Yes, investors, good morning. Welcome to Li Ning Company Limited's 2026 interim results announcement. First of all, let me introduce our management. Executive Chairman and Joint CEO, Mr. Li Ning. Executive Director and Joint CEO, Mr. Qian Wei. Group Vice President and CFO, Mr. Zhao Dong Sheng. In today's event, Mr. Zhao will first present our 2026 interim results, and then the Chairman will talk about our strategic direction. Mr. Qian will go through our operational progress, followed by Q&A. You are welcome to ask questions during that session. Mr. Zhao, please.
Good morning, everyone. I am Zhao Dong Sheng. I will now review our company's financial performance for the first half of the year. In the first half of the year, against the backdrop of a weak domestic consumption environment, we actively planned, and operated prudently and achieving the following results.
In terms of financial results, our revenue increased by 2.8% to RMB 15.235 billion , thanks to cost optimization. The group's gross profit margin was up 0.9 percentage point to 50.9%. We persisted in cultivating our core business, strengthened investment in brand resources, and optimized operational efficiency through channel synergy and lean management, ultimately achieving net profit of RMB 1.816 billion and net profit margin of 11.9%. Overall financial situation is good. Net operating cash flow was RMB 954 million , up or down 60.4% year-on-year, mainly due to the year-on-year increase in cash expenses and certain prepayment generated from new cooperation with Stephen Curry. Average operating capital to revenue ratio is 7.8%. Cash turnover period 35 days, an increase of four days compared to same period last year, maintaining a healthy level.
The board recommended an interim dividend of RMB 0.3512 per share, maintaining payout ratio of 50% to ensure continued shareholder returns. In terms of operations, Li-Ning main brand omnichannel retail sales increased by low single -digits year-on-year. Offline new product retail sell-through accounted for 83% of the total offline amount, maintaining reasonable level. At the end of June, total inventory to sales ratio across all channels was four months, and inventory level and inventory age structure remained healthy. Overall, the indicators for the first half were largely in line with expectations. However, the retail environment faced numerous challenges. After a stable start in the first quarter, Q2 saw frequent weather disturbances, continued weakening demand and deepening discounts at retail outlets, impacting sales since Q2. The second half of the year will present even greater operational risk and challenges.
In the first half, the group's overall revenue was up 2.8% year-on-year. Apparel revenue performed exceptionally well, up 12% year-on-year. Its share of total revenue was up 3 percentage points to 38%. Among them, training and sports casual achieved steady growth, while outdoor products and the Gold Label series achieved high growth during the period, contributing incremental growth to the apparel sector. Footwear revenue increased by 1% year-on-year, accounting for 54% of total revenue. The slowdown in footwear growth was mainly due to several factors. First, the core footwear products were affected by weak consumption, leading to deeper discounts and impacting retail sell-through performance. Second, base figure for the same period was at a historically high level, creating temporary pressure.
Third, frequent occurrence of extreme weather events such as typhoons and heavy rains in the first half of the year caused some disruption to running outdoor travel and terminal retail conversion. Revenue from accessories down 18% year-on-year, mainly due to the fact that badminton accessories entered a cyclical adjustment phase after two consecutive years of explosive growth. In the first half, channel share remained stable and balanced. Wholesale revenue accounted for 46%, direct retail revenue 23%, e-commerce revenue 31%, D2C business revenue 50% above. Retail sell-through of new products within the last six months accounted for 83% of total, remaining at a reasonable level. For channels, total number of POS in the first half of the year was 7,579, an increase of 45 compared to same period last year. Among them, number of Li-NING brand stores decreased by 36. LI-NING YOUNG increased 81 during the period.
