Hong Kong–listed Meituan Class B shares (MEITUAN‑W, 3690.HK) ended Thursday, 27 November 2025, slightly lower as investors locked in some of yesterday’s strong gains and digested fresh news from the company’s artificial intelligence arm, Lightyear Away (光年之外).
At the same time, markets are squarely focused on Q3 2025 earnings due on Friday, 28 November, with analysts bracing for a sharp swing from profit to heavy loss as China’s food‑delivery price war continues to squeeze margins. [1]
Below is a full rundown of today’s (27.11.2025) Meituan stock action and news, plus the big themes to watch around tomorrow’s results.
1. Meituan Class B stock today: price action on 27 November 2025
According to end‑of‑day data from Investing.com, Meituan Class B shares closed around HK$102.6 on 27 November 2025, down roughly 1–1.2% from Wednesday’s close near HK$103.8. [2]
Key trading stats for Thursday’s session:
- Close: ~HK$102.6
- Intraday range: roughly HK$101.2 – HK$103.8
- Volume: about 13–14 million shares traded
- Day move: approximately ‑1.1% vs Wednesday [3]
That mild pullback comes after a sharp rally yesterday (26 November), when Meituan jumped more than 5% and led Hong Kong’s blue‑chip gainers as investors rotated into consumer and catering names. Chinese broker commentary associated yesterday’s surge with expectations that “disorderly cash‑burning” in instant retail will start to ease, following comments from Alibaba’s e‑commerce leadership that the most aggressive phase of subsidy expansion is ending. [4]
On a slightly longer view:
- Over the last five trading days, Meituan is still up around 7%, recovering from lows near HK$95.6 on 21 November. [5]
- Over the past 12 months, the stock is down roughly 37–41%, sharply underperforming both the Hong Kong hospitality sector and the wider market. [6]
In other words, today’s dip looks more like consolidation after a short‑term rebound in a share that is still deeply discounted versus where it traded a year ago.
2. Fresh news on 27 November 2025: Wang Huiwen exits Meituan’s Lightyear Away unit
The headline development today is not about the core delivery business, but about Meituan’s AI arm.
Corporate registry change at Beijing Lightyear Away Technology
Chinese corporate registry data (via Tianyancha) show that Beijing Lightyear Away Technology Co., Ltd. (北京光年之外科技有限公司) – commonly linked with Meituan’s AI efforts – has undergone a key management change: [7]
- Wang Huiwen, Meituan’s co‑founder and founder of AI startup Light Year / Lightyear Away,
- has stepped down as legal representative, executive director and manager of the company.
- Liu Yapeng (刘亚平) has taken over as legal representative and manager, and now also serves as a director.
- Supervisor Liu Minjuan (刘敏娟) has resigned her supervisory role.
- The company remains wholly owned by Tianjin Sankuai Technology Co., Ltd., a Meituan subsidiary, meaning Lightyear Away is still fully under the Meituan corporate umbrella.
This change was reported today, 27 November 2025, at 10:02 local time by multiple Chinese financial newswires including Sina Finance and Stockstar, positioning it clearly as today’s corporate governance headline connected to Meituan. [8]
Why does this matter for Meituan Class B shareholders?
To unpack the significance, it helps to remember the backstory:
- In 2023, Meituan agreed to acquire 100% of AI startup Light Year (also translated as Light Year / Lightyear Away), the generative‑AI venture founded by Wang Huiwen, for a total consideration of around US$280–290 million equivalent in cash and assumed liabilities. [9]
- The deal folded Light Year into Meituan’s ecosystem as a wholly controlled AI platform – part of the group’s push to embed AI in logistics, recommendations and new products. [10]
- In 2024, media including the South China Morning Post reported that Wang Huiwen had returned to Meituan in a part‑time, AI‑focused role, helping to steer big‑model and AI product efforts after earlier stepping back due to health issues. [11]
Today’s Lightyear Away filing does not change Meituan’s equity ownership of the AI business, but it does signal a management reshuffle at one of its key AI entities.
For investors, the implications are nuanced:
- On the positive side, the change may indicate Meituan is institutionalising control of Lightyear Away, moving it from founder‑led to more standard internal leadership as the AI unit matures.
- On the uncertain side, it removes one more formal executive position held by a high‑profile co‑founder, which some investors previously saw as a signal of strong founder‑driven AI ambition.
Crucially, Meituan has not yet issued a separate Hong Kong Stock Exchange announcement on this Lightyear move at the time of writing; all information comes from business‑registry updates and local financial media summaries.
