WEB NEWS Going Private News
HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 16, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited (“Sky-mobi” or the “Company”) (MOBI), a mobile application platform and game publisher in China, today announced the completion of the merger contemplated by the previously announced agreement and plan of merger dated August 22, 2016 (the “Merger Agreement”), among the Company, Amber Shining Investment Limited (“Parent”) and Power Rich Limited. As a result of the merger, the Company ceased to be a publicly traded company and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Parent.
Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, which was approved by the Company’s shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting held on November 16, 2016, each of the Company’s shares, par value $0.00005 per share (each, a “Share” and collectively, the “Shares”) issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time of the merger was cancelled and ceased to exist in exchange for the right to receive US$0.275 per Share in cash without interest and net of any applicable withholding taxes, and each American depositary share of the Company (the “ADS” and collectively, the “ADSs”), representing eight Shares, was cancelled in exchange for the right to receive US$2.2 per ADS (less a US$0.05 per ADS cancellation fee) in cash without interest and net of any applicable withholding taxes, except for (a) the Shares held by Mr. Michael Tao Song, chairman and chief executive officer of the Company, Xplane Ltd., Mobi Joy Limited, the Company or any of its subsidiaries (including such Shares represented by ADSs) immediately prior to the effective time of the merger, which were cancelled and ceased to exist without payment of any consideration or distribution therefor, and (b) the Shares held by shareholders who had validly exercised and not effectively withdrawn or lost their rights to dissent from the merger in accordance with Section 238 of the Companies Law of the Cayman Islands (the “Dissenting Shares”), which were cancelled and ceased to exist in exchange for the right to receive payment of the fair value of such Dissenting Shares as determined in accordance with the provisions of Section 238 of the Companies Law of the Cayman Islands.
Registered shareholders entitled to the merger consideration will receive a letter of transmittal and instructions on how to surrender their share certificates in exchange for the merger consideration and should wait to receive the letter of transmittal before surrendering their share certificates. As to ADS holders entitled to the merger consideration, payment of the merger consideration will be made to ADS holders as soon as practicable after Citibank, N.A., the Company’s ADS depositary, receives the merger consideration.
The Company also announced today that it requested that trading of its ADSs on the NASDAQ Global Market (“NASDAQ”) be suspended beginning at the close of business on November 16, 2016 (New York City time). The Company requested that NASDAQ file a Form 25 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) notifying the SEC of the delisting of its ADSs on NASDAQ and the deregistration of the Company’s registered securities. The deregistration will become effective 90 days after the filing of the Form 25 or such shorter period as may be determined by the SEC. The Company intends to terminate its reporting obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, by filing a Form 15 with the SEC. The Company’s obligation to file with the SEC certain reports and forms, including Form 20-F and Form 6-K, will be suspended immediately as of the filing date of the Form 15 and will terminate once the deregistration becomes effective.
Going Private News
HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 16, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited (“Sky-mobi” or the “Company”) (MOBI), a mobile application platform and game publisher in China, today announced that, at an extraordinary general meeting held today, the Company’s shareholders voted in favor of the proposal to authorize and approve the previously announced agreement and plan of merger dated August 22, 2016 (the “Merger Agreement”), among the Company, Amber Shining Investment Limited (“Parent”) and Power Rich Limited (“Merger Sub”), pursuant to which, Merger Sub will be merged with and into the Company with the Company continuing as the surviving company and becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Parent (the “Merger”), and the plan of merger required to be filed with the Registrar of Companies of the Cayman Islands (the “Plan of Merger”) and the transactions contemplated thereby, including the Merger.
Approximately 98.6% of the Company’s total outstanding shares voted in person or by proxy at today’s meeting were voted in favor of the proposal to authorize and approve the Merger Agreement, the Plan of Merger and the transactions contemplated thereby, including the Merger.
Completion of the Merger is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the conditions set forth in the Merger Agreement. The Company will work with various other parties to the Merger Agreement to satisfy all other conditions precedent to the Merger set forth in the Merger Agreement and complete the Merger as quickly as possible. If and when completed, the Merger would result in the Company becoming a privately held company and its American depositary shares, each representing eight shares of the Company, would no longer be listed on the NASDAQ Global Market.
