The 75-year-old former Sichuan tycoon is set for another IPO: Liu Yonghao and his daughter will take New Hope Dairy to Hong Kong; last year’s revenue exceeded 11.2 billion yuan

How will the listing of AI · New Dairy Industry on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange enhance Liu Yonghao’s family’s capital strength?

This article source: Times Finance Author: Lin Xinlin

Liu Yonghao, the former richest man in Sichuan, is launching another IPO.

Image source: TuChong Creative

On the evening of April 2, New Hope Dairy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “New Dairy”) submitted an application for listing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with Morgan Stanley and CITIC Securities serving as joint sponsors. As early as January 2019, New Dairy successfully listed on the A-share market. If this Hong Kong listing is successful, New Dairy will become the first domestic dairy company to achieve “A+H” listings.

As a result, the capital wings of Liu Yonghao’s family will be further strengthened. According to Times Finance’s整理, as of now, Liu Yonghao and his daughter have directly or indirectly controlling interests in five listed companies.

New Dairy’s Hong Kong listing, revenue of 11.2 billion yuan last year

From its listing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2019 to its pursuit of a Hong Kong listing in 2026, this regional dairy company’s growth rate has been accelerating.

New Dairy originated from the New Hope Group led by Liu Yonghao. In October 2001, New Hope Group invested in Sichuan Yangping Dairy, marking its first acquisition; subsequently, it gradually integrated other assets to establish New Hope Dairy, unifying the group’s dairy operations.

Since then, New Dairy has launched multiple rounds of large-scale mergers and acquisitions, acquiring several local leading dairy companies such as Chongqing Tianyou, Suzhou Shuangxi, Hunan Nanshan, and Xichang Sanmu Dairy through acquisitions or shareholding arrangements, rapidly expanding its revenue scale and brand recognition.

After successfully listing on the A-share market, New Dairy continued to incorporate local companies such as Ningxia Huamei Dairy, Fuzhou Aoniu, Yizhi Yogurt Cow, and Shandong Weipin, gradually forming a business footprint that is rooted in the southwest and radiates across many parts of the country.

According to New Dairy’s official website, the company has 48 controlling subsidiaries, over 20 major dairy brands, 17 dairy processing plants, and 12 proprietary farms.

Frequent mergers, acquisitions, and capital integration have allowed the young New Dairy to quickly enter the “hundred-billion club.”

Currently, the main market for many domestic dairy companies is liquid milk. Times Finance learned from the prospectus that, based on the retail sales value of ambient liquid dairy products in 2025, New Dairy ranks fourth in China’s ambient liquid dairy market, with a market share of about 2.7%.

However, the emerging star New Dairy has mainly relied on the growth of low-temperature fresh milk and low-temperature yogurt categories in recent years. Based on the retail sales of low-temperature fresh milk in 2025, New Dairy ranks fourth in China’s low-temperature fresh milk market, with a market share of 11.2%.

In terms of overall revenue scale, New Dairy ranks fifth in the domestic dairy industry, behind Yili, Mengniu, Bright Dairy, and Junlebao, placing it in the second tier.

The prospectus shows that in 2023, 2024, and 2025, New Dairy will achieve revenues of 10.99B yuan, 10.67B yuan, and 11.23B yuan, respectively; during the same period, driven by higher-margin low-temperature products, net profits will be 438 million yuan, 549 million yuan, and 754 million yuan.

In recent years, China’s dairy industry has been relatively sluggish, and as national dairy companies continue to expand their market share through full industry chain布局, regional dairy companies like New Dairy also face revenue growth pressures.

Meanwhile, large-scale mergers and acquisitions have caused New Dairy’s asset-liability ratio to once be higher than that of its peers. As of 2025, New Dairy’s asset-liability ratio is 56.51%, significantly lower than the nearly 70% high in 2022.

Regarding the purpose of listing in Hong Kong, New Dairy previously disclosed in its announcement that it mainly aims to promote internationalization strategies, build an international capital operation platform, and enhance the company’s capital strength. According to the prospectus, the funds raised from this Hong Kong IPO will be used for four main areas, including提升品牌定位及扩充销售网络,提升产品创新及生物科技与数字能力,升级及扩充供应链基础设施, and for operating capital and other general corporate purposes.

A capital giant from Sichuan, which has previously participated in controlling over a dozen listed platforms

Liu Yonghao’s family is about to secure another IPO.

The prospectus shows that, according to the一致行动协议, Liu Yonghao and Liu Chang together control 76.48% of the voting rights of New Dairy. Among them, Liu Chang is Liu Yonghao’s daughter and a non-executive director of the company, also known as Liu Chang. However, New Dairy is only one part of Liu Yonghao and his daughter’s capital map.

