Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Luk Fook Group Fiscal Year 2023 Annual Results Announcement presentation. Please also note, today's event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference call over to Ms. Joanne Ho. Please go ahead, Joanne.
Thank you, Ray. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us for our investor and analyst presentation to discuss our annual results for the financial year 2023. I'm Joanne Ho with Luk Fook, investor relations Department, and I'm joined by Dr. Kathy Chan, Executive Director and CFO of the group. As usual, we will go through the corporate presentation materials, which will be synchronized with the webcast, and it also has been already uploaded onto our corporate website. After that, we will go into Q&A. You can ask questions through chat box or dial-in, or we encourage participants to dial-in to facilitate a more engaging and interactive Q&A session. Now, I would like to turn it over to your presenter today, Cathy.
Thank you, Joanne. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining Luk Fook's 2023 annual results presentation. I would like to start with looking at our financial highlights, followed by financial review, and then our future plans and strategies. The details are recorded in the corporate presentation, which has been uploaded to our website. Let's look at slide 4 about the financial highlights first. The group's revenue increased marginally by 2%, maintaining at around HKD 12 billion. Operating profit decreased by 4.1% to HKD 1.6 billion. The profit attributable to equity holders and basic earnings per share were HKD 1.3 billion and HKD 2.919 respectively, representing a decrease of 7.7% and 7.6% respectively.
Furthermore, the proposed final dividend and annual dividend were HKD 0.55 per share and HKD 1.1 per share respectively, with a dividend payout ratio of 50.3%. As at end of March 2023, the group had a global network of over 3,100 shops, a net growth of 296 shops. Let's go into the details of our financial performance. The group achieved a broadly flat result in first half of FY2023. We had a low base in the second half of the year, resurgence of pandemic in the third quarter caused business performance to fall far below our expectations. The group's business regained momentum in the fourth quarter of FY2023, when the pandemic situation had stabilized.
Since stimulated by the gradually relaxed anti-pandemic measures and fully reopened borders amongst Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland, the retailing business in Hong Kong and Macau resumed to its normalcy, bringing the group's business back on track. During the past financial year, the group's revenue experienced a slight increase of 2% at HKD 12 billion. The overall gross profit margin slightly decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 27% because of the increase in gold sales mix due to its strong demand. The group's gross profit was almost flat at HKD 3.2 billion. Operating profit decreased by 4.1% to HKD 1.6 billion, operating profit margin declined by 0.8 percentage points to 13.2%.
This was due to the reduced government subsidies relating to VAT refunds because of reduced imports of diamonds to mainland, resulting from the lesser diamond sales performance there. Furthermore, during FY2023, with declining interest rates for fixed deposits in mainland, the group took steps to reduce its Hong Kong bank loans or Hong Kong dollar bank loans in order to minimize interest expenses in the high interest rate environment. This resulted in a significant reduction in time deposits in mainland, which in turn led to a notable decrease in net financial, finance income of 80.8%. Therefore, net profit lowered by 7.7% to HKD 1.3 billion, with a double-digit net profit margin at zero, at 10.7%.
Profit attributable to equity holders decreased by 7.7% to HKD 1.3 billion as well. When comparing to the pre-pandemic year of FY2019, the top line of FY2023 was 24.5% lower, and the bottom line was 13.9% lower. With just comparing the fourth quarter of FY2023, the same quarter of FY2019, the performance was very close. We target to achieve pre-pandemic performance in the upcoming year. Slide 7 shows that we maintained a final dividend of HKD 0.55 per share, and an annual dividend of HKD 1.1 per share, with dividend payout ratio of 50.2%.
Our official dividend policy is actually payout ratio of 40%-45%. Please note that annual dividend per share of FY2019 was HKD 1.15, which is higher than the current normal level of HKD 1.1, with payout ratio at its official rate of 45%. Now let's turn to slide 8. The group maintained a healthy inventory level, being flat at around HKD 8.8 billion. We expect a higher inventory level in the upcoming year due to the recovery of the business. The average inventory turnover days increased by 22 days to 378 days due to sluggish demand in ML and lengthened turnover days of diamond products. Despite this, the closing inventory turnover days decreased by 8 days to 380 days.
