Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Luk Fook FY 2025-2026 interim results 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.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Joanne from Luk Fook IR team. Thanks for taking the time to join us today for our financial year 2026 interim results. It's great to have you all here with us. Joining me today is Dr. Kathy Chan, our Executive Director and Group CFO. Kathy will take you through the interim results. After that, we will move straight into the Q&A session. The call will be conducted in English, and the presentation deck is already available for download on our website. With that, let me hand over to Kathy for the detailed presentation.
Kathy, thanks. Thank you, Joanne. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining Luk Fook's FY 2025-2026 interim 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 recorded in the corporate presentation have been uploaded to our websites. Let's look at slide four about the financial highlights first. Despite sustained geopolitical tensions and trade uncertainties clouding the macroeconomic outlook and driving gold prices continue to move upward, the group's performance across all regions remained outstanding. Underpinned by effective product differentiation and sales strategies, with the surge in sales of fixed-price jewelry products, the group's revenue increased by 25.6% to HKD 6.8 billion compared to the same period last year.
In addition, the favorable operating leverage effect lifted the operating profit margin by 1.6 percentage points to 11.4%, thereby boosting the operating profits by 45.4% to HKD 518 million. The group's profit attributable to equity holders increased by 42.5% to HKD 619 million. The basic earnings per share rose by 41.9% to HKD 1.05. Proposed interim dividend is HKD 0.55 per share, with dividend payout ratio of 52%. There was a net decrease of 174 shops globally, including a net decrease of 173 Luk Fook shops and one 3DG Jewelry shop. Next slide shows the movement in operating profits. Benefits from the rising gold prices and the increased sales mix of fixed-price jewelry products with high gross margin. The group's overall gross margin increased by 2 percentage points to 34.7%. In fact, this gross margin is our record high for both interim and annual results.
As a result, the group's gross profit increased by 33.2% to HKD 2.37 billion. The operating expenses increased by 12.4% to around HKD 1.3 billion. Thanks to revenue growing at a faster pace, the group benefited from operating leverage, with the TOE ratio improving by 2.2 percentage points to 19.1%. The surge in gold prices resulted in the widening gold hedging losses of HKD 409 million during the period. As a result of all the above, the operating profits rose by 45.4% to HKD 718 million. Now let's go into the details of our financial performance. On slide nine, our inventory balance grew to around HKD 12.3 billion as of end of September 2025. The increase was mainly due to the rising gold products category. Therefore, both the average and closing inventory turnover days increased by over 60 days year-on-year, reaching a total of over 490 days by end of September 2025.
However, if comparing to the first half of the financial year 2025, the average inventory turnover period actually dropped by 14 days. Net borrowings increased by 282% to around HKD 1.1 billion, mainly due to the increase in gold loss. Our TOE rose by 2.5 percentage points to 9.1%. Now let's look at slide 12 for the performance analysis by market. Revenue from the Hong Kong/Macau/Overseas market increased by 9.9% to HKD 3.86 billion during the period under review, accounting for 56.4% of the group's revenue. Its selling profit increased by 37.3% to HKD 587 million, accounting for 68.2% of the group's total, while its selling profit margin was 13.2%. The wholesale business in the mainland market showed a significant improvement in the first half of the financial year.
As a result, revenue from the mainland market increased by 54.2% to HKD 2.98 billion, accounting for 43.6% of the group's total revenue. Its selling profit increased by 118.2% to HKD 274 million, accounting for 31.8% of the group's total, and its selling profit margin was 9.2%. Slide 13 shows our revenue and selling profit by business. Retailing business was the main source of revenue of the group. The group's retailing revenue increased by 12.8% to HKD 5.26 billion, accounting for 76.8% of the group's total revenue. Its selling profit increased by 24.6% to HKD 477 million, accounting for 55.4% of the total, and its selling profit margin was 9.1%. Driven by the group's ongoing efforts to broaden product categories and the wholesale business, coupled with successful product differentiation strategies, renewed products achieved incredible sales performance.