The well-known New Hope Group was founded by Liu Yonghao, born in 1951 in Xinjin, Sichuan. In 1982, Liu Yonghao and his four brothers raised 1,000 yuan to invest in planting and breeding, becoming among the first rural entrepreneurs to go into business at that time.

Starting from quail farming on their balcony, Liu’s brothers soon established a breeding farm, then shifted to the pig feed market. In 1988, Liu Yonghao and his brothers successfully developed “Hope Brand” high-end pig feed; in 1995, Liu Yonghao and his brothers, with a net worth of 600 million yuan, ranked first and became the richest person in mainland China.

In the same year, the Liu brothers split up, and Liu Yonghao established New Hope Group, continuing to deepen in the feed industry while also pursuing diversification and capital operations.

Currently, New Hope Group directly and indirectly controls five listed companies, including New Hope Liuhe (000876.SZ), Huarong Chemical (301256.SZ), New Dairy (002946.SZ), New Hope Services (03658.HK), and Feima International (002210.SZ).

Among them, as the “cornerstone” of the New Hope system, New Hope Liuhe is the starting point of Liu Yonghao’s capital map and the group’s core industry carrier. It was formerly Sichuan New Hope Agriculture Co., Ltd., listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 1998. Today, New Hope Liuhe has become one of the world’s largest feed producers, with revenue of 80.5B yuan in the first three quarters of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 4.27%. As of the close on April 3, the stock price was 8.24 yuan per share, with a market value of 37.1B yuan.

According to Times Finance’s incomplete statistics, Liu Yonghao’s group has directly or indirectly participated in controlling 12 listed companies, including Shenzhen Gas, Kelun Pharmaceutical, Huachuang Yang’an, Xingyuan Environment, Minsheng Bank, and others.

In addition to directly involved listed companies, Liu Yonghao’s family also expands its产业投资 through investment platforms, especially New Hope Investment Group and Caogen Zhiben.

It is understood that New Hope Investment Group is the core investment platform of the New Hope system and a key sector controlled by Liu Chang after succession, who has served as chairman since May 2023. In a public dialogue, Liu Yonghao expressed recognition of Liu Chang’s investment ability, saying, “The companies she leads have invested hundreds of billions. She makes investments she’s sure of. If she’s not sure, she’ll come ask me.”

From past investments, the investment path of New Hope Investment Group mainly involves being LPs (limited partners) in numerous VC or PE firms such as Sequoia China, Gaorong Capital, Sinovation Ventures, Yunfeng Fund, and Housheng Investment; it also directly invests in a number of emerging star projects.

Another important investment platform, Caogen Zhiben, was jointly founded by Liu Yonghao, Xin Dairy Chairman Xi Gang, and Housheng Investment founding partner Wang Hang, focusing on产业投资与运营 in the food消费领域. As of now, the official website shows investment cases including Feihe, Bama Tea, Chabaidao, Jian’ai, Fresh Life, Youyi Yimian, and others.

It is worth noting that, besides the five listed platforms already controlled, there are still mature assets within the New Hope system with potential for further separation and integration, including New Hope Liuhe Food, New Hope Flavor, and Fresh Life Cold Chain.

These companies are currently under New Hope Investment Group or Caogen Zhiben. Among them, Fresh Life Cold Chain’s most recent public financing was a 900 million yuan B+ round completed in 2024; New Hope Liuhe Food was spun off from New Hope Liuhe in 2023, marking a key step for independent development of the food sector.

Meanwhile, due to factors such as the pig cycle downturn and slowing growth of New Hope’s main feed business, Liu Yonghao’s wealth has shrunk.

Since 2022, the title of Sichuan’s richest person has rotated, with leaders like Tongwei’s Liu Hanyuan in photovoltaics and Bairi Tiankang’s Zhu Yi in innovative medicine entering the top ranks. In March this year, the “2026 Hurun Global Rich List” showed that Zhu Yi, founder of Bairi Tiankang, ranked first in Sichuan with a wealth of 98B yuan; Liu Yonghao’s family was third with 77B yuan.

In recent years, Liu Yonghao and his daughter, who own multiple diversified industries, have shifted their investment focus toward emerging frontier fields like AI and embodied intelligence. On March 13, this year, the synthetic data company Guanglun Intelligence announced the completion of 1 billion yuan in Series A++ and A+++ funding, with one of the investors being the New Hope Group.

With another Hong Kong-listed platform about to be acquired, 75-year-old Liu Yonghao’s capital map in Sichuan will expand once again.