Pelliot renamed as "Rush to Nature", submits IPO application to HKEX for the third time.
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On May 8, Benfu Nature Outdoor Sports Group Co., Ltd. (formerly "Pelliot Outdoor Sports Group Co., Ltd.", hereinafter referred to as "Benfu Nature") submitted an updated prospectus to the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with CICC and CITIC Securities acting as joint sponsors.
This is not its first attempt to enter the capital market; previously, it submitted prospectuses twice in April and November 2025, both of which ended up expiring.
With this rename, Benfu Nature seeks to tell the capital market an upgraded story of Chinese outdoor lifestyle. However, behind the rapid revenue growth in the prospectus, structural contradictions such as heavy marketing and light R&D, high inventory, and cash flow pressures remain unavoidable focal points on its long IPO path.
The most intuitive change in the updated prospectus is the complete change of the company name from “Pelliot” to “Benfu Nature”.
This renaming is also intended to avoid risks related to brand name disputes.
The Pelliot brand shares its name with French sinologist and explorer Paul Pelliot, who in 1908 took many valuable relics from Dunhuang’s Mogao Caves, leading some to view him as a cultural looter. This historical controversy has caused the brand name to face moral and cultural challenges for a long time.
On the other hand, the name change alsoremoves the stereotype of a “pseudo foreign brand”.
In early years, Pelliot built a certain international illusion among consumers using this name.
With the rise of Chinese brands and more rational recognition among domestic consumers in recent years, it has become necessary to diminish foreign attributes and strengthen the identity of Chinese native brands. "Benfu Nature" is not only the brand slogan used for years, but also better fits the current Chinese market context.
The latest prospectus depicts Benfu Nature’s explosive growth in recent years.
From 2023 to 2025, Benfu Nature’s revenue soared from 908 million RMB to 2.793 billion RMB, with a compound annual growth rate as high as75.38%; meanwhile, net profit rose from 152 million RMB to 356 million RMB.
However, when dissecting its profit model, it’s easy to see this growth is strongly driven by paid traffic. The prospectus shows Benfu Nature presents a pronounced focus on marketing in its capital expenditure. From 2023 to 2025, its sales and distribution expenses surged from 277 million RMB to 1.059 billion RMB. This means that for every 100 RMB of revenue generated in 2025, nearly 38 RMB was spent on marketing and channel distribution, up from 30 RMB in 2023.
High customer acquisition costs directly erode profit margins.
Although its gross margin improved from 58.2% in 2023 to 63.7% in 2025 through product structure adjustments, its adjusted net profit margin declined for two consecutive years from 17.2% in 2023 to 14.6% in 2025.
At the same time, Benfu Nature stated in its prospectus that it operates a light-asset business model, with no own manufacturing facilities, but collaborates with OEMs. It is known that in 2023, 2024, and 2025, the company worked with 129, 171, and 155 contract manufacturers respectively, fully relying on the OEM model.
In terms of product structure, the classic series aimed at the mass market contributed 83.7% of revenue, while the high-performance professional series accounted for only 7.7%. This traffic-for-sales model and heavy reliance on external supply chains make its claimed high-performance positioning subject to scrutiny.
In the previous two failed attempts to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, besides stricter review of consumer brands by the capital markets, Benfu Nature’s fundamentals also exposed some drawbacks.
Among these, the inventory turnover crisis is a major warning sign.
Behind soaring revenues, Benfu Nature’s inventory climbed from 238 million RMB in 2023 to 870 million RMB in 2025. More severely, its inventory turnover days lengthened dramatically from 189 days in 2023 to 264 days in 2025. High inventory directly increases price reduction risks, as inventory impairment losses reached 52.71 million RMB in 2025, a surge of 211% from 2023.
From the data, inventory turnover has further deteriorated, adding more uncertainty to this IPO attempt.
Facing the third impact on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Benfu Nature’s capital investors require it to maintain a sprint posture. Besides early institutions like Qiming Venture Partners, Tencent invested 300 million RMB in March 2025, becoming the fourth largest shareholder.
In the fundraising plan, the core demand is to obtain funds for offline store expansion and brand transformation. The prospectus shows its offline DTC channel grew rapidly, revenues rising from 47.33 million RMB in 2023 to 506 million RMB in 2025. In March 2026, it also officially announced well-known actress Zhao Lusi as the new brand ambassador to drive public awareness.
But this is destined to be an expensive road. Online traffic dividends have peaked and costs are rising, while the rollout of offline channels means higher rents, asset-heavy operations, and more complex refined management. This explains why its net profit margin faces downward pressure, as overall business growth has become more costly.
Overall, Benfu Nature has accurately seized the explosive wave in China’s outdoor economy, completing the original capital accumulation. But under the dual pressure of Arc'teryx moving down and Decathlon moving up, whether Benfu Nature can succeed this time depends not only on the capital operation of the sponsors, but also on whether it can prove to the market: after the traffic bubble fades, the company has the hard-core foundation to digest massive inventory, improve profitability quality, and operate steadily.
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