The domestic macro economy operated smoothly overall, but it also faced the objective challenge of strong supply and weak demand. Coupled with factors such as frequent extreme weather events, the overall business environment was under pressure. Total sell-through of all channels increased by low single -digit year-on-year, of which e-commerce sell-through achieved mid single-digit growth. Offline sell-through increased by low single-digit year-on-year, with average offline tech price showing a slight increase. Offline discount deepening by about 3.5 percentage points. ASP down low single- digit. Sales volume increasing by a mid single- digit year-on-year. Li-Ning's wholesale business, excluding international market and LI-NING YOUNG business, saw 1.2% year-on-year increase in revenue in the first half. Number of POS, an increase by 70.
Excluding revenue from professional channels, primarily table tennis and badminton, wholesale revenue increased by mid single- digit, while wholesale sell-through remained flat year-on-year. The difference between wholesale revenue and sell-through was mainly due to weak end user demand and intensified competition, which led to deeper discounts in wholesale channels year-on-year by mid single- digit, dragging down sell-through performance. Looking ahead, we'll invest in our dealer network in the long term, building distribution models, strengthening system management, continuously empowering our partners, improving operational efficiency and quality, and driving healthy channel growth. Direct retail revenue up 3.4% year-on-year. Number of POS, down 106. In the challenging environment, we continue to focus on retail operations, strengthening the transformation and expansion of high-quality stores, and closing some inefficient stores to further consolidate the efficiency of our directly operated channels, and promote recovery of positive contribution from direct retail same-store sales.
In the first half, our gross margin up 0.9 percentage point to 50.9%, mainly due to following factors. One, increased competition in direct retail led to deeper discounts, resulting in 0.3 percentage point decrease in group profit margin. Two, due to cost optimization, wholesale business increased our gross profit margin by 0.8 percentage point. Three, due to product mix and cost optimization, e-commerce channel increased our gross profit margin by 0.2 percentage point. Four, optimization of channel structure and cost in other business units led to a 0.2 percentage point increase in GP margin. The 2.8% revenue increase resulted in a gross profit increase of RMB 336 million. In terms of expense management, we actively develop brand and professional sports resources to strengthen brand and product competitiveness, building up long-term corporate value.
As we continue to optimize our channel structure and channel expansion strategies, variable expenses for direct sales increased by RMB 50 million. Expenses related to e-commerce increased by RMB 80 million. Expense related to logistics and new businesses, up RMB 35 million. Advertising and marketing expenses increased by RMB 377 million, with expense ratio rising by 2.2 percentage points year-on-year to 11.2%. Increase in marketing expenses was mainly due to a further increase in investment in Olympic sponsorship and related marketing activities, as well as professional sports contracts. We announced a long-term strategic partnership with Curry and the Curry Brand in early June this year. The additional cost arising from this will mainly be reflected in the second half of the year. We will continue to invest in new sports resources in the second half of the year.
Therefore, marketing expenses and the expense ratio in the second half will increase significantly year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. Reduction in other platform fees was RMB 70 million, mainly due to a one-time impairment of RMB 72 million in goodwill generated from the earlier acquisition of Kason Sports in the same period last year. There was no new goodwill impairment this year. Other income and interest decreased by RMB 185 million, mainly due to lower interest rates, leading to reduced interest income and reduced government subsidies. Income tax decreased by RMB 238 million, with tax rate returning to a reasonable level of 25.8% from 33.3% in the same period last year. Overall, our operating profit margin decreased by 0.4 percentage point from 16.5% in the same period last year to 16.1%. Net profit margin up 0.2 percentage point from 11.7% to 11.9%. Profit margin performance was basically in line with expectations.
Regarding channel inventory, the inventory turnover a month across all channels in the first half was four months. Inventory level and structure remains healthy. Regarding our inventory, the cost of inventory before provision increased 10% year-on-year in the first half, which was faster than revenue growth. This was mainly due to the lower than expected retail sell-through in Q2, but overall inventory level and inventory age structure remained relatively stable. Good inventory metrics are an important foundation for healthy business and sustainable growth. We will continue to promote refined management, strengthen supply chain responsiveness, and respond flexibly to rapid changes in market and consumer trends through meticulous planning, flexible supply chains, and digital support so as to ensure omnichannel inventory structure and turnover rate remain healthy. Trade receivables. Comparing to the 2.8% revenue growth, our pre-provision trade receivables amounted to the same level year-on-year.
