Ruhnn Holding Limited (RUHN) Q2 2021 Results - Earnings Call

Ruhnn Holding Limited (NASDAQ:RUHN) Q2 2021 Earnings Conference Call November 23, 2020 7:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Sterling Song - Senior Director of Investor Relations

Lei Sun - Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Jacky Wang - Chief Financial Officer

Min Feng - Founder and Chairman

Conference Call Participants

Vicky Wei - Citi

Corrine Hu - UBS.

Lingyi Zhao - SWS

Operator

Hello ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for Ruhnn Holdings Limited's Earnings Conference Call for the Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2021. [Operator Instructions] Today's conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host; Mr. Sterling Song, Senior IR Director of Ruhnn. Please go ahead.

Sterling Song

Thank you. Thank you, operator. Hello everyone and welcome to Ruhnn's earnings conference call for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 ended September 30, 2020. As a reminder this conference is being recorded. The company's financial and operating results were issued in our press release earlier today and are available online. You can download the earnings press release and sign up for the company's e-mail distribution list by visiting the IR section of the company's website at ir.ruhan.com.

Ms. Lei Sun, our Founder Director and CEO; and Ms. Jacky Wang our CFO will begin with some prepared remarks. Following the prepared remarks, Mr. Min Feng our Founder Chairman of the Board of Directors will also join us for the Q&A session.

Before we continue please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such the company's actual results may be materially different from the views expressed today.

Further information regarding based on other risks and uncertainties is included in certain filings of the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission including its annual report on Form 10-K. The company doesn't assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law.

Please also note that, the company's earnings press release on this conference call include discussions of unaudited GAAP financial information, as well as unaudited non-GAAP financial measures. The company's press release contains a reconciliation of the unaudited non-GAAP measures to the unaudited most directly comparable GAAP measure.

I will now turn the call over to; Ruhnn, Founder Director and CEO, Ms. Lei Sun. Ms. Sun please go ahead.

Lei Sun

Thank you, Sterling. Hello everyone and thank you for joining our earnings conference call for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021. In the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 following the business transition our Services segment under the platform model maintained a strong growth momentum from the previous quarter fueled by significant organic growth and demonstrating solid profitability.

Services revenue increased 84% year-over-year continuing its rapid and consistent growth for the sixth consecutive quarter, following our IPO in April 2019. Our platform model continues to play an increasing important role as services revenue in the second fiscal quarter, contributed approximately 48% of total revenue, doubling the contribution from the same period last year and higher than 41% in the previous fiscal quarter.

Income from operations for the service segment reached RMB 12 million with operating margin over 10%. Looking ahead to the second half of fiscal year 2021, we are focused on stressing we have competitive advantages with the rapid development of our platform model. Additional resources being deployed towards the platform continued out of our growth strategy. Further, the diversification of our business, and finally, improvements in operating efficiency and profitability. We are very confident that we can make that competitively.

During the second fiscal quarter, we reportedly grew and expanded our KOL pool, as of September 30, 2020. The total number of KOLs stand by Ruhnn through long-term agreements grew 23% year-over-year to 180. While the aggregate number of fans grew 56% year-over-year to over 295 million, our standard KOLs have been further diversified across major social media platforms in China, such as Xiaohongshu, Kuaishou, Bilibili, Douyin and Weibo, with the number of signed KOLs on each of Weibo, Xiaohongshu,, Bilibili and Douyin all reaching or exceeding 100.

Based on the service revenue generated since September 30, 2019, our top-tier KOLs increased from 5 to 8, established KOLs from 21 to 24 and emerging KOLs from 12 to 21. Services revenue generated by our eight top tier KOLs accounted for only 28% of total service revenue, and there was no one single KOL contributing over 10%, creating minimum concentration risk and a much more balanced contribution from different tiers of KOLs.

The total number of established and emerging KOLs increased by 73% year-over-year to 45, contributing 47% of total service revenue in the current fiscal quarter. We are very pleased to see that our KOL metrics has become healthier and more balanced. As a leading platform in the KOL industry in China, Ruhnn was again demonstrated a deep attraction among high-quality KOLs and strong KOL inhibition and professional contribution capabilities.

