Stephen Yang
Analyst · UBS
Thank you, Sisi. Hello, everyone and thank you for joining us on the call. This second quarter is a successful phase of manifestation as we have turned over a new leaf in our business and embarked on innovative journey for rich business opportunities since the beginning of fiscal year 2023. Before going into details of our financial performance for this quarter, I would like to take this opportunity to extend our gratitude to those who have been delivering and supporting New Oriental along the way. I'm delighted to share with you that after a year of restructuring process, New Oriental has successfully generated fruitful yields from our new business ventures, combined with our existing business and innovative business opportunity. Despite the seasonality of some of our major businesses which has historically resulted in a slower period for every second quarter, it's immensely encouraging to see that we have achieved a meaningful profitability and a better-than-expected margins in the second quarter. We have achieved a non-GAAP operating margin of 2.6% for this quarter as compared to negative 112.0% in the same period of prior fiscal year which was characterized by the several significant one-off expenses incurred from class cancellations, school closures and employee layoffs. Our key remaining business have continued to demonstrate remarkable resilience. In particular, overseas test prep business and overseas study consulting business have recorded remarkable year-over-year revenue increase as global COVID restriction eases and overseas study market is recovering. Our solid profitability, strong performing remaining business lines and then emerging new business initiatives in this quarter have again strengthened our confidence in preferring innovative endeavors and profitable growth through the rest of the year. Now I would like to spend some time to talk about the quarter's performance across our remaining business lines and new initiatives to you in detail. Our key remaining business have achieved promising trends, while our new initiatives have shown a positive momentum. Breaking it down, the overseas test prep business recorded a revenue increase of 17% in dollar terms, or 30% in RMB terms year-over-year for the second quarter. The overseas study consulting business recorded revenue increase of about 14% in dollar terms or 27% in RMB terms year-over-year for the second quarter. The adults and university students business recorded a revenue decrease of 9% in dollar terms or 2% increase in RMB terms year-over-year for the second-quarter. As for our new business initiatives, as mentioned in the past quarter, we have launched several new initiatives which mostly revolves around facilitating students all-round development. I'm glad to share with you that these new initiatives have further exceeded our expectations by sustaining a positive momentum and generating meaningful profits to the company. Firstly, the non-academic tutoring business which we have rolled out in over 60 cities, focused on cultivating students' innovative ability and comprehensive quality. We're happy to see increased market penetration in both markets we have tapped into, especially higher-tier cities with a total of 477,000 enrollments recorded in this quarter. The top 10 cities in China have contributed about 60% of revenue of this business. Secondly, intelligence learning system and device business, is a service designed to provide a tailored digital learning experience for students. It'll utilize our path to teaching experience, data and technology to provide a personalized targeted learning and exercise content. Our continuous investments in technology has fueled our comparative edge which drives our navigation amidst the chain of challenges from the last year. Together with our teachers monitoring and accessing the learning curve for students at the back-end system, this new innovative education service not only greatly improves students learning efficiency but also cultivates students proactive learning habits. We have tested its adoption in over 60 cities with 108,000 active paid users in this quarter and are delighted to see improved customer retention and scalability of this new business. The revenue contribution from top 10 cities in China is around 60%. Last but not least, our smart education business which comprises smart teaching, smart hardware, science, technology and innovation education and other service serves local governments, education authorities, schools and kindergartens. Our educational material utilizes the smart study solutions, the self-learning system which leverages advanced technology, enables students to have complete control over the pace and the flexibility of the learning age where remote learning becomes increasingly mainstream. We also offer exam prep courses designed for students with junior college diplomas to obtain bachelor's degrees. The above-mentioned business has been gaining wide traction and contributes the overall growth of the company and has attained instrumental profit since the last quarter. Coming to our OMO system. We continuously invest in developing and revamping our OMO teaching platform and have leveraged our educational infrastructure and technology strength over the remaining business and new initiatives to provide more advanced and diversified education service to our customers for all ages. Our OMO system has been a core support to our business, especially with some of the strict social control measures were implemented in the past months. We have invested a total of $21 million in the quarter on our OMO teaching platform which provide us the flexibility to continue to offering high-quality service to students during the pandemic. Now I would like to give you all an update on Koolearn's latest performance. In the first half of this fiscal year, Koolearn has achieved incremental breakthroughs in both business operations and financial performance. This significant progress was made as a result of Koolearn's strategic transformation from focusing on online education to livestreaming e-commerce. In 2021, Koolearn expanded its livestreaming e-commerce business and established Dongfang Zhenxuan which has since become a well-known platform for promoting healthy, top-quality and cost-effective products to the public. The platform has formed a part of the tight supply chain management and after-sales service system which strictly abide by a set of relevant laws and regulations. Leveraging our deep understanding of customer needs, Dongfang Zhenxuan continues to expand its product selection and SKUs through proactive cooperation with third parties, coupled with the development of our Dongfang Zhenxuan private labeled products. The platform's business developments has gratefully benefited from the maturity of China social infrastructure and the contributions and support from the community. To summarize, the Koolearn food bearing growth and profitability with our financial performance, for the first 6 months of this fiscal year, Koolearn recorded the revenue of plus nearly RMB2,080.1 million which represents a 590.2% increase from revenues from continuing operations of RMB301.4 million in the same-period of last prior fiscal year. Koolearn recorded RMB585.3 million of net profits, a 638.5% increase from the net loss from the continuing operation of RMB108.7 million in the same-period of prior fiscal year. In the first 6 months of fiscal year, the gross profit of Koolearn reached around RMB982.5 million, accounting for 47.2% in terms of the GP margin. As we continuously map the platform's strategic transformation, the fast-growing Dongfang Zhenxuan is also committed to give back to customers and the community. Since its launch, Dongfang Zhenxuan has stood firm to not charge commissions from customers or any fees. And have always taken close reference to industry standards, focusing on its partnerships, the mostly beneficial long-term collaboration with various parties, so as to maximize benefits to customers. Dongfang Zhenxuan also ensures to attain the cost-effective performance as one of its development principal. On one hand, Dongfang Zhenxuan focuses on enhancing product capability. We're continuing to establish its cultural content. On the other hand, Dongfang Zhenxuan has also organized to diversify -- diverse outdoor livestreaming activities to promote special agriculture products and contribute to the cultural tourism. Through its unyielding aspiration to create value in related industries which have also attracted and retained a larger pool of talents, cooperators as well as followers and members, Dongfang Zhenxuan has successfully received in return meaningful revenues and a loyal customer base during the reporting period. With regard to the company's latest financial position, I'm confident to share with you that the company is in a healthy financial status with cash and cash equivalents, term deposits and short-term investments totaling approximately $4.2 billion. On July 26, 2022, the company and the Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase of up to $400 million of the company ADS or common shares during the period from July 28, 2022 through May 31, 2023. As of January 16, 2023, the company repurchased aggregate of approximately 3.1 million ADS for approximately $79 million from the open market under the share repurchase program. Now I'll turn the call over to Sisi to share with you about the key financials. Sisi, please go ahead.