Earnings Labs

17 Education & Technology Group Inc. (YQ)

Q4 2021 Earnings Call· Tue, Mar 8, 2022

$2.08

-1.89%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+19.88%

1 Week

+28.65%

1 Month

+16.37%

vs S&P

+11.16%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good evening and good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by for 17EdTech's Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the meeting over to your host for today's call, Mr. Michael Du, CFO of 17EdTech. Please proceed, Michael.

Michael Du

Analyst

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Our earnings release was distributed earlier today and are available on our IR website. On the call with me today is Mr. Andy Chang Liu, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and I'm Michael Du, Director and Chief Financial Officer of the company. Andy will walk you through our latest business performance and strategies, followed by me, who will discuss our financial performance. We will be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session after the prepared remarks. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this is the conference call contains forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the company's control. These risks may cause the company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the company's filing with the U.S. Securities, SEC. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, certain events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. It is now my pleasure to introduce our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Andy. Please go ahead.

Andy Liu

Analyst

Thank you, Michael. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our earnings call today. Before we begin, I would like to mention that the financial information and non-GAAP numbers in this release are presented on a continuing operation basis, and all numbers are based on the renminbi, unless otherwise stated. We finished the fourth quarter of 2021 with strong business performance. Let me provide some quick highlights before we get into the details. First, we continued to drive revenue growth despite the regulatory changes. Second, we managed to significantly narrow our net loss on a GAAP basis and achieved profitability on an adjusted basis after excluding share-based compensation. Third, we rapidly formed new business strategies and adjusted our organization accordingly. Fourth, our new businesses are gaining momentum. We are particularly pleased to see strong recognition from the government on our in-school offerings and advances from our customers. Fourth -- fifth, the fact that we turned profitable on an adjusted business allowed us to maintain a healthy cash balance for our business transition and growth. Now let me go into more details. Thank you. We finished the fourth quarter and the full year of 2021 with strong business and financial results despite the adverse impact of regulatory changes. We achieved a 17.5% year-over-year revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2021 and a 68.8% revenue growth for the 2021 compared with 2020. What's more important is that we significantly improved our profitability, narrowing our net loss to RMB 25.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 from RMB 365.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, and recording an adjusted net income, non-GAAP of RMB 17 million, excluding share-based compensation. In the fourth quarter of 2021 from an adjusted net loss, non-GAAP of RMB 134.6 million in the fourth quarter…

Michael Du

Analyst

Thanks, Andy, and thank you, everyone, for joining the call. I will now walk you through our financial and operating results. Please note that all financial data I talk about will be presented in RMB terms. However, I would like to note that the publication and enforcement of the premium and applicable rules significantly impacted our businesses. We have adopted significant change in our business model, as shared by Andy earlier, and the online K-12 after-school tutoring services that generate the vast majority of our revenue previously was ceased by the end of 2021. Therefore, I would like to remind everyone that the quarterly results we presented here should be taken with care if users reference for our potential future performance, and they are subject to significant impacts from one-off events as a result of the series of regulations introduced in 2021 and corresponding adjustments to our business model, our organization and our workforce. Achieving a positive adjusted net income on a GAAP basis in the fourth quarter of 2021 was a key milestone for the company. It was the result of a clearly defined new business strategy for future growth and a swift adjustment by our organization to accommodate these strategies and to improve operational efficiency. We are happy to see the quick business results from the implementation of our new business strategies. The balance of deferred revenue and customer advances reached RMB 243.9 million by December 31, 2021, which is entirely from the ongoing businesses after the company's business transformation and does not include any deferred revenues from the legacy online K-12 tutoring services. We will also resume providing business outlook starting this quarter, which I will share in a while. Let's dive into our financial results of the fourth quarter of 2021 and full year 2021 in…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And I'm showing no questions. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.