Therefore, the group's wholesale revenue significantly rose by 119.6% to HKD 1.12 billion, accounting for 16.3% of the group's total revenue. Its selling profit turned around from a loss to a profit of HKD 108 million, accounting for 12.5% of the total, and its selling profit margin was 9.7%. As for the selling profit of wholesale business, it included profits from interselling sales to self-operated shops. If including interselling sales in their denominator, its selling profit margin would be 4.4%. Licensing income increased by 16.6% to HKD 471 million due to the improved sales in the mainland, accounting for 6.9% of the group's total revenue. Its selling profit margin was 58.6%, while its selling profit increased by 15.5% to HKD 276 million, accounting for 32.1% of the total. Let's look at the product analysis on slide 14 now.
During the period under review, the average international gold price in US dollars per ounce increased by nearly 91% year-on-year, leading to a decline in gold sales by weight. As a result, sales of gold and platinum products increased by 11% only to around HKD 4.1 billion, accounting for 64.3% of the overall sales amount. Its gross margin increased by 2.8 percentage points to 30.3% because of rising gold prices. Gross profit from gold and platinum products therefore increased by 22.3% to HKD 1.24 billion, accounting for 59.7% of the overall gross profit. On the other hand, the sales of fixed-price jewelry products increased by 67.9% to around HKD 2.28 billion, accounting for 35.7% of the overall sales amount.
Nevertheless, due to a significant increase in the mix of wholesaling revenue from fixed-price jewelry products, which has lower gross margin than retailing, gross margin for fixed-price jewelry products therefore decreased by 0.5 percentage points to 36.8%. Its gross profit, however, increased by 65.6% to HKD 838 million, accounting for 40.3% of the overall gross profits. Now let's look at slide 16 for performance in the Hong Kong Macau Overseas Market. Retailing revenue from the Hong Kong Macau Overseas Market increased by 8.9% to HKD 3.7 billion, accounting for 97% of the market's total and 54.7% of the group's total revenue. Its selling profit increased by 17.4% to HKD 491 million, accounting for 83.6% of the market's total and 57% of the group's total, with a selling profit margin of 13.1%.
Moreover, due to the addition of five overseas licensed shops during the period under review, wholesaling revenue increased by 89% to HKD 81 million, accounting for 2.1% of the Hong Kong/Macau/Overseas market's total revenue and 1.2% of the group's total. Its selling profit was HKD 62 million, accounting for 10.6% of the market's total and 7.2% of the group's total. Its selling profit margin was 76.2%. As the selling profit of wholesaling business included the profit of interselling sales to self-operated shops, if including interselling sales in their denominator, its selling profit margin would be 5%. On the other hand, Hong Kong licensing income increased by 3.8% to HKD 33 million, accounting for 0.9% of the market's total and 0.5% of the group's total. Its selling profit increased by 5.9% to HKD 34 million, accounting for 5.8% of the market's total and 4% of the group's total.
Its selling profit margin was 103.2%. Now let's look at slide 17 for performance in the mainland market. The retailing revenue in the mainland increased by 23.6% to HKD 1.5 billion, accounting for 50.6% of the mainland market's total and 22.1% of the group's total. However, due to selling losses in 3DG's mainland retailing business as a result of gold hedging losses, the group's retailing business in the mainland recorded a selling loss of HKD 14 million, accounting for - 5.2% of the mainland market's total and - 1.6% of the group's total. Its selling profit margin was - 0.9%. Actually, the gold hedging loss, more than half of the gold hedging losses actually incurred in September 2025. If the impact of gold hedging losses is excluded, the mainland retailing business would have recorded a selling profit of HKD 182 million. In fact, more than yeah.
For the gold hedging losses, because it happens in the later part of the first half period, and because 100% of the P&L impact needs to be recorded, but actually the appreciation of value in the inventory, closing inventory, cannot be booked because we can only book the profits or the appreciation in value of the inventory after it's sold. Most likely, all these kinds of hedging losses would be offset by the actual sales in the second half of the financial year. We are not that wary about the high hedging loss at the moment. Attributed to the expansion of product categories in the wholesaling business, coupled with the robust sales performance of these new products, the group's revenue of the wholesaling business rose significantly by 203.4% to around HKD 1.04 billion, accounting for 34.7% of the mainland market's revenue and 15.1% of the group's total.
