LightInTheBox Holding Co., Ltd. (LITB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call for LightInTheBox Holding Co., Ltd. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Rene Vanguestaine for opening remarks and introductions. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Ray. Hello, everyone, and welcome to LightInTheBox' Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. The company's earnings results were released earlier today and are available on the company's IR website as well as through PR Newswire. Today, you will hear from LightInTheBox' CEO, Mr. Jian He, who will give an overview of the company's strategies and recent developments; followed by Ms. Yuan Jun Ye, the company's Chief Financial Officer, who will go over the financial results. Together with them today is Wenyu Liu, the company's Chief Growth Officer. All will be available for the Q&A after the prepared remarks. Before we proceed, I would like to remind you of our safe harbor statement. Please note that the discussion today may contain certain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. To understand the factors that could cause results to materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements, please refer to our Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 21, 2021. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. At this point, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. He. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thanks, Rene, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Following a solid first quarter, we continued to achieve stable year-over-year growth in the second quarter. Total revenue reached $122.2 million, up 7.3% from the same period of 2020. Our gross profit margin in Q2 was 46.8%, higher than 43.5% in the same period of 2020. The adjusted EBITDA grew by 59% year-over-year. Total revenues from -- for the first half of this year were $234.2 million, representing a 41.6% increase from the first half of 2020. From the macro perspective, as vaccination rates around the world increase, people are engaging in more outdoor and social activities with family and friends as well as offline shopping at the retail stores in the malls. It's a good phenomenon and we are pleased to see this happen. In the long run, we believe that online and offline shopping can complement each other to a better shopping experience. Overall speaking, our sales in Q2 continued to sustain a healthy growth momentum. Product sales increased by 11% year-over-year. Notably, apparel sales increased by 149% and is our top category, contributing 62% of the total product sales in Q2 compared with 28% in Q2 last year. For the first half of the year, apparel sales grew by 56% from the same period of last year. The solid performance is attributable to our enriched and select product portfolio and our continuous efforts in enhancing our customers' shopping experience. On the other hand, we believe that investing in R&D is a critical element that appeals to our solid foundation to stand out from the field competition. Our R&D expense increased by 52% year-over-year to $5.1 million in Q2 as we continue to strengthen our R&D capabilities. The pandemic has accelerated the shift towards online shopping. But at the same time, it has attracted more competition to the e-commerce space from new and established players. While we are still facing the economic uncertainties, partly due to the resurgence of coronavirus in a number of countries, we will continue as in the past quarters to implement the strategies to enhance our platform to be more responsive and user-friendly, so that the customer will enjoy the comprehensive product selections and the convenience of online shopping, even more on our website and the mobile app. I will now turn the call over to Yuan Jun to go through the financial results.

Thank you, Mr. He, and thank you, everyone, for joining the call. I will now review our financial results for the second quarter. Please be reminded that all numbers quoted are in U.S. dollars. Total revenue was $122.2 million, up 7.3% year-over-year from $113.9 million. This was mainly driven by strong growth in product sales, which were $119.3 million versus $107.2 million in the same period in 2020. Revenues from services and others was $2.9 million compared with $6.7 million. Included in product sales, revenues from payroll increased by 149% to 40 -- $74 million in the second quarter of 2021 compared with $29.7 million in the same quarter of 2020. Gross profit was $57.1 million, compared with $49.6 million during the same period last year. Gross margin was 46.8%, up from 43.5% in the same quarter of 2020, primarily due to our continued efforts to optimize supply chain and product mix. Total operating expenses were $60.6 million compared with $41.4 million during the same quarter of 2020. The increase was mainly due to an increase in selling and marketing expenses. Fulfillment expenses were $7.6 million compared with $7.4 million in the same quarter of 2020. As a percentage of total revenue, fulfillment expenses were 6.2% compared with 6.5% in the same quarter of 2020 and 6.5% in the first quarter of 2021. Selling and marketing expenses were $43.5 million compared with $26.5 million in the same quarter of 2020. As a percentage of total revenue, selling and marketing expenses were 35.6% compared with 23.3% in the same quarter of 2020 and 31.8% in the first quarter of 2021. The increase was due to the high expenses for online advertising from leading ad providers. G&A expenses were $9.5 million compared with $7.5 million in the same quarter of 2020. As a percentage of total revenue, G&A expenses were 7.8% compared with 6.6% in the same quarter of 2020 and 7.5% in the first quarter of 2021. Included in the G&A expenses, R&D expenses were $5.1 million compared with $3.3 million in the same quarter of 2020 and $4.9 million in the first quarter of 2021. Other income net in the second quarter of 2021 was $17.2 million compared with $0.3 million in the same quarter of 2020. Included in other income net in the second quarter of 2021, $17.1 million was derived from change in fair value on our equity investments, the gain in fair value changed on our equity investments after respective income tax of $4.2 million was $12.9 million. Net income was $9.5 million compared with $8.5 million in the same quarter of 2020. Net income per ADS was $0.08 compared with $0.08 in the same quarter of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA, which represents income from operations before share-based compensation expense, interest income, interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization expenses were $14.5 million in the second quarter of 2021 compared with $9.1 million in the same quarter of 2020. As of June 30, 2021, we had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash of $58.2 million compared with $65.5 million as of December 31, 2020. Our revenue growth and net income in the past quarters have validated our well-established growth strategy as we continue to maintain business continuity in uncertain times. Over the next quarter, we expect to continue to face challenges in highly competitive markets, and we will continue to implement our long-term growth strategy to optimize user experience across our platform and mobile apps. The commitment of our experienced management team, leading our operations and our R&D and technology innovation has given us the solid foundation we need to stay well positioned in the industry. However, it is unlikely to reasonably determine whether any business fluctuations in the midst of the current economic pandemic are likely to materially affect our operations. To focus on long-term goals and avoid overly underlying short-term objectives, we will not provide revenue guidance for the third quarter of 2021. This concludes our prepared remarks. At this point, we are ready to take some questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of [ Matthew Larson ] from National.

