Sunlands Technology Group ADR

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Sunland's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Today's conference call is being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to your host today, Yu Hua, Sunland's IR representative. Please go ahead.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Sunland's fourth quarter 2024 earnings conference call. The company's financial and operating results were issued in our press release via Newswire services earlier today and are posted online. You can download the earnings press release and sign up for our distribution list by visiting our IR website. Participants on today's call will be our CEO, Mr. Tong Bo Liu, and our financial director, Mr. Hang Yu Li. Management will begin with prepared remarks and the call will conclude with a Q&A session. Before I hand it over to the management, I'd like to remind you of Finland's Safe Harbor Statement in relation to today's call. Except for the historical information contained herein, certain of the matters discussed in this conference call are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current trends, estimates, and projections. And therefore, you should now place due reliance on them. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. and very important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. For more information about the potential risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Tongbo Liu.

Thank you, Yu Hua. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Sunland's first quarter 2024 conference. Prior to commencing, I would like to kindly remind all attendees that the financial information referenced in this release are presented on a continuing operation basis and all figures are denominated in RMB unless expected. We have maintained stability in the midst of challenging conditions. Decide the annual annual decrease of their revenue and their income for the quarter to that $533.2 million and $1,007 million respectively. This marks the 12th consecutive quarter of profitability, underscoring our operational efficiency and commitment to shareholder value. With strong hopes on robust and enduring expansion, we bolstered our endeavors and helped control the United States' digitalization effectiveness.

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Additionally, our enrollment surged by 22.8% to a historical high of over 175,000. demonstrating enhanced proficiency in acquiring students. This improvement reflects our dedicated initiatives to attract new users and enhance user retention and engagement by refining our course offerings to meet diverse learning needs. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about our long-term profitability. endeavor to closely monitor and enhance student experience across all phases of teaching, learning, and practice ethics. Moving forward, we are dedicated to delivering exceptional services and products while exploring avenues for further business growth and operational efficiency improvement. Now, let's turn to the performance of each of our major course programs. Our post-secondary programs now account for 14.3% of our total revenue, a testament to our strategic structural optimizations and alignment with our latest investment return goals. Given the structural makeup of educational attainment with the Chinese population, the universal access to compulsory education, and the prevailing demands of the job market, we are still convinced these programs are in demand, and we remain dedicated to providing premium courses to our in-progress students. In addition, we continue to pursue B2B's strictly, decisively, leveraging our deep-rooted expertise in this area. Through our sub-plan for No-Share Union, we provide small and medium-sized organizations with comprehensive solutions including extensive course content, authentic examination questions, and advanced teaching management tools to help them improve their teaching and content distribution abilities. Our aim is to provide our partners with advanced intuitive tools that can significantly improve the learning experience for their users and ultimately enhance the quality and efficiency across the industry. The sector, including professional certifications, professional skills, and interest programs, continue to be our primary growth engine, contributing 74.4% to the total revenue. Interest program, in particular, has exhibited a 22.2% year-over-year growth. In this sector, our strategy remains unwavering. to continuously expand our course offerings, attract a broader audience through varied curriculum, enhance customer retention rates, and ultimately optimize the lifetime value of our users. This approach has proven successful as evidenced by a certain 2.4% increase in new enrollments in our interest-based education programs this quarter. underscoring the effectiveness of our strategic initiatives. Through ongoing practice, we have gained fresh insights into different age groups, shaping our approach to course design and service provision. For example, unlike younger individuals whose educational pursuits are often career-oriented or driven by external expectations, More mature learners seek learning experiences that enrich their lives, bring joy, and foster meaningful connections. The fundamental difference necessitates a substantial departure from traditional education and paradigms in both curriculum development and service delivery models. Simply migrating existing course online does not Instead, we must intricately align with the unique needs of this demographic to enhance and customize our offerings accordingly. Moreover, the service delivery model should be adaptable and considerate of their physical and cognitive abilities. emphasizing the creation of a supportive and inclusive learning environment that encourages active participation and continuous engagement. We have consistently pushed the boundaries of our innovative curriculum and achieved notable milestones through industry integration. A prime example is our educational travel adventure projects. Launched in March 2013, which are well suited for the elderly. At the end of the first quarter of 2024, we have already crossed over 40 study tour routes. According to McKinsey's 2024 China Consumer Trends Report, senior citizens in first-tier cities have spending expectations for travel that notably exceed those of the general population, marking this as a burgeoning market segment. These consumers are not primarily driven by price when deciding which travel products to purchase. Instead, they seek diverse, high-quality, and unique travel experiences, making premium travel products particularly well received. Setting ourselves apart from traditional tourist offerings will seamlessly integrate components from our courses, such as the art of traditional Chinese painting, into very fabric of the journey, enriching the experience with cultural depth and immersive learning opportunities. In the first three months of 2024 alone, revenue from educational travel adventure projects has already surpassed 65% of the earnings of the earnings for the entire of 2023. In the future, we will expand our efforts into other areas to offer our elderly users a wider array of products, aiming to extend their customer lifecycle. Furthermore, as a company embracing cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology, we have steadily enhanced our integration of AI into our business operations. For example, we streamlined content creation processes focused on increasing page views and refined multiple models to deliver personalized teaching. This led to a reduction in production time and significantly boosted the efficiency of our operational teams. We will continue to monitor updates in large models and apply to our business, ultimately enhancing our users' learning experience. While we have achieved significant milestones, it's essential to acknowledge that we also face challenges. Moving forward, we are dedicated to adjusting our strategies to navigate market uncertainties. Our focus will remain on delivering high-quality education, expanding our market presence, and prioritizing prioritizing shareholder value. Thank you for your presence today. With that, I will turn the call to our financial director, Hang Yu, to run through our financials.