3. Block trade and Southbound fund flows: fresh signals from capital markets
Alongside the governance news, capital‑flow data for 27 November offer an additional window into how bigger players are positioning in Meituan ahead of earnings.
According to Hong Kong broker Longbridge’s event‑tracking feed for Meituan (03690.HK): [12]
- In the early hours of 27 November,
- a large disposal of Meituan shares worth about HK$33.78 million was recorded;
- Southbound Stock Connect funds simultaneously logged “significant net purchases” of Meituan stock on the same date.
By contrast, on 26 November, Southbound funds recorded a net outflow of roughly HK$367 million from Meituan, even as the stock rallied. [13]
Taken together, these flows suggest:
- A rotation in who owns the stock: some existing holders locking in profits after yesterday’s big move, while mainland institutional and high‑net‑worth investors (who use Southbound channels) added exposure on weakness today.
- Positioning into earnings: the combination of a block sale and strong Southbound buying is consistent with short‑term profit‑taking by some and high‑conviction accumulation by others ahead of the Q3 print.
For retail investors watching from the sidelines, this reinforces that Meituan remains a high‑conviction battleground name in Hong Kong — every new headline and price swing is being actively traded by sophisticated capital.
4. Q3 2025 earnings on 28 November: what the market expects
The biggest near‑term catalyst for Meituan’s Class B shares is tomorrow’s Q3 2025 earnings release.
When is the Q3 report?
- Multiple data providers – including Investing.com, Longbridge, Simply Wall St and broker calendars – show Meituan’s next earnings date as Friday, 28 November 2025, with results for Q3 2025 (fiscal FY2025 Q3). [14]
Consensus: revenue growth but a sharp swing into loss
Recent brokerage round‑ups (via Futu/AASTOCKS and others) indicate that analysts expect Meituan to swing from a solid profit last year into a deep loss this quarter, mainly because of heavy food‑delivery and instant‑retail subsidies: [15]
- Revenue:
- Q3 2025 revenue is forecast in a range of approximately RMB 93.9–98.7 billion,
- with a median around RMB 97.5 billion, implying ~4% year‑on‑year growth versus Q3 2024’s ~RMB 93.6 billion.
- Non‑IFRS adjusted net result:
- Six brokerages see a Non‑GAAP adjusted loss between RMB 14.6 billion and RMB 17.8 billion,
- with a median forecast of roughly RMB 16.1 billion,
- compared with an adjusted net profit of about RMB 12.8 billion in Q3 2024.
- IFRS net profit/loss:
- Four houses project a reported loss of RMB 15.9–17.8 billion, again versus a profit of ~RMB 12.9 billion a year earlier.
In short, consensus is that Meituan will still grow revenue modestly, but at the cost of swinging more than RMB 20 billion in the wrong direction at the bottom line versus last year’s Q3.
Context: Q2 profit collapse and management’s own warnings
This gloomy Q3 setup follows very weak Q2 results and a stark warning from management:
- Q2 2025 (for the quarter ended 30 June) saw revenue rise roughly 11–12% year‑on‑year to around RMB 91.8 billion, but net income collapsed more than 96%, with net margin dropping to about 0.4%. [16]
- In August, Meituan reported that Q2 adjusted net profit slumped 89% year‑on‑year, blaming an “intense” price war in instant retail and promising to defend its roughly 70% share of China’s delivery market even at the expense of margins.
- Management also explicitly flagged “significant losses” in Q3 as subsidies peaked, a warning that helped trigger a US$27 billion rout across Meituan, Alibaba and JD.com when the news hit in late August.
Brokerage previews now largely echo Meituan’s own guidance:
- Several major banks expect Q3 to mark the peak of subsidy intensity for food delivery and instant retail, with unit economics deeply negative (for example, some forecasts put Meituan’s per‑order economics around ‑RMB 2.8 in Q3 vs +RMB 1.48 a year earlier). [17]
- Analysts also highlight that Meituan still controls roughly half of China’s daily food‑delivery orders — around 75 million orders per day versus about 63 million for Alibaba and 13 million for JD.com, based on expert estimates cited by JPMorgan. [18]
The key question for tomorrow is not whether Q3 will be weak — that’s already baked into expectations — but how quickly management can show a credible path back to breakeven and profitability as subsidy intensity normalises.
