Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Sa Sa's Investor Presentation for the year ended 31st of March 2023. All amounts quoted in Hong Kong dollars. The group's turnover only edged up by 2.6% to about HKD 3.5 billion for the full financial year, mainly due to lockdowns imposed in some cities and districts in Mainland China and the Macau SAR, to cope with the pandemic outbreaks. Even before the reopening of the Hong Kong and SAR, Macau SAR's boundaries with Mainland China, and before the return of tourists, the group had already turned around its business. For the full financial year, the group recorded a profit of HKD 58.2 million.
During the year under review, net cash on hand increased to HKD 270 million, which, together with available borrowing facilities of HKD 440 million, gives our total available funds of HKD 740 million, adequate for our operating needs. Within this, cash generated from operating activities increased significantly to about HKD 140 million. The Hong Kong and Macau SAR still accounted for the largest share of the group's business, and the online and offline operations there contributed about HKD 2.6 billion to sales revenue, or about 74.4% of the group's turnover. The locals still account for the majority of the customers in the Hong Kong SAR market. We capitalized on the improved customer sentiment and the Consumption Voucher Scheme by refreshing the group's own brands and the product mix, and by launching effective theme-based promotional campaigns.
All these initiatives boosted the group's same-store sales in Hong Kong SAR. We anticipate that the gradual return of the Mainland Chinese tourists will bode well for our business in the Hong Kong SAR, as beauty products are our favorite item in their shopping basket. In Macau, tourism has always been a pillar of the local economy. Since the reopening of the border, the Mainland Chinese tourists have been returning to Macau faster than they have been returning to Hong Kong SAR. Driving up the group's sales in Macau SAR by 70.5% year-on-year, to HKD 260 million in the fourth quarter, or 77% of the pre-pandemic levels. The group continued to position its store network for market recovery. Offline same-store sales in Hong Kong SAR increased by 26.6%, despite a net decrease of 6 stores to 70.
Even before the reopening of the city's boundary with Mainland China, the group had already recorded growth in monthly same-store sales during the first three quarters. In the fourth quarter, the group's monthly same-store sales surged by 59.3% on the back of tourism's return. These rentals for Hong Kong and Macau SARs reduced to 16.1% of turnover for the year, from 21.6% in the previous year, while this had reduced to 11.5% by quarter four. Thanks to increasing customer adoption of new retail formats, the group's total online sales in Hong Kong, Macau, SARs grew by 26.4% year-on-year to HKD 230 million. Online penetration has improved rapidly since pre-pandemic period, and increased to 8.9% from 0.1% in the financial year of 2018-2019.
During the financial year, the group's online business recorded total turnover of about HKD 600 million, down by 13.5% year-on-year. The pandemic outbreak in Mainland China, coupled with the strength of the Hong Kong dollar against a basket of other currencies, including the renminbi, posed challenges for the group's gross profit margin. All these led to a loss in the online business. In addition to the pandemic's severe disruption to Mainland China's cross-border logistics arrangements, the country's restrictions on fragrance imports and delays in the delivery of goods are resulting in a spike in order cancellations and sales returns during the first half of the financial year, which also weighed on the group's online sales performance. In Mainland China, the group adopted a cost control strategy and closed down loss-making stores in order to retain its strength.
The abatement of the pandemic and the improvement of consumer sentiment led to a recovery in the group's offline sales in the fourth quarter. The group's number of stores decreased to 37 in the fourth quarter of the financial year, from 77 in the same period of the previous financial year, while its same-store sales grew by 5.1% year-on-year. This reflected high operational efficiency and the effectiveness of our membership program. The overall operating loss in the second half of the financial year narrowed significantly to HKD 0.9 million, from HKD 43.6 million in the first half of the financial year. The group's full year loss in Mainland China decreased by 69.2% to HKD 44.5 million. In Malaysia, the government changed its pandemic strategy and relaxed its pandemic measures. Meanwhile, the group aggressively trimmed operating costs and increased productivity.
Its business in the country rebounded consistently and recovered to 85% of the pre-pandemic levels. During the financial year, the group's operations in Malaysia turned around with a profit of HKD 22.9 million. Looking ahead, we expect the retail sector in our core markets to recover gradually. The recovery in the market will hinge on the revival pace of the retail sector, the impact of changing consumer tastes and the competition between tourist destinations. The group will adopt a mindset and measures oriented towards achieving sustainable profit, including zero-based budgeting and tighter working capital management policies, to significantly lower the break-even point and enhance the group's competitiveness.
If the lease rentals make economic sense, the group will actively expand its store network in Hong Kong and Macau SARs, especially in the tourist areas, so that we will be able to benefit from recovering tourism. As the pandemic has shown signs of abating, the group is shifting focus of the development of its operations in the Hong Kong SAR to offline retail, and is leveraging its store network and customer base to accelerate the development. It also continues to promote and leverage the popularity of buy online, pickup in-store, and engage customers with related promotions. The Mainland China market remains a core focus of the group's long-term strategy. We will focus around exclusive brands and invest to increase the product assortment.
