BEST Inc (BEST) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by and welcome to BEST Inc's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the management's prepared remarks, there will be a Q&A Session.

With us today are Johnny Chou, BEST Inc's Chairman and CEO; and Gloria Fan, Chief Financial Officer. For today's agenda, Johnny will be giving a brief overview of business and operational highlights. Then Gloria will explain the details of financial results. Following the prepared remarks, you may ask your questions. Please note this call is also being webcast on BEST Inc.'s IR website, at ir.best-inc.com. A replay of this call will be available after the call. An investor presentation is also available on the IR website.

Before we begin, I will read the safe harbor statement on behalf of BEST Inc. Today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations. They involve inherent risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the management's control. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, as a result of new information, future events or others, except as required under applicable law. Please also note, that certain financial measures that the company uses on this call, are expressed on a non-GAAP basis, such as EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net loss. The GAAP results and the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures can be found in BEST Inc's earnings press release. Finally, please note that unless otherwise stated, all the figures mentioned during this conference are in RMB.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Johnny Chou, Chairman and CEO of BEST Inc. Johnny, Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining BEST's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2021 Earnings Call today. We expect to exit the year with a leaner and a more focused organization, as well as a much stronger capital base to support our sustainable growth and future profitability.

In the fourth quarter, we successfully transferred our express delivery business in China to J&T Express China. Thanks to the collaborative efforts from both parties, we are now better positioned to reach our next level of growth with our refined strategies. Our new beginning in 2022, is underpinned by our core competencies in freight, integrated supply chain management and Global logistics solutions.

Before I dive into our plans for the year in each of the segments, let me first walk you through our recent developments and our operational performance during the fourth quarter. Starting with BEST Freight; here, we remain focused on reducing costs, investing in network coverage and improving service quality. Further development of Freight's e-commerce-related business proved fruitful. As we continue to build out this offering, e-commerce is becoming an increasing important part of our business, and contributed approximately 22% of total volume during the fourth quarter, up 5 percentage points year-over-year.

We continue to be impacted by the challenging macro environment, such as continuous impact of COVID-19, increasing oil price and other challenges. This along, with the difficulty in express operations, impacted freight performance since Freight and Express shared certain franchisees and suppliers. Freight volume decreased by 8.2 percentage year-over-year in the fourth quarter, but this volume for the full year increased by 9.8% year-over-year.

With the smooth handover of Express business in China, many of our resources were freed up, and we began navigating our clear growth path. We've significantly improved the balance sheet by December. BEST Freight significantly rebounded narrowing its net loss by 50% on a month-over-month basis.

Moving on to BEST Supply Chain Management; during the quarter, we contributed to prioritize higher margin -- continued to prioritizing high-margin accounts, and grow our franchise of cloud OFCs network in preparation for new customers' acquisition. As a result of discontinuing certain low-margin legacy customers, the total number of orders fulfilled by Cloud OFC decreased by 9.4% year-over-year to RMB 123.3 million in the fourth quarter. Out of our total OFC orders, the total number of orders fulfilled by franchise Cloud OFCs were RMB 74.4 million, up 11% year-over-year.

The one-off costs incurred by discontinuing lower-margin accounts also affected supply chain's gross margin in the fourth quarter, which decreased by 0.5 percentage points year-over-year. We are confident that these are the right short-term trade-offs leading to our long-term gains. We have freed up resources and management bandwidth, so we can better focus on actively pursuing opportunities that will maximize long-term shareholder value.

Turning to be BEST Global; we made solid progress with Global's cross-border and local business in Southeast Asia, achieving continuous volume growth and margin expansion in these geographies during the quarter. Despite ongoing impact of COVID-19, Global's parcel volume in Southeast Asia increased by approximately 57% to RMB 44 million, with much improved economics of scale from increased market share and continued improvements in service quality and cost control.

Global's gross margin expanded by approximately 3 percentage points year-over-year. With respect to UCargo and Capital, we are in the process of winding down these business lines, as part of our strategic refocused plan, to realign our business around our core competencies.

With a review of the fourth quarter, let's talk about our plans going forward. As we progress in 2022, we see growing market demand for integrated smart supply chain logistics services solutions. Here, we can provide data enabled and technology-driven solutions, that efficiently address different industry pain points and empower customers' business operations. With a more focused organization and significantly strengthened balance sheet, we are well positioned to expand our growth by providing our customers, their product offerings and improved service quality. We will continue to invest in advanced technologies and equipment upgrades, that further optimize our integrated supply chain-based logistic services.