5. Fundamentals and valuation check: what’s priced into Meituan Class B?
Despite the near‑term earnings pain, Meituan’s underlying fundamentals remain large‑scale:
- Trailing‑12‑month revenue: about CN¥360–396 billion,
- Trailing earnings: roughly CN¥29–32 billion,
- Net margin: around 8% on a TTM basis before the Q3 hit. [19]
At today’s close near HK$102.6:
- Market capitalisation is in the HK$625–635 billion range. [20]
- P/E (TTM) screens around 19–20x,
- Price‑to‑sales is about 1.6x,
- Price‑to‑book roughly 3.3–3.4x, according to Simply Wall St and Google Finance data. [21]
Analyst sentiment remains cautiously optimistic despite the recent drawdown:
- Equity‑research aggregators show a predominantly “Buy”‑tilted consensus, with an average 12‑month price target near HK$125–130, implying mid‑20s percent upside from current levels if the subsidy war eventually cools. [22]
Given that the stock is still down around 40% over the last year, much of the “price‑war doom” narrative is arguably already reflected in the valuation — but how much is priced in will depend heavily on what Meituan says about 2026 unit‑economics and capital discipline.
6. Big themes and risks investors are watching
As of 27 November 2025, Meituan Class B investors are weighing several overlapping storylines:
1. The food‑delivery and instant‑retail price war
- Risks: continued heavy subsidies from Alibaba’s Ele.me and JD.com could keep Meituan’s food‑delivery economics deeply negative longer than expected, delaying a return to profitable growth.
- Potential upside: both regulators and platforms have signalled discomfort with “irrational” price wars; multiple brokerages expect subsidy intensity to ease gradually after Q3, with the industry shifting toward unit‑economics discipline from 2026 onward. [23]
2. Regulatory and labour pressures
- Chinese authorities have previously pushed platform companies, including Meituan, to improve pricing transparency and delivery‑rider protections, and are considering fresh pricing rules for large internet platforms. [24]
- While this may raise costs, it also reduces the scope for unlimited subsidy dumping, which could ultimately favour stronger players like Meituan.
3. AI, Lightyear Away and product innovation
- Meituan has been investing in AI across delivery routing, recommendations, and new consumer apps, including open‑sourcing some of its models and releasing experimental AI products under units like Lightyear Away. [25]
- Today’s Lightyear Away leadership reshuffle reinforces that AI is now embedded in Meituan’s structure rather than a purely founder‑led side project, but it also raises fresh questions about long‑term AI leadership and succession.
4. Overseas expansion and diversification
- To reduce dependence on China’s slowing domestic demand, Meituan has been expanding its Keeta delivery app in Hong Kong, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and investing heavily in Brazil, positioning itself as a global on‑demand platform.
- These bets could become important growth pillars if domestic competition remains intense.
5. Governance and founder influence
- Over the past few years, co‑founder Wang Huiwen has stepped down, returned as an AI consultant, and now surrendered formal roles at Lightyear Away, while CEO Wang Xing remains firmly in charge of the group. [26]
- Today’s update is another reminder that Meituan is transitioning from a founder‑heavy to a more institutional governance model, which some investors welcome for stability and others view as diluting entrepreneurial edge.
7. Takeaways for 27 November 2025
Putting it all together, today’s Meituan Class B story looks like this:
- Share price: mild pullback of around 1% to ~HK$102.6 after yesterday’s 5%+ rally, still up solidly over the week but deeply negative over 12 months. [27]
- Fresh news:
- Meituan co‑founder Wang Huiwen has resigned all key positions at AI subsidiary Lightyear Away, though the unit remains wholly owned by the group.
- A HK$33.78 million block sale and strong Southbound net buying signal active institutional repositioning in the stock. [28]
- Big catalyst ahead:
- Q3 2025 earnings on 28 November are widely expected to show low‑single‑digit revenue growth but a massive swing into loss, marking what many hope will be the peak pain quarter of China’s food‑delivery price war.
References
1. www.investing.com, 2. www.investing.com, 3. www.investing.com, 4. www.aastocks.com, 5. www.investing.com, 6. www.investing.com, 7. finance.sina.com.cn, 8. finance.sina.com.cn, 9. www.reuters.com, 10. en.jiemian.com, 11. technode.com, 12. longbridge.com, 13. longbridge.com, 14. www.investing.com, 15. news.futunn.com, 16. longbridge.com, 17. news.futunn.com, 18. news.futunn.com, 19. simplywall.st, 20. www.investing.com, 21. simplywall.st, 22. www.investing.com, 23. news.futunn.com, 24. www.reuters.com, 25. longbridge.com, 26. technode.com, 27. www.investing.com, 28. longbridge.com