Its selling profit was HKD 36 million, accounting for 16.8% of the mainland market's total and 5.3% of the group's total. Its selling profit margin was 4.4%. As the selling profit of wholesaling business included profits of interselling sales to self-operated shops, if including interselling sales in their denominator, its selling profit margin would be 3.8%. Licensing income in the mainland market increased by 17.7% to HKD 438 million, which accounted for 14.7% of the mainland market's revenue and 6.4% of the group's total. Its selling profit increased by 16.9% to HKD 242 million, accounting for 88.4% of the mainland market's total and 28.1% of the group's total, and its selling profit margin was 55.3%. Turning to slide 19, which shows the breakdown of retailing revenue by region, the group continued to actively expand into overseas markets and enter into the Vietnam market for the first time during the period under review.
Revenue from the overseas markets rose by 15.4% to HKD 482 million, accounting for 9% of the group's retailing revenue, a 3 percentage points higher mix than the same period in the prior year. Slide 20 shows the achievements of our e-commerce business in mainland. Its revenue increased by 12.1% to HKD 843 million, accounting for 55.8% of retailing revenue mainland and 16% of the group's retailing revenue, with ASP increased by 33.3% to RMB 2,800. Now let's turn to slide 26. Even though TOE rose by 12.4% to HKD 1.3 billion, revenue growth outpaced its increase. As a result, TOE to revenue ratio improved by 2.2 percentage points to 19.1% as compared to the same period of last year.
When you look at the table underneath the bar charts, actually you can see that the rental expenses, overall speaking, actually increased by 8% only in the first half of the period, the financial year. Actually, we have sent 27 renewals out of 69 shops in the first half of financial year 2026, with overall rental decrease of more than 25% in renewal. Let's turn to slide 28 for capital expenditure. We did not have any significant Capex in the first half of FY 2026. Now let's look at the group's future plans and strategies. The group has set up this new three-year corporate strategy starting from FY 2025 to 2026 with overseas market expansion, market-oriented products, and operational efficiency enhancement as its three main focuses so as to foster its future business growth.
On slide 31, you can see that we have significant—actually, we have—we can see significant growth potential in overseas markets. We will therefore continue to allocate more resources to actively expand our global footprint and keep opening new shops overseas. The group entered the Vietnamese market for the first time in the first half of this financial year, and currently our group's footprint spans 12 countries and regions, with a goal to enter at least three additional countries and net activity new overseas shops within three years from this financial year to the financial year ending March 2028.
In fact, although we talk about net addition of 50 overseas shops in three years' time, actually I hold highly likely that in the next financial year we would have exceeded this 50 overseas shop addition already. At least by two years' time, we should be able to achieve that target, three-year target. In slide 32, you can see our network expansion plan and CapEx to FY 2026. We plan to have a net addition of around 20 shops in overseas markets this financial year. So far, we have already opened eight new shops in the first half. For the mainland markets, we do not have a net addition plan, although we had that at the beginning of the financial year. Because of the actual situation, we expect there will be a net reduction of around 200 shops for the full year.
The Capex budget for 2026 is around HKD 100 million, which will be used for shop, office, and plant renovation, as well as purchase of new equipment for office. Let's look at slide 37, which covers our second strategy focusing on market-oriented products. In response to the trend of polarized consumption, we are extending our focus to both premium, affordable, luxury segments. We continue to optimize our product mix, launch concept stores, and enhance product in-store merchandising. We'll keep sharpening our product differentiation for telling stronger brand stories and values, blending unique design with cutting-edge craftsmanship, offering personalized customization, launching IP collaboration projects, and upholding top quality standards. With efficient product management, we tightly align sales and marketing for pre-push sellers and grab every sales opportunity to maximize volume.