Going Private News
HANGZHOU, China, Oct. 12, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited (“Sky-mobi” or the “Company”) (MOBI), a mobile application platform and game publisher in China, today announced that it has called an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (the “EGM”), to be held on November 16, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. (Beijing time), at 10/F, Building B, United Mansion, No. 2 Zijinghua Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China, to consider and vote on, among other things, the proposal to authorize and approve the previously announced agreement and plan of merger, dated August 22, 2016 (the “Merger Agreement”), among the Company, Amber Shining Investment Limited (“Parent”), an exempted company with limited liability incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, and Power Rich Limited (“Merger Sub”), an exempted company with limited liability incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands and a wholly owned subsidiary of Parent, and the plan of merger required to be filed with the Registrar of Companies of the Cayman Islands, substantially in the form attached as Annex A to the Merger Agreement (the “Plan of Merger”) and the transactions contemplated thereby, including the Merger (as defined below).
Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, Merger Sub will be merged with and into the Company with the Company continuing as the surviving company and becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Parent (the “Merger”). If consummated, the Merger would result in the Company becoming a privately-held company and its American depositary shares (the “ADSs”) would no longer be listed on the NASDAQ Global Market and the ADS program would be terminated. The Company’s board of directors, acting upon the unanimous recommendation of the special committee of the Company’s board of directors, recommends that the shareholders and ADS holders vote FOR, among other things, the proposal to approve the Merger Agreement, the Plan of Merger and the transactions contemplated thereby, including the Merger.
Shareholders of record as of the close of business in the Cayman Islands on October 24, 2016 will be entitled to attend and vote at the EGM and any adjournment thereof. The record date for ADS holders entitled to instruct Citibank, N.A., the ADS depositary, to vote the shares represented by the ADSs is the close of business in New York City on October 12, 2016. Additional information regarding the EGM and the Merger Agreement can be found in the transaction statement on Schedule 13E-3 and the proxy statement attached as Exhibit (a)-(1) thereto, as amended, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), which can be obtained, along with other filings containing information about the Company, the proposed Merger and related matters, without charge, from the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov). SHAREHOLDERS AND ADS HOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY THESE MATERIALS AND OTHER MATERIALS FILED WITH OR FURNISHED TO THE SEC WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE, AS THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMPANY, THE PROPOSED MERGER AND RELATED MATTERS.
The Company and certain of its directors, executive officers and other members of management and employees may, under SEC rules, be deemed to be “participants” in the solicitation of proxies from the shareholders with respect to the proposed Merger. Information regarding the persons who may be considered “participants” in the solicitation of proxies is set forth in the Schedule 13E-3 transaction statement relating to the proposed Merger and the definitive proxy statement attached thereto. Further information regarding persons who may be deemed participants, including any direct or indirect interests they may have, is also set forth in the definitive proxy statement.
This announcement is neither a solicitation of a proxy, an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities and it is not a substitute for any proxy statement or other filings that have been or will be made with the SEC.
Going Private News
HANGZHOU, China, Aug. 22, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited (“Sky-mobi” or the “Company”) (MOBI), a mobile application platform and game publisher in China, today announced that it has entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) with Amber Shining Investment Limited (“Parent”), an exempted company with limited liability incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands and Power Rich Limited (“Merger Sub”), an exempted company with limited liability incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Parent.
