Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to all viewers online. Today, VTech Holdings Limited is announcing its annual results for the fiscal year ended 31st of March 2013. For your reference, the webcast of this announcement, accompanied by the presentation you will see shortly, will be available on VTech website starting at 10:30 P.M. this evening, Hong Kong time.
Here to present the results, on my left are Mr. King Pang, Executive Director and Group President; Mr. Allan Wong, Chairman and Group CEO of VTech Holdings; Mr. Andy Leung, Executive Director and CEO of our Contract Manufacturing Services; and Ms. Shereen Tong, Group Chief Financial Officer. First of all, Ms. Tong will present the group financial performance. Next, Mr. Pang will reveal the group operations. Mr. Wong will then talk about the group strategies and give his outlook. We will finish our presentation with a Q&A session. Now, may I invite Ms. Tong to open today's presentation. Ms. Tong, please.
Thank you, Grace. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and all viewers online. First of all, I would like to share with you the financial highlights of the group for the year end of 31st of March 2013, compared with the same period last year. As you see from the slide, the revenue of the group rose by 4.1% to $1,858 million, and it was also our record revenue for the third consecutive year. The gross profit of the group rose by 4.7% to $597.8 million, and our gross profit margin also improved from 32% to 32.2%. The increase in gross profit and gross profit margin was mainly due to the decline in material cost, which offset the higher labor cost and manufacturing overheads arising from the increase in wages and production capacity during the fiscal year 2013.
Our operating profit rose by 7.3% to $224.7 million, and our operating profit margin also improved from 11.7% to 12.1%. The increase in operating profit and operating profit margin was mainly due to the increase in gross profit and gross profit margin, as well as the decrease in total operating expenses as percentage of the group's revenue from 20.3% to 20.1%. Our profit attributable to shareholder rose by 5.4% to $202.3 million, and our net profit margin also increased from 10.8% to 10.9%. The increase in net profit and net profit margin was mainly due to the increase in operating profit and operating profit margin, which offset the increase in taxation charges during the fiscal year 2013.
Our basic earning per share rose by 5.1% to $0.189, and our board of directors has proposed a final dividend of $0.64, bringing the total dividend per share for the year to $0.18. Turning to the revenue by region. North America remains the largest market of the group, accounting for 15.2% of the group's revenue. Our sales in North America rose by 3.3% to $933.4 million. The growth in revenue was mainly due to the higher sales of our Electronic Learning Products and the Contract Manufacturing Services business, which offset a decrease in revenue of our telecom products. Our sales to European market rose by 7% to $769.9 million. The sales growth in Europe was largely driven by the higher sales of our Electronic Learning Products and the Contract Manufacturing Services business, which offset a decrease in revenue of our telecom products.
In Asia-Pacific region, the revenue of the group rose by 6.1% to $99.8 million. The increase in revenue was mainly due to the increase in sales of our telecom and Electronic Learning Products, which offset the decrease in revenue of our Contract Manufacturing Services business during the fiscal year 2013. Other regions include Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. The group's revenue in other region reduced by 18.8% to $54.9 million. The decrease in sales in other region was due to the lower sales of all our three product lines compared with the same period of the last year. Our stock balance as at March 31, 2013 increased from $239.2 million to $276.9 million, and our stock turnover day also increased from 82 days to 90 days.
The increase in stock level was mainly to cater for the increased demand of the group's product in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2014. We also have arranged early production of the group's product in order to better utilize the group's production capacities. Our trade debtors balance as at March 31, 2013 increased from $210.6 million to $224.9 million, and the trade debtors turnover days also increased from 56 days to 62 days. The increase in trade debtor balance was mainly due to the increase in revenue in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2013, compared with the same period last year. We have tight management on our credit exposure, and the amounts with overdue balance greater than 30 days only account for 1.8% of the group's gross trade debtor balance as at March 31, 2013. Our financial position remains very strong.
We were debt-free, and our net cash balance as at March 31, 2013 was $308.6 million, a decrease of 5.5% compared with the last fiscal year-end day. The decrease in net cash balance was mainly due to the increase in working capital compared with the same period last year. That's all of my presentation. I would now invite Mr. King Pang to share with you our operation review. Mr. Pang, please.
