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AAPG, ASCENTAGE PHARMA GROUP INTERNATIONAL
Revenue is Intellectual Property (69%), Products (27%) and Others (4%).
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What it is
- A pharmaceutical business, where patents grant a temporary monopoly the pipeline must keep refilling.
- Situation
- Unprofitable. No sustained operating profit across the record; an earnings multiple has nothing to rest on. What the record does show is revenue, the gross-margin trajectory, and the burn against the cash on hand. Distress / turnaround. Thin interest coverage, or operating cash burned against real debt, across the record. The balance sheet carries this situation; the debt schedule sets the clock.
- What moves the needle
- Operating margin has run around −377% through the cycle on a 90% gross margin, the operating line in the red even at its best — so the lever is whether the spending below the gross line can come down enough to clear a profit: revenue growth against the cost curve, and the cash runway until it does. Capital spending runs about 21% of sales, below what it charges for depreciation, so the return earned on what it sinks into that plant weighs as much as the margin. Read this kind of business on the pipeline against the patent cliff, and pricing. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 20-F →Intellectual Property is 69% of revenue, with Products the other meaningful line at 27%.
- Intellectual Property69%CN¥678M
- Products27%CN¥261M
- Others4%CN¥41M
From the segment footnote of the company's own 20-F. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2022–2024
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | TTMTTMDec 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||
| CN¥210M | CN¥222M | CN¥981M | CN¥981M | RevenueRevenue |
| 90% | 86% | 97% | 97% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| (CN¥834M) | (CN¥837M) | (CN¥331M) | (CN¥331M) | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| −397.9% | −376.9% | −33.7% | −33.7% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| (CN¥883M) | (CN¥926M) | (CN¥405M) | (CN¥405M) | Net incomeNet inc. |
| Cash flow & returns | ||||
| (CN¥654M) | (CN¥726M) | (CN¥111M) | (CN¥111M) | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| CN¥38M | CN¥55M | CN¥71M | CN¥71M | DepreciationDeprec. |
| CN¥191M | CN¥144M | CN¥223M | CN¥223M | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| CN¥203M | CN¥46M | CN¥24M | CN¥24M | CapexCapex |
| 96.9% | 20.8% | 2.5% | 2.5% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| (CN¥692M) | (CN¥772M) | (CN¥136M) | (CN¥136M) | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| −330.0% | −347.9% | −13.8% | −13.8% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| (CN¥857M) | (CN¥772M) | (CN¥136M) | (CN¥136M) | Free cash flowFCF |
| −408.8% | −347.9% | −13.8% | −13.8% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| CN¥27M | CN¥6M | — | — | BuybacksBuybacks |
| — | -81% | -25% | -25% | ROICROIC |
| -216% | -1532% | -153% | -153% | Return on equityROE |
| −216% | n/m | −153% | −153% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | ||||
| CN¥1.3B | CN¥1.0B | CN¥893M | CN¥893M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| — | CN¥146M | CN¥83M | CN¥83M | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| — | CN¥16M | CN¥7M | CN¥7M | InventoryInvent. |
| — | CN¥72M | CN¥92M | CN¥92M | Accounts payablePayables |
| — | CN¥90M | (CN¥2M) | (CN¥2M) | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| — | CN¥1.3B | CN¥1.5B | CN¥1.5B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| — | CN¥934M | CN¥1.2B | CN¥1.2B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| — | 1.4× | 1.3× | 1.3× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| — | CN¥25M | CN¥25M | CN¥25M | GoodwillGoodwill |
| — | CN¥1.8B | CN¥1.7B | CN¥1.7B | Total debtDebt |
| — | CN¥758M | CN¥775M | CN¥775M | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| -15.8× | -8.7× | -5.1× | -5.1× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| CN¥409M | CN¥60M | CN¥264M | CN¥264M | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | ||||
| 264M | 282M | 302M | 315M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| CN¥0.80 | CN¥0.79 | CN¥3.25 | CN¥3.11 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| CN¥-3.35 | CN¥-3.28 | CN¥-1.34 | CN¥-1.29 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| CN¥-2.62 | CN¥-2.74 | CN¥-0.45 | CN¥-0.43 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| CN¥-3.25 | CN¥-2.74 | CN¥-0.45 | CN¥-0.43 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| CN¥0.77 | CN¥0.16 | CN¥0.08 | CN¥0.08 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| CN¥1.55 | CN¥0.21 | CN¥0.87 | CN¥0.84 | Book value / shareBVPS |
The record, charted
FY2022–2024Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
Owner earnings vs. net income
Owner earningsNet incomeThe accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.
Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.
In fiscal 2024 the business turned a CN¥405M loss into (CN¥136M) of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.
| FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | (CN¥405M) | (CN¥926M) | (CN¥883M) |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +CN¥71M | +CN¥55M | +CN¥38M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | +CN¥223M | +CN¥144M | +CN¥191M |
| Cash from operations | (CN¥111M) | (CN¥726M) | (CN¥654M) |
| Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume | −CN¥24M | −CN¥46M | −CN¥38M |
| Owner earnings | (CN¥136M) | (CN¥772M) | (CN¥692M) |
| Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still | — | — | −CN¥165M |
| Free cash flow | (CN¥136M) | (CN¥772M) | (CN¥857M) |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | -14% | -348% | -330% |
Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position .
Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
“We previously identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting in connection with the audit of our financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2023, which has been remediated.”
The figures below are only as sound as the controls that produced them. read the note →
Will it survive?
- Can it pay its interest? -5.1×Does not cover its interestOperating income (CN¥331M) ÷ interest expense CN¥64M
What this means
A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.
- Net debt against an operating lossCash CN¥893M − debt CN¥1.7B
What this means
Netting CN¥893M of cash and short-term investments against CN¥1.7B of debt leaves CN¥775M owed, with no operating profit this year to measure it against — understand that combination before anything else about the company. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
- How long is cash tied up? -1040dNegative, funded by othersDSO 31 + DIO 83 − DPO 1154 days
What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. A negative cycle is a quiet moat: suppliers and customers fund the operation (Buffett's “float”), the company grows on other people's money.
Is it a good business?
- Below averageNOPAT (CN¥261M) ÷ invested capital CN¥1.0B (debt + equity − cash)Industry peers: median -11%
What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
- Owner-earnings margin -330%Consumes cash through the cycle3-yr median margin, range -348%–-14%; latest (CN¥136M) = operating cash (CN¥111M) − maintenance capex CN¥24MIndustry peers: median -14%
What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's -14% of revenue this year, a -330% median across 3 years.
- Are earnings backed by cash? (CN¥111M)Loss, and burning cashNet income (CN¥405M) · cash from operations (CN¥111M)
In the filing’s words The filing discloses a material weakness in its financial controls — the reported numbers here, and the record built on them, are only as reliable as the controls that produced them.
What this means
The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did not.
How is the cash used?
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
- Investing or harvesting? 0.34×HarvestingCapex CN¥24M ÷ depreciation CN¥71M
What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.
Graham’s defensive tests · 0 of 2 met
Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.
- Adequate size —Revenue ≥ $2B (a dollar floor) · CN¥981M
What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's floor is a dollar figure — about $2B of revenue as a conservative modern stand-in. This company reports in its home currency and we carry no exchange rate, so we show the figure and leave the size bar for you to apply rather than convert it with a number we don't have.
- Strong liquidity MissCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 1.26×
What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
- Conservative debt MissDebt ≤ working capital · CN¥1.7B vs CN¥308M WC
What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
- Moderate price —P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are CN¥-2.34/share (latest year CN¥-1.29), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is CN¥0.84/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Low contestabilityThe moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.
Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.
“We use AI-based software in our business, and the analyses that AI applications assist in producing may be deficient or inaccurate, which could subject us to competitive harm, potential legal liability, and brand or reputational harm.”
AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat, and the company is using it that way.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2024Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
- Cash & short-term investmentsCN¥893M
- ReceivablesCN¥83M
- InventoryCN¥7M
- Other current assetsCN¥491M
- Debt due within a yearCN¥779M
- Accounts payableCN¥92M
- Other current liabilitiesCN¥296M
From the company's latest filing.
Peers, Pharmaceuticals
The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.
| Company | Revenue | Gross margin | Op. margin | ROIC | Owner earn. margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PBHPrestige Consumer Healthcare | $1.1B | 56% | 29.0% | 8% | 21% |
| ACADACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. | $1.1B | 94% | -54.1% | -48% | -29% |
| AAPGASCENTAGE PHARMA GROUP INTERNATIONAL | CN¥981M | 90% | -376.9% | -25% | -330% |
| MDGLMadrigal Pharmaceuticals Inc. | $958M | 99% | -276.4% | -61% | -254% |
| IONSIonis Pharmaceuticals | $944M | 99% | -16.9% | -11% | -14% |
| ANIPANI Pharmaceuticals Inc. | $883M | 62% | 8.8% | 4% | 17% |
| HRMYHarmony Biosciences Holdings Inc. | $868M | 79% | 26.7% | 38% | 32% |
| ARWRArrowhead Pharmaceuticals | $829M | — | -106.8% | -51% | -77% |
| Group median | — | 90% | -35.5% | -18% | -21% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFEnter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. Per the filing's own cover, “American depositary shares (each representing four ordinary”; ASCENTAGE PHARMA GROUP INTERNATIONAL reports in CNY, so every figure in this tool is stated per ADS and translated at CNY 1 = $0.147 (2026-07-17, reference rate) so your dollar quote reconciles exactly. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed, in CNY.
ASCENTAGE PHARMA GROUP INTERNATIONAL is profitable, but owner earnings are negative this year because capital spending currently outruns operating cash, a build-out, so the owner-earnings reverse-DCF has no positive base to grow. We read the price from both ends instead: type a price to see the steady-state profitability it demands, then set the mature margin you would believe and weigh the two against each other. Nothing leaves your browser unless you enter it in your notebook.
Enter a price to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Two reads of one future. From your price: the owner earnings the company must reach, valued at a mature multiple and discounted back at your rate, expressed as the margin it implies on revenue grown at your rate. From your belief: the mature margin you would credit, set on the dial above. When the margin the price demands runs above the one you would believe, you are paying for a future taken on faith. For a deep cyclical at a trough, normalized through-cycle earnings are the better lens; this mode is for the genuinely unprofitable, and for the profitable business whose capital spending currently outruns its cash.
Manual order: ← AACG its page in the Manual AAUC →
Industry order: ← 4578 the Pharmaceuticals chapter ABBV →