AI Transformation of Traditional Industry: An Analysis of the Kam Tai Group (02272), the "First Stock of AI Smart Parking", and the Value of Scarce Configuration.

In the era where AI is reconstructing everything, how can traditional industries find their own "evolution" path is the question that stands in front of many market participants. In the view of GMTEight, Koture Group (02272), the "first stock of AI Smart Parking" officially launched for IPO last week, has shown the world a clear and replicable transformation path. Although the parking industry is a typical traditional service industry, Koture's emergence has changed the industry's long-standing pain points such as low management efficiency and lack of value-added services. It has also eased the contradiction between inefficient operation of parking lots and resource mismatch leading to "scarce availability" and "large idle spaces". At the same time, policy orientation also clearly encourages empowering traditional industries with technologies such as artificial intelligence to upgrade. In August 2025, the State Council issued the "Opinions on the Deep Implementation of the 'AI+' Action", clearly proposing to "help traditional industries transform and upgrade"; before this, the central government had deployed to "accelerate the intelligent transformation of parking facilities". Top-level design resonates with people's pain points, creating an unprecedented policy environment for the deep integration of "AI+ parking". Koture Group, which will be listed this month, is not only a pioneer in this historical process, but also the most representative benchmark enterprise in the industry. Founded in 2006, this company has transformed from a hardware supplier to a space digital operator covering three major business sectors: digital parking systems, parking management services, and parking lot operations. By the end of 2025, its service network covered over 30,000 parking lots nationwide, with business territories spanning more than 60 countries and regions globally. In the process of leading the industry in the deep integration of "AI+ parking", Koture Group has also received strong strategic investments from Tencent and Hongtai Zhiying under the founder of New Oriental Yu Minhong, and has deeply cooperated with companies such as Huawei, Tencent, and UnionPay. The listing of Koture Group this time undoubtedly provides the market with a rare sample to observe how "AI helps traditional industries transform and upgrade". The Koture sample that helps traditional industries transform and upgrade If we were to list the strongest trend in the capital market in 2026, investment in technology stocks represented by AI would undoubtedly be the strongest trend. Currently, global capital's pursuit of "AI content" can be described as fervent, and under the intensifying "FOMO" (fear of missing out) sentiment, better investment opportunities may not exist in familiar star assets, but rather in companies that wear the cloak of traditional businesses but have restructured their business logic with AI, and Koture Group is likely to be one such company. This "first stock of AI Smart Parking" that will soon debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has a much richer AI background than market perception. As early as 2023, Koture pioneered the world's first global parking lot AI training center, customizing AI models for each parking lot through an automated continuous training framework, achieving "thousands of models per venue". This approach of sinking AI capabilities into each parking lot has allowed Koture's smart parking business to present a new characteristic of unmanned, data-driven, and ecologically sustainable operations, precisely addressing the traditional pain points of parking lot management. On the front of AI native applications, Koture has formed a complete product matrix around real parking scenarios. Its independently developed "AI booth" has reduced the ratio of booth seats to parking lanes from the traditional 3:1 to 1:200, which means one booth seat can control 200 lanes in real time; the "AI parking manager" takes over the handling of complaints, congestion, accidents, and other complex issues; and the "AI cloud customer service" automates customer service. In 2025, Koture utilized the DeepSeek open-source large model to launch two AI models, "Smart Parking Manager - Xiao K" and "Location Navigation - Xiao T", to promote the parking experience from "unmanned" to "humanized". In March of this year, with the introduction of the IP image "Woxiao Bo", the brand's mindshare and user stickiness were further solidified. This shared system not only bridges the "last mile" of scene services, but also becomes a core hub for Koture to gain high-frequency traffic, and the data deposition and user scale that come with it will be transformed into diversified business increments, continuously unleashing the long-tail effect of the platform. In the "Opinions on Deepening the Implementation of the 'AI+' Action" issued by the State Council in August last year, it explicitly proposed to "promote the intelligent development of all elements of the industry and help transform and upgrade traditional industries". Looking back at Koture's AI layout, it had already been deeply deployed before the policy was introduced, and even on an extended timeline, as early as 2014, Koture partnered with Tencent to launch the