Thank you, Shereen. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and to our viewers online. Like in previous years, I like to start my operations report with some comments on the cost environment that we saw in the previous fiscal year. As you have heard from Shereen, we have seen a definitely ease off of material cost pressure. Unfortunately, replacing it is stronger headwinds on our manufacturing costs and factory overheads. We continue to do automation and design optimization to reduce the amount of workers we need for our factories. But in spite of that, we still have to raise workers compensation and benefits to remain competitive. During the last year, we have also stepped up our investments in our factory for improving workers' working and living environments. All this will position ourselves very well to maintain a stable and capable workforce. I will now turn to our operations report.
First, North America. Revenue in North America increased by 3.3% to $933 million. This region continues to be the largest market for the group and accounts for 50.2% of group's revenue. As you heard from Shereen, higher revenues from Electronic Learning Products and Contract Manufacturing Services offset lower revenue from our telecoms products. During this fiscal year, our telecoms products revenue was down by 6.2% to $389 million. This decline was mainly due to lower sales of residential phones products. If you remember, during early summer, the first half of our fiscal year, at which direction the U.S. economy was going was still very uncertain, and we have definitely seen a drop in sales. Luckily, there has been a little more direction, albeit slow, in the U.S. economy growth. Thereby, we have seen some pickup in sales during the second half of the fiscal year.
As a result, there was a narrowing of year-on-year decline in the second half in our telecommunications products compared to the first half. During this fiscal year, we continued to maintain our number one position in the U.S. in cordless and corded telephone. Sales of our non-residential phone products continue to grow. We have seen a full year of shipment of our hotel phone products. We have also seen strong sales in baby monitors and in cordless headsets. During the year, we have also seen the launch of our new four-line small and medium business phone system, as well as CareLine, our home safety telephone system for seniors. These two products have seen very good receptions from the market. Revenue for Electronic Learning Products rose by 17.3% to $361 million. This increase was broad-based, driven by both platform and stand-alone products.
Our tablet designed specifically for children, InnoTab, was the engine of this growth for platform products. In this fiscal year, we have seen a full year of shipment of this tablet product, and also we have introduced three second-generation tablets during the fiscal year: InnoTab 2, InnoTab 2S with Wi-Fi, and InnoTab Baby for children from one to nine years old. During the year, we have also significantly expanded our software library to include more than 400 titles, including cartridges and download apps in English and French languages. Just a minor reminder, the French language titles are being consumed in the French-speaking part of Canada. Because of the popularity of tablets, our other two platform products MoviGo and V.Reader have suffered a little bit, and we have seen some decline in sales. Turning to stand-alone products.
Growth in North America for standalone products were mainly driven by infant products and the new Switch & Go Dinos line. The Switch & Go Dinos line is a line of preschool products that switches between dino mode and vehicle mode. They were introduced in May of last year, and we have seen strong sales through the holiday season. Infant products also did well, especially the Go! Go! Smart Wheels line as well as a couple of our individual products. Contract Manufacturing Services revenue grew 1.3% to $182 million. We have seen sales increase in professional audio equipment, our largest category in this region, mainly due to our customers burning through their inventory and starting reorders. We have also seen solid growth in industrial products and commercial solid-state lighting products as existing customers increase their orders.
Home appliances have also seen revenue increase, and this was offset by lower sales of internet phone products due to a change in inventory control policy by the customer in this particular category. Turning now to Europe. Group's revenue grew by 7% to $769 million. Europe accounts for 41.4% of group's revenue. As Shereen Tong has reported, like in North America, in this region, growth was led by Contract Manufacturing Services and Electronic Learning Products, and this offset lower revenue from our telecoms products. First, on telecoms products. Revenue declined by 5.5% to $203 million. Like in North America, sales drop was due to lower sales of residential phone products. We have seen more drops during the first half than the second half when our customers reorder. However, due to the uncertain economy, this is still a very challenging market.