Both the new retail industry and the e-comm's live streaming industries have experienced explosive growth in 2020, fueled by the development of the KOL economy. Facing the increasing demand for high-quality KOLs, Ruhnn has been heavily investing in its particular area and accumulated huge amounts of industry know-how and capabilities.

We started restructuring our business as early as 2018, leveraging our extensive experience in KOL inhibition as well as our ability to decipher evolving market change early and transited gradually from product sales under the full-service model to KOL service and advertising provided to third-party merchants and the brand.

Through the business model transition and upgrades from operating KOL business to building up the whole KOL ecosystem, today's Ruhnn is maintaining a flexible and dynamic business model in order to respond to evolving market demand and industry changes.

Riding on this view, our business focus is transitioning to the platform model, and our overall business structure is becoming more asset-light with a lighter supply chain so as to better improve our margins and anti-risk capabilities. In addition, the platform model is also rapidly enhancing Ruhnn's market influence and attracting more high-quality and diverse KOLs, which has further expanded our product categories, strengthened our service capabilities in different categories, improved our leverage by negotiating with our merchants and open up rich and flexible monetization channels for our KOLs, to better support their success as well as our own.

At present, on our platform model, we provide advertising services, ecommerce live streaming and sales services through online sharing stores and the joint stores for the third-party brands and merchants. At the same time, we continue to expand our product coverage categories. In particular, ecommerce live streaming and advertising services are considered as the main drivers to support our sustained growth in this fiscal year.

First ecomm live streaming has become an important growth engine for our platform model and its strong reputation in the industry has had and will have an established unique place in this area. It has maintained strong growth momentum from the previous fiscal quarter, generating 26% of total service revenue, compared to 2% in the same period of last fiscal year.

Leveraging our high-quality and further diversified KOL metrics, we strive to offer third-party brands and the merchant a strategy that combines both quality and efficiency, ensuring product sales volume, while establishing a good brand imaging and lessen the impact from lower price promotion through ecommerce live streaming.

Recently, we are working with the administration for market regulation of Zhejiang Province to launch live streaming in China to promote the strict selection of quality products and operation on the regulated industry standards. In addition, the product categories we covered for ecomm live streaming have extended even further beyond just color cosmetics skin care products and apparels, with food and beverage, home care, FMCG and fashionable electric products now being added to the roster.

And in a very short period of time our KOLs have delivered outstanding performance in ecommerce live streaming platform, such as Taobao, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu to name a few. Among them, the revenue generated through Kuaishou has exceeded 20% of total ecommerce live streaming revenue, demonstrating the flexibility and the variety in our monetization channels. We look forward to growing with even more KOLs in the future.

Next slide, turning to our advertising services. It contributed approximately 51% of total service revenue. As of September 30, 2020, we had partnered with a total of 1,423 brands in our advertising services, representing 68% growth from 845 brands as of September 30, 2019, and 20% from 1,186 brands in the last fiscal quarter.

More significantly, the recurring brands accounted for over 50% of the total number of brands reserved in the current fiscal quarter. Our source of revenue is further decentralized in the top five brands, accounting for only about 17% of total advertising revenue, further discarding us from concentration risk.

Our advertising service have now covered almost all major social media platforms including Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, and Douyin in particular the revenue generated through Xiaohongshu accounted for nearly 20% of total advertising service revenue with a steady pace of growth.

Going forward, we will continue enhancing our competitive advantages growing the advertising business and empowering more brands both domestically and globally. As far as field services, online sharing stores on Taobao and the joint stores contributed approximately 20% of total service revenue in the second fiscal quarter.

Moving to our plant, we launched this program in this July to act as a significant supplement to our core incubated KOLs. As of now we have signed launch agreements with nine KOLs who have a large number of followers and strong influencing power on major social media platform.

