china.com reports 3th quarter - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[Vera-am-Mittag]

record nine months` revenues of US$86.8 million represents an increase of 828%

cash on hand US$485 million




(Hong Kong, November 9, 2000) - chinadotcom corporation [NASDAQ: CHINA; Website: www.corp.china.com] today reported its third quarter results.


Highlights:

- Net profits for the nine months ending September 30, 2000 of US$73.3M

- Cash of US$485M on hand.

- Ended September 30, 2000 with record nine month revenues of US$86.8M, an improvement of 828% over the same period in 1999 of US$9.35M

- Revenues for third quarter were US$36.5M, an increase of 20% over second quarter, driven by strong growth in its e-business solutions business

- Third quarter gross profit margin improved to 39%

- Third quarter Sales, General and Administrative (SGA) as a percent of revenues declined by 6% and operating cash flow excluding one-off items improved slightly

- Portal page views showed 55% growth to over 32.5 million, while registered users grew 59% to 10 million

- Continuing diversification of geographic revenue sources, 42% of revenue now come from outside Greater China


"We are very pleased to report record revenue growth during the quarter despite the impact on the Internet industry resulting from the general downturn of capital markets and the Internet sector around the world. The impact of this downturn has been felt particularly strongly in Asia given the relative developmental stage of the Internet. Our geographically diversified business as well as the nature of our integrated operating business has allowed us to report record numbers despite slowdown in some markets and in some areas of our business," said Peter Yip, CEO of chinadotcom. "The development of the Internet in Asia is highlighted by the continuing growth in e-business solutions. As we continue to help our clients improve their businesses and develop Internet services, we are creating the solutions and the companies that will attract users and marketers to the Internet."


"We are committed to continue the development of all aspects of our business, focusing on operating efficiencies and realizing the economies of scale that exist within our operations. China`s imminent accession to the WTO should further the development of our business in China," concluded Peter Yip. "We believe our position as the preeminent Asian Internet company together with our strong balance sheet will enable us to build a business that will deliver superior returns to shareholders."


Revenues and Gross Profits


Third quarter revenues totaled US$36.5 million, driven by healthy growth from chinadotcom e-business solutions which achieved 37% revenue growth over the previous quarter. The e-business solutions revenue growth reflects the fruits of recent acquisitions in Australia, England, and Japan. On a year-to-date basis, revenues totaled US$86.8 million compared to US$9.3 million in the first nine months of 1999, an 828% increase.


Our 3rd quarter revenues yielded gross profits of US$14 million, compared to US$11.3 million in the second quarter. The gross profit margin improved to 39%, compared to 37% in the previous quarter, primarily due to additional cost containment efforts in the e-business solutions arena.


Operating Expenses


Selling, General & Administrative expenses decreased as a percent of revenue from 82% in the second quarter to 78% in the third quarter, demonstrating continued improvements in operating efficiencies. Total SG&A for the quarter were US$28.4 million, of which approximately US$4 million were related to non-recurring items. After considering non-recurring expense items, cash losses from operations decreased to US$10.2 million in the third quarter from US$10.6 million the previous quarter. Several cost containment initiatives were implemented during the quarter, including right-sizing exercises in our three major portal operations. Similar cost management initiatives are being implemented in the e-business solutions operations during the fourth quarter.


Depreciation/amortization and stock compensation expenses, both non-cash items, increased during the third quarter primarily due to acquisitions in e-business solutions operations.


Net Income and Cash Burn


For the year-to-date, chinadotcom corporation has achieved a net income of over US$73 million. The income is driven by significant gains recognized from the successful partial sale of the hongkong.com portal. Net losses in the third quarter were US$20.5 million. Approximately US$18 million of the loss was due to non-cash expenses such as depreciation, amortization and stock compensation, and to non-recurring expense items. Net cash burn from operations was approximately US$1.8 million per month in the third quarter.





E-business Solutions Growth


Strong e-business solutions revenues of US$21.5M, up 38% quarter on quarter, despite a challenging business climate, contributed heavily to chinadotcom`s third quarter performance. Total headcount grew from 969 to 1,141, with an average billable headcount of 715. Importantly, Web Connection has started to see the benefits from economies of scale during the 3rd quarter, with revenue/billable consultant levels increasing to over US$125K, excluding China. Approximately 30% of Web Connection`s revenues came from its top ten clients, with an average account size of US$1.8M annualized (up from $1.2 million last quarter).


During the third quarter, chinadotcom`s web solutions business, continued to show strong growth, adding new clients such as Samsung Electronics (Korea), L`Oreal (regional), Sony (China) and Regus (U.K.).


