Executives
Management
Chee Jiong Ng – Chief Financial Officer Qiming Xu – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Eason Technology Limited (DXF)
Q1 2013 Earnings Call· Mon, May 20, 2013
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Executives
Management
Chee Jiong Ng – Chief Financial Officer Qiming Xu – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Operator
Operator
Welcome everyone to China Xiniya Fashion Limited 2013 Q1 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent background noise. After the presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. Please follow the instructions given at that time if you would like to ask a question. For your information, a webcast replay will be available within an hour after the conference is finished. Please visit www.xiniya.com under the Investor Relations sections. Now, I would now like to introduce Mr. Ng Chee Jiong, the Chief Financial Officer. You may begin.
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
Thank you. Good morning and good evening to all participants. Welcome to Xiniya’s first quarter 2013 earnings call. You may find a copy of our earning press release that we issued today in the IR section of our website or through PRNewswire. Joining me on the call is our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Qiming Xu. Please note that we will be making a number of forward-looking statements today and all such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations and assumptions mentioned today, due to a variety of factors that affect the company, including the risk specified in the most recently filed Form 20-F. Let me turn the call over to Qiming Xu, who will like to make some introductory comments.
Qiming Xu
Management
[Foreign Language] Good morning and good evening everyone and thank you all for joining us today. I am pleased to report that revenue growth continue with 4.2% increase during the first quarter of 2013 in the midst of the economic softening taking place in China, especially with regards to the consumer demand for apparel. Having implemented a strategy to focus on expansion and the recognition of our trade units I am confident that we will be able to successfully mitigate this tenuous time. [Foreign Language] The entire industry from distributors to authorized retailers and many sectors continues to face uncertainties, many of our in sale competitors have adopted aggressive discounting strategies, which has affected very much the situation in the near-term and reduced the probability of our authorized retailers. While we believe these challenges are problems in the near-term, they have begun to affect the confidence of our distributor and authorized retailers and they caused orders volume to replace these significant decline. While this quarters approach has entered a retail enthusiasm as a big – by our partner in our new retail outlets which has diminished somewhat. [Foreign Language] While this sentiment echoed across the menswear industry, it has impacted our bottom line. I do believe this will be temporary and that we will eventually benefit from our strategy. I’m proud of the possibility and initiatives they have shown over quarters in order to adapt to the evolving challenges in sales. While we are not immune to market fluctuations, our strength remains in the quality and acceptance of our product. Last month, we successfully held our Fall and Winter Collections Sales Fair in Xiamen, where we exhibited over 2000 new products, which includes exciting new apparel designs, shoes, bags, sale of other accessories. Our 2013 Falls and Winter collections are…
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
Thank you, Mr. Xu. We are pleased to report another quarter of revenue growth. During the first quarter of 2013, Xiniya reported revenue of RMB221million, an increase of 4.2% year-over-year. This is still at the upper end of our guidance range of 1% to 5%. The company delivered 1.18 million units during first quarter of 2013, compared with 1.2 million units during the first quarter of 2012. Xiniya network authorized retailer had a net reduction of 34 retail outlets in the first quarter of 2013 consist of 37 new retail outlet opened and 71 retail outlet closed, so total numbers of authorized retail outlet were 1676 as of March 31, 2013. Gross profit increased to RMB67.8 million during the first quarter of 2013, a decrease from RMB72.3 million during the first quarter of 2012. Gross margin during the first quarter was 30.7% compared with 34.1% during the same period last year. The decrease in gross margin was primarily due to reduced prices, offered by the Company on its 2013 spring and summer collections and the rebates offered by Xiniya to further support its distributors and retailers ability to compete in a challenging retail environment. Selling and distribution expenses increased to RMB16.9 million compared with RMB11.2 million during the first quarter of 2012. The large increase in sales and distribution expenses were currently due to increase in rack expenses for authorized retail outlets of RMB4.6 million, brand consulting expenses of RMB0.8 million and freight expenses of RMB0.3 million. As part of company overall strategy to redefine the image of its authorized retail outlets, the company has been paying for shop rack, signage and various outlet-related accessories for authorized retail outlets opened or refurbished on or after July 2011. During the first quarter of 2013, the company paid for shop rack, signage…
Operator
Operator
We will now begin our question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) The first question is from [Jamie] from Delaware Street Capital. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst
Good evening, gentlemen. Question for you. So, this conference call started a little early, so I’m guessing that’s probably keeping few people from asking questions. But in relation to the stock buyback which is authorized, which we discussed on the last call, are you pursuing repurchasing any stock at this time?
