Footwear and sportswear retailer Belle International Holdings Ltd. registered a year-on-year plunge of 38.4 per cent in net profit for its fiscal year ended February 29 despite total revenue showing a slight increase of two per cent year-on-year. According to its filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday after trading hours, the retailer raked in 2.93 billion yuan (MOP3.58 billion/US$447.6 million) in net profit for the last fiscal year, down 1.83 billion yuan compared to the 4.75 billion yuan posted for the 2014/2015 fiscal year. Nevertheless, the company’s total revenue increased to 40.8 billion yuan for the period, compared to some 40 billion yuan one year ago. The retailer’s business in Hong Kong and Macau declined by 9.1 per cent year-on-year in terms of revenue, which amounted to some 1 billion yuan from a previously registered 1.1 billion yuan. Its Mainland China market improved by some 2.4 per cent, generating revenue of 39.5 billion yuan. Sportswear sales surge In terms of business type, Belle saw the revenue derived from its sportswear and apparel business jump by 16.2 per cent year-on-year to nearly 20 billion yuan. ‘The relatively fast growth of the sportswear and apparel business was mainly due to the relatively higher same store sales growth and a healthy expansion of the retail network,’ it claimed in the filing. But the shoe retailer’s revenue earned from the footwear business was down by 8.5 per cent year-on-year to 21 billion yuan compared to the 23 billion yuan of one year ago. It explained that the decrease is due to the drop in same store sales of over 10 per cent. ‘Such a decline was largely in line with the overall sales decline in the footwear departments across over 2,000 department stores according to data collected by the Group,’ Belle added in the filing. As at the end of February, the company operated 12,505 self-managed outlets across the Mainland, as well as some 144 stores in Hong Kong and Macau. Belle also proposes an annual dividend of 6 cents in yuan per ordinary share, down 68.4 per cent year-on-year.
—