During the past financial year, bank borrowings decreased by 72%, 72.4% to HKD 540 million, and they were mainly gold loans. It's worth noting that our net cash increased by 17.6% to HKD 1.8 billion, mainly due to less CapEx. We had a double-digit ROE of 10.5% for the year under review. At the end of March 2023, total assets decreased by 8% due to the depreciation of renminbi and the reduction of cash and bank balances under the group's proactive repayment of bank loans. Nevertheless, total equity increased by 1.2% to HKD 12 billion.
The net asset value per share as of the year end increased by 1.2% to HKD 20.8. As you can see on slide 10, all our gross margin, operating margin, and net margin remained at quite a stable level in the past three years. Let's look at slide 11 for revenue and segment profits by market. Revenue from the Hong Kong, Macao and Overseas markets increased by 30.9% to HKD 6.6 billion, accounting for 55% of Group's revenue. This increase was mainly driven by the strong gold demand and rebound of local consumptions in Hong Kong and overseas markets, and the return of Mainland tourists after reopening, the reopening of borders between Hong Kong, Macao and Mainland, especially in the fourth quarter.
Segment profits for this market also saw significant growth, soaring to HKD 577 million, with a 209% increase, accounting for 33.5% of the group's total. With the resurgence of COVID-19, the strict anti-pandemic measures, along with the slower recovery in consumer sentiment as compared to Hong Kong and Macao, the revenue from the Mainland market dropped by 19.6% to HKD 5.4 billion, accounting for 45% of group's total revenue. The segment profit dropped by 26.6% to HKD 1.1 billion, accounting for 66.5% of the total.
Of the effect of mixed performances in Hong Kong, Macao, and Overseas markets and Mainland markets, the group experienced a slight increase in overall revenue, with a slight decrease in segment profits by 2%. Slide 12 shows our revenue and segment profits by business. Retailing business was the main source of revenue of the group. Along with the favorable gold sales and the benefiting from the significant improvement in tourist traffic and spendings in Hong Kong, Macao, after reopening of borders, the group's retailing revenue increased by 18.4% to HKD 8.8 billion. With the recovery of retail sales in Hong Kong and Macao, the segment profit increased significantly by 88.5% to HKD 682 million, accounting for 59.6% of the group's total.
Although the number of licensed shops increased, the group's wholesaling revenue decreased by 30% to HKD 2.2 billion, due to a sluggish demand for diamond products in Mainland, where wholesaling revenue mainly arising from sales of diamond products. This account for 18% of the group's total revenue. The segment profits also decreased by 37.4% to HKD 265 million, accounting for 15.4% of the total. With a slower pace of expansion than prior year and shrinking diamond demand in Mainland, licensing income decreased by 15.9%, HKD 1.1 billion, accounting for 8.8% of the group's total revenue.
The segment profit margin was 73.7%, while its segment profit decreased by 19.5% to HKD 176 million, accounting for 45% of the total. Let's look at the product analysis on slide 13. Because of the strong demand in gold products, there was an increase of 24.6% in sales of gold and platinum products to HKD 6.9 billion, accounting for 63% of the total sales. Please note that the sales amount does not include licensing income. Its gross margin was almost flat at 17.4%. This gross profit therefore increased by 22% to HKD 1.2 billion, accounting for 49.4% of the overall gross profit.
Please keep in mind that this gross profit excludes the gross profit of licensing income from the consolidated gross profit of the group. On the other hand, sales amount of fixed price jewelry products decreased by 18.5% to HKD 4 billion, accounting for 37% of the overall sales amount, due to sluggish demand of the diamond products, especially in Mainland. However, the gross margin fixed price jewelry products increased substantially by 4.9%- 30.3%. This was mainly due to reduced discounts offered to customers and upward adjustments to retail selling prices because of the increasing replenishment cost of fixed price jewelry products. This gross profit therefore increased by 2.7% only, to HKD 1.2 billion, accounting for 50.6% of the overall gross profit.
Let's look at slide 15 for performance in Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas markets. Retailing revenue from the Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas markets increased by 52.5% to HKD 6.5 billion, accounting for 98.2% of this market's total and 54% of the group's total. The segment profit increased significantly by 275.5% to HKD 549 million, accounting for 95.2% of this market's total and 31.9% of group's total, with a segment profit margin of 8.5%.
On the other hand, the wholesaling revenue decreased by 17.3% to HKD 105 million, accounting for 1.6% of this market's total and 0.9% of the group's total. The segment profit decreased by 31.6% to HKD 10 million, accounting for 1.8% of this market's total and 0.6% of the group's total, while the segment profit margin was 9.9%. As the segment profit of wholesaling business included the profit of inter-segment sales to self-operated shops, is including inter-segment sales in the denominator, its segment profit margin will be 0.5%.
