Greetings and welcome to the ATA Creativity Global First Quarter 2022 Financial Results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Alice Zhang of The Equity Group. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Hector, and hello everyone. Thank you for joining us. The press release announcing ATA Creativity Global or ACG results for the first quarter ending March 31st, 2022, is available at the IR section of the company's website at www.atai.net.cn. As part of this conference call, the company has an accompanying slide presentation available on its website. A replay of this broadcast will also be made available at ACG's website for the next 90 days. Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call and any accompanying information discussed herein contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, forecast, future, intent, look forward to, outlook, plan, should, will, a nd similar terms, and include, among other things, statements regarding ACG's future growth and results of operations, ACG's plans for mergers and acquisitions generally, ACG's growth strategy, anticipated growth prospects and subsequent business activities, market demand for ACG's portfolio training programs and other education services, mainly including research-based learning and overseas study counseling services, the impact of COVID-19 on ACG and its operations, and ACG's plan and anticipated benefits of the measures implemented in response to COVID-19. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable as of today, th ose statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ dramatically from those projected.
There can be no assurance that those expectations will prove to be correct. Information about the risks associated with investing in ACG is included in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which we encourage you to review before making an investment decision. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events, changes in market conditions or otherwise except as required by law. Regarding the disclaimer language, I would also like to refer you to slide two of the conference call presentation for further information.
All U.S. dollar amounts in this conference call relating to financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2022, are converted from RMB using an exchange rate of RMB 6.3393 to 1 U.S. dollar, the noon buying rate as of March 31st, 2022. All historical conversions are accurate as of the time reported unless otherwise noted. The company reports its financial results under U.S. GAAP in RMB, and all percentages calculated in the presentation are based on RMB, unless otherwise noted. For those of you following along with the accompanying PowerPoint presentation, there is an overview of the company on slide three. In addition, we are more than happy to take investor questions during today's Q&A session or via email to the company.
On today's call, the company's chairman and CEO, Mr. Kevin Ma will give some brief opening remarks before turning the floor over to CFO, Mr. Ruobai Sima, who will provide a brief overview of operating and financial highlights for the first quarter of 2022. Kevin and President Mr. Jun Zhang will follow with an update on the company's outlook and its long-term growth strategy before opening the floor for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to ACG's chairman and CEO, Kevin Ma. Please go ahead, Kevin.
Thank you, Alice, and welcome, everyone. Good evening to those in America. We appreciate everyone's time. I'm pleased to be here today with Jun and Sima, our newly appointed Chief Financial Officer. Sima succeeded Amy Tong who has decided to step down as CFO for personal reasons. Amy has been with ACG for over 15 years serving various roles within finance and operations. She has played a key role in our development over these years, and we are grateful for her expertise as a CFO, and the many valuable contributions over the years. Not only do I consider her a close colleague but a friend. Amy will remain with ACG in an advisory capacity over the next few quarters to ensure a smooth transition and we appreciate her ongoing support.
Mr. Sima brings to ACG 17 years of experience in finance and accounting, as well as strategic financial planning and execution at public and private companies in the financial, automotive, and travel industries. Prior to joining ACG, Mr. Sima served as CFO at various automotive service companies. We are confident that his extensive expertise in finance and accounting will be an invaluable addition to our leadership team. With that, I will turn it over to Sima to cover first quarter highlights.
Okay. Thank you, Kevin, and for the kind introduction. I want to begin by sharing how excited I am to be joining ACG at this time in its history where we are being faced with some challenges caused by the ongoing pandemic, enrollment, and increasing competition. ACG has a strong track record of delivering positive student outcomes and it is a reputable institution in the creative arts education space. We are well-positioned to overcome the short-term hurdles, and I'm very grateful to have that opportunity, and to be a part of ACG's incredibly bright future. 2022 got off to a very good start and we saw a modest increase in student enrollment. Although credit hours delivered remaining stable during the fourth quarter and we were able to achieve a 12.1% increase in net revenues.
As well as notable year-over-year improvement in gross profit margin. This was primarily driven by increased revenue contributions from our portfolio training and overseas study counseling services, as well as continued product shift, and from time-based programs and towards project-based programs. In addition, our research-based learning opportunities have been well-received by students and continue to be in high demand. As a few of our core cities continue to face pandemic-related lockdown restrictions, and we have shifted our delivery method to online where appropriate, offering students greater flexibility and ongoing support despite not being able to take in-person classes. Our total portfolio training program enrolled 537 students during the fourth quarter of 2022 and compared to 528 students in the prior year period.
Enrollment tends to be an indicator of future credit hours delivered, and we were pleased that enrollments remaining stable year-over-year, despite a resurgence of COVID-19 in certain major cities. During the fourth quarter of 2022, we delivered 27,494 credit hours for our portfolio training programs. Total credit hours remaining flat and we have continued to see an ongoing shift in our portfolio training in favor of project-based programs versus time-based programs. Project-based programs credit hours increased 23% and real time-based programs credit hours decreased by 19%. Our continuous effort to shift the program has contributed to improved operational efficiencies and giving us the opportunity to grow revenues while improving gross margin. We have also continued to explore ways in which ACG can better serve a great population of students from diverse backgrounds.
We have received positive feedback from the students who are attending our International Arts Foundation Program Center in Beijing and Shuren-ACG Arts Center. Bo th of which opened their doors in September 2021 in order to help students with diverse needs to pursue their further study goals in creative arts. With that, let's move to financials for the fourth quarter of 2022. Total net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2022 increased 12.1% to RMB 42.1 million from RMB 37.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. This was primarily driven by an increase in services delivered for portfolio training and overseas study counseling.