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
The process has been completed in December 2012 and when we have the new stock buyback plan, we will announce in the market.
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst
Okay. Are you considering putting a new stock buyback plan in place?
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
When we have decided, we will announce to the market.
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst
Okay, okay. All right, okay. As an investor, let me just say this. This company has a lot of share, a lot of cash on the balance sheet. There are pretty much no acquisitions that I can imagine that would enhance shareholder value as much as buying back stock. But it’s just a statement to make at this point. I hope that you guys announce another share buyback. It would show investors great deal of confidence in your company and then in a challenging environment, there aren’t too many acquisitions that you can make that would more than offset what you can actually achieve by buying back stock. I thank you gentlemen for your time. As a shareholder, I hope you strongly consider putting in place new stock buyback program. Thank you.
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
Thank you.
Operator
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your next question is (inaudible). Please go ahead.
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst
Yeah, I’d like to ask the cash question in a different manner. It’s clear, right now that you have a huge amount of cash on our balance sheet and you’re generating free cash flow. So the cash just keeps building up, even in a period that’s not such a great quarter. So, I wonder if you could share with us what some of the alternatives over the long-term would be in terms of making acquisitions, buying up your distributors or your franchisees, buying back stock or branching out into completely new areas. What is some of the thoughts that you have about what you might do over an extended period of time with the cash?
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
Let me translate that to the Chairman and I will let Chairman address your questions.
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst
Well, I’d appreciate it.
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
[Foreign Language]
Qiming Xu
Management
[Foreign Language]
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
Well, I assume that the coming spring, and currently at this state there remains a lot of challenges in the industry, low sales, that’s weighed on the distributors, our authorized retailer which we need to support them. And although this – all this– given this situation in the industry, which presents a greater opportunity to do some acquisitions and we can acquire for a better price with that and be able to give us a long-term benefit in the long run, and so for the growth of the company. Then another note is that, we are working for the government to approve the land to us. Once that approval has been given and as there are lots of usage on cash in logistics and our new location and our new manufacturing plant.
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst
Okay. So you’re going to spend money on the logistic center. You probably make an acquisition or a number of acquisitions at good prices and in response to the previous call you might or might not buyback stock, those would be the major uses of the huge amount of cash?
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
Yeah that’s correct.
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst
Okay, thank you.
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
Thank you.
Operator
Operator
.:
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst
I have one more question. Can you talk about what the competitive environment? What’s first, in your line is, either particular things selling well or selling badly? And secondly, given the added competition and the slowdown in the economy, do you see competition getting stronger or weaker?
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
Okay, I’ll just translate that. [Foreign Language]
Qiming Xu
Management
[Foreign Language]
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
The industrial environment have been very competitive recently and to us not just what’s selling – we’re not selling back, why this is really important is the distributors and our authorized retailers will be taking a lot of challenges, getting a lot of pressure from the competitors and especially our competitors has been going out on doing lots of discounting and just merchandize. And so that’s also puts a lot of pressure and then also we will say today, our initiatives to suit the – to tackle the current environment, the current competitive pressure. And we are confident that our product is of quality and price competitive, this will help them to weather through this situation.
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst
Then would you say – when you talk about your competitors, are your competitors for the most part, bigger, smaller or is the same size?
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
[Foreign Language]
Qiming Xu
Management
[Foreign Language]
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
: :
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst
So just as last question, so you over the next few years, you see spending more money to support your retail partners. That’s – the business model is going to emerge, so that the big companies like you are becoming more partners with your distributors than your franchisees. Is that correct?
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
Okay, let me translate that. [Foreign Language]
Qiming Xu
Management
[Foreign Language]
Chee Jiong Ng
Management
So we will grow together with our distributors and our retail networks. So our method or our strategy is to make sure that our distributors and retailers are healthy, and we will be healthy. So we are spending money to closely corporate with our distributors, providing training to them, providing support to present a positive kind of initiative to listen, to become more healthy – become healthy.
Qiming Xu
Management
[Foreign Language]
Operator
Operator
(Operator Instructions) There are currently no more questions. Thank you for participating in Xiniya’s conference. There will be a webcast replay within an hour. Please visit www.xiniya.com under the Investor Relations section. You may now disconnect. Good bye.