Earnings Labs

Antelope Enterprise Holdings Limited (AEHL)

Q2 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, Aug 18, 2015

$0.51

-0.87%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the China Ceramics Second Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. I'd now turn the conference over to David Rudnick.

David Rudnick

Analyst

Thank you, Kyla. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and good evening to those of you who are joining us from China. Welcome to China Ceramics second quarter 2015 earnings conference call. With us today are China Ceramics' Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jia Dong Huang; and his Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Edmund Hen. Before I turn the call over to Mr. Huang, may I remind our listeners that during this call, management's prepared remarks contain forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties and management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. Therefore the Company claims protection of the Safe Harbor for forward-looking statements that is contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from those discussed today. I refer to more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any projections as the Company's future performance represent management's estimates as of today August 18, 2015. China Ceramics assumes no obligation to update these projections in the future as market conditions change. TO supplement the financial result presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP management will make reference to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization which we will call by its abbreviated name EBITDA. EBITDA is non-GAAP financial measure reconciled from net income which the company believes provide meaningful additional information to better understand its operating performance. A table reconciling net income to EBITDA can be found in the earnings press release issued earlier today. And now it's my pleasure to turn the call over to China Ceramic's Chairman and CEO, Mr. Jia Don Huang, and China Ceramic's CFO, Mr. Edmund Hen. [Sandy Kun] will be translating for Mr. Wang. Mr. Wang, you may proceed.

Huang Jia Dong

Analyst

Thank you David, on behalf of the company I would like to welcome everyone to our second quarter 2015 earnings conference call. We reported stable cash flow in the second quarter despite the challenging operating environment in China's real estate and construction markets. While our topline was marginally lower as compared to the year ago quarter continued market acceptance of our product pricing enabled us to report a 47.9% increase in gross profit. Further the absence of several onetime acceptance incurred in the year ago quarter resulted in a more than doubling of EBITDA to $7.1 million versus the year ago quarter. However customer demand shrunk in the quarter as seen by the 8.7% decline in sales volume from the year ago quarter which follows the first quarter's 5.7% year-over-year declined customer demand. Given the overall market slowdown in our sector this year, we may need to engage in more intensive marketing and therefore incur additional selling expenses in the period ahead to maintain market share as well as sustaining the current quarter's strong products pricing. In the second quarter, we utilized plant production facilities capable of producing 34 million square meters of ceramic tiles per year out of our total annual production capacity of 72 million square meters of ceramic tiles. This was a 20.9% decrease over what was utilized during this period last year. We hope to bring additional capacity online going forward as business conditions improve. Despite periods of short terms growing in a likely difficult market conditions ahead, we continue to believe that the long-term fundamentals for growth in the real estate and construction industries continue to be in place. In addition, we believe that an important element of our success is our ability to adapt to market conditions and to continue to provide optimal customer-centric…

Edmund Hen

Analyst

Thank you, Mr. Huang. I will now move on to a more detailed discussion of our financial results for the second quarter 2015. Our revenue for the second quarter end June 30, 2015 was RMB260 million or US$41.9 million a decrease of 3.2% from R&D [268.6] million or U.S $43.3 million in the second quarter of 2014. The year-over-year decrease in revenue was probably due to a 8.7% decrease in sales volume to 8.4 million square meters of ceramic tiles from the year ago quarter partially offset by 6.5% increase in average sales price to RMB31 per square meter from the year ago quarter. From July 1, 2014, the price for all of our products were increased by 5% to 10%. Gross profit for the second quarter end June 30, 2015 was RMB35.8 million or US$5.8 million, an increase of 47.9% from RMB24.2 million or US$3.9 million in the year ago quarter. The gross profit margin was 13.8% for the second quarter end June 30, 2015, as compared to 9% for the second quarter end June 30, 2014. The year-over-year improvement in gross profit margins was primarily driven by 6.5% increase in average selling price. Profits from operations before taxes for the second quarter of 2015 was RMB26.4 million or US$4.3 million, as compared to RMB3.2 million or US$0.5 million in the year ago quarter. Excluding the non-cash RMB3.0 million or US$0.5 million fair value loss on derivative financial instruments incurred in the second quarter 2014, the year ago quarter profits from operations before taxation was RMB6.2 million or US$1.4 million. Net profit for the second quarter of 2015 was RMB19.2 million or US$3.1 million, as compared to net profit of RMB0.7 million or US$0.1 million in the year ago quarter. Excluding the non-cash RMB3.0 million fair value loss on…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from Howard Flinker of Flinker & Company.

Howard Flinker

Analyst

Hello everybody. I have two questions. One I didn't hear clearly. Did you say that the prices for the second half will rise another 5% or 10%?

Edmund Hen

Analyst

This is since second quarter of 2014.

