Cable car business revenue declines, performance segment costs increase significantly, Lijiang Co., Ltd.'s net profit last year only rose by 1.24%

Recently, Lijiang Co., Ltd. released its 2025 annual report, with both revenue and net profit showing slight growth. The company’s revenue was CNY 860 million, up by CNY 51.91 million year over year, an increase of 6.42%. Its net profit attributable to shareholders was CNY 213 million, up by CNY 2.6058 million year over year, an increase of 1.24%.

The company said it successfully met its 2025 operating plan and completed the operating targets set at the beginning of the year. However, its primary source of revenue—its ropeway business—saw a decline, and it also faces the pressure of a two-year project for renovation and expansion. Its cultural and performing arts business is also facing a dilemma of rising costs and insufficient innovation. The goal the company has set for 2026 is only a marginal increase. How to monetize top-tier tourism resources into impressive financial performance remains a challenge the company needs to continuously solve.

Source: the company’s 2025 annual report

01

Ropeway service business declines slightly, and it also faces renovation and expansion with a shutdown

Lijiang is a well-known tourist city, with three world heritage sites: Lijiang Ancient Town (a World Cultural Heritage Site), the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan (a World Natural Heritage Site), and Naxi Dongba Canonical Texts (a World Memory Heritage Site). Lijiang’s tourism resources are abundant, including well-known attractions such as Lijiang Ancient Town, Yulong Snow Mountain, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Laojun Mountain, and Shuhe Ancient Town. The company’s core business is located within the Yulong Snow Mountain National Scenic Area. Yulong Snow Mountain is a Class AAAAA tourist spot from China’s first batch, offering not only magnificent snow-mountain scenery but also multiple attractions including Glacier Park, Blue Moon Valley, Yunnan fir flatlands (Yunshanping), and Yak (Ox) flatlands (Niuping).

Lijiang Co., Ltd. was established in 2001 and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2004. It is the earliest listed company in the Lijiang area to engage in tourism industry development and operations. Its main businesses include ropeway services, hotel construction and operations, cultural performances, catering services, tourism supporting services, scenic-area visitor transfer and distribution, environmental bus transportation, travel agencies, and more.

For a long time, the ropeway service business has been the company’s most important source of revenue. The ropeways the company operates are the Yulong Snow Mountain Glacier Park ropeway, the Yunnan fir flatlands ropeway, and the Yak (Ox) flatlands ropeway.

Source: Tonghuashun iFinD

After the company’s listing, in most years the ropeway business revenue share has been above 40%; it has now already exceeded 45% for 11 consecutive years. The annual report shows that in 2025, the ropeway transportation business achieved revenue of CNY 407 million, down 1.63% year over year, and its revenue share also fell from 51.20% in 2024 to 47.33%. However, because the decrease in operating costs was greater than the increase in revenue growth, the gross margin of this segment ultimately rose slightly to 84.27%.

Source: Tonghuashun iFinD

Regarding the decline in the ropeway business, the company said that the ropeway transportation segment was affected by abnormal weather such as strong winds and blizzards in the first half of 2025. As a result, the number of days the ropeways operated in a shutdown state increased, and the number of transported passengers decreased year over year, leading to a reduction in revenue for the ropeway transportation segment. The 2025 interim report shows that in the first half of the year, the revenue from the ropeway services business was CNY 187 million, down 5.65% year over year. Its share of revenue was 49.53%, and in terms of gross margin, this segment fell 1.14% year over year.

With growth in the ropeway services business slowing down, one of the ropeways has also started a renovation and expansion project, which will be shut down for two years, and this may affect the company’s revenue over the next two years. According to the company’s announcement, to improve traffic accessibility and convenience to the Niuping Scenic Area, effectively expand the scenic area’s reception capacity, and enhance the quality of the scenic area, after approval by the board of directors, starting from November 2025, the Niuping tourism ropeway renovation and expansion project officially began. Based on the project implementation progress and the construction schedule, starting from March 4, 2026, the Niuping ropeway will stop accepting visitors and cease external operations.

The Niuping ropeway is located in Niuping, Yulong Snow Mountain, Lijiang. Niuping is a snow-mountain meadow ranch deep within the snow mountain area, covering 16.6 square kilometers. It offers an excellent vantage point for viewing the Yulong Thirteen Peaks closely and has become an important tourist attraction in Lijiang. In fact, the Niuping ropeway’s revenue share is not high. Data shows that in the 2024 fiscal year, the Niuping tourism ropeway generated operating revenue of CNY 21.5065 million, accounting for 2.66% of the company’s operating revenue for the period, and achieved net profit of CNY 9.971 million, accounting for 4.73% of the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders for the period. In the period from January to September 2025, the Niuping ropeway achieved operating revenue of CNY 13.4162 million (unaudited), accounting for 2.03% of the company’s operating revenue for the period, and achieved net profit of CNY 5.2801 million (unaudited), accounting for 2.25% of the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders for the period.