Subject to satisfaction of the Merger Agreement’s terms and conditions, Merger Sub will merge with and into the Company, with the Company continuing as the surviving corporation and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Parent (the “Merger”). Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, at the effective time of the Merger, each of the Company’s common shares (including the Company’s common shares in the form of American depositary shares, or “ADSs”, each representing eight common shares) issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time of the Merger (the “Shares”) will be cancelled and cease to exist in exchange for the right to receive US$0.275 per Share or US$2.2 per ADS, in each case, in cash and without interest, except for (a) Shares, including such Shares represented by the ADSs, held by Mr. Michael Tao Song, chairman and chief executive officer of Sky-mobi, Xplane Limited and Mobi Joy Limited (collectively, the “Rollover Holders”), Parent (together with the Rollover Holders and the Merger Sub, the “Buyer Group”), the Company or any of their subsidiaries, which will be cancelled and cease to exist and no payment or distribution will be made with respect thereto and (b) Shares held by shareholders who have validly exercised and not effectively withdrawn or lost their rights to dissent from the Merger pursuant to Section 238 of the Companies Law of the Cayman Islands, which will be cancelled and cease to exist in exchange for the right to receive the payment resulting from the procedure set forth in Section 238 of the Companies Law of the Cayman Islands. The consideration of the Merger represents a premium of 25% over the Company’s closing price of US$1.76 per ADS on June 22, 2016, the last trading day prior to the Company’s announcement of its receipt of a “going-private” proposal.
The Buyer Group intends to fund the Merger with the proceeds from a committed loan facility in the amount of US$40 million arranged by China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd., New York Branch, pursuant to a debt commitment letter dated as of today.
The Company’s board of directors (the “Board”), acting upon the unanimous recommendation of a special committee of disinterested directors that are unaffiliated with Parent or Merger Sub (and that are not members of the Company’s management) (the “Special Committee”), authorized and approved the Merger Agreement and the Merger and resolved to recommend that the Company’s shareholders vote to authorize and approve the Merger Agreement and the Merger. The Special Committee negotiated the terms of the Merger Agreement with the assistance of its independent financial and legal advisors.
The consummation of the Merger is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of the Merger Agreement by an affirmative vote of holders of at least two-thirds of the Shares present and voting in person or by proxy at a meeting of the Company’s shareholders which will be convened to consider the approval of the Merger Agreement and the Merger. The Rollover Holders have entered into a support agreement pursuant to which each has agreed, among other things, to vote all of his or its Shares in favor of the authorization and approval of the Merger Agreement and the Merger. If completed, the Merger will result in the Company becoming a privately-held company and its ADSs will no longer be listed on the NASDAQ Global Market.
In connection with the Merger, Roth Capital Partners, LLC is serving as a financial advisor to the Special Committee; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP is serving as U.S. legal advisor to the Special Committee; Conyers Dill & Pearman is serving as Cayman Islands legal advisor to the Special Committee; and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP is serving as U.S. legal advisor to the Company.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is serving as U.S. legal advisor to the Buyer Group; and Walkers is serving as Cayman Islands legal advisor to the Buyer Group.
Going Private News
HANGZHOU, China, June 27, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a mobile application platform and game publisher in China, today announced that its board of directors (the "Board”) has formed a special committee (the “Special Committee”) to consider the previously announced preliminary non-binding "going private" proposal (the “Proposal”) that the Board received on June 23, 2016 from Mr. Michael Tao Song, chairman and chief executive officer of Sky-mobi, Xplane Limited and Mobi Joy Limited (collectively, the “Buyer Group”) proposing a “going private” transaction to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Sky-mobi not already beneficially owned by the Buyer Group.
The Special Committee is composed of Mr. Wei Zhou, who is an independent director of the Company and is unaffiliated with the Proposal, and Mr. Carl Yeung, who is a non-executive and disinterested director of the Company and is unaffiliated with the Proposal. Mr. Zhou will chair the Special Committee. The Special Committee intends to retain independent legal and financial advisors to assist it in the process of reviewing and evaluating the Proposal.
The Board cautions the Company's shareholders and others considering trading in the Company’s securities that neither the Board nor the Special Committee has made any decision with respect to the Company's response to the Proposal. There can be no assurance that any definitive offer will be made by members of the Buyer Group or any other person, that any definitive agreement will be executed relating to the proposed transaction, or that the proposed transaction or any other transaction will be approved or consummated. The Company does not undertake any obligation to provide any updates with respect to this or any other transaction, except as required under applicable law.
