GOTU Gaotu Techedu Inc

BEIJING, Aug. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Gaotu Techedu Inc. (NYSE: GOTU) ("Gaotu" or the "Company"), a technology-driven education company and online large-class tutoring service provider in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2024.

Second Quarter 2024 Highlights^[1]

• Net revenues were RMB1,009.8 million, increased by 43.6% from RMB703.1 million in the same period of 2023.
• Gross billings^[2] were RMB1,653.7 million, increased by 87.4% from RMB882.3 million in the same period of 2023.
• Loss from operations was RMB464.8 million, compared with income from operations of RMB43.3 million in the same period of 2023.
• Net loss was RMB429.6 million, compared with net income of RMB56.2 million in the same period of 2023.
• Non-GAAP net loss was RMB418.0 million, compared with non-GAAP net income of RMB63.2 million in the same period of 2023.
• Net operating cash inflow was RMB386.2 million, increased by 33.8% from RMB288.5 million in the same period of 2023.

Six Months Ended June 30, 2024 Highlights

• Net revenues were RMB1,956.7 million, increased by 38.7% from RMB1,410.4 million in the same period of 2023.
• Gross billings were RMB2,383.1 million, increased by 67.7% from RMB1,421.3 million in the same period of 2023.
• Loss from operations was RMB542.5 million, compared with income from operations of RMB138.5 million in the same period of 2023.
• Net loss was RMB441.8 million, compared with net income of RMB170.0 million in the same period of 2023.
• Non-GAAP net loss was RMB415.0 million, compared with non-GAAP net income of RMB196.8 million in the same period of 2023.
• Net operating cash inflow was RMB188.7 million, increased by 161.7% from RMB72.1 million in the same period of 2023.

Larry Xiangdong Chen, the Company's founder, Chairman and CEO, commented, "We achieved encouraging results in the second quarter, with net revenues increasing 43.6% year-over-year to RMB1.0 billion, reflecting strong accelerating growth momentum. As of June 30, 2024, our deferred revenue reached RMB1.6 billion, representing a 71.5% increase from the same point in time last year, ensuring robust support for our continued growth in the second half of the year.

June 16th marked the tenth anniversary of Gaotu's founding. Over the past decade, we've consistently regarded learning services and teaching quality as the cornerstones of our core competencies, continuously attracting and retaining top-tier talents to drive long-term growth. While expanding rapidly, we have maintained an unwavering focus on operational efficiency. Moving forward, we remain committed to prioritizing customer needs and advancing our mission to 'make learning better', thereby creating lasting value for our shareholders."

Shannon Shen, CFO of the Company, added, "We kicked off the year with robust growth and successfully carried this momentum into the second quarter, further scaling our operations while delivering results that exceeded our expectations in both revenues and gross billings. Gross billings for the first half of the year increased 67.7% to RMB2.4 billion, laying a solid foundation for further revenues growth in the second half of the year. These results reflect our ongoing efforts to boost operational efficiency, address market demand, and enhance teaching quality. Moving forward, we will maintain our focus on core education businesses, expand our product offerings, attract top talents, and refine operations to capitalize on market opportunities and drive long-term, sustainable growth."

Financial Results for the Second Quarter of 2024

Net Revenues

Net revenues increased by 43.6% to RMB1,009.8 million from RMB703.1 million in the second quarter of 2023, which was mainly due to the continuous year-over-year growth of gross billings as a result of our sufficient and effective response to the strong market demand. Furthermore, our high-quality educational products and learning services resulted in improved recognition of our products.

Cost of Revenues

Cost of revenues increased by 70.0% to RMB313.4 million from RMB184.4 million in the second quarter of 2023. The increase was mainly due to the expansion of instructors and tutors workforce and the increased cost of learning materials.

Gross Profit and Gross Margin

Gross profit increased by 34.3% to RMB696.4 million from RMB518.7 million in the second quarter of 2023. Gross profit margin decreased to 69.0% from 73.8% in the same period of 2023.

Non-GAAP gross profit increased by 33.3% to RMB696.3 million from RMB522.3 million in the second quarter of 2023. Non-GAAP gross profit margin decreased to 69.0% from 74.3% in the same period of 2023.

Operating Expenses

Operating expenses increased by 144.2% to RMB1,161.1 million from RMB475.4 million in the second quarter of 2023. The increase was primarily due to the expansion of employees workforce and a higher expenditure on marketing and branding activities.

• Selling expenses increased to RMB835.4 million from RMB324.1 million in the second quarter of 2023.
• Research and development expenses increased to RMB162.1 million from RMB98.4 million in the second quarter of 2023.
• General and administrative expenses increased to RMB163.6 million from RMB52.9 million in the second quarter of 2023.

(Loss)/Income from Operations

Loss from operations was RMB464.8 million, compared with income from operations of RMB43.3 million in the second quarter of 2023.

Non-GAAP loss from operations was RMB453.2 million, compared with non-GAAP income from operations of RMB50.3 million in the second quarter of 2023.

Interest Income and Realized Gains from Investments

Interest income and realized gains from investments, on aggregate, were RMB29.0 million, compared with a total of RMB27.4 million in the second quarter of 2023.

Other Income/(Expenses), net

Other income, net was RMB4.6 million, compared with other expenses, net of RMB6.2 million in the second quarter of 2023.

Net (Loss)/Income 

Net loss was RMB429.6 million, compared with net income of RMB56.2 million in the second quarter of 2023.

Non-GAAP net loss was RMB418.0 million, compared with non-GAAP net income of RMB63.2 million in the second quarter of 2023.