By the end of 2025, the project had cumulatively invested CNY 84.8627 million, with the project completion progress at 15.95%. The new ropeway is expected to start operations in 2028. According to the company’s announcement, once the new ropeway is completed and put into operation, the ropeway’s capacity (passenger volume) for the Niuping ropeway will increase from the current 360 people per hour to 1,900 people per hour. The company expects the average annual profit realized during the project’s operating period to be CNY 33.4858 million.

Source: the company’s 2025 annual report

02

Gross margin for cultural and performing arts performances drops by 4.09%

Besides the ropeway business, the cultural and performing arts performance business is also highly popular. “Impression · Lijiang” is a large-scale live-action performance planned, created, and directed by well-known artists including Zhang Yimou, Wang Chaoge, and Fan Yue. It began official performances in July 2006 and ushered in the first precedent in China for live scenic performances under snow mountains and under sunshine. Since its premiere, “Impression · Lijiang” has received widespread praise from both domestic and international tourists.

Performance venue. (Online screenshot)

In 2025, the Impression performance segment achieved revenue of CNY 141 million, up 0.72% year over year, but its revenue share fell from 17.37% to 16.44%. In the first half of 2025, the segment’s revenue was CNY 64 million, down 14.47% year over year, suggesting that revenue increased in the second half. Looking at operating costs as well, the Impression performance segment’s full-year costs were CNY 68.4056 million, close to half of its revenue, up 10.03% year over year—far outpacing its revenue growth rate—while its gross margin also fell by 4.09%.

You should know that when the Impression performance segment was included in the company’s financial statements in 2011, its revenue share once exceeded 40%, making it the company’s first source of revenue. But afterward, its share kept shrinking. Although the performance effects are good, over the past nearly 20 years there has been a lack of change and innovation in elements such as show settings and stages, which inevitably leads to aesthetic fatigue among tourists.

The company’s hotel operations segment recorded revenue of CNY 199 million in 2025, a growth of 18.88%. Its revenue share also rose from 20.69% to 23.11%, and its gross margin increased by 4.33%. The company’s new hotels clearly generated more revenue while reducing losses, showing growth potential.

Source: the company’s 2025 annual report

03

Large cash dividend payouts year after year

On the evening of March 23, the company released an announcement. On March 20, the company’s board of directors approved a resolution on “Using idle own funds to purchase wealth management products”. According to the company’s fund-use plan, to improve efficiency in the use of funds, it agreed to use funds totaling no more than CNY 400 million to purchase wealth management products.

The annual report shows that the company’s cash and cash equivalents were CNY 428 million, accounting for 13.93% of total assets. Meanwhile, the company’s net cash flow from operating activities was CNY 388 million, up 17.78% year over year. This also indicates that the company has relatively sufficient cash, and its operating activities and capital turnover are stable.

The company also released a dividend plan. For fiscal year 2025, based on the company’s total share capital of 549 million shares, the company plans to distribute cash dividends of CNY 3.50 per 10 shares to all shareholders (including tax). The total cash dividend amount for 2025 is CNY 192 million, accounting for 90.09% of the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company for the current year.

In fact, over the years, Lijiang Co., Ltd. has not been stingy in terms of dividends, especially in recent years, when it has carried out high-percentage dividend payouts. From 2022 to 2025, the dividend payout ratios were 3667.88%, 84.57%, 91.20%, and 90.09%, respectively. Such a high proportion of dividends has also led some investors to worry that the company’s cash flow could be affected.

In terms of the company’s equity structure, Lijiang Yulong Snow Mountain Tourism Development Co., Ltd., Huabang Life and Health Co., Ltd., and Yunnan Yun Investment and Operations Co., Ltd. hold 15.73%, 14.26%, and 9.43% of the shares, respectively. The company’s actual controller is Zhang Songshan.

Source: the company’s 2025 annual report

Regarding the overall operating targets for 2026, the company said that based on summarizing recent operating conditions and analyzing the 2025 operating situation, and considering the company’s strategic development plans, the 2026 annual operating targets, and market expansion conditions, the company plans to achieve operating revenue of CNY 868 million in 2026 and net profit attributable to the equity holders of the parent company of CNY 219 million. Compared with the 2025 data, this target reflects only a small increase, and it also shows that the company is relatively cautious about year-over-year performance growth in 2026 given uncertainties such as demand in the tourism market, the suspension during the renovation and expansion of the Niuping ropeway, intensifying competition, and risks from force majeure.

On issues such as the decline in the ropeway business, measures to improve the performance business, and high-percentage dividend payouts, Fengkou Finance sent an interview letter to Lijiang Co., Ltd. As of the time this report was released, no response had been received.

(This article’s viewpoints are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. There are risks in investing; enter the market cautiously!)

Written/Edited by Fengkou Finance Editor Liu Jian

【Source: Peninsula Metropolis Daily】