[Today's focus]

Yuewen Group (00772.HK) Announces Annual Results of Its Own Platform Product Monthly Paying User Growth of Over 20%, Officially Entering the Boutique Short Drama Market

Reading Wen Group (00772.HK) announced that for the year ended December 31, 2023, the company's revenue reached RMB 7,011.8 million, and the profit attributable to the company's equity holders increased by 32.3% year-on-year to RMB 804.9 million.

The average monthly paying users of the company's own platform products and self-operated channels increased 10.1% year-on-year from 7.9 million to 8.7 million in the same year. In particular, the number of monthly paying users of the company's own platform products increased by more than 20% year-on-year, reflecting the positive progress made by the company in continuing to effectively crack down on piracy, enhance product operation capabilities, and continuously export high-quality content.

In 2023, the company added about 380,000 writers and 670,000 novels to its online reading platform, adding more than 39 billion words. Among them, new writers performed brilliantly. The number of new writers with total revenue exceeding 100,000 yuan in 2023 increased 60% year on year; among the new books that earned more than 1 million yuan in 2023, works by new writers accounted for nearly 1/3; while the number of works ordered by post-00s writers for 10,000 yuan increased 230% year over year.

The expansion of the number of works and creators has brought about a continuous improvement in the quality of content. In 2023, the number of new works ordered over 100,000 on the company's entire platform increased 125% year-on-year, and various subscription records were continuously broken.

In addition, the company's “Writer's Assistant Wonderful Pen Edition,” which embeds a large model for reading books, has been opened to all contracted writers. This is also the most advanced AI model tool in the industry and most suitable for online text creation. The weekly usage rate of the AI feature in Writer's Assistant has reached 30%.

The company's leading interactive community building closely connects readers to IP. In 2023, the number of new books that received one million reviews increased 67% year over year; the number of works that received 100,000 monthly passes throughout the year increased 66% year over year. Throughout 2023, the company's MPU also achieved considerable growth, up 10.1% year-on-year to 8.7 million.

In the field of IP derivatives, the company continues to launch various IP games and peripheral products, including key IPs such as “Master of Secrets”, “The Master of Secrets”, and “Battle for the Sky”, covering various categories such as blind boxes, figures, statues, soft weeks, cards, etc., and were sought after by the market as soon as they were launched. The company has also licensed IP to different consumer goods brands including 3C digital, food and beverage, automotive and other industries, bringing them obvious popularity and sales potential. In 2024, the company will continue to explore new derivative categories and experiment with synergy between derivatives and other forms of content, such as simultaneously launching related derivatives in line with the launch pace of IP movies, TV series and animation, and maximizing the influence and popularity of IP.

In the field of games, “The Legend of Mortal Immortals” and “Star-Eater”, which were authorized by the company, were successfully launched in 2023. In addition, a number of authorized IP game projects, including “Dora Continent”, “Battle the Sky”, and “The Daily Life of a Chat Group”, have all obtained game versions and are expected to be launched in 2024. In terms of independent operation, the company's classic IP game “New Doula Continent” also continues to be refreshed and iterated, effectively enhancing the game's artistic expression and interactive experience. The company will continue to optimize and upgrade the gameplay to bring players a better gaming experience.

In addition, the company officially entered the boutique skit market, released the “Short Drama Galaxy Incubation Program”, and launched three major initiatives: 100 IP cultivation plans, 100 million yuan creative fund support, and exploration of interactive skits. Currently, several short dramas have sold over 10 million.

The company continues to actively explore overseas markets. By the end of 2023, the company's overseas reading platform WebNovel provided about 3,800 Chinese-translated works and 620,000 original local works to overseas users. As an important scenario for the company's AI application, the company continued to upgrade its AI translation model in 2023, and has now produced a number of leading works translated by AI. In December 2023, 21 of WebNovel's top 100 best-selling works were translated by AI. AI translation is a catalyst for companies to scale up and go overseas in multiple languages. It is expected to help the company achieve large-scale growth and gradually establish advantageous categories with strategic value in some core regions.