Accounts receivable turnover days were 16 days, up two days. Trade receivables were at a reasonable and healthy level. Proportion of trade receivables within 90 days increased from 93% in the same period last year to 95%. We will continue to empower our partners, help channel partners maintain stable operations, and jointly prevent business risk. In terms of operating capital efficiency, our working capital remains at healthy level. Working capital accounted for 7.8% of annualized revenue, giving us ample resources to drive business growth. In the first half, our company's net cash inflow from operating activities was RMB 954 million, down RMB 1.457 billion year-on-year, mainly due to increased cash outlay and prepayment from new collaboration with Curry. Net cash increased by RMB 200 million compared to same period last year, reaching RMB 19.391 billion, indicating a generally healthy and ample financial position.
In the first half, the domestic macroeconomy operated within a reasonable range, achieving a stable start despite multiple pressure. However, the consumer market exhibited structural differentiation, with service consumption significantly outpacing goods consumption. Traditional consumer sectors have faced substantial pressure since Q2. The public consumption capacity and willingness need further release. Entering the second half, the challenge of strong supply and weak demand continues. Furthermore, the company will further increase our brand and marketing investment in the second half, making our overall expectation for the second half more cautious and pragmatic than at the beginning of the year.
Retail performance continues to fall short of expectations with no sign of improvement yet. Therefore, we have adjusted our group's full-year revenue target to low single-digit growth and net profit margin target to a medium to high- single -digit level. We will adhere to a steady and pragmatic development strategy, actively positioning ourself in the complex and ever-changing environment, and continuously strengthen our foundation. We remain firmly confident in the future of the Chinese sportswear market and the core competitiveness of the LI-NING brand. That concludes the financial section. We will now invite the Chairman to introduce the key strategic directions for the first half of the year. Thank you.
Thank you, Dong Sheng. Good morning, everyone. In the first half of 2026, the national fitness policy continued to advance, further consolidating the foundation for sports participation and providing long-term support for the demand for sporting goods. At the same time, policies supporting sports consumption continue to improve, and consumption scenarios such as sports events, outdoor sports, and winter sports expanded, creating a more favorable policy environment for the long-term healthy development of the industry. The recently released 15th Five-Year Plan for expanding consumption further improved the policy arrangements for promoting consumption. As the sportswear partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee, our group actively supports the Chinese Sports Delegation in participating in international sporting events, transforming the momentum of cooperation into brand influence, and continuously boosting brand awareness.
We will continue to focus on professional innovation, leverage policy benefits, and comprehensively deepen the LI-NING experience value across three dimensions: purchase experience, product experience, and sports experience, to consolidate our leading market position and move forward hand-in-hand with China's sports industry. In the first half of the year, we continued to advance our single brand, multiple categories, and diversified channel strategy driven by technological innovation and professional sports resources. We made full efforts in six core categories: running, basketball, training, badminton, table tennis, and sports casual, while continuing to cultivate emerging tracks such as outdoor sports, tennis, and pickleball, and constantly expanding business opportunities. In terms of channels, we are actively improving our channel matrix to reach consumers with diverse needs at multiple levels, and our brand competitiveness and market influence continue to improve.
In the first half, the group remained firmly committed to professionalism. The total retail sales growth across all channels increased by 2% year-on-year. The core business remained stable. Training and sports lifestyle continued to improve, driven by functional apparels and the women's business. Running basketball experienced some near-term fluctuation. Outdoor and Gold Label demonstrated encouraging growth potential. Looking ahead to the second half, we will remain committed to our core business in professional sports, expanding our specialized consumer scenario, and steadily developing new growth categories to further optimize our business mix. Our running category continued to strengthen its professional competitive advantage. In the first half of 2026, LI-NING running shoes secured 28 places among China's top 100 men marathon runners, running the first in terms of the brand reputation and marking an important breakthrough.
