Chinese online real estate business Leju Holdings announced a 21 per cent increase in revenues for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, but net loss increased to $11 million as well, up from $5.5 million last year.
The company, whose online platform comprises mobile applications along with local websites across more than 260 cities, reported revenues of $113.0 million for the quarter, driven by listing and e-commerce services which increased 34 per cent and 28 per cent respectively.
Leju attributed its increased revenue of $86.1 million from e-commerce services to an increase in the number of discount coupons redeemed and in the average price per discount coupon, while the growth in secondary home sales drove listing services revenue to $5.1 million.
Online advertising revenues declined 3 per cent year-on-year to $21.8 million due to a decrease in demand from property developers.
Loss from operations was $13.8 million, compared to $7.5 million for the same quarter of 2015. Non-GAAP loss from operations was $7.4 million, compared to $0.4 million for the same quarter of 2015.
Net loss was $11.1 million, compared to $5.5 million for the same quarter of 2015. Non-GAAP net loss was $5.4 million, compared to non-GAAP net income of $0.9 million for the same quarter of 2015.
Leju shareholders wore a loss of $0.08 per diluted ADS, compared to $5.3 million, or $0.04 loss per diluted ADS, for the same quarter of 2015.
As of March 31, 2016, the Company’s cash and cash equivalents balance was $258.5 million.
First quarter 2016 net cash provided by operating activities was $1.3 million, mainly attributable to a decrease in unbilled accounts receivable of $6.3 million, a decrease in customer deposits of $9.4 million, an increase in other current liabilities of $6.5 million, and a decrease in prepaid expenses and other current assets of $2.7 million.
CEO Geoffrey He points to the following innovations driving growth:
- a virtual reality showroom experience allowing home buyers in crowd cities to experience 3-D virtual site visits from the comfort of their homes or conveniently on their mobile devices.
- an upgraded version of the company’s mobile app
- deepened cooperation with various strategic partners in product development and brand promotion such as Didi Chuxing to expand private car site visits
- launched 36 new websites for local agents to subscribe to our listing product
- increased investment in Qiang Gong Zhang, an online platform that connects home furnishing contractors directly with consumers.
“By the end of the first quarter, we had more than 29,000 qualified contractors providing customized services directly to homeowners in more than 60 cities of our contractor platform,” He says.
“We are pleased with the progress of Qiang Gong Zhang and we’ll continue to expand this business in more cities and reflects new product and services along the value chain.”
Looking ahead, He says Leju expects market competition to remain fierce and the overall related market environment to face some uncertainties across the different parts of cities.
“However, we’ll remain focused on very best-in-class marketing solutions to our primary and the secondary market agents, clients through continues product innovation and cooperating with strategic partners.
“We also expect to further investing our contractor platform to growth this business in order to serve the growing population of homeowners and capture opportunities in this last for underserved home furnishing markets,” He says.
Outlook
Leju maintains its fiscal 2016 total revenue guidance of approximately $660 million to $690 million, which would represent an increase of approximately 15 per cent to 20 per cent from $575.8 million in 2015.