Thank you, Sun Bo. Hello, everyone. I'd like to introduce our total results. All figures are standard. denominated in R&D unless explicitly specified otherwise. For the quarter, we achieved night income of 112.7 minutes with night income margin of 21.5% over the 10th consecutive quarterly night income margin of about 20%. The stable margins in recent quarters are due to our continued efforts to improve operational efficiencies and optimize our cost structure. Also, our revenue declined year-over-year due to changes in our product mix. The successful strategy of balanced, sustainable growth and profitability brought us cash operating inflows of 76.4 million in the quarter. At the end of the first quarter, the total balance of cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments totaled $983.2 million, an increase of 8.2% from the end of the previous year. Our healthy financial position gives us the confidence to face the challenges ahead. This will enable us to capitalize on emerging opportunities, strengthen our leadership position in the industry, and continue to create value for our shareholders. Now let me walk you through some of our key financial results for the first quarter of 2024. All comparisons are year-over-year, unless otherwise noted. In the first quarter of 2024, Net revenues decreased by 7.7% to 523.2 million from 566.9 million in the first quarter of 2023. The decrease was primarily driven by the decline in gross buildings from post-secondary causes over the recent quarter, partially offset by the growth in revenues from sales of goods such as books and learning materials. Cost of revenues increased by 13.2% to 77.2 million in the first quarter of 2024, from 68.2 million in the first quarter of 2023. The increase was primarily due to the growth in the cost of revenues from sales of goods. Growth profits decreased by 10.6% to 446.1 million in the first quarter of 2024, from 498.7 million in the first quarter of 2023. In the first quarter of 2024, operating expenses were 341.1 million, representing a 6.4% increase from 320.7 million in the first quarter of 2023. Sales and marketing expenses increased by 11.1%, to 301.6 million in the first quarter of 2024, from 271.4 million in the first quarter of 2023. The increase was mainly due to the growth in spending on sales activities, including enhanced compensation for sales personnel, as well as increased spending on branding and marketing activities focusing on interest-caused offerings. General and administrative expenses decreased by 17.9% to $32.6 million in the first quarter of 2024, from $39.6 million in the first quarter of 2023. The decrease was mainly due to the decline in rental expenses, as certain liabilities for office payers were partially terminated in 2023 before the expiration of these terms for cost savings Product development expenses decreased by 27.6% to $7 million in the first quarter of 2024 from $9.7 million in the first quarter of 2023. The decrease was mainly due to declined compensation expenses related to high counter-reduction of our product development personnel. Net income for the first quarter of 2024 was $112.7 million. as compared to $180.1 million in the first quarter of 2023. Basic and diluted net income per share was $16.44 in the first quarter of 2024. As of March 31, 2024, the company has $803.5 million of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash. and 179.7 million of short-term investments as compared to 766.4 million of cash, cash equivalent and restricted cash and 142.1 million of short-term investments as of December 31, 2023. As of March 31, 2024, the company had a deferred revenue balance of 1,044.9 million as compared to 1,113.9 million as of December 31, 2023. Regarding the outlook for the second quarter, we expect net revenues to be between 418 million and 500 million, a year-over-year decrease of 5%, to 8.8%. This outlook is based on the current market conditions and reflects the company's management's current and the preliminary estimate of market operating conditions and the customer demand, which are all subject to change. With that, I'd like to open up the call to the questions. Oh, Peter?

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. For the benefit of all participants on today's call, if you wish to ask a question to management in Chinese, please immediately repeat your question in English. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone keypad.

At this time, we're sharing no further questions, so this will conclude our question and answer session. I'd now like to turn the conference back to Yu Hua for any closing remarks.

Once again, thank you everyone for joining today's call. We look forward to speaking with you again soon. Good day and good night.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.