AIFU Inc. (AIFU) H1 2026 Earnings: Revenue CNY 226M (-24.0%)
AIFU — H1 2026 Financial Report Analysis
H1 (Interim) · Fiscal year 2026 · Published by Pham Hop
AIFU (formerly Fanhua) swung to a RMB48.3m first-half profit as a RMB487.6m bad-debt charge lapsed and overheads halved, but revenue fell 24% and a RMB867.6m tea-inventory deal paid in shares dominates the balance sheet.
Revenue
CNY 226M
-24.0% YoY
Net income
CNY 48M
Diluted EPS
CNY 8.20
Operating margin
14.6%
This period vs a year ago
Same period last year
This period
Revenue▼-24.0%
≈CNY 298M
CNY 226M
Year-ago figures (≈) are worked out from the growth rate the company reported. Each row has its own scale.
Overview
AIFU Inc. is the company formerly known as Fanhua Inc. (and before that CNinsure). It sells life and non-life insurance policies in China on behalf of insurers, through a network of licensed agents, and earns a commission on each policy. In January 2026 it added a second, unrelated line: it bought a company whose only asset is a large stock of premium dark tea, which it now sells to corporate buyers. It is a foreign private issuer. It reports half-yearly in Chinese renminbi (RMB) on Form 6-K and files an annual Form 20-F. All figures below are unaudited RMB for the six months to June 30, 2026, unless noted.
On the income statement, the first half looks like a turnaround: net income attributable to shareholders was RMB48.3 million, against a RMB465.7 million loss a year earlier. Most of that swing is not better trading. The first half of 2025 carried a RMB487.6 million provision for loans and receivables the company did not expect to collect. The actual business shrank: revenue fell 24.0% to RMB226.2 million. The profit comes from cutting costs faster than revenue fell. Behind the profit sit a RMB867.6 million tea inventory that sold RMB1.7 million in six months, fresh loans to outside parties, and a round of share issuance that has since become much larger.
At a glance
Revenue down 24.0% to RMB226.2 million. Commissions from life insurance, 92.6% of revenue, fell 21.8% as savings-type policies with shorter terms, which pay lower commissions, replaced long-term protection policies.
Operating income of RMB32.9 million, against a RMB7.8 million loss. This came from spending cuts: general and administrative costs were halved, and the company closed 72 sales outlets.
Dark tea inventory of RMB867.6 million, or 43.7% of total assets. It was bought mostly with new shares, and it produced RMB1.7 million of sales in the half.
Results
Metric
H1 2026
H1 2025
YoY Change
Read 0 community reports on AIFU Inc., or write your own.Write a report
Total net revenue
RMB226.2m
RMB297.4m
-24.0%
– Life insurance commissions
RMB209.4m
RMB267.9m
-21.8%
– Non-life insurance commissions
RMB15.1m
RMB29.6m
-48.9%
– Dark tea sales
RMB1.7m
nil
n/m
Operating income (loss)
RMB32.9m
RMB(7.8)m
n/m
Operating margin
14.6%
-2.6%
+17.2 pts
Provision for credit losses (reversal)
RMB(3.2)m reversal
RMB487.6m
n/m
Net income (loss) attributable to shareholders
RMB48.3m
RMB(465.7)m
n/m
EPS, basic and diluted (post 1-for-20 reverse split)
RMB8.2
RMB(1,696.4)
n/m
Weighted average shares
5,920,686
274,525
21.6x
Gross written premiums facilitated
RMB7,003.0m
RMB8,177.3m
-14.4%
– First-year premiums
RMB563.2m
RMB520.5m
+8.2%
– Renewal premiums
RMB6,439.8m
RMB7,656.8m
-15.9%
Sales outlets (period-end)
288
360
-20.0%
Operating margin is operating income as a share of revenue: what is left after running the business, before interest, investment items and tax.
The insurance business: new sales up, renewals and commissions down
Gross written premiums (GWP) are the total premiums on the policies AIFU's agents placed. They fell 14.4%. The split between new and existing policies matters here:
First-year premiums rose 8.2% to RMB563.2 million. This is money from policies sold in the period, so new selling improved.
Renewal premiums fell 15.9% to RMB6,439.8 million. These are later-year payments on policies sold in earlier years, and AIFU earns a commission on each one. The company attributes the drop to "reduced new business volume in prior periods". Weak selling in 2024–2025 is now feeding through to renewals.
Revenue fell more than premiums (21.8% against 14.6% for life insurance). The filing gives two reasons: a shift in product mix "toward shorter-duration, savings-oriented products", which pay lower commission rates, and tougher competition after China's "alignment of reported and actual expenses" policy was fully applied to agency and broker channels. That rule limits how much insurers can pay distributors above what they filed with the regulator. Non-life insurance shows the same pattern more sharply. Premiums rose 10.8% to RMB78.1 million, but commissions fell 48.9% because more of the business was in lower-commission products.
Operating costs, mostly commissions passed on to agents, fell 30.8%, more than revenue. So the insurance agency's margin after agent commissions improved from about 52.1% to 56.8% of agency revenue.
Where the profit came from
Three things turned a RMB465.7 million loss into a RMB48.3 million profit:
No repeat of the 2025 credit-loss charge. The first half of 2025 included a RMB487.6 million provision, mostly against loans the company had made to outside parties. This half recorded a small RMB3.2 million reversal after it collected RMB3.7 million of those loans. This one item explains more than the whole year-on-year swing.
Halved overheads. General and administrative expenses fell 50.0% to RMB69.7 million. The filing credits staff cuts, lower rent at provincial branches, and no share-based compensation this half (RMB15.7 million a year earlier). The company closed 72 of its 360 outlets, "those which were not yielding profits."