During this year, in spite of the severe market condition, we maintained our position as the largest manufacturer of cordless phones in Western Europe. Sales of our non-residential phone products continue to grow. This include, again, hotel phone products, baby monitor, connected home devices, as well as internet access devices. Electronic Learning Products. Electronic Learning Products in this region grew 6.8% to $331 million. This revenue reported in US dollars terms was impacted negatively by a lower average euro to US dollar exchange rate during the fiscal year. Again, Storio 2, our children's education tablet, Switch & Go Dinos, and infant products were the growth drivers. During this fiscal year, Storio 2 was marketed to all our major markets in Western Europe, and it performed extremely strongly, ending the calendar year 2012 being the number one selling toy among the top five European markets reported by NPD.
It was also during this calendar year 2012 that we became the largest infant toy manufacturer by retail dollars value in the five biggest European markets for toys. Higher sales were seen in the U.K., in France, and in Germany. In Benelux countries, while revenue was higher year-on-year in euro terms, because of the impact on exchange rate, we have seen a decline in US dollars terms. Contract Manufacturing Services. Revenue grew by 21.4% to $235 million. This strong growth was driven by almost all product categories, including medical and health products, wireless headset, where our customer introduced new products into the market. We have also benefited from their consolidation in contract manufacturing vendors. We have also seen growth in switching mode power supplies and professional audio equipments. The only category where we have not seen growth for Contract Manufacturing Services in Europe is industrial equipments.
Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific revenue grew by 6.1% to almost $100 million. This region accounts for 5.4% of group's revenue. Our telecommunications revenue in this region grew by 27.7% to $37.8 million. This growth was driven mainly from Japanese customers as they enter the second year of their recovery from the tragic 2011 earthquake. We have also seen higher sales in Australia with the introduction of a new line of telephone products in that country and wider listing of these products. Electronic Learning Products revenue in this region increased by 11.4% to almost $20 million. This increase was driven by higher sales of standalone products in China, Japan, and Korea. Australia, our largest market for Electronic Learning Products in this region, dropped slightly. Contract Manufacturing Services in Asia Pacific revenue decreased by 9.6% to $42.5 million.
We have seen higher sales in China through our dedicated manufacturing facilities in our factory. We have been able to support domestic shipment of our industrial lighting customer, thereby driving this growth. However, this growth was not sufficient to offset lower revenues in Japan, where we have seen lower sales in LED lighting as well as in health and medical equipment. Lower sales was also seen in Korea, where our customer there for Bluetooth speakerphones have seen very severe competition in the market, and therefore reducing their orders to us. Other regions. Other regions fell by 18.8% to $54.9 million. This region accounts for 3% of group's revenue. Lower sales were seen by all product lines in this region. Our telecommunications product sales dropped by 22% to $35.6 million.
Our Electronic Learning Products was down 10.6% to $18.6 million. This being a very small market for our Contract Manufacturing Services, we have seen a 12.5% drop to a little less than $1 million in sales. This concludes my operations report. I will now ask Mr. Wong to come share with us our strategies for growth and outlook for the coming year. Allan.
Thank you, King, and hello to everyone here who is watching online. I would like to take you through our growth strategies and outlook for the fiscal year. VTech has very strong fundamentals, and we intend to build on these with a strategy centering on our four growth drivers, namely product innovation, gain in market share, geographic expansion, and operational excellence. In terms of innovation products, this remain the most important in driving our sales growth, and this is true in all regions and across all product lines. In telephone products, we have launched the world's first home entrance monitoring system, combining a versatile cordless phone with a digital video doorbell, and we have launched this in April of 2013 in the U.S. This innovation shows that VTech is once again a pioneering market leader in terms of technology with its proprietary technology of video on DECT.
In addition, we will expand the well-received CareLine products, which Dr. King has mentioned earlier, which is our home safety telephone system for the seniors in North America. We are also developing our first wireless conferencing system featuring proprietary acoustic technology, which will be available by the end of the current fiscal year. In Europe, our SIP protocol phones for commercial use will be launched in September of this year. Other new products in the pipeline for the region include a range of new application based on the DECT ULE, which stand for ultra-low energy platform. Internationally, we are also planning to launch an enhanced versions of our video baby monitors and new hotel telephones. VTech's strategy for Electronic Learning Products is to apply the latest proven technology to innovative educational toys that help kids learn and develop through fun and smart play.
