HENGAN's profit fell by 18% last year, with the tissue business turning to a loss due to soaring pulp prices and intense market competition

HENGAN International's profit fell 18% last year, tissue business turned to loss due to soaring pulp prices and intense market competition HENGAN International (1044) announced its full-year results as of the end of last year, recording a net profit of nearly RMB 2.299 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 17.9%. The basic earnings per share were RMB 2.015, with a final dividend of RMB 0.7, unchanged from the previous year, totaling an annual dividend of RMB 1.4, also unchanged year-on-year. During the period, the gross profit was RMB 7.324 billion, down 8.6% year-on-year, with a gross profit margin of 32.3%, a decrease of 1.4 percentage points year-on-year. During the period, total revenue was RMB 22.669 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 4.6%, of which sales revenue from the sanitary napkin business fell 8.1% to RMB 5.678 billion. Sales revenue from the tissue business decreased by 2.4% to RMB 13.422 billion. Sales from the diaper business increased by about 0.5% to RMB 1.261 billion. Confident in the Mainland's Regulation of "Involution" Competition HENGAN's tissue product business turned from profit to loss, recording a loss of RMB 244 million last year, while in 2023 it recorded a profit of RMB 244 million. HENGAN's Executive Director and CEO Xu Qingliu stated that the main reason for the loss was the significant rise in the price of pulp, a raw material for tissue, in the second quarter, which led to price increases for the company's products, coupled with intense market competition. He expects this situation to persist for a while, but with market consolidation, the losses are not expected to continue, although he also estimates that profits will not increase significantly in the near term. He also emphasized that the mainland government has previously advocated for the regulation of "involution" competition, and he is confident in the government's actions, believing that market competition will not continue to deteriorate. 3.15 Exposure of Sanitary Napkin Issues is a Good Thing Earlier, the mainland's 3.15 Consumer Gala exposed issues in the sanitary napkin industry. Xu Qingliu stated that the attention of consumers to the sanitary napkin industry is a good thing, believing it can promote the healthy development of the entire industry. As a leading company in the industry, although it was not on today's 3.15 problem list, it welcomes consumers to continue to pay attention to the company's development and hopes that more peers can develop from the perspective of continuously focusing on consumers