Sorry, Pop Mart, Labubu is just not Lego or Pokemon

FEW toymakers have garnered as much investor attention as China’s Pop Mart, the manufacturer behind Labubu, a plush accessory seen dangling off the bags of A-listers from Blackpink’s Lisa to Rihanna. 

The company’s fortunes have risen with the elf-like doll’s stardom. It reported blowout first-half earnings in late August, with chief executive officer Wang Ning saying that achieving 30 billion yuan (S$5.6 billion) in sales in 2025, or 130 per cent year-on-year growth, would be “quite easy”. The shares have rallied 179 per cent this year. 

Scepticism is starting to surface, however. Bernstein Research began its coverage with an “underperform” call last week, a rare public dissent next to 40 “buy” ratings, according to a Bloomberg poll. There has been profit-taking lately: The shares are down 25 per cent from an August peak.