Rises reported across Ninestar group
September 5, 2018
The Chinese company has published its financial results for the first half of the current financial year, ending June the 30th, with plentiful increases for itself and many of its subsidiary companies.
Ninestar’s net profit for the period was ¥31.5 million ($4.6 million/€3.9 million), a considerable increase of 130.78 percent from the same period of 2017. According to Ninestar, this was because “the company’s operating performance continued to improve during the reporting period,” combined with other factors including “exchange rate fluctuations.”
However, there was also a 6.32 percent drop in the company’s operating income, which fell from ¥11.1 billion ($1.62 billion/€1.39 billion) to ¥10.4 billion ($1.52 billion/€1.31 billion), which Ninestar attributes to the sale of ES Enterprise Soft in July last year.
There was more positive news for Ninestar in its net cash flow from operating activities, which rose from a loss of ¥163.9 million ($23.9 million/€20.6 million) last year to ¥555.2 million ($81.2 million/€69.9 million) this year – an increase of 438.77 percent.
Looking at the figures specifically by segment, Ninestar’s operating income from general printing supplies (including all holding subsidiaries) was ¥1.53 billion ($224 million/€192.7 million), a rise of 61 percent year-on-year, and the sales gross profit from the same sector was ¥382 million ($55.9 million/€48.1 million), up 35 percent year-on-year. This was “mainly because the consumables business continued to improve,” Ninestar reported.
There was also growth for the company’s general printing consumables business, which saw a growth of 19 percent to its operating income, and a rise of 12 percent to its non-net profit growth. Specifically, the general toner cartridge business saw a sales increase of 25 percent, aided by “the new chip first product advantage”, and the general ink cartridge business bucked the “overall decline of the inkjet market” with year-on-year sales growth of 7 percent.
Included in Ninestar’s financials were details on the operations of the company’s individual subsidiaries. Regarding Apex, there positive news, with a 25 percent rise in operating income and a 45 percent rise in net profit, compared to the same period of 2017. Domestic sales and export sales also saw growth, whilst “foreign sales performance exceeded expectations, and sales achieved a high growth rate of approximately 37 percent” according to Ninestar. The company also reported that “the development of the general-purpose MCU chip project is progressing smoothly,” with three related products to be released in the second half of 2018, to be shipped “in small quantities.”
Static Control Components, meanwhile, recorded a total operating income of ¥494.1 million ($72.3 million/€62.2 million) – incorporating ¥12.9 million ($1.88 million/€1.62 million) and ¥92.4 million ($13.5 million/€11.6 million) in chip sales and consumables sales respectively. Ninestar detailed that the company continued to strengthen its component business, leveraging its own component R&D capabilities and quality control, and vigorously explored sales channels for high-end consumable products, achieving a 31 percent year-on-year increase in revenue from consumables business.
Ninestar’s integrated circuit business – including the Apex and SCC subsidiaries – declared a total operating income of ¥735 million ($107.6 million/€92.5 million), a 10 percent increase on 2017, and a sales gross profit of ¥538 million ($78.7 million/€67.7 million) – an increase of 16 percent.
The company’s financial report also included an update on its Research and Development activities throughout the first half of the year. “All of the ink cartridge products are first launched, and the toner cartridge products have completed a variety of initial launches, greatly improving the profit margin of the products,” Ninestar reported, adding that it has also “steadily promoted the transformation of the production automation project of the consumables factory,” and that “some small equipments achieved the expected results in reducing staff and improving efficiency and product quality.”
In sales and marketing terms, Ninestar added that “in terms of domestic sales, through the opening and closing of the front and back and speeding up information exchange, the company has formulated a landing strategy for different channels, increased the expansion of major customers and e-commerce channels, and significantly increased overall sales.”
Furthermore, “in foreign markets, it attaches importance to online sales. Pioneering work, focusing on the main online sales platform, achieved leap-forward growth in e-commerce business.”
There was also an update on the fortunes of subsidiary consumables companies Zhongwei Jingjie, Zhuhai Tuojia, and Zhuhai Xinwie.
Zhongwei Jingie, whose main product is universal print cartridges, recorded an operating income of ¥92.7 million ($13.5 million/€11.6 million) in the period, with a sales gross profit of ¥22.9 million ($3.35 million/€2.88 million), whilst Zhuhai Xinwie – which deals in both universal print cartridges and toner cartridges, saw operating incomes of ¥217 million ($31.7 million/€27.3 million) and sales gross profits of ¥41.2 million ($6.03 million/€5.19 million).
Zhuhai Tuojia, meanwhile, which also focuses on universal print cartridges and toner cartridges, recorded sales gross profit of ¥38.5 million ($5.63 million/€4.85 million) and operating incomes of ¥210.7 million ($30.8 million/€26.5 million).
Shipments of Pentium Pantum printers reached 308,000 units in the first half of 2018, a year-on-year rise of 75 percent compared to the equivalent period in 2017, whilst the Lexmark printer business saw an increase in both operating income and gross profit, by 11 percent and 64 percent respectively. However, the total number of Lexmark printers sold fell by 6.7 percent, to 668,100, “mainly due to the slowdown in shipments in the European market.” Sales revenue increased by 11 percent, with shipments of original consumables increasing “significantly.”
The period also saw the launch of the Pentium Pantum mobile app, which allowed users to “realise the functions of Wifi QR code connection, intelligent network switching, and fast distribution networks”, as well as “realise the one-button installation function of the printer driver to fully enhance the user experience, and complete the development of self-service shared printers.”
Categories : World Focus