Smart Parking application platform "Speed Parking", becoming the first intelligent parking company in China to cooperate with WeChat, and built the first WeChat smart parking lot that supports WeChat payments. From the exploration of mobile payments at that time to the current full deployment of the AI chain, Koture has completed a complete evolution path from "digitalization" to "smartization" to "ecologization" over more than a decade of continuous investment, continuously leading the transformation and upgrade of the parking industry. AI makes essential businesses more stable and profitable From a business perspective, parking is a typical essential business. In 2025, the national car ownership reached 366 million, and with the rapid expansion of demand for a better parking experience, the market size of China's smart parking space operation industry reached a record 24.5 billion yuan in 2024, and this figure is expected to further increase to 91.9 billion yuan by 2029. However, on the other side of the coin, according to the Zhoushi Consulting report, in terms of revenue in 2024, the combined market share of the top five parking space operators in Shanghai DZH Limited was less than 18%, with Koture Group ranking second in the industry with a 3.3% market share. This "big market, small company" situation naturally favors top players with technological, financial, and scale advantages to consolidate the market. AI technology is the core leverage that Koture Group uses to unlock maximum integration efficiency with the lowest marginal cost. It is well known that the research and accumulation of innovative AI technology requires a long and substantial initial investment, with extremely high thresholds. However, Koture has already completed this payment of "upfront costs" over nearly twenty years of continuous deep cultivation. At this stage, the company's strong early layout around "AI+ parking" business has entered the reaping period. Data is the best proof. From 2023 to 2025, the number of serviced parking lots of Koture Group increased from 22,497 to 30,644, with a growth rate of 36%. In the process of scale expansion, Koture's revenue from parking lot operations increased from 96.87 million yuan to 175 million yuan, an increase of more than 80%, and the revenue share rose significantly from 13.1% to 21.1%. The outbreak of innovative business effectively drove the overall performance growth of Koture. From 2023 to 2025, the company's revenue increased from 738 million yuan to 831 million yuan, and the adjusted net profit increased from 89.41 million yuan to 122 million yuan, with the adjusted net profit margin increasing from 12.1% to 14.7%. Of particular note is that the operating cash flow of the company in 2025 reached 144 million yuan, significantly higher than the net profit of 94 million yuan for the same period, meaning that more than 1.5 yuan of real cash flowed back for every 1 yuan of net profit earned. Around the high-frequency essential scene of "parking", Koture Group is also expanding the simple parking service into a multi-value-added service ecosystem through AI and big data capabilities. By deeply analyzing data such as parking duration and user behavior, Koture can achieve precise marketing, dynamic pricing, and personalized recommendations, effectively increasing customer stickiness and return frequency. Based on this, value-added services such as new energy charging, digital advertising, and car washing maintenance are organically integrated, forming a compound business model that generates more incremental revenue. Data shows that in 2025, Koture Group's cooperation in charging piles covered 4,711 charging piles, and advertising cooperation reached 7,617 advertising spaces, and these light-asset, high-margin services extending from the essential scene are continuously contributing incremental profits, also upgrading parking assets from a single "parking leasing" to a three-dimensional "space operation". At the same time, the global offensive of Koture Group's subsequent also deserves attention. To date, Koture's business has covered more than 60 countries and regions globally, and has completed deep localization adaptions in key markets such as Thailand, Singapore, and Kuwait. Considering that the competitive landscape in overseas markets is far less intense than in China, and profitability levels are usually higher, with Koture's strengthened brand and financial strength after listing, the full-chain AI capabilities accumulated domestically are expected to be replicated on a large scale overseas, becoming another important engine for its long-term growth. Conclusion As the AI wave sweeps the world, companies that truly reconstruct industry logic with technology are also the targets most worth seeing under the "FOMO" sentiment. As a top player in the vertical field, whether it is Tencent's strategic investment since 2018, currently holding 8.46% and ranking as the third largest shareholder, or the entry of well-known institutions such as Hongtai Zhiying under the founder of New Oriental, all signify the deep recognition of intelligent funds for Koture's evolutionary path of "AI+ parking". Looking ahead, with the unique positioning of the "first stock of AI Smart Parking" and the strong growth momentum driven by AI, Koture Group will undoubtedly provide Hong Kong stock investors with a target that combines long-term certainty and imagination.