The company believes 2024 will be a “hot year” for reading articles. Currently, the number of pre-orders for the second season of “Celebrating the Years” has exceeded 12 million, making it the first drama on the entire network to surpass 10 million pre-orders. In Tencent Video's most anticipated list, the company already has three works in the top ten: the second season of “Celebrating the Years”, “Living with Fengxing”, and “Dafeng Dafeng: Getting More People”. The company believes that in the wave of industry upgrading, reading is ready in terms of high-quality content reserves, ecological collaboration, and technological innovation. The company will continue to adhere to the core values of “content, platform, and IP” to achieve the company's mission, which is to keep good stories alive.

[Important matters]

The trading unit of China Resources Beer (00291.HK) will be changed to 500 shares per lot

McDwell (02159.HK) changed the trading unit per lot to 8,000 shares

[Financial results]

Steady progress towards mid-term profit! Financial One Account reduced losses by more than 500 million dollars in 2023, and gross margin increased steadily

Haitian International (01882.HK)'s profit attributable to shareholders increased 10.0% to 2.49 billion yuan in 2023

Yuexiu Services (06626.HK): Net profit increased 17% year-on-year in 2023 to $487 million with final interest of HK$0.087 million

Profit attributable to owners of Wanguo International Mining (03939.HK) increased by 85.8% to about $335 million in 2023

ASIX Technology (01675.HK)'s revenue in 2023 was about 7.891 billion yuan, up 2.0% year-on-year

JuTeng International (03336.HK)'s annual revenue of about HK$6.936 billion decreased by about 16.0% year on year

Kingdee International (00268.HK)'s annual revenue increased by about 16.7% to about 5.679 billion yuan

Yisheng Biotechnology (01061.HK)'s profit in 2023 increased 22.1% year-on-year to approximately HK$275.3 million

Shanshan Brand (01749.HK) has an estimated annual comprehensive profit of about 30 million yuan

Lai Sun Development (00488.HK) expects a medium-term loss of approximately HK$1.76 billion to HK$1.95 billion

Starry Sky Chinese (06698.HK) expects net loss of 1.6 billion to 1.7 billion yuan in fiscal year 2023

Shunfeng Clean Energy (01165.HK) Profit Alert: It is expected to record a loss of about 471 million yuan in 2023

Tianjin Jinran Public Utility (01265.HK) is expected to have a comprehensive annual loss of about 155 million yuan

Greentech International (00195.HK): Expected net profit for FY2023 is not more than HK$70 million

Shen Wan Hongyuan Hong Kong (00218.HK) expects a loss of HK$180 million to HK$198 million after tax in 2023

Xincheng Technology (00365.HK) Profit Alert: Expected loss will not exceed HK$67 million in 2023

[Pharmaceutical Innovation]

CSPC Group (01093.HK): Highly selective MAT2A inhibitor (SYH2039) approved for clinical trials

[Acquisition and sale]

Regal Hotels (00078.HK), Century City International (00355.HK) and Pelipo Holdings (00617.HK): Regal subsidiary plans to sell two A320-232 Airbus aircraft

[Repurchase Cancellation]

AIA (01299.HK) spent HK$226 million to repurchase 3.8 million shares on March 18

HSBC Holdings (00005.HK) spent HK$189 million to repurchase 3.22 million shares on March 15

Swire Group A (00019.HK) spent HK$22.4783 million to repurchase 350,000 shares on March 18

Yao Ming Kangde (02359.HK) spent 2010 million yuan to buy back 392,600 A shares on March 18

Sinopec Refining and Chemical Engineering (02386.HK) spent HK$2.97 million to buy back 642,000 shares on March 18

Yidu (International Holdings) (00259.HK) spent HK$2.743 million to buy back 810,000 shares on March 18

Rising Sun Enterprise (00393.HK) cancelled 5.836 million shares on March 18