Investment Summary

Sales growth in the first quarter of FY 2019 (Q1, 1st March to 31st June ) accelerated to 24.8%, with sales revenue and same-store growth in Hong Kong and Macau growing by 27.7% and 25.3% respectively. The number of transactions from mainland tourists increased 27.5%, which led to 14.5% growth in the overall transaction volume. The average sales per transaction of local consumers and mainland tourists increased 8.1% and 7.0% respectively.

According to the management team, the slowdown began to be seen in the last week of June. In July, affected by the Sino-US trade war and fluctuations in the RMB exchange rate, the overall sales revenue growth in HK and Macao slowed down to 12 to 13%. In August, the figure was slightly improved to the mid-to-high double digits. Looking into the period from July to August, the consumer sentiment of HK local customers were negatively affected by fluctuations in the financial market more than mainland customers. The total number of transactions recorded low single-digit to negative growth, and the average sales per transaction was only increased by about 4%. For mainland customers, although the average sales per transaction was only with low single digit growth, the number of transactions increased by nearly 20%.