HK Stock Market Move | SMOORE INTL (06969) fell more than 5% in early trading. The clearance of non-compliant products may have a short-term impact on the overall growth rate of aerosol electronic cigarettes in Europe and America.

SMOORE INTL (06969) fell more than 5% in the morning session, dropping 5.76% to HK$12.44 by the time of writing, with a turnover of HK$1.95 billion. On the news front, on December 27, SMOORE INTL announced plans to conditionally grant 61 million share options to Mr. Chen Zhiping, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Executive Director, and major shareholder of the company. Sinolink pointed out that SMOORE INTL recently released a new stock incentive plan, with unlocking conditions set at a subsequent market value of HK$300-500 billion, with future main performance drivers being the contribution of new HNB products and the expansion of the compliant market for electronic vapor products. Sealand indicated that the clearance of non-compliant disposable products in the current European and American markets is expected to drive customers towards compliant pod systems, open-system products, and HNB alternatives. We believe that the clearance of non-compliant products may have a short-term impact on the overall growth of electronic vapor products in Europe and America, but compliant products and companies will benefit from this. In Japan, restrictions on nicotine content in electronic vapor products have limited its development. According to Euromonitor data, HNB sales in the Japanese market are expected to be the highest globally by 2023, with a CAGR of 11.0% from 2019 to 2023. In the United States, due to previous HNB patent disputes, the market is still relatively undeveloped, but a settlement was reached in February 2024, and according to Euromonitor data, HNB market sales in the US are expected to start rising in 2025, with HNB sales volume accounting for 3.5% of the new tobacco market by 2028.