The hog cycle has not deterred industry chain players from seeking public listings.

Recently, Anyou Biological Technology Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as Anyou Biological) disclosed its response to the first round of review inquiries, advancing its IPO on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange main board. The company plans to raise approximately RMB 810 million for feed production, digital construction, and R&D center projects.

Anyou Biological, known for its advantage in pig creep feed and nursery feed products, achieved revenue of RMB 10.133 billion in 2025, with a net profit attributable to the parent company of RMB 251 million during the same period.

Behind the billion-dollar revenue, Anyou Biological's IPO journey has been anything but smooth.

As early as 2016, Anyou Biological filed for a listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange main board but was rejected at the hearing in 2018. In 2023, the company shifted its target to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange main board. However, during this second attempt, founder Hong Ping passed away from illness in March 2024, after which the company voluntarily withdrew its listing application.

It was not until June 2026 that Anyou Biological submitted its application again, launching its third IPO attempt within a decade.

After a two-year hiatus from the listing process, Anyou Biological has also completed a partial redistribution of family equity. The shares held by Hong Ping before his death were primarily inherited by his wife Su Meili and two daughters, Hong Wanling and Hong Yifen.

New governance variables have since emerged.

The eldest daughter, Hong Wanling, serves as chairwoman of Anyou Biological. A concerted action agreement further stipulates that if family members fail to reach a consensus, Hong Wanling's decision prevails.

However, Hong Wanling does not hold a clear equity advantage. Her younger brother, Hong Fuyou, who holds no director or senior management position at Anyou Biological, together with his two daughters, controls a larger combined stake than Hong Wanling.

The dominance in operations does not align with the distribution of family shareholding, raising questions about whether the current arrangement can be sustained over the long term in the post-succession period.

Meanwhile, operational recovery remains incomplete. Affected by the hog cycle, Anyou Biological's revenue in 2025 has not yet returned to its 2023 level.

Entering 2026, hog prices remain at low levels. Although terminal demand shows seasonal improvement, support for prices remains limited, and this pressure may continue to transmit to feed companies.

As it knocks on the capital market's door for the third time, Anyou Biological still has many questions to answer.

Does the successor lack a dominant equity position?

After Hong Ping's passing, the operational division of labor at Anyou Biological has gradually become clear.

Hong Wanling, born in 1982, serves as chairwoman. She joined the company in 2012 and has held positions including president's assistant, chairman's assistant, director of the president's office, and director. Her younger sister, Hong Yifen, who is one year her junior, has long been in the technical system and assumed the role of chief technology officer in 2024. Their mother, Su Meili, continues to serve as a director and deputy general manager.

In terms of actual controller identification, Anyou Biological has maintained the arrangement of joint family control, with Hong Wanling, Su Meili, Hong Yifen, and Hong Fuyou collectively recognized as the actual controllers.

To prevent internal discord among the actual controllers, the parties have agreed that if internal consensus cannot be reached, voting shall follow Hong Wanling's intention.

This grants Hong Wanling, as chairwoman, a dominant position in operational decision-making within the framework of joint family control.

However, tracing further along the equity structure, there is a less conspicuous side to this succession.

Unlike his mother and two sisters, Hong Fuyou, also an actual controller, does not appear on the list of directors and senior management personnel disclosed in the prospectus. Yet his weight in family shareholding is far from negligible.

The Hong family wholly owns Funeng Investment, which holds 50.26% of Anyou China, which in turn holds 34.77% of Anyou Biological through Anyou China, achieving indirect control over the company.

In the equity structure of Funeng Investment, Hong Fuyou personally holds 15%, while his two daughters, Hong Ziyou and Hong Zimin, each hold 7%, giving the trio a combined 29% (collectively "Hong Fuyou's family unit").

In comparison, his two sisters, Hong Wanling and Hong Yifen, each hold 24%, and their mother Su Meili holds 23%, all lower than Hong Fuyou's family unit.

This means that Hong Fuyou, who holds no director or senior management role in the company, controls more equity in the family's core shareholding platform than Hong Wanling, who is responsible for operations.

More subtly, the shares held by Hong Fuyou's two daughters, Hong Ziyou and Hong Zimin, both originated from a previous gift by Su Meili.