Apart from that, Hong Kong licensing income decreased by 34.1% to HKD 16 million, accounting for 0.2% of this market's total and 0.1% of the group's total. The segment profit was HKD 17 million, accounting for 3% of this market's total and 1% of the group's total, and the segment profit margin was 106.5%. For the mainland market, it's mostly affected by the pandemic, and along with the slower recovery of consumer confidence, its retailing revenue decreased by 8.7% to HKD 2.3 billion, accounting for 42.8% of the mainland market's total and 19.3% of the group's total.
The segment profit declined by 38.5%, HKD 133 million, accounting for 11.6% of the ML market's total and 7.7% of group's total. The segment profit margin was 5.7%. Despite the increase in the number of licensed shops, the lesser sales of diamond products, which was the primary source of revenue for wholesaling business in ML markets, caused a 30.8% revenue decline to HKD 2 billion, accounting for 38% of ML market's total. The segment profit declined by 37.6% to HKD 254 million, accounting for 22.2% of ML market's total. The segment profit margin was 12.4%.
As the segment profit of wholesaling business included profit from inter-segment sales to self-operated shops, is including inter-segment sales in the denominator, the segment profit margin will be 12.1%. Due to the impact of the pandemic, the addition of new licensed shops in the Mainland was less than prior years. Together with reduced demand in diamond products, licensing income decreased by 15.6% to HKD 1 billion, accounting for 19.2% of Mainland market's total, and its segment profit decreased by 19.1% to HKD 459 million, accounting for 66.2% of Mainland market's total, and the segment profit margin was 73.2%. Let's look at the retailing revenue analysis on slide 18.
The group's retailing revenue in Hong Kong increased significantly by 57.9% to HKD 4.2 billion for the year, as explained before, for reasons explained before. Overseas market also performed remarkably well, with retailing revenue import increased by 29.7% to reach HKD 0.6 billion. Due to the outstanding performance of the overseas markets, the overseas shops, the group will accelerate the opening of new shops in overseas markets. However, as a result of the resurgence of pandemic, the retailing revenue from Hong Kong Mainland decreased by 6.2% and 8.7% respectively. From the slide, you can also see that the growth of retailing revenue was mainly driven by increase in gold sales in nearly all markets. Slide 19 shows the achievements of our e-commerce business in Mainland.
E-commerce revenue increased by 7.5% to HKD 1.5 billion, and accounted for 63% of retailing revenue in the Mainland and 16.6% of the group's retailing revenue, with ASV increased by 6.7% to HKD 1,600. Let's move on to next slide and take a look at the performance of our self-operated shops. The overall SSSG of the group was +24%, with SSSG for Hong Kong and Macau market at +34% and -17% for the Mainland market. Overall, overarching, sales of gold and platinum products performed much better than fixed price jewelry products. The group's SSG for gold and platinum products was +35% and +2% for fixed price jewelry products for the full year.
Slide 21 shows the Same Store Sales Growth figures for self-operated and licensed shops in different city tiers and regions in mainland. As mentioned before, mainland was mostly affected by the pandemic with slow recovery. Overall, SSG of mainland was - 17% for self-operating shops and - 8% for licensed shops, which performed a little bit better than self-operated shops on the relatively lower base. Let's turn to slide 25. The TOE increased by 3% to HKD 1.9 billion, representing 15.6% of revenue. Given a little slower growth in revenue. The TOE's revenue ratio was 0.2% higher than FY2022. The increase in TOE was mainly driven by the payroll and miscellaneous retailing related expenses. We have 13 new renewals out of 60 shops in FY2023.
The overall renewal reduction was 25%. Within the 30 rental renewals, 12 of them were actually brought forward from the year before under short-term lease of 1 year. There are leases of 36 out of 51 shops to be renewed in FY2024, and 12 of them are actually 1-year term leases from prior year. We have 6 renewals done by end of May 2023, with overall rental increment of around 20%.
When you look at the slide, you can see that we have altogether around 421 million total rental expenses in FY2023. It's around 10% below the level in FY2022, and it's actually around 50% of the level of rental expense, total rental expenses, in FY2019. That's the pre-pandemic level. That's around HKD 785 million. Let's look at slide 27. We didn't have significant CapEx in FY2023. After the year-end, the group purchased an office in Wuhan for around RMB 40 million to meet the needs of its business expansion. In response to our business development, we have been continuously investing in offices located in Shenzhen IBC in recent years.