First, for Freight. We will further solidify our industry-leading position. Our ongoing emphasis on e-commerce related business offers better pricing and leverages natural synergies with our supply chain management. We are focused on improving our service quality and growing our volume. Specifically, we expect to improving operating efficiency, through optimized routing, well utilizing our hubs and sortation centers, along with a further investment in automation. With the Express handover largely completed, Freight has regained the network and franchisees' stability, that provides a firm foundation for the service quality, customer experience and future growth. We expect to achieve revenue growth of 15% to 20% for freight in 2022.

Next, on the supply chain management, is where we started and continue to be one of our core competencies. In 2022, we will focus on expanding our supply chain services to high-quality customers and to higher-margin industry, including pharmaceuticals and auto parts. At the same time, we will continue growing our Cloud OFC network and Cloud distribution capabilities. While we discontinued our lower-margin legacy accounts, we expect revenue from this segment to be relatively flat in 2022 versus 2021, but profitability will improve year-over-year.

As for Global, our main focus for 2022 will be on network coverage expansion, service quality and market share growth. We will continue to build out our networks to improve coverage and utilize our supply chain management expertise, to expand our Cloud OFC capability for e-commerce business. We will also enable cross-border end-to-end logistics service among Southeast Asia countries, and continue to increase efficiency and reduce costs in Global's [trade] operations. We expect Global revenue to increase by 45% to 55% in 2022.

In summary, while we have already realized positive impact from the strategic realignment of our businesses, we're looking forward to even greater gain over time. Each of our business units is gaining growth momentum, operating efficiency and realize synergetic opportunities. Looking ahead, we expect our core segment revenue for 2022 to increase by 15% to 20%, and we are rounding the corner for profitability for our freight and the supply chain management business segments.

The stress we have taken put us on the right path to achieve our next level of growth objectives. As we continue to grow, we see a bold future for BEST, our customers, partners, teams and investors.

Now I would like to turn the call over to our CFO, Gloria, for further revenue -- a review of our fourth quarter financials.

Thank you, Johnny, and hello to everyone. The fourth quarter capped off a critical year of decisive business adjustments. To build on the strength of our main business pillars, we have paved the way for BEST's future growth. We completed our transaction with J&T, which has significantly improved our balance sheet. We now have a lower debt level and sufficient cash, allowing us to focus on developing our core business. As of December 31, 2021, our cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments were approximately RMB 5.5 billion.

I will now provide a brief review of our fourth quarter 2021 financial results. Given the limited time on today's call, I will be presenting some abbreviated financial highlights. I encourage you to read through our press release issued earlier today for further details. Please note, as we completed the sale of our China Express business, we are excluding BEST Express' financial results in our financial reports and our year-over-year comparison.

Our revenue for the fourth quarter was RMB 2.7 billion, down about 20% year-over-year. But for the full year, the total revenue was RMB 11.4 billion, up 8.5% year-over-year. The revenue decline in the fourth quarter was primarily due to the winding down of UCargo business and a decrease in freight revenue, partially offset by the growth of Global's revenue. Against the backdrop of macro environment obstacles along with the one-off costs we incurred transitioning to a leaner organization. Our gross loss from continuing operation was RMB 228 million compared to a gross profit of RMB 150 million in the same quarter of 2020. Gross margin percentage was negative 8.4% compared to 3.4% in Q4 last year. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations was negative RMB 635 million compared to negative RMB 167 million in Q4 2020.

Moving on to the key financial highlights for our business units. As Johnny had mentioned, in the fourth quarter, BEST freight was affected by the challenging macro environment and the difficulty in Express operations, since Freight and Express shared certain resources, including franchisees and suppliers. But we are encouraged by the quick and strong recovery in December, after the Express handover was largely completed.

BEST Freight Q4 revenue decreased by 7.4% year-over-year to RMB 1.5 billion primarily due to an 8% year-over-year decrease in freight volume, but it's volume for the full year increased by 10%. Adjusted EBITDA for BEST Freight was negative RMB 248 million, compared to a positive RMB 27.5 million for the same period of last year.

Q4 revenue for BEST supply chain management decreased by 10% year-over-year to RMB 487 million, due to discontinuation of lower margin accounts. This fourth quarter gross margin decreased by 0.6%, primarily due to one off costs incurred by discontinuing such accounts. But the full year gross margin increased by 0.6% to 4%. Adjusted EBITDA for BEST supply chain management was approximately negative RMB 63 million improved from negative RMB 67 million for the same period of last year.

Q4 revenue for BEST Global increased by 30.5% year-over-year to RMB 331 million, driven by the continuing parcel volume growth in Southeast Asia. Adjusted EBITDA for BEST Global was negative RMB 78.8 million, compared to negative RMB 54.7 million for same period of last year.