Continuing its expansion in Asia`s major markets, Web Connection Japan merged with Venex, one of Japan`s leading e-business solutions companies, doubling chinadotcom`s presence in that market. Entering the European region for the first time, chinadotcom also acquired strategic e-business solutions provider Revolution in the U.K., which will serve as the beachhead for Web Connection`s entry into the European market.


While the business continues to show robust growth, the Web Connection is not immune to the challenges facing its sector. In response to these conditions, the company is placing greater focus on operating efficiency, key productivity metrics, SG&A cost management, and profit margins. To this end, Web Connection continues to manage its productivity, and today announced a 4% reduction in headcount.


These staff reductions do not indicate a retrenchment of Web Connection`s overall business and growth plans. To this end, the company also announced new appointments that include: Managing Director for China, User Experience Director, and mBusiness Practice Director.


24/7 Media Asia


The Internet Advertising business in Asia has experienced declining CPM (cost per thousand)`s and lower demand in certain markets and segments. We believe that while some of this weakness is seasonal we have also seen a decline in advertising from pure Internet companies. Operating performance when translated to US$ has been impacted to some degree by the strength of the US$ compared to local operating currencies. This impaired performance has been compounded by the delay in the launch of some products including 24/7 Mail. This technology is now in the final stages of implementation and we anticipate running our first campaigns in the 4th quarter.




Pricing levels have declined slightly, and are expected to be weak for the near term. However, demand in the fourth quarter is showing some resilience. Average CPM in the 3rd quarter has remained relatively stable at US$14. The number of affiliate sites is strong, at 356, and we are serving an average of 44 million advertising impressions per day (down from 55 million) throughout our entire network, reflecting our commitment to rationalizing sites and focusing on exclusive relationships where we can maximize returns for both our clients and the company.


Despite slowing market conditions, we still entered into significant contracts in the third quarter such as with Maeil Dairy Industry Ltd. in Korea, and e-Bay in Japan. During the fourth quarter, we will be launching in Hong Kong major online campaigns for the Hong Kong Tourist Authority.


chinadotcom`s online marketing unit, 24/7 Media Asia, strengthened its strategic relationship with 24/7 Media Inc., which is listed on NASDAQ, by extending its seven year license to a perpetual relationship and obtaining access to 24/7`s proprietary technology including 24/7 Mail, 24/7 Connect, and AwardTrack. chinadotcom also became the largest shareholder of 24/7 Media Inc., and 24/7 Media acquired a 19.9% stake in 24/7 Media Asia, cementing the relationship between the two companies and creating an environment whereby they can leverage the global advertising community.


Portals


Our portal network (china.com, cww.com, taiwan.com, and hongkong.com) continued to show strong growth, reaching 32.5 million average daily pageviews as of October 30, 2000, compared with 21 million as of July 31, 2000, representing 55% growth over three months. The number of registered users of our portal network also surpassed the 10 million mark as of October 30, 2000, compared to 6.3 million as of July 31, 2000 - a growth of 59%. These pageview and registered user numbers were derived according to definitions passed upon by independent auditing firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers.


chinadotcom`s portal network was rated in late October by Nielsen//NetRatings in their inaugural poll as the "stickiest" portal among Hong Kong residents. These types of independent measurements of the value of chinadotcom`s portals (pageviews, number of users, stickiness) figure prominently in attracting advertisers and maintaining a high advertising rate.




Corporate Development


A new multi-pronged wireless strategy was implemented in the 3rd quarter: Working with mobile phone manufacturers (Motorola and Siemens), phone service operators (New World Mobility), handset retailers (CellStar) and wireless application developers (infoisLive), chinadotcom is building its foundation for wireless Internet access for growing numbers of mobile Internet users who can access its portals anytime, anywhere.


In China, we continue to work with our subsidiary Beijing Digital Ark to establish the company as one of the PRC`s leading solutions providers. We secured the mandate to build the national backbone for China`s National Library and to digitize its collections, and to build a national digital map of major cities in China. With the signing of a national joint venture with Cellstar, the PRC`s largest independent mobile handset distributor, we will develop and distribute proprietary wireless applications to millions of mobile phone users through Cellstar`s 1,200+ retail sites in China.


E-Commerce initiatives also got a boost with the acquisition of Miller Freeman`s Trade and Travel Group (TTG) and chinaholidays.com, which has the exclusive online franchise to market travel products of state-owned China Travel Service. A B2B-ASP joint venture was started with CCIDNet.com, a company under the PRC`s Ministry of Information Industry, to create an e-commerce infrastructure for major industries in PRC nationally.



chinadotcom ventures, inc. and investments


Formed in the third quarter to centralize and systematize the investment process at chinadotcom across all its business units, chinadotcom ventures, inc. focused its efforts on "rationalizing" chinadotcom`s prior investments. This consisted of selling and closing (writing off) a number of investee companies, and integrating others more closely with our core operations. We continue to seek the best investments in an environment of consolidation in the Internet industry.



