Performance Express | ANTA Sports is also venturing into the AI space.

Author | XIE Yunzi

Editor | ZHANG Fan

ANTA has delivered a performance report that is relatively satisfying to the market.

In the first half of 2026, the Group's revenue increased by 12.9% year-on-year to RMB 43.51 billion, with its half-year revenue exceeding RMB 40 billion for the first time; the overall gross margin rose by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year to 63.9%; operating profit increased by 16.1% year-on-year to RMB 11.76 billion, and the operating margin rose to 27.0%, hitting the highest level in the first half of the past seven years.

Lai Shixian, Co-CEO of ANTA Group, said at the performance meeting that all brands delivered solid overall performance. The growth of the ANTA brand and other brands exceeded the full-year guidance set at the beginning of the year, and FILA also reached the high end of the guidance range, which once again demonstrated the advantages of the multi-brand portfolio.

CFO Bi Mingwei added that the Group continued to maintain steady profitability on a scale of over RMB 40 billion. Excluding the one-off gain from the placement of Amer Sports, profit attributable to shareholders was approximately RMB 7.94 billion, maintaining a double-digit year-on-year growth of 12.9%.

The capital market has given positive feedback.

On the day the financial report was released, the share price of ANTA Sports rose sharply, closing at HK$78.75, up 9.53%, with its market value returning to HK$220 billion.

36Kr chart based on Wind data

Image sourced from the financial report

Break down the business performance of each brand.

The revenue of the core ANTA brand reached RMB 17.77 billion, up 4.8% year-on-year; operating profit was RMB 3.99 billion, up 1.2% year-on-year; the operating margin was 22.5%, a slight decrease from 23.3% in the same period of last year. The reason for the slight pressure on earnings quality is not complicated.

During the reporting period, the core brand made notable progress in key categories. Among them, the sales of four running shoe lines including PG7, C Family, Mahe and Zone 2 Heart Rate exceeded 5.6 million pairs in the first half of the year, up more than 30% year-on-year. In terms of apparel, the sales of products such as Storm Armor also exceeded 2 million pieces, up nearly 35% year-on-year.

Lai Shixian said that the product strategy of the core ANTA brand is becoming more focused. "We hope to gradually build clearer consumer awareness of ANTA in the professional sports field."

In other words, ANTA is increasing the proportion of professional sports products. In this process, the increase in the proportion of e-commerce business and direct retail business has further squeezed the profit margin.

In July this year, Xu Yang, former CEO of the ANTA brand, left his position for family reasons. The 7 store formats including "Super ANTA", "ANTA SV" and "ANTA Arena" that he had strongly promoted still failed to establish a viable business model.

As of June 30, the number of stores of the core ANTA brand (excluding ANTA Kids) was 7,122, a decrease of 81 from the end of 2025. Lai Shixian emphasized at the performance meeting that the ultimate measure of channel reform is not how many stores are opened, but whether good products can reach consumers more efficiently through appropriate channels.

This statement itself may be regarded as a correction to the radical experiments of the past two years. At the same time, overseas business has become the biggest highlight of the core brand.

In the first half of the year, the revenue of ANTA's overseas business increased by 35% year-on-year. According to public information, the Group is advancing the "Southeast Asia 1,000-Store Plan". In the North American market, ANTA has also opened its first flagship store in Los Angeles, and cooperated with mainstream channels such as Foot Locker, DSG and JD Sports.

It should be noted that the high growth of overseas business is based on a relatively small base. The 1,000-store plan in Southeast Asia also means heavy investment, and there is still uncertainty about the expansion pace and return on investment of ANTA's overseas market.

ANTA PG7 cushioning running shoes; image sourced from the official Weibo account

Next is FILA.

In the first half of this year, FILA's revenue increased by 6.1% year-on-year to RMB 15.05 billion, operating profit reached RMB 4.32 billion, up 9.7% year-on-year, and the operating margin rose to 28.7%, 1 percentage point higher than the same period of last year.

In the past two years, FILA has always focused on the "ONE FILA" strategy, deeply cultivating elite sports such as tennis and golf. Against the backdrop of consumption stratification, the simultaneous rise of revenue and profit margin has proved the feasibility of this strategy.

Further breaking down the performance of each category, the apparel business is once again becoming the growth driver of FILA. Among them, the proportion of women's apparel increased by 2 percentage points to more than 40%.

FILA has always been the representative of "high-end fashion sports". However, for sportswear brands, footwear business is still an important embodiment of core technology, and FILA's breakthroughs in this area are still limited.

In addition, the performance of "all other brands" represented by Descente and Kolon Sport still maintained strong growth. The revenue of this business segment increased by more than 44.2% year-on-year to RMB 10.69 billion, which exceeded RMB 10 billion for the first time in the half-year report; operating profit was RMB 3.54 billion, up 43.9% year-on-year.

Apart from the multi-brand layout, ANTA Sports' investment in AI has become the most discussed topic in the financial report.

Lai Shixian introduced that the Group is advancing the "AI 365" strategy. Its self-developed "Linglong" design large model can convert sketches into design drafts in 15 seconds. The "Lingxi" outfit matching model has been applied in retail terminals, which can recommend collocations and provide virtual fitting according to scenario requirements.

In terms of enterprise management, AI is also used to analyze social media and consumption trends, to support market forecasting and inventory management. During the reporting period, ANTA Sports' R&D investment accounted for 2.5%, which is at the leading level in the sporting goods industry. In the future, ANTA may become more "tech-savvy" from product design to consumer services.

Of course, whether the "AI 365 Strategy" can truly be translated into the improvement of operating efficiency still needs time to verify. Lai Shixian himself also said, "We are still in a relatively early stage" "The standard to measure whether AI creates value should be reflected in better products, faster response, healthier inventory and better consumer experience."

When the entire industry enters a downward cycle, these are exactly the key issues that brands need to continue to solve.

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