2026 is the beginning year of the 14th Five-Year Plan and a critical juncture for China's economy to move towards a new stage of high-quality development. Against the backdrop of accelerating global industrial chain restructuring and continuous evolution of technological revolutions, new types of productive forces are becoming an important engine for reshaping the economic growth pattern. Finance, as the core of modern economies, shoulders the mission of serving national strategies, guiding capital flows, and empowering industrial upgrading.
On March 26, the parallel forum of the 2026 Global Southern Financial Journalists' Forum & 2026 Global Southern Asset Management Forum, themed 'Value Reshaping, Intelligent Future', was held in Beijing. Based on macro policy guidance, the forum deeply explored the structural opportunities in the equity market for 2026, discussing how to identify core assets with long-term value in the process of cultivating new productive forces, using professional research capabilities to guide capital to serve national strategies precisely. At the forum, Wang Chenhui, China's managing partner and president of Frost & Sullivan (Frost & Sullivan, abbreviated as 'Frost & Sullivan'), stated in his keynote speech titled 'Highlighting Industry Characteristics to Enhance Corporate Valuations', that with market development and investors' increasing demand for real sources of information, industry research should shift from 'closed-source' to 'open-source' to meet the needs of different levels of investors for real sources of information.
"Three Carriages" Escorts Enterprise's Hong Kong Stock Listing
The value of a company is not only reflected in its financial statements but also in its industry position, growth logic, and market perception. How to tell a good industry story, highlight distinctive advantages, thereby enhancing corporate valuation, is a topic that every company and every investor needs to consider.
As a globally renowned enterprise growth consulting and investment banking service company, Frost & Sullivan has long been committed to industry research and value discovery, providing strategic consulting and market insights to businesses worldwide. It has accumulated rich experience in helping companies articulate their industry-specific characteristics and enhance capital market awareness.
Looking back at 2025, against the backdrop of policy support and optimized regulatory approval processes, Hong Kong saw active new share listings. 'A large number of leading enterprises have further joined the Hong Kong stock market. In addition, the Hong Kong refinancing market has also performed relatively well,' said Wang Chenhui. According to statistics as of December 31, 2025, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange saw a total of 119 new shares listed throughout the year, raising a total of HK$2858 billion, a year-on-year surge of 224%, reclaiming the top spot in global IPO financing. From January to December 2025, Frost & Sullivan's market share in the Hong Kong IPO industry advisory market reached 73%.
Wang Chenhui stated that as an independent industry consultant, Frost & Sullivan provides professional industry research services for companies going public. Based on public market data and information provided by the company, it conducts independent analysis and verification of industry information to assist the sponsor in responding to inquiries from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange regarding industry sections.
"Successful listing of a company usually requires three fundamental aspects: legal compliance, financial performance, and a clear investment logic based on industry research. Among these, legal compliance and financial performance are the basic thresholds set by regulatory requirements, while rigorous and independent industry research is an important basis for supporting reasonable valuations and articulating a good investment logic. From this perspective, it is necessary to focus on explaining three issues that the market is concerned about." Wang Chenhui further stated that the first is the company's precise positioning and segmentation, which specifically includes in-depth analysis of the company's business characteristics, industry characteristics, business model characteristics, etc., to uncover the company's strengths, accurately identify investment highlights, and on the basis of the company's positioning, segment the market in which the company operates, providing fundamental support for the company's future development."
Secondly, it is about the market ranking of the enterprise. By analyzing competitive enterprises in the same industry both domestically and internationally against segmented markets, it can more accurately reflect the enterprise's competitive advantages, market share, and market position.
Finally, there are the future development expectations of the enterprise. By predicting the enterprise's own business and industry, we provide investors and the market with an outlook for the future.
"Our (Frost & Sullivan) job is to assist sponsors and companies in objectively presenting the true state of the industry and enterprises to investors based on these three dimensions," said Wang Chenhui.
Industry research should shift from 'closed-source' to 'open-source'.
From the perspective of investors, Wang Chenhui believes that when investors buy stocks of listed companies, they are essentially paying for the future expectations of the enterprise. Therefore, enterprises need to convey a clear picture of the future to the market and investors through scientific and reasonable predictions of their own business and industry.
Wang Chenhui stated that in the past, the description of industry scale in prospectuses was often quite brief, but the actual situation is much more complex. Wang explained that taking liver cancer treatment drugs as an example, to accurately estimate their market size, multiple sub-elements must be considered comprehensively: which stage of liver cancer does the drug apply to? Liver cancer itself encompasses various types of lesions, with different stages of disease progression; can the drug be included in national or provincial medical insurance? What are doctors' preferences for medication? Are there alternative drugs and their costs? In addition, there are significant differences in payment capabilities between different cities and patients. 'Only by integrating these factors into analysis can a relatively rigorous model be constructed, ultimately leading to scientific and credible market size and future forecasts,' he said.
From the perspective of looking ahead to industry development, Wang Chenhui believes that with the popularization of AI in investment analysis, simple 'investor stories' can no longer meet investors' requirements for verifiable trust. Industry research should shift from 'closed-source' to 'open-source'. Under regulatory guidance, Frost & Sullivan will use transparent research methods to clearly demonstrate data sources, analysis models, and research logic to investors, ensuring that the research process is traceable and verifiable.
This article is reprinted from: China Securities Journal