At the same time, we'll stay agile on inventory, fine-tune the product mix, and feasibly adjust to whatever the market demands. Last but not least, slide 38 shows our third strategy, operational efficiency enhancement. We'll boost productivity by streamlining supply chain management, rolling out full automation, big data analytics, and AI applications, and strengthening cross-departmental collaboration with agile project management. We'll also maximize employee productivity by building culture, continuous improvement and innovation, upgrading our training programs, and sharpening our performance management system. Now let's shift to the group's branding and promotion. We have integrated strategies to attract target customers and to foster high customer loyalty. This slide is showing that in order to meet increasingly diverse customer needs, we continue to deepen our multi-brand strategy by building a clearly differentiated brand portfolio that precisely targets different segments. We fully leverage each brand's unique strengths to drive synergies and stronger growth.
On slide 41, we have invited famous actor Chan Yi as the global brand ambassador to rejuvenate the brand innovation cap into his massive worldwide fan base. On slide 42, here we have our signature collection, Dive Bling, Sunshine, Marine Gold, featuring CNC color radiating finish, 360-degree silic green, and precision laser cutting to deliver a stunning multifaceted sparkle on gold. Since launch, it has been extremely well received, with total sales exceeding 230,000 pieces. On the next slide is another signature collection, Hulu, which symbolizes fortune and prosperity. We launched a series of promotional campaigns to make the slogan "Get Hulu" and "Luk Fook" truly resonate with consumers and take root in their hearts. On slide 44, Tai Lung Fortune Collection, another signature line using exquisite antique gold craft, mother-of-pearl inlay and gilt coloring, brings traditional culture to life with timeless heritage-style gold pieces.
We held roadshows of the charm of Song Dynasty in Beijing and Dalian in May 2025. On the next slide, Luxus Beauty, a natural diamond collection that has been launched for over 14 years. It has become deeply ingrained in consumers' hearts. On slide 46, we further strengthened our leadership in the China Sheikh category through three IP collaborations with Ten Palace Culture Creation. One of the themes, Night Banquet in Ten Palace, a top 10 national IP of 2021, was launched in September 2025 with over 140 new products. The other two collaborations will roll out in 2026. Next slide, following the hugely successful 2022 collaboration with the phenomenal film, Nezha, we launched a new series tied to the global hit Nezha 2. On the other hand, we collaborated with Zen X for over 10 years to create numerous jewelry products of the ruler Kuna.
On slide 48, for the 24th year, Luk Fook Jewelry served as the official sponsor of the crown and jewelry for the Miss Hong Kong pageant. Luk Fook also introduced the Love Yourself Collection and limited edition 18K gold diamond crown to strengthen its brand image connected with beauty. We also co-launched new products with X Plus Cube Arts, founded by renowned Chinese sculptor Qi Guangci. On the next slide, to celebrate the anniversary, we launched a brand new Fun Nuts Collection for gold jewelry and kickstarted a series of promotions. Slide 50 shows some VIP figures. Our membership base increased 20%, reached over 9 million in the first half of financial year 2026, with members contributing 78% of the total retail sales. Member spending in the first half surged 41%. Slide 50 highlights the results of our VIP Fanful Month.
We rolled out a series of online and offline incentives that successfully attracted new customers, boosted engagement, and drove strong in-store sales. Member contributions to group’s retail sales during VIP Fanful Month rose 9% points year on year. Over 1 million people engaged with our WeChat mini program. 126,000 customers checked in at our stores. On slide 52, we invited celebrities for short to long-term marketing campaigns to raise brand awareness and recognition among our customers of different brands and product collections. Slide 53, we co-organized promotional activities with various reputable partners, including King Pro League, Blue Girl, China Evergrande Bank, and Starbucks, to expand our brand exposure to target customers. Effective sustainability governance is a crucial factor in driving long-term success of the group. Therefore, we are committed to integrating ESG principles into our corporate planning and operational decision-making processes.
We are honored to have received 12 awards in the first half of the financial year 2026. Gold prices hit new highs again starting in September 2025. Although sales were impacted during the first week of September, they began to gradually recover from the second week onward, indicating that consumers had gradually adapted to higher gold prices. From 1st October to the first three weeks of November 2025, the group continued to record satisfactory sales growth across all markets. Simple sales in both the Hong Kong Macau and overseas market and the mainland market recorded double-digit growth. The mainland market exhibited significant improvement compared to the second quarter of the current financial year, while performance in Hong Kong Macau and overseas market remained broadly in line with that of the second quarter.
