SHARES in Meituan soared over 10% Thursday after the on-demand services giant reported an almost two-and-a-half-fold jump in net profit in the second quarter thanks to the rolling out of more affordable options in its takeout and other services. Meituan’s share price (HK: 3690) surged 12.55% to close at HK$115.7 (USD14.83) Thursday. The stock has gained 40% in value so far this year. Meituan’s net profit skyrocketed 142% in the three months ended June 30 from a year earlier to 11.4 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion), while revenue jumped 21% to 82.3 billion yuan, according to the financial report released by the Beijing-based firm Wednesday. Meituan’s profit from its core local businesses, which include food delivery, its Instashopping service that helps small retailers digitize as well as hotel and travel bookings, surged 37% over the period to 15.2 billion yuan while revenue soared 18.5% to 60.7 billion yuan, the report said. The strong performance was spurred by the company’s budget offerings, such as its group buying meal function Pin Hao Fan, which lowers the price of meals through bulk buys and which was clocking up to 8 million orders a day in the second quarter. The Pin Hao Fan model meets the needs of price-sensitive consumers, Wang Xing, Meituan’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer, said at the earnings call. Meituan continues to find creative solutions to meet changing consumer trends that are bringing challenges to all industries. Meituan is also actively exploring a Branded Satellite Stores model, which are takeout-only restaurants that it runs with catering partners. As of the end of June, Meituan had opened 800 such stores with 120 brands, including hotpot chains Haidilao and Xiabuxiabu. Revenue from Meituan’s new initiatives division, which includes group-buying unit Meituan Select and supermarket chain Little Elephant Supermarket, rose 29% to 21.6 billion yuan, and losses narrowed 75% to 1.3 billion yuan. Meituan announced a new share buyback program Wednesday, saying that it will repurchase up to US$1 billion of shares in the open market when appropriate. (SD-Agencies) | 