It was nice to see the top line growth and bottom line. I guess the bottom line, a lot of it derived from derivative revaluation. What is that M&A from?

It's the investment gains.

On what, I guess. What's the investment?

Mr. Matthew Larsen, this is an investment on a company that we invested several years ago, whose business was on selling cosmetic products.

Okay. So it's a related business, it's retail. And do you maintain that business investment exposure? So that could impact, hopefully, positively in the future just as it did this quarter?

We are just a shareholder. We do not maintain the business in this investment equity.

Okay, right. But it's a shareholder of a retail type of business, which you're familiar with, its cosmetics. So it's part of the assets on your balance sheet. Is that in addition to the cash of the $50-some-odd million you have in cash, you also have securities in this business as well? Is that accurate?

Okay. This investment gain is based on the company, which raised capital and our initial investment gained this -- the book value was increased according to the new equity raise in this company.

Right. But the gain is quite nice, and there's nothing -- it's always good to have investments in addition to cash because you have plenty of cash on the balance sheet. But the investment seems to be working quite well. So I'm trying to get a sense of what you have assets on the balance sheet since you don't have any debt. You have cash, you have this investment in this company. And what is the total value of your investment, if you could gauge it based on -- at the end of the second quarter?

The total value of this company, I think it's not an available information that we could disclose. The long-term investment that you are seeing on our balance sheet was valued according to the U.S. GAAP with the relative methodology. It is not totally equivalent to the value of this investment company.

Okay. But it went up $12 million to $13 million. So it must -- in the aggregate, the value and the investment must be more than that. So it just allows me to get a better sense of the value of your company in addition to the operating value that you could be -- that we can place on you all because of your revenue-generating capabilities.

Yes, as we are only a managed shareholder, and we are in different markets so the methodology behind is quite different. So it's really hard to explain or to compare the value of this investment company. But what you can see -- okay. Please go ahead.

Well, I was just saying that if we could get a sense of the value of your investments that you might have made a while ago, the current value based on GAAP accounting, we would be able to add that to your book value. Or just as an investor that I represent a number of investors that have a pretty good exposure to your company, and this is a plus. I didn't know you had other assets that could really help the overall value of LightInTheBox in addition to the cash you have and the top line operating capabilities of your firm. And so this was a plus that obviously is working well for you. Okay. So in addition, the guidance you're not going to put it out, as you said, it's very competitive and things in the PRC are still being impacted like they are elsewhere with COVID and things like that. But the -- retail is a very competitive business anyway. You all have done extremely well over the last year. You've had 4 quarters, I believe, in a row, where you've doubled your previous year's revenues. This year, you did not because last year was a tough comparison, but you still did better, which was very nice. On an operating basis, you had a small loss. And the breakout that I could see was that the SG&A went up to 43.5% from 26.5%. So obviously, that's up quite a bit. Is that due to higher costs for sourcing because of shipping costs and other things like that, that might abate so that the SG&A might be less of a percentage going forward?

Okay. Thank you for the question. Okay, for G&A expenses, the absolute value will remain most likely stable. So if the revenue continues to grow in terms of G&A, expenses percentage, will definitely decrease.

Yes, because the revenue grew 7%, which was great because last year it was up 100% maybe. And so -- but last year, you were able to achieve that with SG&A of $26.5 million. This quarter, it was $43.5 million. So there is a big jump there. And of course, that hurts your bottom line. But is the SG&A in the future expected to maybe be more contained relative to your revenue, your top line capabilities. So can we expect that to be less as a percentage of overall sales?

Yes, we can.