Drawing on our extensive experience in KOL incubation in best knowledge our best practice across the industry, the diverse monetization channels consisting of e-comm cloud streaming, advertising campaigns, and online sharing stores we aim to have KOLs produced enriched professional content in combination with the distinct personality and unique position in the market, so as to enable them to build a long-term personal value.

The current outcome of our BT plan has already aligned with our expectations. We have also actively been working on various new business initiatives and have stepped up our efforts to develop data-driven technologies. We have created a series of technologies and products such as AI-enabled selection system, [Indiscernible] et cetera dedicating ourselves to becoming the cooperation platform for emerging fashion brands and the best partner in China's new retail industry.

Our AI-enabled selection system for apparel products have served and accumulated a number of approximately 100 merchants in the brand since its inception. As of September 30, 2020, we had a technology team with more than 40 engineers. With help our cutting edge technologies, our QR technology platform -- has digitalized the entire matching process between the pocket brands with appropriate QRs so as to meet the growing demand for our e-commerce industry in a more efficient and convenient space.

As for our community technology platform, [Indiscernible], opinion consumers are playing an increasingly important role in many consumers purchasing behavior and decision-making process. They test and review products and share their opinions and comments on social media platforms leading to the party brands and the merchant to a broader population, ultimately creating a much more profound impact on our consumers.

So far over 10,000 QACs have registered on our QAC community platform and that number is expected to double by next year.

In China’s emerging industry, Ruhnn is the few across social media platform which is capable of operating images, short videos and live streaming with capability of incubating new KOLs, and empowering third-party KOLs, we provide a versatile solution for brands from advertising to sales services and across all major social media platforms from Weibo to Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Douyin and Kuaishou.

In the era of traffic fragmentation and integrated marketing strategy has become crucial, take live streaming as an example, fueling previews to stimulate purchasing before live streaming begins, KOL recommendation and transaction execution during live streaming benefited from a projected live stream, in fact, even after live streaming has completed with the whole entire process in reaching all monetization channels. All in all, our diversified and cross-platform capabilities drive significant growth in both number of brands with corporate speed and our service revenue, improving merchant efficiency while reducing transaction costs.

Finally, I want to shift here briefly and discuss our share repurchase program. By the end of November 2020, approximately 2.34 million ADS were repurchased for an aggregate consideration of approximately US$6.8 million. We expect to continue to implement our share repurchase program, subject to the restrictions relating to volume, price and the timing on the applicable law.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Mr. Jacky Wang, CFO of the company, who will provide an update on our financial performance for second quarter of fiscal year 2021.

Jacky Wang

Thank you, Mr. Sun, and hello, everyone. In the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, we further grew our platform model with services revenue growing 84% year-over-year, demonstrating a well-executed quarter.

Services revenue as a percentage of total net revenue further increased to 48% from 41% in the previous fiscal quarter, and 24% in the same quarter of last fiscal year. Moreover, we also further narrowed our net loss attributable to Ruhnn by 38% year-over-year. The good performance in our platform model enables our continued investment in this segment, underpins our future growth and will ultimately deliver strong profitability.

Now, let's move to detailed financial performance for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021. Total net revenue was RMB 248.5 million, a decrease of RMB 24.2 million, or 9% from RMB 272.7 million for the same quarter of last fiscal year, which was mainly due to the decline in product sales revenue through the full sales model, partially offset by the significant increase in services revenue through the platform model.

Services revenue through the platform model was RMB 119.3 million, an increase of RMB 54.5 million, or 84% from RMB 64.8 million for the same quarter of last fiscal year.

The increase was mainly attributable to: first, the increase in the number of KOLs serving the company's platform model, which increased to 180 as of September 30, 2020, from 146 as of September 30, 2019; second, the improved performance of such KOLs, as evidenced by the increase in the aggregate number of the top-tier established an emerging KOLs to 53 as of September 30, 2020, from 31 as of September 30, 2019; and finally, an increase in the number of brands that the company cooperated with in its advertising business to 520 in the second quarter fiscal year 2021 from 308 for the same quarter of last fiscal year.