Business Outlook


The Internet in Asia remains at an early stage of its development and forecasting the future pace of change remains difficult to approach with certainty. We believe that the benefits that Internet technology will bring to businesses and consumers will continue to drive the development of the Internet in Asia. Many companies in Asia are only now considering how the Internet can improve their operating efficiency and address the needs of Internet consumers.



We believe these two drivers together with the impact on trade arising from China`s accession to the WTO will continue to drive the development of our businesses. Our expansion into Europe and the US will enable us to gain greater insight into, and experience with global Internet solutions deployment which we expect will strengthen our competitive advantage.


Due to increasing competition within the e-business solutions sector, we anticipate continuing price competition in the short-term that will make it difficult to improve billing rates. However, we believe that we will be able to continue modest improvements in utilization rates and productivity as we leverage our operating infrastructure and knowledge capital.


We believe that interactive advertising will show continued price pressure and may be impacted by continuing macro-economic pressure in several Asian markets. However, we expect this to be offset in part by the introduction of new services such as 24/7 Mail, which will be introduced in the fourth quarter. The deployment of services such as AwardTrack should lead to higher CPM`s.


We anticipate our gross profit margins should continue to improve as we deliver higher value services such as e-Mail advertising programs, leverage our own advertising inventory and take advantage of lower cost production centers such as India and China. Improvements in gross margins are likely to be slower than evidenced in the 3rd quarter.


We anticipate flat operating expenses and a decline in one-off expenses leading to an improvement in our EBITDA numbers for the fourth quarter. Going into next year we anticipate the benefits of a stable operating size will allow us the opportunity to reduce a number of operating expenses such as premises and communications expenses.


Our burn rate is likely to diminish in the future as we continue to improve operating margins.





About chinadotcom corporation

chinadotcom corporation (NASDAQ: CHINA) is a leading pan-Asian integrated Internet company

offering web solutions, portal and online marketing services. Through its three business units, chinadotcom provides a full range of Internet services around the Asia Pacific region that; 1) build e-business strategies and solutions (Web Connection), 2) distribute content via its portal network platform (china.com, cww.com, hongkong.com, and taiwan.com), and 3) sell services through online marketing (24/7 Media Asia Limited).


Fuelling the growth of each of these three business units is a synergistic investment strategy that leverages off chinadotcom`s existing operational and cost infrastructure. By partnering with companies that have proven and successful track records, chinadotcom is well-positioned to create long term shareholder value through its investments.


The company has offices in more than 10 markets, including Japan, Korea, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and the USA. For more information about chinadotcom corporation, please visit www.corp.china.com.


Safe Harbor Statement

The statements in this news release, other than the historical financial information, may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from anticipated results. Further information on risk factors that could affect chinadotcom corporation`s results of operations is detailed in chinadotcom corporation`s registration statements and annual report, as filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.


third quarter 2000 statement
third quarter 2000 balance sheet
view webcast

For further information, please contact:

Media Relations
Jane Cheng
chinadotcom corporation
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]








Investor Relations
Craig Celek
Tel: [phone] (USA)
Email: [e-mail]
Investor Relations
Zeus Chen
Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]

[Dagegen]

[Vera-am-Mittag]

@dagegen,

sag mal der Smily, staunt der oder kotzt er?

[Dagegen]

Esistwieimmer! Kommen gute Zahlen, gehts abwärts. Interessiert kein Schwein.
seht selbst:

http://quotes.nasdaq.com/quote.dll?page=charting&mode=basics…

Das mir jetzt keiner mit "Scheiss Umfeld" kommt!

[Dagegen]

Vera,
dem fallen die Augen aus! 828% plus, WOW!

[advalover]

Liebe Vera,
hättest du bei unserem Telefonat auf mich gehört, so könntest du heute auf 3.000 DM weniger Verlust saufen.
Die Zahlöen sind schlecht.
Meine Rechnung für deine China Empfehlung schicke ich dir im neuen Jahr.

Gruß
AL

[advalover]

Liebste Vera,
habe gerade nochmal nachgesehen.
Die Zahlen müssen ja gut sein, sonst würde der Kurs heute ja nicht nochmal 15% fallen. Sell on good news. Verstehste?
Tolle Akazie.

Gruß
AL