Our line of children's education tablets, in which King has also covered, will be upgraded to a new generation in this fiscal year, offering advanced functionalities and rich learning experience to the children between one and nine years old. By the end of the calendar year 2013, our worldwide software library will comprise close to 70 software cartridges and over 1,000 applications in five languages. These will offer a wide variety of age-appropriate content, from e-books and learning games to music, video, and creative activities. We will continue to introduce innovative products to our core infant and preschool lines. A new generation of KidiZoom, our market-leading line of children's digital cameras, will be launched again in this fiscal year. Beyond the learning aisles, our successful Switch & Go Dinos and Go! Go! Smart Wheels lines will be expanded with more dinos, vehicles, and play sets.
Products mean services at CMS, and innovation in services is how we keep our customer base growing. With a stringent quality management system and experienced staff, our CMS operation has the expertise to produce, optimize, and successfully launch products for different markets. In addition to its recognized strength in DFM, which stands for design for manufacturing, and flexibility in services, our CMS has the unique manufacturing know-how in certain product categories that has made the CMS a market leader. Our dedicated manufacturing facility, which King also have mentioned earlier, was an important investment for the CMS division, and it has helped our customers to reduce logistic and custom clearance cost when distributing their products in China. Despite the challenging economic environment, we expect that VTech will continue to gain market share across our product lines.
In telephone products, VTech is the world's number one manufacturer of cordless phones, with leadership in both the U.S. and Western Europe. We are also the largest supplier of ELPs from infancy to preschool in the U.S. and Western Europe. This is a position we have achieved through our commitment to product innovation. Our CMS continue to increase its market share globally. According to the Manufacturing Market Insider, our CMS ranked 27th among the world's top 50 EMS producers in the calendar year 2012. This is up from 29th in calendar year 2010 and 37th in calendar year 2009. In terms of geographic expansion, our strategy is to grow outside our core North America and European markets where we already enjoyed leadership position. We are making inroads gradually in those other markets.
It is a strategy that offers tremendous growth potential because Asia Pacific and other regions account for less than 10% of the total group revenue in the last fiscal year. In Asia Pacific, China will continue to be our focus. We are also increasing our presence in Australia, our largest market in the region, and Japan. Our effort in other regions will center on key markets like the Latin American market and the Middle East. The ability to offer innovative feature-rich products at affordable prices really underpins VTech's success. We know that rising labor cost, together with higher manufacturing overheads, will pose continued challenges to the group in the current fiscal year. We will continue to mitigate cost pressure through further innovation, further automation, product optimization, and process improvements. As always, we will manage our operating costs diligently and maintain a lean company structure.
I would like to turn to my view of the outlook for the year. Looking ahead, we think that the macroeconomic environment will remain challenging for fiscal year 2014. The U.S. economy recovery is expected to continue, but it is likely to remain slow. In Europe, the picture is mixed and uncertain. Despite these challenges, we are optimistic of achieving revenue growth across all our product lines in the fiscal year 2014. Material costs, meanwhile, are forecast to be steady. However, labor costs and manufacturing overheads are expected to increase further. With the efficiency gains we are targeting through higher automation, product optimization, and process improvement, we expect our gross profit margin to remain stable. Looking briefly at our three core product lines, the growth in telephone product is expected to be driven by market consolidation in the U.S. and also higher sales in Asian Pacific and other regions.
The prospect for Europe, however, remains uncertain. Revenue growth in the ELPs will be supported by a strong base of continued products as well as new platform and standalone products that we plan to launch worldwide in this fiscal year. A special focus for the current fiscal year is to drive a strong increase in sales of our software cartridges and download apps. The increase in CMS will be driven by new customers, while business with existing customers will remain stable.
CMS will continue to expand in Japan and Germany while adding the new business area of testing and measuring equipment. Lastly, I would like to conclude by saying that VTech has an enviable track record in product development, a strong balance sheet, market leadership position, and efficient operations. The solid executable plans we have in place should enable us to seize growth opportunities and generate higher return for our shareholders. Thank you