These offices not only service both back office for the group, but also showrooms for our suppliers, which centralizes them in one location to facilitate easier purchase and replenishment for our licensees. With the popping up of the chance with reasonable purchase price and favorable investment return, the group purchased a hotel in IBC for around RMB 470 million in May 2023. This hotel acquisition helps the group to enjoy synergy with the licenses procurement center located at IBC, as there has been substantial increase in businesses in the area with a significant increase in supplier showrooms. We want to emphasize that the group has no plan to expand its business into the hotel industry. Now let's look at slide 28.
The total losses in relation to the investment operating activities in HKRH and subsidiaries narrowed to HKD 22 million. Let's turn to the group's future plans and strategies, and we will look at slide 30 now. To foster our future business growth, the group has developed a set of three-year corporate strategies before the commencement of FY2023, with mainland market expansion, branding, and operational efficiency as our three main focuses. Slide 31 shows our network expansion. Due to the pandemic resurgence and strict anti-pandemic measures, shop expansion in mainland was delayed. As of end of March 2023, we had a total of 3,105 shops globally, with a net addition of 296 shops.
We have over 3,000 shops in ML, 45 in Hong Kong, 16 in Macau, and 15 overseas. With the reopening of borders among Hong Kong and ML visitors are coming back to Hong Kong. We plan to net add five shops in Hong Kong, especially in tourist areas, and 10 shops overseas in the upcoming year because of the outstanding performance of overseas shops in FY2023. 5 of that, some will be licensed shops, and five of them will be self-operated shops. In the ML market, we remain optimistic about our mid to long-term business prospects, and we focus our expansions there, aiming to net add 300 local shops and 50 sub-brand shops in the upcoming year.
There will still be mostly licensed shops in the fourth and fifth tier cities. In additional e-commerce business, revenue increment target is 10% in FY2024, due to the high base. With strengthened cooperation with various e-commerce platforms in mainland and the establishment of our own platforms, we expect sustainable growth in our e-commerce business. The CapEx budget for FY2024 is expected to be around HKD 550 million, which will be used for premises purchases, shop renovation, and office renovation, purchase of equipment and premises, including the already done acquisition of hotel and office premises in May 2023. Slide 32 provides an overview of local distribution network in mainland.
As of end of March 2023, we had a total of 2,862 local shops, with a net addition of 215 shops during the year under review. As we have mainly focused on opening licensed shops in the fourth and fifth tier cities in recent years, the number of shops in fourth and fifth tier cities accounted for 39.39% of the total, followed by first tier cities, which accounted for 30%. In terms of regions, we had the highest number of shops in southern China, which together accounts for 28.3% of our total number of shops there, followed by northern China, which accounted for 27.3%.
The total retail sales value, including self-operated licensed shops as well as e-commerce, slightly decreased by 2% in Mainland. In terms of the city tiers, first tier cities accounted for 34% of the total, followed by fourth and fifth tier cities, accounting for 32% of the total retail sales value in Mainland. If we divide them by region, Southern China accounted for 37%, and followed by Northern China, which is accounted for 26% of the total. Now, let's look at slide 33. In order to enhance our competitive edge, the group aims to improve in productivity by reexamining supply chain management, implementing full automation, big data management, and data analytics systems. We will also strive to maximize employees' productivity by cultivating and nurturing cultures of continuous improvement and innovation.
Let's look at slide 34 now. To further strengthen our brand image and positioning, we are committed to leveraging innovative approaches and making use of various media. In addition, we are working to enhance our product quality assurance, maximize service quality, improve support for licenses, and adopt a multi-brand and or line strategy to offer products that meet market needs. We are also taking a holistic approach to see smart development opportunities in the middle-class wedding and kid markets, by understanding customers' spending habits. We will continue to attract customers and encourage local consumption through visual merchandising enhancement, cross-selling, boosting, and VIP promotion activities to improve sales and profits.