"Others, net" of RMB24.9 million (RMB22.6 million a year earlier). This line is 44% of pre-tax income, and the filing does not break it down.
Against this, interest income fell from RMB16.6 million to RMB0.1 million. The company says it has stopped accruing interest on its troubled loans because "collection of the related interest is deemed unlikely."
What the headline numbers hide
Comprehensive income was a loss. Net income was RMB48.3 million, but comprehensive loss attributable to shareholders was RMB150.3 million. Comprehensive income also counts value changes that bypass the income statement. The main item is a RMB195.6 million "fair value changes" loss booked straight to equity. It matches the fall in "equity investments without readily determinable fair value" (unlisted stakes with no market price) from RMB236.8 million to RMB41.2 million. Shareholders' wealth fell in the half even though reported profit rose.
Cash conversion was weak. Operating cash flow was RMB3.8 million against net income of RMB48.1 million. The largest drains were paying down payables and accrued expenses (RMB36.5 million and RMB45.8 million). The largest source was collecting RMB67.8 million of contract assets, which are commissions already booked as revenue and not yet received.
The tea acquisition is very large compared with the tea sales. On January 9, 2026 AIFU bought Nova Lumina Limited. It paid 5,128,942 new Class A shares, valued at US$20 each, plus US$22.0 million in cash. It booked the whole price as inventory: RMB867.6 million, 43.7% of total assets. The filing says the price "was equivalent to the fair value of the acquired inventory," but it does not say how that value was set. Half-year tea sales were RMB1.7 million, at a cost of RMB1.65 million. That leaves about RMB36,000 of gross profit, a 2% gross margin, and it is roughly 0.2% of the inventory's book value. No write-down was taken. The new shares went to YS Management Company Limited (4,826,333) and Ethereal Group Ltd (302,610).
More lending to outside parties, despite a large bad-debt history. Gross loans receivable from third parties rose from RMB804.8 million to RMB921.6 million, and RMB801.1 million of that is already provisioned as unlikely to be collected. The largest is a RMB670.3 million loan, due in 2025, to an unnamed "third party company principally engaged in provision of education service." In this half AIFU made RMB121.5 million of new loans to three third parties (RMB108.5 million, RMB8.0 million and RMB4.0 million, all due within a year). Separately, a RMB766.0 million receivable remains from the May 2025 sale of 53.5 million BGM Group shares to "third-party investment firms." It is provisioned at RMB769.2 million, which means essentially nothing is expected. In all, other receivables carry a RMB1,574.7 million credit-loss allowance.
Where the new cash went. The half's RMB234.7 million of share proceeds was cash collected in April 2026 for a 2025 share placement. The cash flow statement shows RMB150.0 million going to the tea acquisition and RMB121.5 million to the new third-party loans. Cash and equivalents at June 30 were RMB33.3 million (about US$4.9 million), below short-term bank loans of RMB55.9 million. Management states that its cash and expected operating cash flow will cover needs "for at least the next 12 months." The filing contains no going-concern warning.
Related party. AIFU has unsecured, interest-free loans of RMB13.6 million outstanding to MAASE Inc., its former controlling shareholder, "to supplement MAASE's working capital."
Dilution and control
The share count has changed so much that per-share comparisons across years mean little. (A 1-for-20 reverse split took effect on June 16, 2026, and all figures here are adjusted for it.)
Shares outstanding went from about 1.05 million at December 31, 2025 to 6.18 million at June 30, 2026, almost entirely because of the tea deal. Weighted average shares were 21.6 times the year-earlier figure.
After the period end, on September 24, 2026, AIFU issued 10,000,000 Class B shares to Expansion Group Ltd at par value, US$0.002 each, for US$20,000 in total. Expansion became the controlling shareholder in December 2025. It now holds 63.37% of all shares and 99.43% of voting power. Other shareholders effectively have no say in company votes.
On the same day, AIFU agreed to sell 45,000,000 Class A shares to investors at US$3.00 each (about US$135.0 million gross), with warrants for up to 90,000,000 more shares at US$6.00 and US$7.50. The deal is expected to close by the end of October 2026. If it closes, the 6.18 million shares outstanding at June 30 would become more than 60 million, plus the warrants.
Takeaway: The return to profit comes mainly from not repeating 2025's RMB487.6 million bad-debt charge and from halving overheads. The core insurance-commission business shrank 24%. Meanwhile, most of the balance sheet now rests on a RMB867.6 million tea inventory that sold RMB1.7 million in six months, and on RMB921.6 million of third-party loans, most of them already written down. The company also made RMB121.5 million of new loans this half. The controlling holder took 99.43% of the votes for US$20,000, and a US$135 million share sale is pending. How the tea inventory's value was set, and whether these loans get repaid, matter more to shareholders than any recovery in commissions.
Outlook
The filing gives no revenue or earnings guidance. What it states:
Insurance: first-year premiums rose 8.2%, which would support renewal commissions in later years if it lasts. Renewal premiums lag new sales, though, and 2024–2025's weaker new business is still feeding through. The move toward lower-commission savings products and the expense-alignment rules squeeze commission rates. On this evidence, agency revenue is more likely to stabilise than grow near-term.
Tea: management expects to spend cash on "developing the sales capabilities and channels for our tea products." At current sales, the inventory would take centuries to sell through, so the real test is whether tea sales become meaningful at a margin that supports the RMB867.6 million carrying value. If not, a write-down is the risk.
Capital: the pending US$135 million placement would add cash but multiply the share count. How the money is used deserves attention, given that this half's proceeds went to the tea acquisition and new third-party loans.
The next full picture should be the FY2026 annual report on Form 20-F. Last year's was filed April 28, 2026, so expect it around late April 2027. The FY2026 audit will also test the tea inventory's carrying value and the loan provisions.