Li Ning reported earnings more than doubled in the year ended December 31 as sales grew 56 percent.
Sales reached RMB22.6 billion against RMB14.5 billion a year ago. Revenues grew 50 percent to RMB9.5 billion in footwear, 60.5 percent to RMB11.8 billion in apparel and 64.9 percent to RMB1.24 billion in equipment and accessories.
Li Ning wrote in its statement, “With the effective pandemic prevention and control measures launched by the Chinese government, pandemic containment was normalized across the nation. At the same time, healthy lifestyle and sports remained public hot topics in regards of the Tokyo Olympic Games and the then-upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, coupled with the increasing recognition and support for domestic sports brands among Chinese consumers, Li Ning was presented with a good opportunity to enhance its brand influence. Capturing such an opportunity, the Group continued to enhance its professional brand image through diversified marketing campaigns and product upgrades driven by technological innovation. Meanwhile, remaining focused on the needs of the end-consumers, it recorded solid revenue from all channels:
- for direct operation channel, the Group proactively launched big stores with high efficiency including flagship stores, while continuing to optimize the visual image of stores and consumers’ sports experience. Further with the macroeconomy of pandemic recovery and high popularity of domestic goods, sell-through from directly-operated stores increased drastically by 53.5 percent year-on-year;
- given that the e-commerce channel is responding closely and swiftly to consumers’ preferences and needs, the Group continued to focus on the big data analysis system and expanded business opportunities and the consumer groups by capitalizing on the emerging livestreaming platforms, which contributed to the revenue growth of 58.4 percent; and
- the significantly-increased sell-through triggered the prompt response of franchised distributors, resulting in the increase in orders and execution rate of futures orders and a boosted sales revenue of 56.7 percent during the year, while the brand influence and market coverage were further enhanced.”
Net profit attributable to equity holders increased by 136 percent to RMB4,011 million, and the net profit margin raised from 11.7 percent to 17.8 percent.
Gross profit margin expanded by 3.9 percentage points to 53.0 percent. During the year, new product discount rates improved in both online and offline channels, and the sell-through ratio of new products continued to increase. Enhanced operating leverage helped drive operating profit margin up by 7.6 percentage points to 22.8 percent.
Operating cash flow increased by over 136 percent to RMB6,525 million.
Li Ning’s Board has recommended payment of a final dividend of RMB45.97 cents per ordinary share of the Company issued or to be issued upon conversion of convertible securities for the year ended 31 December 2021 (2020: RMB20.46 cents).
Photo courtesy Li Ning