Athletes assigned under LI-NING's Longquan program also set new record in Chinese half-marathon and in the fastest marathon debut by a Chinese male runner. The Feidian family continued to help Chinese athletes to achieve more breakthroughs. Sales of professional running shoes exceeded 14.8 million pairs year-on-year growth and further expand the scale of our business. Feidian 6 ULTRA and Feidian 6 ELITE helped the elite runner achieve personal best performance at the high-level events, including Wuxi Marathon. Our share among the sub-three-hour marathon runner continued to increase, further reinforcing LI-NING's leading position in this market. In terms of the product innovation, we launched the LI-NING ARC PRO cushioning running shoes featuring our BOOM ARC Technology . It is innovative, and the arc-shaped structure balances the cushioning and energy return. It further enhanced our professional running shoes portfolio and provide professional choices for runners at different levels. Basketball.
Basketball category continued to deepen its professional positioning resources. As we know, we entered in the long-term partnership with Curry and the brand of Curry, the famous NBA player, and we deepened our strategic cooperation with CBA and expanded the Way of Wade street basketball tournaments nationwide. The market influence is consolidated and laid a good foundation for the long-term development. We also untapped the potential expansion area of business in the basketball business. Speaking about the products, we continue to push the boundary of innovation with upgraded Gamma 2, our top-tier performance basketball shoes, further strengthening our professional products capacity. Training category continued to use technological innovation to expand into a wider range of the sports scenario. In the first half, we introduced the aerospace cooling temperature control technology and the LI-NING COOL Technology.
Shen Dong pants and Yue Dong pants for male and female, further strengthen our functional products portfolio, deepen the presence in the more specialized consumer segments. I believe there are substantial rooms for growth in the training category. Looking forward, we will continue to increase the investment in this category, strengthen our capacity, and build up this category as one of the strengths of our group. Sports lifestyle will focus on the women's business, while unlocking the potential of Chinese culture. Feeling Collection centers around the retro low-profile footwear, made the very substantial growth of the revenue. Ri Jin Dou Jin leveraged the content with the Palace Museum and the live stream on this topic created a high-growth product series. China LI-NING also further expands the women offering within Kung Fu Collection. The women business broadens our overall portfolio and drives the collection sales.
We continue to unlock the growth of potential. In the first half, we continued to deepen our presence in professional sports and joined forces with professional sports. In terms of the sports events, our strategic partnership with the Chinese Olympic Committee serves as a key anchor for our further development. We go together with the Chinese Sports Delegation in the international events, including Milano Winter Olympics and the Asian Games. At the same time, we have developed multiple categories, multiple tiers events, including the metrics covering marathon, basketball, table tennis, badminton and tennis, and we also helped the athletes competing in the Asian Beach Games. The resources cover a full spectrum from professional to mass participation, further strengthening our professional sports credentials and international influence. We continue to strengthen our portfolio of elite athletes.
On one hand, we partnered with the China shooting, diving, table tennis, fencing, and water sports teams. Their endorsements helped ourselves to build the professional brand image. On the other hand, we worked with international superstars like Curry, Wade, and Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin, those champions. We also worked with the new generation of athletes, including Wang Wenjie , Mao Jinhu , and Zeng Fanbo. Together with them, we built up a three-dimensional or multi-dimensional portfolio of the category, and made a good foundation for the professional positioning for long-term development. That is all for my introduction of the first half's performance, and I will pass the floor to Qian Wei. He will give us the progress of the operation of the company.
Thanks very much, Chairman. Good morning. I am Qian Wei from Li-Ning. Now, I am going to take you through our operational progress in the first half of 2026.
In the first half, the overall retail environment remained volatile, especially for the second quarter. Against this backdrop, the group maintained prudential operation and strict risk control. In the meantime, we deepened our Olympic marketing and consolidated our professional strength in the niched area, and we continued to optimize the cost structure and efficiency. As a result, revenue was up 2.8% year-on-year to RMB 15.24 billion. Profit margin was 11.9%, which is in line with the expectation. Generally, in the first half, professional products remained the key drivers of our business, accounting for 57% of the revenue. Running shoes technology continued to evolve. The total sales of the professional shoes exceeded 14.8 million pairs. But, the discount ratio is continued. So even the discount scale is still leading the industry, but the further increasement and optimization to enhance the efficiency.