Following the implementation of new value-added tax policies for gold in mainland, the gold raw material procurement costs have increased, which in turn drove up the cost of gold products. Fortunately, the upper set factors did not materially dampen consumer demand for gold products in mainland. During the period from 1 to 21 November 2025, overall simple sales growth in the mainland markets, covering both self-operated shops and licensed shops, as well as in the Hong Kong Macau and overseas markets, continued to achieve double-digit growth. This concludes my presentation. Thank you.
Thank you, Kathy. Now we can move into the Q&A session.
Ray, please open the floor for the questions. Thank you. If you do wish to ask an audio question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw a question, you may do so by pressing star two to cancel. Once again, please press star one to register for an audio question. For webcast participants, please enter your questions in the Q&A box. Our first question is from Mavis Hui from DBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi, Kathy and Joanne. Thanks very much for a very good presentation. May I just check on a few questions? First, I actually want to check a little bit further in terms of our double-digit growth in October and November 21st. Is it possible to compare a bit in terms of our November sales momentum versus October in terms of the strength of the double-digit growth? My question on the second question is what about our sales momentum by products for November so far? Talking about fixed-price gold products, weighted gold products, and gem sets overall.
My third question is that given the strong set of interim results, could we check on our latest simple sales growth and margin guidance for the full year of FY 2026? Thank you.
Maybe I answer the margin queries first. Actually, especially in mainland China, because of that new VAT policy, we have to increase our selling price quite soon after the new policy became effective. That is why for those products, it is before that policy was released. That means that the cost will be a bit lower because no additional VAT amount inside. Therefore, in the first few months, I guess, first few months after this new policy, we should be able to enjoy an even higher gross margin than before because of the low cost.
That's why for the gross margin, like in October and November, we can see that it's much higher increased in terms of percentage points than the months before in the first half. That means that overall speaking, I'll talk about the retail sales only. It's likely that we maybe enjoy an even higher gross margin in the second half than the first half. This is the first answer to your queries. Then when we talk about October to November, actually when we talk about the mainland market, the performance was really good. Actually from 1st October to November, overall speaking, when we talk about a combined simple sales figure for both self-operated and licensed shop, it's actually exceeding 40%. For self-operated shops, it would be around mid-teen, and for licensed shop, it's more than 40%.
We mentioned quite a number of times in different investor meetings that the reason for lower performance for the self-operating shops was mainly because we are more conscious on the margin control. That's why we have less promotions done in our self-operating shops than the licensed shops. Actually, when we talk about the product by product situation, we can see that we have our fixed-price jewelry products growing faster than the gold sales by weight type of product, mainly because we still have very good increase in the fixed-price gold products. Then you're talking about November itself, from 1st November to 21st, actually there will be some seasonal effect inside too because of October, we have the National Day holidays.
Basically in November, with this new launch, actually we can see that we have a bit lower performance than the October figures, but still exceeding 30% overall speaking for the mainland market. When we look at the performance, actually we have, interestingly, actually we have gold sales by weight increasing faster than the sales of fixed-price jewelry products in terms of simple sales. Yeah, that's the situation for the mainland markets. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you, Kathy. Can I just follow up because I hope to seek your guidance on our simple sales growth for the second half of this financial year? Also, just to follow up on the sales performance for November, have we been seeing more purchases in Hong Kong Macau given the latest policy change for the VAT redemption in China? Thank you.
Now, interestingly, actually at the beginning, we expect to see a better performance in Hong Kong because of that change in VAT policy. In fact, it's not that case. Actually, we can see very good performance in Macau, but not in Hong Kong. Very strange. Still, we can see that Hong Kong, we have when we look at the November figures in Hong Kong, when we look at the actually it's mainly the Macau market that's having a very good performance and it's exceeding 30% simple sales growth, I mean in November. For Hong Kong, it's only a single digit. While in overseas, we have a double digit as well. Hong Kong, surprisingly, is not as expected performing better than the other markets. It's actually the other markets are performing better.