Howard Flinker

Analyst

And the second related to your cash and your working capital. What do you plan to do with it before somebody comes along your cash including restricted cash is about 225 or more than twice your share price. And you're networking capital or net net as it sometimes called is almost $6. So what do you before somebody comes along and says I'm going to buy the whole company? What are your plans for the cash?

Edmund Hen

Analyst

The management is still thinking about on the current cash balances. As you know the current business environment is in no way good way now. And we always prepare for the worst with our limited cash and we also think also about our share price. Let`s see what can we do with our cash but at this moment we are still under discussion and thoughts on all the possibilities. So at this point we will hold the cash for a while.

Howard Flinker

Analyst

And under the discussion about a potential buyback?

Edmund Hen

Analyst

Any possibility.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from John [indiscernible] Private Investor.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hello everybody congratulations on the good results. And thank you for taking my call. Is the recently reported increase in home sales providing more cash for your customers and improving your collection of accounts receivable?

Edmund Hen

Analyst

Not for short term, relatively as you can see the business environment is still not very good. And we also need to support our distributors and our network. So what we think is we have to see for the environment for short term of period before we change the credibility to on our current customers.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay and can you describe the strategy you were using for marketing and distribution of interior tiles and give some comments on how that business is developing for the company?

Edmund Hen

Analyst

Yes, we're now of course will give high quality on products to provide to our customers. But the strategy and distribution network is also important. According to our Chairman we have set up our new strategy department to focus on the new network for this on the new future and also we will tend to stronger our export to overseas to see if any overseas market used for this.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, and can you give examples of any particular products where demand is good right now?

Huang Jia Dong

Analyst

Of course as you know we are the exterior wall ceramics producers, still the exterior ceramic is the first major contribution on the revenue. And on our exterior wall ceramics, the new type porcelain ceramics are still the strongest product in the market. For the interior wall ceramics tiles, we will plan to produce some high quality floor ceramics in future to meet the market [we fund].

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

So if I heard you correctly, I think you said that new type exterior ceramic tiles, what does that mean?

Huang Jia Dong

Analyst

We will produce some new environmentally friendly products. For example in the past we have already produced a light weight tile and in future we will provide more trend for different texture and style for the market developed from these tiles or new tiles.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, and my last question, does the company have any goals that hopes to achieve over the remainder of this year?

Huang Jia Dong

Analyst

Of course, at least we hope we can do better than the last year, this is our major hope at this moment.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from James Kahn of Oppenheimer.

James Kahn

Analyst

I want to add my congratulations what I consider to be great results. You earned US$3.6 million in six months during a very bad period and if you can earn this much when times are bad, imagine how much you can earn when times get better. So I think this is one of the most amazingly well run companies I've ever seen and I am astonished that it's also one of the most cheapest stocks I have ever seen, those two usually don't go together. To Mr. John who just asked the question, I hope you will write up something on Seeking Alpha, so Edmund back to you, I want to address what Mr. Flinker asked about the possibility of someone wanting to buy this company which would be only natural because it is such a great company and so abnormally cheap. They probably won't succeed because you'll block it, but it might require litigation, that is if it put in an offer for $6 a share it will be difficult to save that fee other shareholders other than the two of you would not benefit from accepting that, it would be bad to sell the company obviously because you are the ones running it and you should be the ones running it. But when the company as this cheap it seems only natural to consider ways to raise the share price and I understand you're reluctant to use your cash. So my solution is this, you are 41 million in cash, one-tenth or 1% of that is $41,000. $41,000 I hope you'll admit is a drop in the bucket as we say in the U.S. compared to 41 million. If you simply announce I would say this would impress Americans, if you simply announce, we are going to take $41,000 to buyback our own shares because sheer arithmetic tells us it will make the remaining shares more valuable and further more we intend to keep doing this until the valuation disparity is rectified, if you were to use words like that until the valuation disparity is rectified, believe me I know Americans, this would get their attention and suddenly your share price might come back to something approaching its true value. I know that wasn't a question, that was really a comment, I am sorry, but do you have any comments about my comment?

Edmund Hen

Analyst

Thank you for your suggestion and this is a regular suggestion and I think [indiscernible] take into consideration seriously for your suggestion like this and but at this time at this moment, I cannot tell anything about or too much on the decision which is not yet decided from the Board of Directors. So if we have any decision or consideration we will announce to the public as soon as possible.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions. I will now turn the call back over to David Rudnick.

David Rudnick

Analyst

Thank you, Kyla. On behalf of the entire China Ceramics management team, we would like to thank all of you for interest and participation in this call. This concludes China Ceramics second quarter 2015 earnings conference call. Thank you all very much.

Operator

Operator

You may now disconnect.