The group will continue to leverage WeChat Mini Program to connect Sa Sa's beauty consultants with customers in Mainland China, and to provide them with personalized product recommendations. This will encourage such customers to shop and purchase online. By integrating the online and offline customer membership programs in Hong Kong, Macau SARs, and Mainland China, the group will be able to collect and analyze the relevant data so as to effectively track consumer preferences and shopping behavior, thus enhancing customer loyalty and repurchase rate. Half of calendar year 2023 has already passed. Sa Sa can see plenty opportunities in the post-pandemic era. Prospects for the retail sector in the group's core markets is improving with a steady recovery in tourism. Moreover, the group has taken appropriate measures to rationalize its store network and increase profitability.
We will capitalize on the recovery in the offline business and at the same time, accelerate the development of OMO to create value for the stakeholders over the long term. Now, I would like to pass the floor to Danny, who will explain the financial operational performance in detail. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Kwok. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, and thank you for joining Sa Sa International Holdings Limited's results presentation for the year ending 31st of March, 2023. I'll be taking you through today's presentation, and there will be time for questions and answers subsequently. Today's agenda will cover our performance highlights, the group's financial performance and position, an overview of our treasury position, and our future outlook. Performance highlights. All amounts quoted from hereon are in Hong Kong dollars.
The group exercised financial discipline during the first half of the year, maintaining financial strength despite the challenging environment, enabling a strong performance and business turnaround during the second half. Three highlights: firstly, with the boundary with mainland China closed, the group focused on local consumption in Hong Kong SAR, providing brand and product category choice to grow local sales. Offline sales in Hong Kong SAR during the first nine months of the financial year ended December 31, 2022, grew 5.4%. Secondly, management of product categories and exclusive brands delivered an 8 percentage point increase in gross margin to 43.5% by Quarter Four from 35.5% in Quarter One.
Coupled with cost structure optimizations, this enabled a performance turnaround for the group in Quarter Three before the reopening of boundary with Mainland China, where we recorded a profit for the quarter of HKD 5 million. Thirdly, gradual opening of boundaries with Mainland China since Quarter Four has seen a return of tourists, boosting sales in Hong Kong and Macau SAR by 60.1% year-on-year. Leveraging operating efficiencies and scalability, the group recorded a profit before tax for the fourth quarter of HKD 98 million at a pre-tax margin of 9.0%. Moving to the group's financial performance.
The group's turnover for the financial year increased by 2.6% to HKD 3.5 billion, while our gross profit margin increased by 3.1 percentage points to 40%, leading to a gross profit dollar and growing at 11.2% to HKD 1.4 billion. Our profit for the year amounted to HKD 58 million, completing the business turnaround from loss for the first half of the year of HKD 133 million and loss for the previous financial year of HKD 344 million. Through managing our working capital and a reduction in inventory by HKD 78 million, the group generated HKD 144 million in cash from operations after lease liabilities. A significant improvement compared to the cash outflow of HKD 275 million last year.
Earnings per share was HKD 0.019, as compared to a loss per share of HKD 0.111 last year. Looking a little more closely at our quarterly performance. Through a combination of focusing on local customers, margin expansion, and cost control measures, we saw a gradual improvement in performance from the first quarter to the fourth quarter, despite the challenging environment and pandemic-related disruptions for the first three quarters of the financial year. This helped the group turn around its financial performance and record a profit of HKD 5 million in Quarter 3 before the return of tourism, the first quarterly profit since the pandemic took hold. The fourth quarter saw a gradual easing of social distancing measures and reopening of boundary with Mainland China, leading to a gradual return of tourism to our core markets of Hong Kong and Macao SAR.
We grew our total sales in the Quarter Four by 30.3% to almost HKD 1.1 billion and recorded a profit of HKD 186 million. The group completed the business turnaround from loss in the first half year of HKD 133 million to an overall profit for the full financial year of HKD 58 million. Looking at our sales performance in different regions. Total sales in Hong Kong and Macao SAR for the financial year amounted to HKD 2.6 billion, accounting for 74.4% of total group sales, growing at 8.7%. Within this, offline sales in Hong Kong SAR grew in all four quarters, peaking at 56% in the fourth quarter from a return of tourists, leading to a respectable growth of 17.4% for the full year.
