Uxin Limited (UXIN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Uxin's Earnings Conference Call for the quarter ended March 31, 2025. [Operator Instructions] Today's conference call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today's conference call, Mr. Jack Wang. Please go ahead, Jack.

1 Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Uxin's earnings call for the first quarter ended March 31, 2025. On the call with me today, we have D.K., our Founder and CEO; and John Lin, our CFO. D.K. will review business operations and company highlights, followed by John, who will discuss financials and guidance. They will both be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session that follows. Before we proceed, I would like to remind you that this call may contain forward-looking statements, which are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from our current expectations. For detailed discussions of the risks and uncertainties, please refer to our filings with the SEC. And now with that, I will turn the call over to our CEO, D.K. Please go ahead, sir.

[Interpreted] Hello, everyone. I'm very pleased to connect with all of you again on our earnings call, and I want to thank you for joining us today. To facilitate a better communication with both our domestic and international investors, I will be sharing our updates in both Chinese and English. In the first quarter of 2025, we achieved a strong operational performance with retail transaction volume reaching 7,545 units, up 142% year-over-year. This result once again demonstrates the resilience of our business model and its significant growth potential. Despite the typical seasonal slowdown during the Chinese New Year holiday, which impacted industry-wide activity for about 2 weeks, we maintained solid operational momentum. Our vehicle turnover remained high and inventory management remained disciplined with turnover days capped around 30 days. We also continued to deliver a best-in-class customer experience, achieving a Net Promoter Score of 65, one of the highest in the industry. As our customer base continues to expand, we are seeing strong -- a growing brand recognition and the strengthening of our competitive position. In our 2 core markets, Xi'an and Hefei, our local market share has now exceeded 15%. Both locations are showing robust growth and are well on track towards full operational maturity. This year, our priorities in these markets are to scale up inventory, drive further sales growth and begin contributing positive cash flow to support the next phase of our business expansion. We also made meaningful progress in expanding our superstore network. Our new location in Wuhan began trial operations in February. With a population of 14 million and nearly 5 million registered vehicles, Wuhan is one of China's largest automotive hubs often referred to as the nation's auto Valley. Compared to Xi'an and Hefei, the used car market in Wuhan is notably more active, making it a strategic choice for introducing our large-format used car retail model in Central China. Leveraging the operational experience and data insights we accumulated from our Xi'an and Hefei stores, our pricing engine has adapted smoothly to the Wuhan market. Accurate pricing allows us to stay competitive at both the sourcing and retail end, accelerating our market penetration. Meanwhile, the standardized development of our reconditioning facilities and the continuous refinement of our staffing model, which we shaped over several years, have positioned the Wuhan store to scale efficiently from day 1. We are encouraged by the strong initial customer response. Our high-quality vehicle inventory and professional customer service has been well received in the local market. Just over 3 months into trial operations, both sales and inventory at the Wuhan store have been ramping up steadily with current retail volume already reaching approximately 1/3 of the combined sales of our 2 existing stores. Based on this momentum, we expect the Wuhan location to achieve profitability on an accelerated time line compared to our previous stores. In the meantime, we are also making solid progress in establishing new superstores in additional major cities. We plan to open 2 to 3 new locations later this year, together with the continued growth at our existing stores. These expansions are expected to further drive our operational and financial performance. For the second quarter, we're on track to exceed 10,000 retail vehicle sales, which would represent more than 140% year-over-year growth. So with that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CFO to walk you through the financial results. John, please.

