| 2006-12-21 |
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Luk Fook Holdings (International) Limited
Announces Interim Results For Period Ended 30 September 2006
Net Profit Increased 188% Reaching HK$84,776,000
Declared Interim Dividend of 7 HK cents per share
(Hong Kong, 19 December 2006) ¢w¢w Luk Fook Holdings (International) Limited (SEHK Code: 0590) (¡§Luk Fook¡¨/ ¡§The Group¡¨) today announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2006. Turnover for the period under review increased 72% to HK$1,403,982,000 (2005: HK$816,355,000). Profit attributable to shareholders amounted to approximately HK$84,776,000 (2005: HK$29,441,000), up 188% from that of the previous year.? Earnings per share were 17.29 HK cents (2005: HK 6.06 cents). Cash on hand reached approximately HK$153,000,000 as at 30 September 2006. The Board has declared an interim dividend of 7.0 HK cents (2005: 3.0 HK cents) per share for the period ended 30 September 2006.
Chief Executive of Luk Fook, Mr. Wong Wai Sheung said, ¡§Benefited from the sustained economic growth of Hong Kong, we are satisfied with the interim results. Despite the decrease of the PRC travelers under the ¡¥Individual Visit Scheme¡¦ to Hong Kong during the Golden Week in May, the Group¡¦s turnover still recorded a substantial growth during the period under review, demonstrating strong consumer confidence in Luk Fook brand amongst Hong Kong and mainland consumers.? In view of the prosperous economic growth in Hong Kong and mainland, we believe that the outlook of jewellery retail industry is booming.¡¨
During the period, the Group has been actively expanding its sales network. The new MongKok branch was opened in August 2006, which is the Group¡¦s 7th branch on Nathan Road. With the gradual recovery in the Hong Kong economy, consumer spending has been on the rebound. Consumers¡¦ purchasing appetite generally improved. In view of the good business performance in the Mongkok branches, the Group opened a new shop in this busy district to cope with the high demand from customers.
Since September 2005, the Group has invested in shop renovation projects in a bid to give our customers a more comfortable shopping environment. Till now, the Group has already completed the renovation of most shops¡¦ image. The new shop image is well received by the customers. During the year, the Group continued to sponsor beauty contests such as ¡§Miss Hong Kong Pageant¡¨ for the 9th consecutive years and ¡§Miss Asia Pageant¡¨ for several years. The marketing strategies, which included launching new TV commercial and print advertisements, were also proved effective in enhancing the Group¡¦s brand image among customers.
The Group¡¦s expansion in the PRC has been going on in a satisfactory progress. As at 30 September 2006, more than 220 Luk Fook Brand shops reaching farther areas such as Urumchi, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, etc were opened. Apart from the sales network in the first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the Group has further enlarged its sales network to most parts of the PRC via penetrating deeper into second-tier cities with sound development potential, such as, Harbin, Wuhan and Chengdu. The Group¡¦s jewellery manufacturing plant in Panyu, Guangdong was running smoothly. Meanwhile, the newly built diamond-processing factory has commenced production during the year.
Macau is booming which is driven by flourish gaming business brought with increasing travelers to Macau, especially almost 60% sales in Macau shops are contributed by tourists.? The Group¡¦s two shops on the main street of Macau successfully captured large number of customers. The Group plans to open a new shop within the newly built shopping arcade of casino in near future.? Meanwhile, it will keep close eyes on the market to identify suitable location for new shops in order to seize the enormous consumption opportunities driven by visitors.
For the overseas market, the Group is at all times devoted to expediting new business developments in various regions. The Group¡¦s first U.S. shop, ¡§Luvina Jewelers¡¨, located in San Jose of California has opened in July which signifies the move of stepping into the mainstream of American Community.
For the years, Luk Fook devoted itself to improve management, upgrade product quality and design.? During the period under review, the Group was ranked one of the top 10 retailers for ¡§Other Retailers¡¨ category based on the performance in total sales turnover in the Third Retail Asia Pacific Top 500 in 14 economies. The award truly shows the Group¡¦s continual efforts in increasing the sales volume. Apart from the remarkable sales performance, the Group continues to gain various awards for its innovative and trendy designs. For example, the Group was awarded ¡§Jewelry Design Excellence Award (¡§JDE Award¡¨): Overall Beauty Award¡¨, ¡§JDE Award: Craftsmanship Award¡¨ and Merit Award under ¡§Professional Category¡¨ for jewelry designs ¡§Layers¡¨, ¡§Dandelion¡¨ and ¡§Born Gifts¡¨ respectively in ¡§2006 International Jewelry Design Innovation Competition¡¨.
¡§Looking ahead, we will focus on developing the PRC market. We plan to open more Luk Fook Brand shops in the PRC in the next few years and will actively seek for opportunities to open self-owned stores in order to capture larger market share. We also aim at increasing our penetration into other overseas markets via trial sales outlets as well as opening shops in countries such as South-East Asia to realize the diversified branding strategies¡¨, concluded by Mr. Wong.
About Luk Fook Holdings (International) Ltd. (Stock Code: 0590)
Luk Fook is principally engaged in the sourcing, designing and retailing of a variety of gold jewellery, gold ornaments, gem-set jewellery, gemstones and other accessory items. Currently, there are a total of over 280 Luk Fook Jewellery retail outlets in Hong Kong, the PRC, Macau, Canada and the United States.
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