New Oriental Education & Technology Group, Inc.

Good evening, and thank you for standing by for New Oriental's FY 2025 first quarter results earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I'd now like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's conference, Ms. Sissy Jow.

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to New Oriental's first fiscal quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Our financial results for the period were released earlier today and are available on the company's website as well as on NewsWare services. Today, Stephen Yang, Executive President and Chief Financial Officer, and I will share New Oriental's latest earnings results and business updates in detail with you. After that, Stephen and I will be available to answer your questions. Before we continue, please note that the discussion today will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainty. As such, our results may be materially different from the view expressed today. A number of potential risks and uncertainties are outlined in our public findings with the SEC. New Oriental does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. In addition, a webcast of this conference call will be available on New Oriental's Minister Relations website at investor.neworiental.org. I will now first turn the call over to Mr. Yang. Stephen, please go ahead.

Thank you, Cici. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call. We're pleased to announce that the company has forged a healthy growth across our key business line in alignment with the expectations, with a top-line growth of 30.5% this quarter. Total net revenues, excluding revenues generated from Easter by private label products and live streaming business, increased by 33.5% year-over-year. In particular, were impressed by the highly encouraging growth that the new endeavors have anchored, which has significantly contributed to the core building blocks of the company. At the same time, New Orientals' bottom line performance for our core educational business has also achieved healthy yields. Operating margin-wise, we have excluded operating margins generated from East Dubai for this quarter for a better reflection of the performance of New Oriental's core educational business. The operating margin and non-GAAP operating margin for this quarter have reached 23.7% and 24.4%, representing 370 and 220 basis point improvements year-over-year respectively. We're pleased to see the tremendous efforts that that we devoted into our offerings and platforms, sparking positive growth across our business line. Our commitment to maintaining a healthy profitability and market share stands firm as we strive to create sustainable value for our customers and shareholders in the long term. Now, I would like to spend some time to talk about the quarter's performance across our existing business lines. and new initiatives to you in detail. Our key remaining business continue to secure encouraging trends this quarter, breaking it down. The Overseas Test Prep Business recorded a revenue increase of 19% year-over-year for the first fiscal quarter of 2025. The Overseas Study Consulting Business recorded revenue increase of about 21% year-over-year for this quarter. The adults and university students' business recorded a revenue increase of 30% year-over-year for this quarter. The ongoing investments are new educational business initiatives, which mostly revolve around facilitating students' all-round development, have propelled the company's engine to innovation, having secured strong momentum in their respective ventures. The non-academic children's courses, which we have offered in around 60 existing cities, focuses on cultivating students' innovative ability and comprehensive quality. We're pleased to receive solid interest with a total of approximately 484,000 student enrollments reported in this quarter. The top 10 cities in China contribute over 60% of this business. Secondly, the intelligent learning system and device business has been adopted in around 60 cities. We're happy to see elevated customer retention and scalability, with approximately 323,000 active users reported in this quarter. The revenue contribution of these initiatives from the top 10 cities in China is around 55%. Our smart education business, educational material and digitalized smart study solutions have continued to contribute material yields to the overall advancement of the company. In summary, our new educational business initiatives have recorded a revenue increase of 50% year-over-year for this quarter. In addition, our newly integrated tourism related business line is now comprised of diverse offerings of culture trips, study tours in China and overseas, as well as the camp education. Within the business line, our study tour and research camp business for students of K-12 and university age achieved tremendous growth this quarter, with an increase of 221% in revenue year-over-year for this quarter. We have upgraded study tours and research camp business in over 55 cities across the country, with the top 10 cities in China offering over 55% of revenue share of this new business. The number of top-notch tourism offerings were also piloted to expand our reach to all age groups, including the middle-aged and elderly individuals around 30 featured provinces in China and globally. The inspiring growth this quarter has affirmed our devotion deliver premium offerings to our valued customers and we believe this new business line will contribute continuously meaningful revenue from this fiscal year. With regards to our OMO system, we have perceived in revamping our platform and leveraged our educational infrastructure and technology edge on remaining key business and new initiatives with a vision to provide advanced diversified education service to customers of all ages. In this quarter, a total of $24.6 million has been invested in our OMO teaching platform, which equips us with the flexibility to maintain a rival service to students. In terms of the East By's performance, since April 2022, East By has launched a total of 488 SKUs in private label products in just two years. Our products categories have expanded into well-diversified product names today. During the reporting period, Easterby also uplifted the significance of the offering-only product with high cost performance, which has proven effective in reiterating Easterby's value in the minds of our current and new users. Thanks to our multi-channel strategy that has driven sustainable growth, Easterby's footprint has expanded from our live streaming channels to the life of Tmall, JD, Pinduoduo, and Xiaohongshu, as they amplify our reach to a wider customer base. In the new year, Easterby will explore offline channels by examining the partnership with offline schools owned by new rental brands and other parties. As part of our vision to initiate offline sales network and enhance our brand awareness to the great extent. With regards to the company's latest financial position, I'm pleased to share that the company is seeing a healthy financial status with the cash and cash equivalent term deposit and short-term investments totaling approximately $4.9 billion. Now, I would also like to take the opportunity to highlight that the company's board of directors approved a share repurchase program in July 2022, under which the company is authorized to repurchase up to $500 million of the company's ADS for common shares through the next 12 months. The company's board of directors further approved to extend the effective time of the share repurchase program to May 31, 2025, and increasing the aggregate value of the shares that the company is authorized to repurchase from $400 million to $700 million. As of October 22, 2024, the company repurchased an aggregate of approximately 9.8 million ADS for approximately $457.9 million from the open market. Now, I will turn the call over to Cici to share with you about the key financials. Cici, please go ahead.