Portfolio training services were delivered either in person through ACG's nationwide training center network or via online platform, which represented around 63.3% of total net revenue during the period. Gross margin improved to 45.7% during the 2022 fourth quarter, up from 39.6% in the prior year period. The improvement was primarily driven by a series of tax and the increased proportion of revenues from portfolio training and overseas study counseling services. Improved our operating efficiencies from ongoing shift of ACG's portfolio training program mix towards project-based programs and related cost optimization efforts. Net loss attributable to ACG improved to RMB 15.9 million during the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to RMB 19 million in the prior year period.
Moving to the balance sheet, we continue to be in a solid financial position with $9.8 million in cash and cash equivalents. Working capital deficit was $32.3 million and total shareholders' equity was $27.6 million at March 31st of 2022. Compared to working capital deficit of $30.2 million and shareholders' equity of $13 million respectively at December 31st of 2021. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Kevin and he will expand upon our outlook and growth strategies. Kevin?
Thank you, Sima. We are pleased with the stable performance delivered in the first quarter of 2022. During this period, China experienced a strong related local COVID-19 resurgence in a few of our key cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen and Suzhou, which also led to certain travel restrictions across the country. The situation has since worsened with the mandatory lockdowns taking place in major cities. Some of our learning centers have had to close and cease in-person instruction while we are still offering in-person service to our students in the cities where our campus has remained open. We are providing online course delivery options for students impacted by lockdowns in certain cities. In the short term, this may have an impact on business as there will always be students who prefer in-person instruction.
However, we believe we are well-positioned to overcome the ongoing challenges presented by the pandemic. The majority of our students are determined to continue pursuing their studies in their personal capacity and we are prepared to support them to the best of our ability. As Sima noted earlier, our research-based learning service, which tend to be short programs that provide the project-based hands-on learning experience remain quite popular. We originally developed those programs in response to the pandemic, which grants more flexibility to interested students in terms of learning objectives, the delivery forms, and the required project time. We are pleased to see it growing since the launch of online research-based learning programs in 2020 and are excited about its growth potential beyond the post-pandemic era.
We are extremely proud of our students and intend to continue investing in our business and its positioning partnership within the industry, which will serve as a foundation for our future growth. We believe we are well-positioned to grow our business with the current portfolio of program offerings as more countries begin to ease travel restrictions. We believe that research-based learning and overseas counseling service business will be able to reach their full potential. While we are mindful of the fears of competition within the market, we remain focused on serving our students and addressing their evolving needs. We are optimistic about the opportunities ahead of us in 2022 and look forward to maintaining our leading position in creative arts education as we continue to drive positive outcomes for all our students.
I'd now like to hand the floor over to Jun Zhang, ACG's President, to provide an update on our current growth initiatives. Jun will make his remarks in Mandarin, which will be followed by English translation. Jun, please go ahead.
Thank you, Kevin.
Since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2023, we have worked to continue developing our online platform, the need to be nimble and flexible, the need to have a technologiclly sound remote delivery method for our customer became absolutely clear when the unprecedented circumstances of COVID-19 affected all the people in the world over two years ago. We have continued to develop resources and to quickly reacting to COVID related influxes on our operation and have remained focused on providing the best quality education services for our students even if some of our campuses are temporary closed due to local resurgences. ACG has continued to develop additional short term programs, courses online, and in person with our students including online book camps, internships, domestic travel, and certain theme research based learning programs.
For example, during the first quarter, we organized an environmental protection cultural and creative design cap at Suzhou at Hunan province offering a unique experience for over 20 students who are able to create recycling marine products and learn from local artists. The students have the opportunity to work out individual and group art piece and project. Some of their work were selected into the exhibition at the CSO Marine Protection Center. This program was well received by the participating students.
We believe the public health situation in China may improve over the next several weeks and remain optimistic about the remainder of 2022 as the situation's tamed and major cities can resume some level of normalcy. We continue to plan for short-term summer camps and theme travels in the coming summer. We're determined to continue developing programs that cater to the needs of different student populations, and to support them in every way we can like we always do, with the best quality education and teaching experiences. Our operational strength and growth prospects are based upon the experience of our veteran teachers, our continuously evolving sales and marketing strategies to better resonate with the appropriate student population.
Our ongoing efforts to improve operating efficiencies as well as to establish relationships with domestic and international partners, including universities and colleges, education institutions, and international high schools in China and more. We believe we are well-positioned financially in the near term, but have been exploring financing, investing, and M&A opportunities where appropriate to enable our long-term growth. ACG's mission is to provide quality learning experiences that cultivate and enhance students' creativity. We're confident in our ability to maintain our competitive advantages and leading position in the creative arts education market in China. In 2022, we look forward to serving a growing population of students with diversified needs in pursuing the creative arts education. With that, I'll turn it back over to Kevin.
Thanks, Jun and Alice. In closing, we are optimistic about ACG's prospects in 2022 and look forward to continuing to serve our students regardless of what the situation is locally. We are committed to our mission of empowering students to achieve success in the creative arts and we'll continue exploring ways in which we can expand our offering to help more students in their pursuit of creative arts education. With that, operator, let's open it for questions.
Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. If you would like to remove your question from the queue, please press star two. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. There are no questions at this time.
I'd like to turn the call back over to Mr. Kevin Ma for closing remarks.
Thanks again to all of you for joining us. If anyone has questions for us, please feel free to reach out directly to us or our investor relations from The Equity Group. We are always available to speak to investors and look forward to speaking with you or during our next quarterly call. Thank you.
This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you all for your participation.