Right. I see. Overall speaking, are we changing our guidance on the simple sales growth for the second half?
Actually, for simple sales growth, we have a higher base in the second half. Originally, we expect the second half maybe having a lower growth than the first half. I mean, in fact, when we looked at the October and November figures, I mean, up to now, we can see quite a strong growth actually in the latest month. Basically, I guess maybe we should expect because actually, overall speaking, we have a double-digit growth, simple sales growth reported too already. I guess we should expect the double-digit growth to continue in the second half of the year.
Right. Thank you. Congratulations for very strong results. Thanks, Kathy.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Tiffany Feng from Citi. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi, Kathy and Joanne. Thanks for the presentation. Just have a follow-up question on the GP margin guidance. If the gold price maintained at the current level and you still have a lower cost inventory, but when this high cost inventory coming in, what do you think of the GP margin for maybe for next year?
Wow. If the gold price becomes very stable, no change, of course, we would go back to standard margin. The standard margin should be something for gold should be something like 23%, something like that.
23%. That's overall for gold.
It's standard margin. No, no, for gold only. For gold only. For gold selling by weight only. But then many experts are still expecting gold price to grow up in the coming year.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So the higher sorry, please go ahead.
Oh, no. I just want to remind you that we have a record high gross margin in this first half already. I guess maybe with the latest development, maybe we will still have a record high margin in gross margin in the second half.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just want to double confirm the higher gross margin in second half is because of the price increase after the VAT policy change, right?
Yes, yes.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Do you have an updated guidance for the gold loan hedging loss for the second half?
No. Actually, in this first half, we do not really put too much focus on the hedging loss because actually our revenue and profit are rising. That means the hedging loss is actually not that impacting our overall performance so severely as like last year.
Basically, even though we talk about if gold price keeps on rising, we would have expanded the hedging loss, but then our sales would benefit from that with higher margin. Then we've only, overall speaking, we've hedged only about 25%. That means 75% without hedging. For that 75%, we would enjoy, I mean, additional profits from the rising gold price.
Okay. Your assumption for the second half gold price is HKD 4,100 or 10% higher than the end of September. Is that correct for your GP margin guidance?
What do you mean? What's that 10% increase? What do you mean?
I mean, do you have an assumption for the gold price in second half to derive your GP margin guidance?
We don't. We don't normally forecast the gold price fluctuation. It's very hard to predict.
Yeah, yeah. Typically, you assume the gold maintain at the current level, right?
When we talk about forecast or when we talk about budget, we always assume the gold price to be stable.
Okay. Okay. Understood. Our second question is regarding the wholesale revenue, the very strong performance in the first half. Can you give us more color for the driver behind and what is the outlook for second half and going forward?
Yeah. In fact, when you look at the wholesaling business, in the past, we mostly diamond sales, 18-karat gold diamond sales. Within the COVID period, it started to drop. The demand dropped quite severely, and it is kind of a double-digit drop every year since COVID period. That is why in the past years, you can see a few years' time, we can see that the wholesaling revenue in mainland continued to drop.
In this year, we have changed our policy, our policy or strategy in terms of wholesaling business. We try to shift those kind of exclusive type of products or promotional types of products into the wholesaling business so that the licensed shops are not buying these types of products directly from the suppliers. They are buying from us. That is why you can see such a huge increase in the wholesaling revenue. We will keep on doing that in the future.
Okay. Understood. Finally, I just want to follow up the November simple sales growth. Why do you think the purchase demand behavior is so resilient after the price increase? Is there any observation you have on the ground?
In fact, I think this new change actually hit those very small retailers, especially those relying on price cutting.
Basically, I mean, price cutting on those gold selling by weight. I think this change in policy actually drove out all these types of retailers quite seriously. Since that, people are going back to us to buy those gold products by selling by weight. I guess it's because of that. That's why we can see very strong performance of gold sales by weight after this change in policy, VAT policy.
Okay. You gain a lot of share from those smaller players.
Yes.
Do you think this is sustainable in the coming months, or it's just a one-off shift?