Q4 revenue for our others segment decreased by approximately 60% year-over-year to RMB 403 million, primarily due to the winding down of our UCargo and the Capital business units. Adjusted EBITDA for others was negative with RMB 212 million.

Our Q4 operating expenses, excluding share based compensation for continuing operations totaled RMB 381 million or 14% of the revenue, compared with RMB 339 million or 10% of the revenue in the same period of last year.

Let's review some major operating expense items in the fourth quarter. Please note all of this expenses exclude share based compensation. Selling, general and administrative expenses for continuing operations were RMB 334 million or 12.3% of the revenue in the fourth quarter, compared to RMB 301 million or 8% of the revenue in the same quarter of 2020. The increase was primarily due to the disposal of certain fixed asset at BEST Capital and expenses incurred in transitioning our China Express business. R&D expenses for continuing operations were RMB 47.1 million or 1.7% of revenue compared to RMB 38 million or 1.1% of the revenue in the same quarter of last year, primarily due to additional expense incurred in transition of our China Express business. For more of our 2021 full year financial results, please refer to our earnings release for further details. Moving forward, we will continue to focus on improving our operating efficiency by maximizing our cost synergies among our business units, as well as optimizing corporate spending.

And now for our business outlook based on current operations and the market conditions, we expect to 2022 revenue from our core business, Freight, supply chain management and the global to be between RMB 10 billion to RMB 12 billion. This represents our current and preliminary estimates, which are subject to change. We are excited to start fresh and transition to a year of growth in 2022, guided by our clear strategic roadmap, sufficient capital and efficient organization.

This concludes our fourth quarter financial update. We will now open the call to your questions. Thank you. Operator, we are ready for our first question.

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Thomas Chong with Jefferies.

I have 2 questions. So first, how should we think about the competitive landscape in the domestic freight and supply chain market? Or do we have any market share data to share? And my second question is how should we expect the cost and margin, considering the high oil price?

Okay. Regarding to the Freight, I think Freight has been growing in many years of faster than economics, basically driven by several things, one is continued growth on the e-commerce that the larger bulky items, that traditionally being used for the traditional transportation now is being in the freight. So driven by the e-commerce and Tier 3, Tier 4, Tier 5, the lower tier cities growth, they will all drive for the freight. The other is that, we have seen the last year or 2, the concentration on the volume -- on the business to top tier players.

So the economical skills have been showing, and this actually we see the landscape for the last year, especially for the later part of the fourth quarter and pricing is also coming back gradually that -- partially due to the concentration on the top players on that. So we have -- BEST Freight has been -- we are the one that are the most -- the earliest players for this segment or this market. We started on 2012. So we still maintain a very good leading position in this market. So we're expecting, we will continue to grow faster than the market. So as we said, we are expecting about 15% to 20% growth there.

On the supply chain side, the general -- right now, the development of e-commerce are more fragmented, more and more the direct streaming, broadcast which is streaming everything else, and customers require more integrated solutions. In there, we see more outsourcing for manufacturers and brands of their supply chain and logistic needs. They'll provide us a pretty good strong drive for the new customer base for people that -- for brands that want to have a more outsourced integrated services.

On the cost and the gross margin side, and the cost actually on one side, the general trend is the costs being increasing, specifically on the -- number one, on the oil price. Actually in 2021, the oil price has also increased significantly from 2020. And again, this year, right now, we're seeing a fair bit of increase in oil price. Second is the labor cost. As the industry is getting more and more mature and also the macroeconomics, actually the labor costs is also being increased somewhat, and it's harder to find more workers on that level.

To compensate for that and there's a few things we need to do. One is that, as we can see that this year, especially I have seen the January to March now, the pricing -- the ASP has increased somewhat. Number 2 is that, we have to use more of the automation, and this year we have a plan for 50% of -- more than 50% of our major sorting center will be partially semi-automated to increase the efficiency, reduce the labor cost.

The other side is that we will -- this year, we will be using more of our self-operated fleet to reduce the transportation cost. Overall, I think we will have to -- balancing the books of pricing on ASP side, as well as the cost reduction measure, especially in the labor cost, as well as the transportation cost.

(Operator Instructions) As there are no more questions, this concludes our Question-and-Answer Session. I would like to turn the conference back to Johnny Chou for any closing remarks.

Thank you, operator. Thank you for joining our call today. As always, we appreciate your support. Please reach out to our Investor Relations team if you have any further questions. We invite you to watch our progress, and we look forward to speaking to you soon. Thank you very much.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.