Product sales revenue through the full-service model was RMB 129.2 million, a decrease of RMB 78.7 million, or 38% from RMB 207.9 million for the same quarter of last fiscal year. The decrease was primarily attributable to the following factors: first, the transition of the business model of some online stores from the full-service model to the platform model.

As a result of which, the number of the company's online stores decreased to 17 as of September 30, 2020, from 23 as of September 30, 2019. While the number of the company's KOLs serving the full-service model decreased to three as of September 30, 2020, from seven as of September 30, 2019. Second, a significant decrease in product sales generated from the online stores under the name of a top KOL, who suffered from negative publicity since April 2020.

Cost of revenue was RMB 147.7 million, a decrease of RMB 6 million, or 4%, from RMB 153.7 million for the same quarter of last fiscal year, which was mainly in line with the decline in total net revenue, specifically the product sales range. Cost of product sales decreased by RMB 44.3 million or 35% year-over-year to RMB 83.4 million.

Cost of revenue, primarily included product costs, inventory write-downs and the KOL service fees. Gross profit was RMB 100.8 million, a decrease of RMB 18.2 million, or 15% from RMB 119 million for the same quarter of last fiscal year, primarily as a result of the decline in product sales revenue.

Gross margin was 41% compared to 44% for the same quarter of last fiscal year. Total operating expenses was RMB 134.6 million, a decrease of RMB 49.4 million, or 27% from RMB184 million for the same quarter of last fiscal year. Total operating expenses accounted for 54% and 67% of total net revenue for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Fulfillment expenses were RMB16.9 million, a decrease of RMB18.3 million or 52% from RMB35.2 million for the same quarter of last fiscal year. The decrease was largely in line with the decrease in product sales revenue. Fulfillment expenses accounted for 13% and 17% of product sales revenue for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Sales and marketing expenses were RMB82.3 million, an increase of RMB7.3 million or 10% from RMB75 million for the same quarter of last fiscal year. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of expenses for KOL incubation, cultivation and training for the company's platform KOLs, as well as expenses incurred for the company's advertising, marketing and brand promotion activities under the full source model.

Following the expansion of KOL pool from 146 signed KOLs as of September 30, 2019 to 180 as of September 30, 2020, related expenses incurred for KOL incubation, cultivation and training in order to support increased activities for the company's KOL sales and advertising business.

Sales and marketing expenses accounted for 33% and 28% of total net revenue for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 and 2020, respectively, and the increase in the current quarter was primarily attributable to the decline in product sales revenue. For product sales segment, the percentage of sales and marketing expenses as compared to product sales revenue was 37% in the current quarter.

General and administrative expenses were RMB33.8 million, a decrease of RMB34.6 million or 51% from RMB68.4 million for the same quarter of last fiscal year. General and administrative expenses accounted for 14% and 25% of total net revenue for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 and 2020, respectively. Excluding non-cash share-based compensation expense and litigation costs, the percentage was 11% and 11% for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Amortization of exclusive cooperation rights represented the amortization of the intangible assets in relation to exclusive cooperation rights granted by a top KOL. Net loss attributable to second quarter was RMB31.2 million compared to RMB50.1 million for the same quarter of last fiscal year, narrowed by 38%. Adjusted net loss attributable to Ruhnn was RMB20.2 million compared to an income of RMB2.5 million for the same quarter of last fiscal year.

The loss in the current quarter was primarily attributable to the loss incurred by product sales segment with adjusted loss from operations of product sales of RMB27.6 million.

In terms of balance sheet and cash flow, as of September 30, 2020, the company had a cash, and cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments of RMB714.5 million compared to RMB800.6 million as of March 31, 2020.

Net cash used in operating activities was RMB46.4 million for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 compared to net cash provided by operating activities of RMB7.2 million for the same quarter of last fiscal year.

Net cash used in operating activities was primarily a result of; first, loss from operations from our product sales segment of RMB31 million following the decline in product sales revenue in the current quarter; and the second, a net increase of RMB17.4 million in advances to suppliers, primarily certain strategic social media platforms.