Up to now, we can still see very strong performance. I think it's fine.
Great. Thank you, Kathy. I have no questions. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a general reminder, if you wish to ask an audio question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw a question, you may do so by pressing star two. At the moment, we do have questions from the webcast. The next question is from Pu Hui from Huatai Securities. The question is, could the management please provide an update on the performance guidance for the second half of FY 2026 and the full fiscal year? Additionally, how long do you anticipate the current trend of store closures in mainland China will continue?
In fact, we have mentioned in the presentation that we expect for the full year, we would have a net reduction of around 200 shops altogether for the full year. It will be mainly licensed shops in mainland.
You can see that we have a net reduction of 774 already in the first half. That means that in the second half, it will be much less than the first half. Basically, in our latest planning, actually, we expect to see or we target to see a much higher, I mean, a net addition again in the next financial year. That is what we are targeting at the moment. Of course, for this future year target, it will be updated in our final result announcement in June next year, 2026. Basically, at this moment, we are still optimistic about the future growth in terms of network expansion, I mean, in the next financial year. Yeah. For the second half, yeah, you have talked about store, sorry.
The guidance for the second half of 2022.
Yes. In terms of shop closure, I think it will be much less in the second half, much less than the first half. Yeah. Okay? Is that okay?
Thank you, Kathy. Now we will get back to the audio questions. The next question is from Mavis Hui from DBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, Kathy. Just have a few more questions here. It seems that the gold price ran up even faster in October and November as compared to the first half. If that's the case, and if there are market estimates that going forward into 2026 calendar year, the price could be stronger, would there be any measures that we could adopt to mitigate our hedging loss, such as playing down a bit our gold hedging ratio? That's my first question.
The second one is, among our fixed-price gold product offerings, which product series were our top one to two performers, and by how much had they contributed to our interim results? My third question is that on our slide 31, we mentioned a target to enter three more new markets during the latest three-year plan. Do we have any idea right now in terms of where these three regions will be? By the way, with the plan for net addition of 50 stores in overseas markets for three years, which regions could be focusing more on our store expansion? Thank you.
Actually, for gold price increase, our hedging ratio is already the lowest amongst all peers. We have not changed that ratio for many, many years because we believe that gold price would go up in the long, long- term.
Long- term is not only talking about a decade, it's decades with an S after decade. Basically, this is a policy, and we won't change our policy too frequently because it's something long-term, unless there will be some fundamental changes happening, but we don't see that to happen. We don't foresee any change in our hedging ratio at the moment. For the fixed-price reproduction, I guess the best sellers would be those that are fixed-price gold products with diamonds. The second one would be those without diamonds, especially the Dive Bling collection. For the new markets, actually, we have some new markets in mind already, some in Europe and some in Southeast Asian areas. Basically, we have that in mind and in plan already.
I guess in next year, it would because we have one new we have entered one new market already, that's Vietnam. There will be at least two more countries entering in next year. We will announce that once everything is confirmed. For the net additions, I guess for self-operating shops, we would add more like in the U.S., Australia, Malaysia. Actually, we've got self-operating shops in four overseas countries only. That's U.S., Canada, Australia, and Malaysia. We would continue to add more self-operating shops in these four countries, maybe in some European countries as well. For the additions, mostly, they will be licensed shops. For licensed shops, we would mostly open in South Asian countries.
Right. I see. Thank you. How is the margin compared for overseas markets overall versus our group level? Is it possible to?
Actually, they have a very they have similar margin level like Hong Kong market. Actually, sometimes they perform even better than Hong Kong market in terms of profit margin. Actually, they have a higher gross margin than all the other, I mean, than those margins in Hong Kong market and mainland.
Right. That is very good update. Thank you. Thank you, Kathy.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask an audio question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw a question, you may do so by pressing star two. For webcast participants, please enter your questions in the Q&A box.
Oh, thank you, Ray. Thank you, Kathy. That is all the questions we have today. We come to the end of our conference. Thank you once again for joining us. If you need an audio replay or any assistance, please contact us at ir@lukfook.com. Wishing you all a wonderful.