[Interpreted] Thank you, D.K. Hello, everyone. Since we have both domestic and international investors participating today, we will continue to present the company's performance in both Chinese and English to better communicate with all of you. So in the first quarter, our retail transaction volume was 7,545 units, representing a very strong 142% year-over-year increase. On a sequential basis, however, retail transaction volume declined 12% which reflects the typical seasonal slowdown associated with the Chinese New Year holiday. Retail revenue for the quarter was RMB 470 million, representing a 73% increase year-over-year and a 16% decrease quarter-over-quarter. The average selling price or ASP for retail vehicles was RMB 62,000 compared to RMB 86,000 in the same period last year. While the ASP declined due to our strategic focus on more affordable inventory structure, the strong growth in transaction volume more than offset the pricing impact and sustained our overall revenue expansion. Our current inventory structure is well aligned with the mainstream consumer demand, and we believe pricing has now stabilized at a rational level. As such, we expect ASP to remain relatively steady in the near term. Turning to our wholesale business. Our wholesale transaction volume was 719 units in the first quarter, down 23% year-over-year and 19% quarter-over-quarter. Total wholesale revenue was RMB 22.5 million. Combining retail and wholesale, our total revenue for the quarter was RMB 504 million, representing a 58% increase year-over-year and a 16% decline sequentially. Gross margin for the quarter was 7%, up 40 basis points from 6.6% a year ago and consistent with the prior quarter. We've maintained stable margins over the last 3 quarters. And given the healthy supply and demand dynamics in our key markets, we see meaningful potential for further margin expansion as we scale. We did see a modest increase in operating expenses this quarter, primarily related to the initial ramp-up of our Wuhan Superstore, including investments in staffing and infrastructure. As a result, our adjusted EBITDA loss for the quarter was RMB 8.9 million. However, this still represented a significant 78% reduction compared to the same period last year. Looking ahead to the second quarter of 2025, we expect retail transaction volume to be in the range of 10,000 to 10,500 units, representing year-over-year growth of over 140%. Total revenue is expected to be between RMB 630 million and RMB 660 million. So that concludes our prepared remarks for today. Thank you, everyone. Operator, we are now ready to begin the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] The first question will come from Fei Dai with TF Securities.

[Interpreted] Congratulations on the strong retail sales results and the positive outlook. We can see that the new car market in China has recently entered another round of price war. Could you share how this is impacting your used car business?

[Interpreted] Thanks for the question, Fei. This is D.K, and I'll answer that question. It's true that when the price gap between new and used vehicles narrows, especially under the same brand, it can influence consumer purchasing behavior. As such, the recent price competition in the new car market has created some pricing pressure on certain used vehicle segments. However, we've experienced similar cycles in the past. And over time, we've built a mature playbook to navigate these challenges and mitigate the impact. First, we respond swiftly through dynamic pricing to protect our inventory turnover. Our real-time pricing intelligence system continuously scans the broader market for price changes. Once shifts are detected, particularly in the new car segment, we promptly adjust pricing on relevant used car inventory to maintain competitiveness and accelerate sales. So this helps minimize any risk of inventory devaluation. And second, we actively manage the structure of our inventory, nearly new vehicles, typically those under 3 years old, are more sensitive to fluctuations in new car pricing. In response, we maintain a balanced and diversified inventory to -- inventory mix to reduce our exposure to these highly sensitive models during times of volatility. Lastly, it's worth noting that this current round of price competition is largely concentrated in the NEV segment. Given that most automakers are already operating with very tight margins, we believe this level of price cutting is not sustainable. In fact, we've seen recent policy signals and commentary from official media channels in China advocating against prolonged excessive discounts. We view this pricing pressure as a short-term situation rather than a long-term structural shift. Overall, we believe the impact of current new car price war on our overall business remains manageable, and we are confident in our ability to achieve our growth objectives for the year. That's our answer to your question.

Operator, hold on, we have -- we received another question from Mr. Gary Dvorchak with Water Tower Research. We'll just take this opportunity to ask that as well. The question is we saw data indicating that used NEV transactions in China grew over 20% year-over-year in Q1 this year. Can you share how much NEVs currently represent in your business mix and whether you have plans to increase your NEV exposure in the future?

[Interpreted] Yes, this is D.K, and I'll answer this question. You are right, China's NEV market is growing rapidly. In the new car segment, NEVs now account for over 60% of total sales. From a broader market perspective, NEVs currently represent about 9% of China's total vehicle population, which stands at around RMB 350 million. This indicates that the NEV segment is still in the early stage of structural expansion with significant headroom for long-term growth. We are actively tracking this trend in the used car space. According to the China Automobile Dealers Association, approximately 400,000 used EVs were transacted nationwide from January through April, up more than 30% year-over-year, accounting for roughly 7% of total used car transactions. Usually NEVs accounted for approximately 9% of our retail unit sales from January through April of 2025, representing more than 100% year-over-year growth. This is above the national average and reflects both increasing demand and our ability to capture a meaningful share of this emerging segment. With that said, we do not manage our inventory based on fuel type. Our sourcing, inspection, reconditioning, pricing and sales systems are well established and technology-driven. As long as a vehicle meets our quality standards, it will be listed in our inventory regardless of its powertrain type. We fully embrace the structural evolution of China's auto market. As the NEV market continues to expand, its share within our business will naturally increase. We are well prepared to support this transaction and -- to support this transition and capture the long-term growth opportunities it will bring us. So that's the answer that we have for the question.

This will conclude our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

All right. Thank you all for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you next quarter. Thank you.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]