Before moving to outlook, I would like to spend a few minutes to discuss further our segment performance. During the current quarter for the services segment, services revenue accounted for 48% of total net revenue and we achieved income from operations of RMB12 million which was equal to services revenue minus related cost of revenue and all operating expenses like sales and marketing general and administrative expenses.

Adjusted income from operations of services was RMB14.9 million. Product sales segment suffered a loss in the current quarter and adjusted loss from operations of product sales segment was RMB27.6 million.

With respect to our outlook, we are reiterating that for the full fiscal year 2021 we currently expect our net revenue from services revenue through the platform model to be between RMB520 million and RMB610 million representing a year-over-year growth of between 72% and 101%. This forecast reflects our current and preliminary view on the current business situation and market conditions which are all subject to change.

We did not provide the outlook for our product sales revenue for the full fiscal year 2021, primarily because of the uncertainty or in the continuing impact of negative profitability of our top KOL serving certain online stores and the food service model as discussed previously.

This concludes our prepared remarks. We will now open the call for Q&A. Operator, please go ahead.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Vicky Wei of Citi. Please ask your question.

Vicky Wei

Good evening, management. Thanks for taking my question. My question is about the single sale performance and e-commerce live streaming. So would management provide some color about the Taobao store's performance during the Singles' Day shopping festival? And for live streaming e-commerce, does management notice any new trend in this year's Singles' Day, let's say, in terms of competition, user behavior, as compared to last year? Thank you.

Jacky Wang

Okay. Thank you, Vicky. This is Jacky. Let me take your question. Overall, talking about the Taobao 11 event, our performance was in line with our expectation and total service revenue is expected to be over 70% year-over-year increase. Well, we were talking about the online stores, our own online stores, and under the full-service model, we continue to feel pressure on that. And if you look at the product sales revenue, we believe, will be expected to decrease as compared to prior year.

Talk about the difference or changes in trend in the e-commerce live streaming in the current year as compared to prior, I might want to focus on the live streaming under our platform model. Several points to share.

First one, we could feel, during the current year, consumers or customers are more used to live streaming. In the prior year – for example, in prior year, maybe a majority – a lot of consumers, maybe it's their first time to utilize the live streaming to buy products, so they might actually compare the price of the products bought through the live streaming as compared to other channels.

They compare the price. But in the current year, they got the idea. Yes, the products bought from the live streaming will be much cheaper. So that's their – they're kind of used to the live streaming. They feel comfortable to buy products through live streaming.

And second, there are multiple platforms in the live streaming. Take Ruhnn, as an example. Live streaming from other platforms, I mean, in addition to the major one, the Taobao platform, are increasing, including Kuaishou, Douyin and Xiaohongshu, they are all increasing. I mean, they are focusing on doing the e-commerce live streaming.

Third, I will see the categories of the brand are expanding, I mean, from women's apparel to cosmetics, shoes, handbags, fast-moving consumer products, food, electric appliances. And the new domestic brand -- new brands are playing a more and more important role.

Fourth, I want to mention that, we feel the brands are more rational in dealing with the live streaming. In prior years, we might think, okay, that's the first time to do that. They don't really care probably. But in current year, they are switching there both on a strategy that combining both quality and efficiency, it means we care about the product sales volume. But meanwhile, they also care about to establish a good brand image, while -- I mean, mitigates the impact from a lower price promotion during the e-commerce live streaming. I think that's the point I want to share. I hope I answered your question. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Corrine Hu of UBS. Please ask your question.

Corrine Hu

[Foreign Language] I will translate myself. My first question is about, for next one or two quarters, how is your target of e-commerce live streaming's revenue share? And could you elaborate more about the assumptions and the key drivers behind?

Second is industry. Could your management give more color on e-commerce live streaming industry's dynamics like the relationship among MCN platforms and merchants? Will all of them be profiting in the long run? And how should we think about the change of their bargaining powers? Thanks.

Min Feng

[Foreign Language] Thank you for your questions. I am Feng Min. Let me answer your questions. We anticipate that the percentage from e-commerce live streaming will continue to increase. And in the next one to two quarters, that percentage will be around 13% as compared to the total service revenue.

