data points achieved breakthroughs, successfully realizing high-quality growth.

1. Revenue and Gross Profit Both Increased, Core Profitability High Growth

The financial report shows that the company’s total revenue for 2025 reached HKD 2.49 billion, a substantial increase of 35.2% year-on-year. Gross profit was HKD 272 million, up 16.0% year-on-year. Although affected by a higher increase in sales costs compared to revenue growth, the gross profit margin slightly declined to 10.9%. However, the company’s profitability remained robust, with net profit attributable to shareholders reaching HKD 192 million, roughly flat compared to 2024.

Beyond scale, the quality of operations is even more noteworthy. In 2024, the company recorded a one-time gain of approximately HKD 23.41 million from the sale of subsidiary equity and correspondingly confirmed approximately HKD 31.95 million from the performance of joint ventures. Excluding this one-time gain, the net profit from the core uranium trading business in 2024 was approximately HKD 140 million. Based on this standard, the net profit from the core uranium trading business in 2025 actually increased by approximately 37.8% year-on-year, fully demonstrating the excellent profitability quality of the company’s main business.

2. Uranium Trading Scale Expansion, Business Multiple Breakthroughs

The core driving force behind the performance growth comes from the strong performance of the main uranium trading business. In 2025, the company sold approximately 8.77 million pounds of natural uranium, becoming the core driver of revenue growth. Starting in the second half of 2024 and continuing into 2025, uranium spot prices remained relatively stable, allowing the company to accurately manage external risks and expand the uranium trading scale, further increasing uranium sales volume and ultimately delivering good operational results.

At the same time, the optimization of the business structure has made the company’s profitability foundation even more solid. By region, the business showed characteristics of “core market stability, overseas market expansion,” with China (including Hong Kong) as the core source of income, achieving revenue of HKD 1.769 billion, while revenues from the UK and Netherlands markets reached HKD 342 million and HKD 306 million, respectively, becoming new growth points for overseas business in 2025.

Additionally, the company’s related transactions and third-party transactions have developed synergistically, with uranium procurement and agency transactions bringing in agency revenues of HKD 30.994 million and HKD 13.657 million, respectively, both achieving substantial year-on-year growth. This indicates that the business’s monetization ability and customer recognition are continuously improving, and the platform’s value is consistently highlighted.

3. Financial Structure Optimized, Asset Quality Continues to Improve

In 2025, China National Nuclear International’s financial stability reached a new level, with cash flow, cash reserves, and asset-liability structure all optimized, providing ample financial support and risk resistance for business expansion.

In terms of cash flow, the net cash generated from operating activities was HKD 288 million, a significant increase of 105.7% compared to HKD 140 million in 2024, demonstrating strong “self-generating” capability. By the end of the period, the company’s cash and cash equivalents surged from HKD 607 million at the end of 2024 to HKD 907 million, setting a new record for cash reserves.

On the asset-liability side, the company’s debt-to-asset ratio significantly decreased from 0.23 at the end of 2024 to 0.13. Short-term solvency indicators, such as the current ratio, also improved significantly, with total current liabilities dropping from HKD 205 million to HKD 128 million, and current net assets increasing to HKD 865 million, further enhancing financial stability.

Overall, the above core data reflects that China National Nuclear International’s strategic planning and business expansion have achieved significant results, with profitability and financial quality showing positive trends, further solidifying the company’s market position.

Focusing on High-Prospect Sectors, Building a Deep Development Moat

In the long-term supply-demand tight balance of the natural uranium market, the future growth of China National Nuclear International is not “water without a source.” The high market prosperity, coupled with its irreplaceable platform resource barriers, will jointly support the company in maintaining certain growth in the future.

From the perspective of demand, the global nuclear power industry is experiencing a wave of revival, mainly driven by the strategic considerations of advancing “dual carbon” goals and ensuring energy security, as well as the explosive growth in electricity demand brought by the digital economy, especially AI and data centers.

According to the IEA’s “2026 Electricity Report,” global nuclear power generation is expected to reach a historical high in 2025. During the forecast period (to 2030), nuclear power will continue to grow steadily; although most of the growth by 2030 will come from emerging economies, nuclear energy is regaining strategic importance in many developed economies, with multiple countries issuing policy frameworks to support the extension of reactor lifetimes and increase new capacity to meet the all-weather clean electricity demand driven by data centers.

As a stable and efficient clean baseload power source, nuclear power releases enormous market demand, and the demand for its key raw material, natural uranium, will explode accordingly. Specifically looking at China, data shows that by the end of 2025, there will be a total of 112 nuclear power units in operation, under construction, and approved for construction. Among them, 35 units are under construction, corresponding to a total installed capacity that has ranked first in the world for the 19th consecutive year, with the proportion of under-construction nuclear power units accounting for half of the global total. The operational lifespan of nuclear power units is long, with China’s nuclear power units designed for an operational life of about 60 years, and their long-term operation will support continuous demand for natural uranium; thus, China National Nuclear International’s foundation for long-term growth is solid.