Cash Flow

Net operating cash inflow in the second quarter of 2024 was RMB386.2 million.

Basic and Diluted Net Loss per ADS

Basic and diluted net loss per ADS were both RMB1.65 in the second quarter of 2024.

Non-GAAP basic and diluted net loss per ADS were both RMB1.61 in the second quarter of 2024.

Share Outstanding

As of June 30, 2024, the Company had 172,491,283 ordinary shares outstanding.

Cash, Cash Equivalents, Restricted Cash, Short-term and Long-term Investments

As of June 30, 2024, the Company had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term and long-term investments of RMB4,103.4 million in aggregate, compared with a total of RMB3,953.5 million as of December 31, 2023.

Share Repurchase

In November 2022, the Company's board of directors authorized a share repurchase program under which the Company may repurchase up to US$30 million of its shares, effective until November 22, 2025. In November 2023, the Company's board of directors authorized modifications to the share repurchase program, increasing the aggregate value of shares that may be repurchased from US$30 million to US$80 million, effective until November 22, 2025.

As of August 26, 2024, the Company had cumulatively repurchased approximately 7.9 million ADSs for approximately US$27.0 million under the share repurchase program.

Business Outlook

Based on the Company's current estimates, total net revenues for the third quarter of 2024 are expected to be between RMB1,188 million and RMB1,208 million, representing an increase of 50.5% to 53.0% on a year-over-year basis. These estimates reflect the Company's current expectations, which are subject to change.

Conference Call

The Company will hold an earnings conference call at 8:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time on Tuesday, August 27, 2024 (8:00 PM Beijing/Hong Kong Time on Tuesday, August 27, 2024). Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows:

International: 1-412-317-6061
United States: 1-888-317-6003
Hong Kong: 800-963-976
Mainland China: 400-120-6115
Passcode: 5380431

A telephone replay will be available two hours after the conclusion of the conference call through September 2, 2024. The dial-in details are:

International: 1-412-317-0088
United States: 1-877-344-7529
Passcode: 6770960

Additionally, a live and archived webcast of this conference call will be available at http://ir.gaotu.cn/. 

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, the business outlook, as well as the Company's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. The Company may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: the Company's ability to continue to attract students to enroll in its courses; the Company's ability to continue to recruit, train and retain qualified teachers; the Company's ability to improve the content of its existing course offerings and to develop new courses; the Company's ability to maintain and enhance its brand; the Company's ability to maintain and continue to improve its teaching results; and the Company's ability to compete effectively against its competitors. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company's reports filed with, or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no duty to update such information or any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

About Gaotu Techedu Inc.

Gaotu is a technology-driven education company and online large-class tutoring service provider in China. The Company offers learning services and educational content & digitalized learning products. Gaotu adopts an online live large-class format to deliver its courses, which the Company believes is the most effective and scalable model to disseminate scarce high-quality teaching resources to aspiring students in China. Big data analytics permeates every aspect of the Company's business and facilitates the application of the latest technology to improve teaching delivery, student learning experience, and operational efficiency.

About Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The Company uses gross billings, non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP income (loss) from operations and non-GAAP net income (loss), each a non-GAAP financial measure, in evaluating its operating results and for financial and operational decision-making purposes.

The Company defines gross billings for a specific period as the total amount of cash received for the sale of course offerings in such period, net of the total amount of refunds in such period. The Company's management uses gross billings as a performance measurement because the Company generally bills its students for the entire course fee at the time of sale of its course offerings and recognizes revenue proportionally as the classes are delivered. For some courses, the Company continues to provide students with 12 months to 36 months access to the pre-recorded audio-video courses after the online live courses are delivered. The Company believes that gross billings provides valuable insight into the sales of its course packages and the performance of its business. As gross billings have material limitations as an analytical metrics and may not be calculated in the same manner by all companies, it may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures used by other companies.

Non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP income (loss) from operations and non-GAAP net income (loss) exclude share-based compensation expenses. The Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding its performance and liquidity by excluding share-based expenses that may not be indicative of its operating performance from a cash perspective. The Company believes that both management and investors benefit from these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing its performance and when planning and forecasting future periods. These non-GAAP financial measures also facilitate management's internal comparisons to the Company's historical performance. A limitation of using non-GAAP measures is that these non-GAAP measures exclude share-based compensation charges that have been and will continue to be for the foreseeable future a significant recurring expense in the Company's business.

The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. For more information on these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the table captioned "Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures" set forth at the end of this release.

The accompanying tables have more details on the reconciliations between GAAP financial measures that are most directly comparable to non-GAAP financial measures.

Exchange Rate

The Company's business is primarily conducted in China and a significant majority of revenues generated are denominated in Renminbi ("RMB"). This announcement contains currency conversions of RMB amounts into U.S. dollars ("USD") solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from RMB to USD are made at a rate of RMB7.2672 to USD1.0000, the effective noon buying rate for June 28, 2024 as set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. No representation is made that the RMB amounts could have been, or could be, converted, realized or settled into USD at that rate on June 28, 2024, or at any other rate.

For further information, please contact:

Gaotu Techedu Inc.
Investor Relations
E-mail: ir@gaotu.cn 

Christensen

In China
Ms. Vivian Wang
Phone: +852-2232-3978
E-mail: gotu@christensencomms.com 

In the US
Ms. Linda Bergkamp
Phone: +1-480-614-3004
Email: linda.bergkamp@christensencomms.com 

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SOURCE Gaotu Techedu Inc.