In order to realize this target, expansion will depend on the following view of factors: first, so we will continue to build our KOL pool, which is to be engaged in the live streaming instead of only relying on single top KOL; and second, we will continue to increase our multiple platforms, in addition to Taobao. Other platforms like Kuaishou, Douyin and Xiaohongshu, they all play a more important role in e-commerce live streaming.

And lastly, we will further strengthen our BK team, and that means we will continue to expand into third-party brands and merchants have more cooperation with other merchants, and we'll continue to expand into other categories. Thank you.

[Foreign Language]

From the perspective of the whole e-commerce live streaming industry, it is true some third-party merchants and brands have to pay relatively high cost while carrying out a live streaming business on e-commerce platforms, including, but not limited to entrance fees, advertising fees, technology service fees for KOL service fees, et cetera. Meanwhile, merchants have to give very large discounts on product sales.

[Foreign Language]

As for Ruhnn, e-commerce live streaming has became an important growth engine for our platform model. It has maintained a strong growth momentum from the previous fiscal quarter, generating 26% of total services revenue compared to only 2% in the same period of last fiscal year. While the company gives a higher proportion of commission to KOLs, other monetization channels and the contribution of the services revenue generated through live streaming is further increasing, our gross margin will be, in some way, slightly affected in the future.

[Foreign Language]

In addition, the product categories recovered for e-commerce live streaming have expanded even further beyond color cosmetics, skin care products and apparel with food and beverage, home care, fast-moving consumer products and fashionable electronic products now being added to the roster. And in a very short period of time, our KOLs have delivered outstanding performance in e-commerce live streaming on platforms such as Taobao, Kuaishou, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, et cetera, and to name a few. Among them, the revenue generated through Kuaishou has exceeded 20% of total e-commerce live streaming revenue, demonstrating the flexibility and rise in our monetization channel. We look forward to growing with even more KOLs in the future. Thank you. Operator, can we move on?

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Lingyi Zhao of SWS. Please ask your question.

Lingyi Zhao

Hi, management team. This is Lingyi from SWS Research. The live streaming industry has seen a period of rapid growth and has a threat -- has problems such as data evaporation. And recently, the regulatory authority has also criticized from KOLs by name. And my question is, as one of the most important players in the industry, how do you view the industry in the future and the impact of corresponding regulations on it?

Min Feng

Thank you for your question. I am Feng Min. Let me answer your question. For product selection process, Ruhnn is committed to bringing the best products and the best services to our consumers. We have a selection team of nearly 100 persons and we refuse any product in low quality without certificates or documents to enter into the KOL product pool. All the products must provide certificates, registration certificates, brand merchandise certificates, as well as the sales authorization certificate et cetera. After a very strict screening in the early stage our KOLs will conduct product selection again by themselves. They will personally try out the products, give very strict supervise and control the quality. We also have a professional customer service team helping to coordinate between consumers and merchants, urge merchant to provide solutions to consumers.

Ruhnn will evaluate and select our KOLs from the aspects of their professionalism, personal value, to add tolerance et cetera. We also provide our KOLs with all necessary training and require them to follow all relevant laws and regulations from the government or administration, and ask them to abide by the normal social order, and deliver more positive energy to our supplies.

Just recently, we are working with the administration for market regulation of province to launch the green live streaming in China, to promote a strict selection of quality products and operation and regulated industry standards. We actively support all the relevant laws and regulations in the e-commerce live streaming sector from the administration. And we'll cooperate with other large players in the sector for healthy and orderly development of the e-commerce live streaming industry. Thank you.

Sterling Song

Operator?

Operator

As there are no further questions, now I'd like to turn the call back over to the company for closing remarks.

Sterling Song

Thank you, operator. Thank you everyone. Thank you again for joining us today. And if you have any further questions, please feel free to contact the company's Investor Relations department through the contact information provided on our website, or our IR from TPG, Investor Relations. Thank you everyone. Thank you, operator. Thank you. Bye.

Operator

This concludes this conference call.