From the supply side, although the total amount of global natural uranium is relatively sufficient, mining is constrained by long-term capital expenditure shortages, limited production increases in major producing countries, and lengthy new mine development cycles, resulting in bottlenecks in global uranium production growth.

In the face of such a supply-demand landscape, this presents both challenges and opportunities for China National Nuclear International. Backed by the China National Nuclear Corporation, it possesses irreplaceable platform and resource advantages, enabling it to continuously release synergistic effects and maintain a proactive position in the competition in the international uranium market.

The financial report indicates that a framework agreement for 2026 has been established, with the company becoming the exclusive supplier of natural uranium outside Asia and Africa for China Uranium Corporation and the global procurement agent for natural uranium, while also becoming the exclusive authorized distributor for Rossing uranium products (excluding China). This framework agreement will not only help the company capture the continuous and stable increase in uranium demand but also build a deep industry barrier, further consolidating the company’s leading position in the international uranium trading market.

At the same time, the company has not stopped at its existing uranium trading business. On the one hand, it is actively seeking potential investment opportunities in quality uranium resource projects, focusing on operating projects, leveraging its parent group’s advantages in the nuclear field to create synergies, diversifying its main business, and continuously deepening its global layout.

On the other hand, it is actively revitalizing existing uranium mine asset projects. For the Mongolia uranium project, the company is maintaining close communication and coordination with relevant departments of the Mongolian government to promote the resolution of mining rights issues; for the Niger Somina project, the company is working hard to maintain close communication with the Niger government while discussing with other stakeholders to promote the formulation of an initial resumption plan.

In the context of increasingly fierce global competition for uranium resources, the company’s global layout not only further expands market share but also ensures the stable supply of uranium resources, enhancing the company’s core competitiveness.

Policies Intensively Support Energy Powerhouse, China National Nuclear International’s Growth Prospects are Broad

2026 is the starting year of the “14th Five-Year Plan” and a key year for the deep integration of China’s energy industry with the AI wave. The development of the nuclear power industry is underpinned by the national strategy to seize the strategic high ground in the global energy and AI competition, which is profoundly significant.

On the policy front, from the State Council issuing the “Opinions on Deepening the Implementation of the ‘Artificial Intelligence+’ Action,” to the National Development and Reform Commission and the Energy Administration specifically deploying “Artificial Intelligence+” for high-quality energy development; from the government work report proposing the “creation of a new form of intelligent economy,” to the “14th Five-Year Plan” explicitly stating “strengthening technological collaborative innovation in fields such as artificial intelligence and new energy,” the policies are sending a strong signal: to promote the deep integration of artificial intelligence and the energy industry and accelerate the construction of a “strong energy country.”

Therefore, in the long run, the strategic position of nuclear energy will become increasingly prominent, becoming a key area for promoting energy transition and technological innovation. On this basis, exploring and mining uranium resources to ensure stable domestic uranium supply is of undeniable strategic value.

China National Nuclear International’s core advantages are reflected in three aspects: first, positional advantage, as the only overseas listed platform for uranium resources under the China National Nuclear Corporation, the company directly benefits from the global nuclear recovery and the rigid growth of domestic uranium demand, with extremely strong business certainty, fully benefiting from the industry’s high prosperity cycle; second, financial fundamentals advantage, with ample cash, stable cash flow, excellent asset-liability structure, a very low financial leverage, and outstanding risk resistance, providing a solid foundation for business expansion and enabling the company to traverse industry cycles; third, central enterprise platform empowerment advantage, as the China National Nuclear Corporation provides comprehensive support across the industrial chain, allowing the company to gain an advantage in the international uranium market.

Therefore, looking ahead, China National Nuclear International, as an important participant in the nuclear energy industry, has vast growth space. From the perspective of the capital market, China National Nuclear International is a rare company in the Hong Kong stock market’s nuclear power uranium resource sector, and global investors are currently highly focused on energy assets, positioning the company as a core investment target in the energy field, with a potential for value reassessment.

Conclusion:

In summary, against the backdrop of the global promotion of achieving dual carbon goals and deepening energy security strategies, nuclear power is entering a new golden development period. Natural uranium is the material foundation for the development of the nuclear industry, and its strategic value is being re-evaluated.

In 2025, China National Nuclear International proved its value and position as a key strategic resource acquisition platform overseas with a financial report showing high growth in core business, comprehensive improvement in profitability quality, and unprecedented financial stability. By focusing on its main business, deepening synergy with its parent group, and continuously optimizing its financial foundation, the company successfully navigated the short-term fluctuations in the market.

Long-term, China National Nuclear International is expected to leverage its unique strategic position and stable operational development to unlock greater long-term value in its dual roles of ensuring national energy security and embracing green energy opportunities. For investors, this high-quality international natural uranium business, a scarce asset, holds significant potential that may not yet be fully realized.