Earnings Labs

Sunlands Technology Group (STG)

Q2 2022 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 18, 2022

$3.21

+0.00%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. And welcome to Sunlands' Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Today’s conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host today, Yuhua, Sunlands’ IR Representative. Please go ahead.

Yuhua Ye

Operator

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Sunlands’ second quarter 2022 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. Tongbo Liu; and our CFO, Selena Lu Lv. 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 would like to remind you of Sunlands' 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 our current trends, estimates and projections, and therefore, you should not place undue reliance on them. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. For more information about 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.

Tongbo Liu

Analyst

Thank you, Yuhua. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Sunlands second quarter 2022 conference call. In [ph] the pandemic resurgence and the macroeconomic weakness in the second quarter, we achieved RMB114.6 million of net income, representing a fourfold increase year-over-year. The increase was primarily driven by our consistent emphasis on operating efficiency and solid execution of our business strategies, as we remained steadfast while navigating the company through external uncertainties. We were also pleased to see our continued efforts to optimize our product mix and expand our course portfolio were rewarded with improving operational results, reflected in a 39.4% year-over-year increase in our new student enrolments and a reduced year-over-year decrease in gross billings. We accomplished this by acquiring students from a wider range of age groups with higher sales efficiency, as we cut down our sales and marketing expenses by 34.8% year-over-year. These results highlight our organizational resilience and reinforce our confidence in our strategy to achieve balanced growth and profitability. During the second quarter with massive pandemic operating several major cities severity disruptive business operations caused area of industries. The pandemic also resulted in cancellation of many competitive exams affecting demand for our professional courses and leading us to seek other pockets of opportunity to increase profitability in this segment. Furthermore, the complex microenvironment business took a more conservative approach in the operations and emphasis cost reduction and the efficiency improvement more than ever, with the goal of enhancing their risk resistance. Against the backdrop, consumers were more prudent about purchasing discretionary goods. For example, they made temporary delay their self-improvement plans within this period to combat the lingering external uncertainties in the macro-environment. We also prioritized the cash flow management and focused on profitability generating business while continuing to improve our cost efficiency. Despite that, many people remained in…

Selena Lu Lv

Analyst

Thank you, Tongbo. Hello everyone. Our second quarter results were in line with our expectations. We sustained bottom line strength, despite the 11.8% year-over-year decrease in natural revenues as we strive for healthy and sustainable growth. During the quarter, we continued executing barriers initiative to build a highly efficient and lean organization, while optimizing our expense management, leading to a 32.4% year-over-year decrease in our operating expenses. Our cost efficiency improvements resulted in notable net income growth from RMB22.1 million for the second quarter of 2021 to RMB114.6 million for this quarter. Going forward, we are optimistic that our continued efforts to broaden our online cost offerings, streamline our cost structure and dedicate ourselves to providing enhanced services to our students will ultimately enable us to realize long-term growth. Now, let me walk you through some of our key financial results for the second quarter of 2022. All comparisons are year-over-year and all numbers are in RMB unless otherwise noted. In the second quarter of 2022 net revenues were RMB555 million, a decrease of 11.8% year-over-year. Cost of revenue decreased by 6.2% to RMB91.2 million in the second quarter of 2022 from RMB97.3 million in the second quarter of 2021. The decrease was primarily due to the decline in employee conversation expenses related to the cost of revenues. Gross profit decreased by 12.9% to RMB463.8 million from RMB532.2 million in the second quarter of 2021. In the second quarter of 2022, operating expenses were RMB351.2 million, representing a 32.4% decrease from RMB519.6 million in the second quarter of 2021. Sales and marketing expenses decreased by 34.8% to RMB293 million in the second quarter of 2022 from RMB449.1 million in the second quarter of 2021. The decrease was mainly due to number one; lower spending on branding and marketing activities. And…

Operator

Operator

Now I'd like to turn the conference back over to Yuhua Ye, IR representative for any closing remarks.

Yuhua Ye

Operator

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

Operator

Operator

This concludes the earnings conference call. You may now disconnect your line. Thank you.