Given the importance of social media and product promotion, we are allocating more resources to various online media and apps, including RED, TikTok, and Bilibili, to reach out to target customers and catch up with online marketing trends. We are also exploring the enhancements of the offline shopping experience and possibility of crossover collaboration with other industries or brands, to further enhance synergy between our online and offline sales channels. Last but not least, we recognize the importance of environmental protection and climate change, and the increasing awareness of environmental protection among stakeholders, including consumers. As a result, we are setting a long-term goal of carbon neutrality and implementing measures to reduce carbon footprint of our business to enhance our contribution to environmental protection. Now, let's look at the group's branding promotion.
We have integrated strategies to attract top customers and aim to foster high customer loyalty. We are committed to providing our customers with a unique and memorable shopping experience. That's why we've recently introduced various new shop images, aiming at attracting customers of middle class from different segments. These new shop images will help us better connect with our customers and provide them with a more engaging shopping experience. Actually, we have some new shop established in Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay area already. If you have time, you may go to visit those shops to see how we have upgraded the shop images. We've invested in a variety of online marketing activities, aiming at reaching customers in different cities and regions.
These initiatives include participating in exhibitions and organizing near 1,000 pop-up stores and roadshows across various cities. To celebrate the group's milestone of approaching 3,000 shops, we roll out the Share Love and Fun Anniversary promotion campaign, covering a series of online and offline activities, which has achieved exposure to a total of more than 690 million viewers. We are always looking for new ways to increase our market exposure and connect with our customers. That's why we've collaborated with several online media and apps such as RED, TikTok, and Weibo to expand our reach. One example of this collaboration is our Love is Beauty collection, where we featured celebrity Kelly Yi in a live stream on RED.
This partnership allowed us to engage with our audience in a more personalized and interactive way, while also showcasing our products and strengthening our brand image. We launched a series promotion to celebrate Chinese New Year as well. This promotion was huge success, resulting in over 100 million views of our Weibo trending topic. We've upgraded our CRM to a social CRM, which allows us to track customers' spending patterns across various channels. This upgrade has formed the foundation of our WeMedia strategy, which is aiming at creating more personalized and engaging content for our customers. As at the end of March 2023, our membership base has grown to over 5 million, with members contributing 60% of total retail sales.
We believe that this growth is a testament to the strength of our brand and our ability to connect with our customers at a deeper level. We've been working with some reputable partners to expand our brand exposure. We have recognized that Generation Z has a great interest in games, particularly mobile games and eSports. That's why we've created the KPL Champion range for 12 consecutive seasons, which has allowed us to penetrate the market of Generation Z. We've also been a continuous sponsor of medals for the Hong Kong and Beijing Marathon, which is our way of honoring all marathon runners, while promoting sports culture and raising our brand awareness among the middle-class population. This has been an effective way for us to enhance brand communication and connect with our target audience.
Thanks to the low base effect and the reopening of borders among Hong Kong and Macau and the Mainland in the fourth quarter, business in Hong Kong and Macau was on its way to normalcy. Together with the promising gold sales and recovery of local consumption, this SSSG was being maintained at positive growth the year under review. The momentum of recovery in Hong Kong, Macau, continued in the first quarter of FY2024, with SSG of approximately + 70% from April to June 2023. Somewhere around flat for Mainland. The pandemic that caused global disruption is behind us. All walks of life are in gradual recovery. The macroeconomic outlook, especially in Mainland, remains uncertain.
The group will continue to move forward and be pragmatic in expanding our business in Hong Kong, the Mainland, and overseas, with a will to restore our pre-pandemic performance in the upcoming year. This concludes my presentation. Thank you for listening.
Thank you, Kathy. We please open the floor for question now.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you are participants over teleconference call, please press star one one on your telephone keypad to ask a question. To cancel your question, please also press star one one. If you are participants on the webcast platform, please enter your questions into the Q&A box. The first question is: What impact do you expect the uncertain economic outlook in Mainland China to have on the group?
Sorry, it, impact on certain economic outlook in Mainland?
Yes, Kathy.
Is that the question?
Yes.
Actually, you know, the macroeconomic conditions in Mainland is not that good, especially the property market is not really recovered and quite weak at the moment. Normally, if the property market is weak, it would actually affect the sentiment, the consumption sentiment in the region. Basically, we know from various sources, we know that there are savings in Mainland is actually still increasing. That's contrary to our expectation.