In training, we were focusing on the functional technology, refining the product's operation, expanding the niched area for male and female consumer segments. Retail sales through records will grow steadily. Outdoor category will focus on the outdoor lifestyle or other growth drivers, and we will use diverse channels like self-marketing to continue the expansion of the market share. The sales through increased year-on-year and accounting mid single-digit presence. Lifestyle will continue the two themes, technology empowerment and culture collaboration. We will continue to explore the opportunity in the women's market. Basketball markets remain under pressure, which performed under the expectation. But LI-NING attached great importance in this category. Still, we will continue to invest in this category. In the first half, we entered the long-term strategic partnership with Curry and the Curry Brand.
We will further enhance LI-NING's authoritative positioning in this category, and make a good foundation for further development. Product operation efficiency experienced some volatility amid weak consumer environment. In-season sales through rate for the new products was approximately 70%. Discount for the new products deepened by low single -digits. Looking forward, we will enhance the micro and precise enhancement to improve the discount rate and the sales through rate. The inventory, all channel inventory- to- sale ratio was four months, and the inventory aging portfolio is still healthy, in line with the expectations of the company. In the first half, despite the group delivering relatively stable operation result, offline business pressure intensified, so the offline retail sales through increased by single- digit, year- on- year. On average, unit selling price declined by low single-digits. The group will continue to improve the operating efficiency of the stores.
At the same time, we will enhance the new channels, new stores, and upgrade the consumer experience, and improve the business conversion. Speaking of the channels, we have the two key themes: channel structure and the optimizing cost. In response to the changes at the regional environment, the low-efficient stores has been reduced and the high-quality stores has been upgraded. We continue to optimize the rental structure and the commercial cooperation models, and enhancing the overall healthy level of all the channels. At the end of the period, the average area of LI-NING core brand store was 283 sq m. High-tier market contribution, 60% of the revenue. The percentage ratio in the core business area is 93%. That demonstrated our competitiveness in the high-tier market.
We are working with the high-quality commercial resources that helps us to develop our dragon store and other new types of the stores. We will continue to upgrade our store image. At the present, we have 1,401 large stores. On average, the floor area is 401 sq m. In the future, we will continue to optimize our channel structures and the format of the stores, and then improve the efficiency of all of those channels. Speaking of the e-commerce, we have to admit the pressures of this industry and the competition is intensified. But the e-commerce retail sales through increased by middle single- digit. In terms of the operation, we leveraged the major promotion campaign penetrated and attached to the women customers. We coordinated with Olympic and celebrities and connect with those social media influencers. As the result, the e-commerce traffic was up 12%. Conversion rate remained stable.
Discounts deepened by low single -digit. Speaking of the products on e-commerce, we consolidated the core IP and also incubate the new IPs. In this period, the Feeling family performed strongly in the low-profile footwear and pants. Footwear for outdoor category performed quite well. That expanded the growth potential. Merchandise efficiency has been improved, and we continue to enhance the depth of the sales of the core IP. The online and offline could compensate with each other, and the inventory could then be further enhanced on its efficiency. The turnover of the inventory is getting healthier. Kids business is continued to be integrated. We untap the potential for the outlets and the key locations. We also precise manage the membership system, and consolidated the e-commerce and the new retail channel. As the result, the efficiency has been improved.
In this period, the number of the kidswear stores is 1,516, and the monthly productivity is 160,000. The growth is at the middle period. Discount improved 0.6 percentage points. The unit price was up on single -digit. Those are the performance in the first half. Looking ahead to the second half, we will continue to leverage the new products and technology and allocate the resources scientifically. Then we can promote the company's healthy and sustainable development. Thank you all.