Meituan-W rose more than 3% in the afternoon, with a cumulative rise of more than 23% after the results, and its credit rating was recently raised by S&P and Fitch.

Meituan-W (03690) rose over 3% in the afternoon, with a cumulative gain of over 23% after the results. As of the writing, it rose 3.09% to HK$126.8, with a trading volume of HK$1.788 billion.

On the news front, rating agency S&P said it raised its long-term issuer credit rating on Meituan to "BBB+", and correspondingly raised the issue rating on the company's senior unsecured notes. The outlook is "stable". S&P said that despite the weak macroeconomic environment, the strong momentum of Meituan's core local commerce business is expected to be sustainable; while the average consumption per order has decreased, the transaction volume still grows at a healthy pace; S&P noted that Meituan executes its plan to reduce losses faster than expected, and reduces users' incentives for on-demand delivery faster than the agency expects.

Fitch recently also said it raised Meituan's long-term issuer rating to "BBB", with a "positive" outlook. Fitch said the rating upgrade reflected Meituan's significant improvement in profitability and strong free cash flow (FCF), driven by its successful strategic execution and easing competition in its to-go business. Fitch expects Meituan's platform scalability, its increasing penetration of its core local commerce business, and its strategic shift from subsidy-driven investment to return-driven investment to support robust EBITDA growth and FCF generation in the medium to long term.