Actually, we know that during the pandemic period, actually the savings rate increase and savings increased a lot in Mainland, and we expect there would be kind of a revenge consumption after the pandemic there, but actually it did not happen. Basically, that's why you can see a slower recovery in Mainland as comparing to Hong Kong, Macau markets. That's why I think for the Mainland market, we still need to wait a bit to see a real recovery. At this moment, we don't see a very clear hint on that yet. We hope that the central government would.
The central government is doing a lot of work to encourage consumption or domestic consumption. I think we have to wait to see the real impact of that. Basically, we are more optimistic on the coming performance of the Hong Kong and Macau and overseas markets than the Mainland market.
Thank you, Kathy. Next question comes from teleconference call. It's from, Mavis Hui from DBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi, Kathy.
Hi, Mavis.
Hello, Kathy. Hi. Thanks for my questions. I hope to check with you, as you mentioned just now, about financial performance in January to March this year, more or less catching up with the pre-COVID level already. What about the performance plan for April to June so far? My second question is that, could we have some color on our same-store sales growth guidance for Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland China, respectively, for the current financial year? What about the outlook of our growth margin and EBIT margin this year? My third question is that, on e-commerce, because our revenues is seeing a decelerating pace of growth over the years on a bigger base. What are the plans for us to help re-energizing the segment ahead? Thank you.
Actually, you know, for we have mentioned about the recent April to 25th June, the performance in various markets just now. We can see that actually the in Hong Kong Macau markets, we got something like + 70% in terms of sales growth. That's a very impressive one. Remember that it's actually quite a high base. We've got 100 something percent SSG in the quarter of April to June, in 2023, sorry, 2022. That's why I think it's quite promising for Hong Kong Macau markets in terms of SSSG growth in the first quarter already.
Basically, I think we can expect a quite a good growth for at least double-digit growth for Hong Kong Macau markets. Then for the Mainland markets, in April to 21st June, we've got something like around flattish there. It's actually already better than a negative growth in FY2023. We hope to see a gradually recovering performance in Mainland in the future. Altogether, I think that we should we expect a kind of a double-digit growth for the for the SSSG in FY2024.
Actually, we always like to emphasize that, actually, because we when we look at the latest results and we compare to the, I mean, the latest performance, except actually in the fourth quarter of FY2023, is quite close to FY2019, same quarter. That's why we actually target to restore the pre-pandemic performance. I think we can use the FY2019 as a reference point for our expect or target performance for FY2024.
Then for e-commerce business, actually, you know, during the last financial year, originally we have a target of 20% revenue growth, but in fact, we have only 7.5% in terms of Hong Kong dollar, but actually something like 14% in terms of renminbi. Then, the main reason for the lower growth than our target was because of the serious pandemic there as well. Then for the upcoming year, our target growth is will be 10% for the e-commerce business. Because it's now having quite a high base already as comparing to few years ago.
Actually, when we looked at the recent performance, actually is a bit, is better than 10%, but we don't know, the months after that. Basically, we are. I think the 10% target should be a realistic one for the e-commerce business growth in FY2024.
Right. Thank you. I think you mentioned earlier that we will do a little bit more for the Hong Kong Macau market in terms of online sales. Is it possible to give us a little bit update on that as well?
Yes, we are on our way to establish a e-commerce platform in Hong Kong. Actually, we have online business on HKTVmall already for quite some years, but it's quite a minimal business. Basically, we don't expect that to be helping a lot in terms of growth for the retailing revenue in Hong Kong Macau markets. I guess we may use this as a foundation to extend to overseas customers in future in terms of online business. We are now at a kind of an initial stage for establishing our online business in Hong Kong and markets away from the Mainland market.
Right. Okay. Thank you.
Okay.
Our next question is from webcast participant, whose name is Michelle Chen. Her question is, can you please currently give us your thoughts on guidance of, one, SSSG in ML versus Hong Kong and Macau? Two, margin trends for both markets. Thank you.
Actually, I just mentioned about the good performance in first quarter already, I mean, April to June. Basically, we should expect kind of double-digit growth in FY2023 for Hong Kong Macau markets. For the margin trend, I think actually, when you look at, we have a, we share a slide about the past 5 years margin trend there, and we've got something like quite stable one actually, in terms of gross margin, operating margin, and net margin in the past 3 years. We always emphasize on the quite a kind of stable margin in our business. We should expect our margin to be quite stable actually, especially the operating margin and net margin, as shown by the past history.
When you look at the revenue trend or the profit trend, I guess, you should take a look at the figures in FY2019. That should be a target for us internally, maybe as a reference for investors as well.