Okay. So all right. So again, just so I'm very clear, because your news releases are pretty basic. The SG&A jumped $17 million from $26.5 million to $43.5 million, which was up 60% or 70%. Sales were up 7%. So is the jump in SG&A for what reasons? I know here in the U.S. that there is bottlenecks and the costs of containers of ships coming from Asia, China to the U.S. carrying goods have jumped considerably in price. So costs have gone up, which it is for everybody. Is that the case with you? And if so, if these -- if the tightness for many things slows down, would your SG&A become less of a percentage of your overall sales so that it could fall -- your sales could fall to the bottom line, and we can see greater profitability.

Okay. For the absolute value, as you have mentioned, this jump as compared to last year, there were 2 reasons. One was because last year, we had some subsides from the government due to COVID-19. But this year, there's no more that kind of subsidy. The other reason was caused by R&D expenses, as mentioned just now.

Okay. All right. That makes sense to me. The R&D went up fractionally and it's important that you continue to invest in your platform.

Yes. This number will remain relatively stable.

This number, what? I'm sorry?

This number will remain stable in future, at least for this year.

Okay. Well, that's good to know. So if you can continue to grow -- the real -- what I'm driving at is your company, after many years after you went public, kind of flatlined. But all of a sudden, your top line growth, your revenue has been excellent. And -- so you're benefiting from more and more people focusing on making purchases online versus elsewhere. Now you did withhold guidance. Is it just because it's hard for you to figure it out? Or is -- you're just -- is it slowing down? Or what was the reason? Why this in the past, you've been able to give guidance, and we're already almost at the end of the quarter.

Okay. For this quarter, honestly speaking, there's some uncertainties we are facing right now, as mentioned just now by our CFO. So it's -- yes, it's unlikely we can provide accurate guidance right now.

Okay. And when you do have that ability, will you announce it prior to earnings announcements. But -- you can give guidance, you can preannounce those types of things.

I think we are not planning to have another release, but we will try to have an early release for Q3 quarterly report.

Okay. And then maybe finally, do you expect to be profitable for the year? Or is that based also on the other investment that changes in value?

We can't predict the final profitability for the whole year. What we know now is the first 2 quarters results.

I see. So okay, you only know what you've done so far, but you can't predict the rest of the year. And is that your company? Or is that you find with a lot of online retail companies like yourself in the PRC. Is that just what most of your competitors are probably not able to do?

Maybe. Okay, allow me to give you a few reasons. First of all, as mentioned just now, due to the macro environment, the vaccination rate keep increasing and people are more engaged in outdoor activities. As a result, I believe online portion gets affected. In fact, other players also observe the similar trend. This is one reason. The second reason will be, yes, as you have mentioned, there are many new players joining cross-border e-commerce industry, which did impose some new challenges against the competition. Besides, we are also facing some uncertainties in certain countries due to the impact of COVID-19. As a result, it's a bit hard for us to predict the guidance for Q3 as well as the whole year.

Okay. But you do expect to be profitable for the whole year?

No. We can't make...

Because you already have made [ $0.10 ]?

We can't make this conclusion right now.

You can't make any predictions?

Yes, we can't.

Okay. All right. Wenyu, your company is extremely undervalued relative to many other online merchants. The value of your company is only about 1/4 to 1/3 of sales, which is very unusual. I mean, generally, companies in your -- with your business model trade at 2 or 3x sales. And in addition, you have a very, very solid and robust -- very -- an excellent balance sheet so that, that is very comfortable for investors. So it's just a question of you all being able to pull your top line sales to the bottom line because the value of your stock is somewhat -- let me ask a final question. I mean is the principles of the firm, are you all happy with your stock price? Or do you want it to go up? Is that an interest of yours because it is down 70% or 80% from its high even though your revenues have continued to grow and you have a very clean balance sheet. Do you have any interest or -- of trying to get the stock price higher through buybacks or other measures, acquisitions?

Okay. First of all, Matthew, I think we do appreciate that you have done a lot of analysis on this company as well as this market, we do appreciate that. And I do appreciate that you see the value in this company. But for the stock price, we don't have any comments right now. As for whether we want to drive up the stock price, I think it's another topic. Yes, this is the whole question. And we will bring this to our Board and initiate some discussion. At the same time, I think if you have any further question, we can keep in touch after the call. You can send our e-mail address from IR's website. We do appreciate whatever you have asked or whatever you have suggested.

Okay. I appreciate that. I'll let somebody else jump in here if there's people waiting.

[Operator Instructions] I will now hand the call back to Mr. Rene Vanguestaine for any closing remarks. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you, Ray. This concludes our call for today. Thank you for your participation and ongoing support of LightInTheBox. We look forward to providing you with updates on our business in the weeks and months ahead. Have a good day.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Thank you. That concludes your conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may all disconnect your lines now. Thank you.