(Yicai Global) Aug. 24 -- Meituan Dianpingbecame the fifth-most valuable stock listed in the Hong Kong today after revenue at China’s answer to Groupon and Yelp topped market expectations.

The company’s shares[HKG: 3690] rose 8.4 percent to close at HKD265.8 (USD34.30), giving the Beijing-based company a market cap in excess of USD200 billion. That boosted the net worth of founder and Chairman Wang Xing to more than USD20.5 billion.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s four biggest listed firms are Alibaba Group Holding (USD731.6 billion), Tencent Holdings (USD677.4 billion), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (USD246.4 billion), and Ping An Insurance Group (USD205.2 billion).

Meituan Dianping’s second-quarter revenue beat expectations for CNY23.4 billion (USD3.39 billion), jumping 8.9 percent to CNY24.72 billion from a year earlier, according to an earnings report released on Aug. 21. Net profit was CNY2.21 billion (USD319.5 million).

“The pandemic has accelerated the digitalization process in all walks of life, and shown us that our capabilities accumulated over the years continue to create great value and strengthen our confidence in investing in the future,” Wang said.

Revenue at the firm’s catering takeaway business was CNY14.5 billion in the three months ended June 30, up 13.2 percent. The value of transactions jumped 16.9 percent to CNY108.8 billion due to an increase in the number of vendors on the platform. The average daily order volume rose to 24.5 million.

Income at Meituan’s dine-in, hotel, and tourism businesses fell 13.4 percent to CNY4.5 billion. Though a significant improvement on the first quarter, the company still faces challenges amid the uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and it will continue to invest to help merchants recover their business, it said.

Revenue from new business and others tallied CNY5.6 billion, up 22.1 percent. Meituan will further cover categories like medicines and flowers, and will continue to boost investment in bikes and motorbikes, it said. The firm replaced about 1.5 million rental bicycles and nearly 300,000 electric bicycles this quarter.

“We will focus on the ‘Food + Platform’ strategy and continue to raise investment in new business areas, including fresh food retail and e-bicycles, to ‘help everyone eat better and live better,’” Wang said.

Editor: Peter Thomas