Our business in Macao SAR was severely hit by a sharp spike in COVID-19 infection cases. Macao SAR, being primarily a tourist destination, is reliant on tourism and open boundaries. Our sales in Macao SAR decreased in the first three quarters by 35%, before jumping 71% in the fourth quarter with the reopening of boundary with Mainland China. COVID-19 had a major impact on the group's operations in Mainland China, causing our underperformance in that market and total turnover to decrease 31.1% for the financial year, with overall sales mix decreasing 7 percentage points to 14.9%. The pandemic outbreaks in various parts of Mainland China prompted lockdowns in affected cities and towns, lowering foot traffic in our retail stores and forcing a suspension of operations in the worst cases.
For the first three quarters, we lost a total of 758 store operating days. Our online sales in Mainland China were also significantly impacted, as our main warehouse was subject to quarantine, while deliveries into our warehouses and direct deliveries to customers were subject to uncertain delays. Our offline sales in Southeast Asia is via our portfolio of 70 stores in Malaysia. Offline sales continued to rebound, growing 65% for the full of financial year and recovering to 85% of pre-pandemic levels, despite only 70 stores, compared to 81 stores pre-COVID. Our online business in Southeast Asia, reaching Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, grew 9% to HKD 72 million. Looking at our store portfolio, there was a net reduction of 48 stores during the financial year to 186.
40 closures were in Mainland China as part of our rightsizing project, brought about by the uncertainty from the pandemic and related social distancing measures in half one. Given the persistence and severity of the pandemic and weak consumer sentiment, the optimal strategy was to retain our strength and retain only those stores having positive contribution. Our medium long-term market objectives for Mainland China remain unchanged. In Hong Kong, we closed two stores in tourist areas and three non-tourist areas, and relocated two stores in the first half of the year. One further store was closed, pending relocation post-year-end. Our footprint comprised 70 stores in Hong Kong, nine in Macau, 70 in Malaysia, and 37 in Mainland China. Our objective is to pay reasonable rent for a network of well-located stores that complement our overall OMO strategy.
We will continue to improve our store locations and manage rental cost expense as a % of sales. With this in mind, and the return of tourism since the beginning of calendar year 2023, we opened three stores after the year-end, two of which were located in tourist areas. Looking a little more closely at our operations in Hong Kong, Macau, SAR. Total online and offline sales in Hong Kong, Macau, SAR was HKD 2.6 billion, of which 8.9% was online. During the first nine months of the year, while COVID-19 cases increased in Hong Kong, SAR, consumer sentiment towards COVID-19 began to relax. The government continued with the Consumption Voucher Scheme to bolster local consumer spending.
While we saw the positive impact to local retail spending diminishing each time as the amount of CVS reduced, we leveraged these occasions to maintain our sales momentum. The group's business in the Macau SAR, for the first nine months ended 31st December 2022, was severely hit by intermittent COVID-19 outbreaks and tightening of social distancing measures that led to a significant decline in tourist visitors. As Macau SAR relies on tourism, social distancing measures, including lockdowns, had a far-reaching impact. Following the gradual reopening of the boundary with Mainland China in the fourth quarter, the number of Mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong, Macau, SAR, picked up. Sales in Hong Kong, Macau, SAR, in the fourth quarter increased by 60.1% year-on-year, with tourist mix reaching 43.3%, compared to 26.5% for the full year.
Total offline sales for the year had recovered to 33.5% of pre-pandemic levels. This was in line with expectations and provides confidence in the ongoing performance of the group. Moving to our financial position. Following added focus on our category management, despite increasing inventory of top-selling SKUs ahead of the continued return of tourism, we actively reduced our total inventory holding by 11%, or HKD 79 million to HKD 669 million. Inventory turnover was reduced accordingly by 11 days to 116 days. Absolute accounts payable was HKD 330 million, while credit days increased by 10 days to 57 days. This increase reflects the gradual scaling up of inventory purchases to meet the demand from the ongoing return of tourism. Looking at our treasury position.
As at the year-end, our net cash on hand, after deducting borrowings of HKD 30 million, increased by HKD 79 million to HKD 273 million. After repaying loans of HKD 72 and a half million during the year, unutilized facilities as at the year-end amounted to HKD 440 million, giving total accessible funds of HKD 743 million, which is fully adequate for our needs. Included in unutilized facilities were unutilized banking facilities of HKD 240 million, and a revolving loan facility of HKD 200 million from the controlling shareholders of the group, demonstrating their support and confidence in the long-term prospect for the group's business. Net cash inflow from operations, after deducting lease liabilities for the year, was HKD 144 million, significantly more than the profit for the year of HKD 58 million.
This was also a significant turnaround from the net cash outflow from operations of HKD 275 million the previous year. Hong Kong and Macau, SARs. For Hong Kong, SAR, we are actively increasing our store network, with focus turning to tourist locations, contingent upon availability of reasonable rental rates. Post year-end, we signed a total of 3 new leases, 2 in tourist areas, taking our portfolio to 73 stores in Hong Kong, SAR. We are confident in continued growth momentum in Hong Kong, Macau, SAR markets. I conclude this presentation.