Mr. Dejian Liu, Chairman of NetDragon, commented: "2019 was a special year to NetDragon as we achieved record high revenue and profit while celebrating our 20th anniversary. We recorded revenue of RMB5,793.1 million, up 15.0% year-over-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB807.2 million, up 48.0% year-over-year.
"Our gaming business maintained its strong growth momentum with 39.4% year-over-year revenue growth, as mobile games and PC games sustained remarkable growth with 46.8% and 38.3% increase in revenue year-over-year respectively. The business has proven to deliver consistent and sustainable growth, as our revenue has grown at a CAGR of 35.3% in the past five years, while segmental profits have increased more than sevenfold during this period. Our performance in 2019 was driven by across-the-board revenue growth coming from all of our major IPs, including Eudemons Online, Heroes Evolved and Conquer Online. Over the past many years, NetDragon has built a unique set of technologies, knowhow and operational capabilities across multiple genres and markets, which will provide the foundation for us to drive our gaming business forward with sustainable growth."
"Our education business also delivered solid performance as our subsidiary Promethean continued its global market leadership position[1] in K-12 interactive classroom technologies with the largest market share in international markets. We had a strong second half as we continued to see robust growth in our core regions, particularly in the US and European markets, as well as new markets including Egypt. On the product side, we are delighted that our Red Dot Design Award-winning ActivPanel Elements Series has been well received since its shipment commenced in the second quarter."
"While our Promethean offerings continue to enable us to expand our ecosystem within the classroom environment, we are making strong progress with our online learning community platform Edmodo, which has seen unprecedented increase in active users and new registered users since the outbreak of the coronavirus, as teachers and students around the world embrace Edmodo as an easy-to-use, effective and reputable platform that will ensure the continuity of learning in a fun and engaging manner. In particular, Edmodo has recently been chosen by the Ministry of Education in the Arab Republic of Egypt to be the designated online learning platform for the K12 education system in Egypt for immediate rollout to over 22 million students and over 1 million teachers in the country to provide distance learning support in the period of school suspension."
"In China, we continued to deliver strong progress with our strategy to drive user adoption. The number of monthly actively installed base of our flagship platform 101 Education PPT has surpassed 1 million, representing a sizable user base of teachers to drive learning activities in the classroom environment. Our One-Stop Learning platform, which enables teachers and students to communicate, teach and learn after school, has seen MAU increase by more than 20 times since the coronavirus outbreak. With our fast-scaling coverage of active users in both classrooms and at home, we are well on track to build our ecosystem towards monetization."
[1] Based on report issued by Futuresource Consulting dated 17 February 2020, incorporating actual shipment volumes (excluding China) of the Company. |
Fiscal Year 2019 Financial Highlights
- Revenue was RMB5,793.1 million, representing a 15.0% increase year-over-year.
- Revenue from the gaming business was RMB3,299.6 million, representing 57.0% of the Company's total revenue and registering a 39.4% increase year-over-year.
- Revenue from the education business was RMB2,395.4 million, representing 41.3% of the Company's total revenue and registering a 6.6% decrease year-over-year. Excluding phase-two of the Moscow tender win in 2018 (with phase 3 of such tender release planned in 2020), revenue from the education business registered a 12.0% increase year-over-year. In the second half, revenue from education business increased by 28.5% half-over-half and 14.0% year-over-year respectively.
- Gross profit was RMB3,855.3 million, representing a 26.5% increase year-over-year.
- Cash inflow from operating activities was RMB1,175.8 million, representing a 69.4% increase year-over-year.
- Core segmental profit[2] from the gaming business was RMB1,923.3 million, representing a 51.3% increase year-over-year.
- Core segmental loss[2] from the education business was RMB524.5 million, representing a 36.2% increase year-over-year. The increase was due to a number of factors including consolidation of Edmodo for the full year period, US tariff on Promethean products, and cyclical nature of the Moscow tender as noted above.
- EBITDA was RMB1,245.2 million, representing a 49.6% increase year-over-year.
- Non-GAAP operating profit[3] was RMB1,060.7 million, representing a 62.7% increase year-over-year.
- Profit attributable to owners of the Company was RMB807.2 million, representing a 48.0% increase year-over-year.
- The company declared a final dividend of HK$0.25 per share (2018: HK$0.15 per share), subject to approval at the coming Annual General Meeting.
[2] Core segmental profit (loss) figures are derived from the Company's reported segmental profit (loss) figures (presented in accordance with Hong Kong Financial Reporting Standard ("HKFRS") 8) but exclude non-core/operating, non-recurring or unallocated items including government grants, fair value change and finance cost of financial instruments, intercompany finance cost, impairment loss (net of reversal), impairment of goodwill and intangible assets and fair value change of convertible preferred shares. |
[3] To supplement the consolidated results of the Company prepared in accordance with Hong Kong Financial Reporting Standards ("HKFRSs"), the use of non-GAAP operating profit measure is provided solely to enhance the overall understanding of the Company's current financial performance. The non-GAAP operating profit measure is not expressly permitted measure under HKFRSs and may not be comparable to similarly titled measure for other companies. The non-GAAP operating profit of the Company excludes share-based payments expense, amortisation of intangible assets arising on acquisition of subsidiaries and impairment of goodwill and intangible assets. |