In March 2023, Su Meili, considering domestic family property planning and tax planning, gratuitously and equally gifted 14% of Funeng Investment's shares to Hong Ziyou and Hong Zimin, with each receiving 7%.

It was this gift that pushed the combined equity of Hong Fuyou and his two daughters above that of other family members.

As a result, if Su Meili were to transfer all of her 23% stake in Funeng Investment to Hong Fuyou in the future, with other shareholdings unchanged, the combined stake of Hong Fuyou and his two daughters would reach 52%, exceeding the 48% held by the two sisters combined.

At that point, the equity distribution within the family's core shareholding platform would further concentrate toward Hong Fuyou's side.

Although this is merely a scenario analysis, no public materials currently indicate that Su Meili has such a transfer plan. A change in shareholding percentage does not automatically mean Hong Wanling would lose her chairmanship, as this would still need to be assessed in conjunction with the concerted action agreement, the company's articles of association, and relevant decision-making procedures.

Nevertheless, this equity structure poses a challenge to the stability of Anyou Biological's management: if family interests continue to concentrate toward the side not involved in day-to-day operations, how can the leading position of the current management team be maintained?

Equity ties with major customers

Beyond family succession, Anyou Biological also needs to adapt to changes in the downstream livestock farming industry.

Anyou Biological's products are mainly feed, categorized by feeding target into pig feed, poultry feed, aquaculture feed, and ruminant feed. Among these, pig feed is the primary revenue source, accounting for 70-80% from 2023 to 2025.

This business has long relied on scaled farming operations, small and medium-sized family farms, and farmers covered through dealers. These customer groups contributed over 50% of revenue in 2025.

Compared with large-scale farming groups, these customers often lack independent feed R&D, formula design, and bulk raw material procurement capabilities. Anyou Biological provides not only feed but also feeding guidance, disease prevention and control, and related supporting services, allowing it to command a certain product and service premium.

However, this customer segment is simultaneously facing pressure from the hog cycle and increasing industry concentration.

According to monitoring by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, from September 7 to 13, 2026, the national live hog price was RMB 11.54 per kilogram, down 0.4% month-on-month; the average price in the national pork wholesale market was RMB 16.28 per kilogram, down 17.4% year-on-year.

Low hog prices do not immediately reduce feed consumption by existing pig inventories, but they do affect farmers' next round of restocking and capital turnover. Once customers reduce farming investment, feed procurement will also shrink accordingly. Even if they continue operations, payment collection pressure may transmit upstream to suppliers.

On the other hand, the scale-up rate of domestic pig farming rose from 49.1% in 2018 to approximately 70% in 2024. Leading pig enterprises have gained more market share, while the relative space for the non-leading farming entities served by Anyou Biological in the market has been squeezed.

To address this, Anyou Biological is on the one hand strengthening direct services to scaled farming operations and small and medium-sized family farms, while also actively pursuing orders from large-scale farming groups to further expand incremental space.

Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. is the most obvious example.

In early 2025, the two parties signed a strategic cooperation agreement to strengthen collaboration in capital, supply chain, and other areas. Currently, Wens Foodstuff Group, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Wens Investment, holds 28.05% of Anyou Biological, becoming its second-largest shareholder.

Following the equity tie-up, Wens Foodstuff Group's procurement scale grew rapidly, with the amount it purchased from Anyou Biological surging from RMB 7.5697 million in 2024 to RMB 545 million in 2025, making it the largest customer.

However, under the hog cycle, Wens Foodstuff Group is also struggling, recording a net loss of RMB 4.398 billion in the first half of 2026.

Moreover, this cooperative relationship is not particularly stable. Wens Foodstuff Group mainly meets its demand through its own feed production capacity. External procurement is primarily due to mismatches between farming scale and supporting feed capacity in certain regions. Additionally, considering transportation radius, cross-regional shipment may not be economical, which is what leaves room for external suppliers like Anyou Biological.

Overall, the increasing concentration downstream is pushing Anyou Biological to further secure major customers, but the integrated capabilities of major customers also limit the order space and pricing power of external suppliers like Anyou Biological.

How to stabilize revenue, profits, and bargaining power amid changing customer structures will be the longer-term test that Anyou Biological must face.