Thank you, Kathy. Next question is from a teleconference participant, whose name is Lina Yan from HSBC. Your line is open. Please go ahead, Miss Lina Yan.
Hi, thank you. Thanks, Kathy, for taking my question. My question is a follow-up to the April to June trend. Yes, you have shared the same store sales with us, but could you share with the RSV growth in Mainland China in the April to June period? Specifically, what was the performance for gold and the non-gold respectively? Thank you.
Well, actually, you know, we are going to announce our first quarter performance in mid-July. That's why I think it's not too appropriate for us to talk about the April to June quarter figures, and so, in such a detail at this moment. Maybe you can wait a bit for our announcement in mid-July for such level of details. Sorry about that.
No, okay, no worries, Kathy, but, like, my, the reason for me to ask the question are two: so first is, you mentioned in your annual results, because of, like, the declining demand for diamond products, your wholesale.
Oh, yeah.
In China and the royalty income declined. I'm wondering if that will be the same trend in FY2024. This is the first, like, the question I want to ask. Second question I want to ask is, like, how is your performance versus the market? The market, I mean, the China retail sales for jewelry and watch retail sales growth in April and May. Yeah, thank you.
In fact, for Hong Kong, Macau markets, we can see the positive growth for the diamond or fixed price jewelry, a kind of double-digit growth for both same-store sales and YOY figures. For Mainland, actually, for Mainland, I think it's still a bit difficult at the moment, we don't see any kind of recovery of the diamond sales in Mainland yet. We have already seen kind of recovery in Hong Kong, Macau markets for fixed price jewelry.
We should expect a better performance in Hong Kong, Macau markets as comparing to mainland markets in FY2024, especially in diamond.
Cool. Could we understand, is, still uncertain if mainland China, like the diamond sales growth, will we?
[crosstalk]See positive growth in FY2024, right?
Yes. Actually, when you look at, we normally compare to our peers, and we look at FY2023 or office, I mean, the major one, Hong Kong brands, they experience similar downtrend of diamond sales in Mainland as well.
Sure, sure. How about my second question? How was the performance in Mainland China on a group basis versus the overall market? Yeah. Of course, you are not commenting on the specific numbers, but you have seen the industry number and your own number. Have you been growing faster or in line?
I guess, I don't have very exact figures at the moment, but I guess we are in a quite similar trend with the, I mean, with the micro market situation.
Oh, okay. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Our next question is from a webcast participant, whose name is David Gabriel. His question is: The company has lowered its store expansion in China from 500 new stores per year to 350 now. Is this the new level of expansion per year we should expect going forward, or will the company look to open 500 stores per year from FY2025 onwards?
Actually, you know, our when we set our 3-year plan before commencement of FY2023, we because at that moment, the situation in Mainland was not that bad, so we have set up a target of 500 shops net addition every year in the coming in the 3 years within the 3-year plan. Actually, you know, total fee will be was our first year, and then, we experienced a kind of delay in expansion because of the COVID situation. We reduced the expansion to the target to 350.
Because of the close closure of shops, I mean, it's more than before because of the pandemic. That's why we cannot afford getting a net increase of 350. For FY2024, the situation should be better than FY2023, we are becoming more conservative, we think we guess expected to set a more conservative target of 350, rather than setting a higher target. Our actual plan for that would be actually more than 350. We would work hard on achieving the target of at least a minimum of 350 in FY2024.
Thank you, Kathy. The next question is also from webcast. His name is Tony Li. His question is: Would you provide some color on the financial performance of our franchises? Are they healthy enough to set up new stores and replenish their inventory? Thank you.
I think because there is a long queue there for the opening of new shops, we believe they are fine, actually. When you look at some of them, actually they perform quite well. You know, we always talk about setting minimum inventory level for the license, because they are not financially as financially strong as ourselves. That's why we set a cap for our self-operated shops, about minimum for the licensed shops, because we're afraid they don't have enough inventory rather than having too much. We don't worry about their inventory level at all.
They normally have a healthier inventory level than our own shops.
Thank you, Kathy. The next questions are from Andrew Mackey, he has three questions. The first one: To what extent is ASP in fixed price jewelry being cut due to competition? Are peers discounting aggressively, or does the change reflect more the microeconomic environment?
Three questions already? I can't hear the first question very clearly. Can you repeat once more? The first question.
Actually, that's the first part of his three questions. The first part is: To what extent is ASP in fixed price jewelry being cut due to competition?
Oh, I see. That's the first one. How about the second one?
Second part of the first question is, are peers discounting aggressively, or does the change reflect more the macroeconomic environment?
Oh, okay. How about the third one?
There are two more questions coming after that.
Oh, maybe I answer the first two questions.
Okay. Thank you.
You talking about the ASP on fixed price jewelry, when you look at our gross margin in FY2023, actually it's been up by 4.9%. Basically because we have less, we have less discounting and we have just upward our retail selling price because of the increasing replenishment cost. That's why. Actually, we should we don't think we need to really cut that much, I mean, I mean, decrease the ASP for the fixed price jewelry. When you look at the ASP for.
Let me see, the Hong Kong market actually is on a kind of increasing trend. Actually, when you look at the peers discounting, I think, the peers, especially the Hong Kong brand, they are becoming more disciplined nowadays because they have more concern on the profitability on rather than the revenue. I mean, more concerned on profitability nowadays as well. That's why I don't think there will be really very serious discounting going on there. Yeah. What's the third question?
The next one is: with regards to the Shenzhen Hotel, what are the long-term plans for this asset, and how much capital is required in total to purchase, renovate, and operate it?
For the hotel, actually, the investment cost was something like CNY 460 million, and we don't really need to invest more by too much. Every year, I think, we may need around CNY 10 million for kind of maintenance for the hotel. We don't expect very much more, again, any material additional investment into that hotel.
Thank you, Kathy. The next question from David Gabriel. His question is: You suggest FY2019 as the reference point for FY2024. Is that on top line only? Would profit margins be higher in FY2024 than FY2019, given higher licensing income in ML and stronger operating leverage in Hong Kong market, given lower rental costs? If revenue is in line with FY2019, should profits be higher than FY2024?
In fact, kind of of FY2019 as our target performance base would be something like a ballpark figure only. Of course, we don't really look at the margin too much. We really look at the absolute figure as an absolute number instead of the margin. That's why I think when you split that into details between regions, we should expect the retail, I mean, the Hong Kong and Macau market to contribute more than the Mainland market in terms of growth for FY2024. There will still be a kind of a mixed performance between the Hong Kong and Macau business markets against the Mainland market in FY2024.
We hope to see kind of an overall performance for the group together achieving the level in FY2019 in terms of revenue and profits.
Thank you. Next question is from Jiang Luoxin. His question is: What is the single store model of the company's direct stores and franchise stores?
You mean, single store means, the economic of single store for self-operated shops and licensed shops?
I'll repeat the question, Kathy.
I don't quite understand the question. Huh? Sorry.
Okay. Shall we move on to the next question, or should I repeat the questions again?
Maybe you repeat. I don't quite understand the question.
Okay. Sure. I'll repeat the question.
Hi, Ray. Please pause to the next question from Linda.
Sure. Next question is from Linda Huang. What is the rationale of the hotel acquisition if it's from connected transaction?
Oh, no. It's from a third party. There's a landlord of the IBC building. It's not connected transaction at all. Actually, the reason for buying that hotel, because of popping up a chance of reasonable price and then quite good return. It actually helps us to enjoy synergy because we have a lot of licensees visiting the area for their replenishment. Because we have centralized all those suppliers in the showrooms in that location. That's why that hotel acquisition would be kind of a synergy with our existing business. That's why we decide to take it up.
Actually, the room number is not that many. It's only 160, room, kind of size, hotel. Not a very big one.
Thank you, Kathy. The next question is also from Linda Huang. The market is getting competitive and promotional. How will they impact our margin?
Sorry, the market is getting what?
[crosstalk]Uh, competitive- Competitive- Promotional. Promotional.
How will they impact our margin? Huh?
We actually, we are really, we have a kind of quite stable policy on our spending on the A&P. We normally spend around 1.1% A&P on revenue every year. We've been able to control that kind of spending quite well in the past years.
Yeah. Thank you, Kathy. As time is running short, and I'm afraid that the following questions will be the last question. Can you share the monthly SSSG for the for 2 market during the first quarter, FY2024?
Yes, we will share that in mid-July, when we have the announcement out, but not now. It's too detailed at the moment.
Thank you, Kathy, and thank you very much for joining the call, everyone. Have a nice weekend. Goodbye.
Oh, thank you, everybody. Bye-bye.