Going Private News
HANGZHOU, China, June 23, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a mobile application platform and game publisher in China, today announced that its board of directors (the "Board") has received a non-binding proposal letter, dated the date hereof, from Mr. Michael Tao Song, chairman and chief executive officer of Sky-mobi, Xplane Limited and Mobi Joy Limited (collectively, the "Buyer Group"), proposing a "going-private" transaction (the "Transaction") to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Sky-mobi not already owned by the Buyer Group for US$2.10 in cash per American depositary share ("ADS"), each representing eight common shares. The proposed purchase price represents a premium of approximately 19.3% to the closing trading price of the Company's ADSs on June 22, 2016, the last trading day prior to the date hereof. According to the proposal letter, the Buyer Group intends to fund the consideration payable in the Transaction with debt and/or equity capital. A copy of the proposal letter is attached as Exhibit A to this press release.
The Buyer Group beneficially owns an aggregate of approximately 54.3% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares.
The Board cautions the Company's shareholders and others considering trading in its securities that the Board just received the non-binding proposal letter from the Buyer Group and no decisions have been made with respect to the Company's response to the Transaction. There can be no assurance that any definitive offer will be made, that any agreement will be executed or that this or any other transaction will be approved or consummated. The Company does not undertake any obligation to provide any updates with respect to this or any other transaction, except as required under applicable law.
Notable Share Transactions
Extension of Share Repurchase Program
The Company also announced today that its board of directors has authorized (i) the extension of its existing repurchase program under which the Company may repurchase up to US$20 million (the “Aggregate Repurchase Amount”) of its ADSs to May 25, 2017, and (ii) the reduction of the Aggregate Repurchase Amount to US$10 million. The Company expects to purchase shares on the open market, in privately negotiated transactions or otherwise in compliance with all the conditions of Rule 10b-18 and Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, at times and in such amounts as the Company deems appropriate. The share repurchase program does not obligate the Company to acquire any particular number of ADSs and may be suspended, terminated or extended at any time at the Company’s discretion without prior notice.
Comments & Business Outlook
First Quarter 2016 Financial Results
Total revenue was RMB83.7 million (US$13.0 million) in the first quarter of 2016, compared to RMB233.0 million during the same period last year and RMB98.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Earnings per common share Basic and Diluted was $0.09 vs last years same quarter of $0.06.
Mr. Michael Tao Song, chairman and chief executive officer of Sky-mobi, commented, “I am pleased to report our second straight quarter of profitability at the operating level and higher gross margins despite the continued challenging business environment we find ourselves in. Total revenue during the quarter continued to be impacted by even tighter control measures on payment transactions implemented by the mobile carriers in the weeks surrounding China’s annual consumer rights day on March 15, 2016. These even stricter control measures negatively impacted our topline during the quarter and more than offset our revenue strength during the Chinese New Year holidays. While we continued to implement cost control measures across our business to improve operating efficiency and flexibility in this challenging environment, we increased our cost base this quarter to motivate, attract and retain employees. With added focus from our employees, we continued to implement our game publishing strategy by concentrating on publishing a fewer number of high-quality foreign casual games in the highly competitive mobile gaming market. With the situation expected to remain unchanged throughout the year and possibly in the years ahead, we will continue to manage our business in a careful, cautious and focused manner going forward.”
Mr. Fischer Xiaodong Chen, chief financial officer of Sky-mobi, added, “We continued to fine tune our game publishing business towards high-quality foreign casual games in an effort to chart a course through what we originally believed would be a temporary tightening of policies by the three mobile carriers. Our gross margin increased as a result of our largely feature phone related multiplayer games and feature phone business, which generally have higher margins, and accounted for a larger proportion of total revenue on a sequential basis. Our near term gross margin expansion was aided primarily by strength in feature phone games as our feature phone business’s billing and payment efficiency was less affected by the control measures than our smartphone business was during the quarter. In the long term, we will continue to be more critically dependent on the development of our smartphone business as feature phones continue to be phased out of the mobile phone market.”
Business Outlook
Beginning in the second quarter of 2015, China’s three mobile carriers (China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom) implemented various measures designed to enhance security of their payment systems. These measures include suspending certain billing and payment channels and introducing additional mandatory payment verification steps to the payment process. These measures continue to discourage mobile subscribers from purchasing content from mobile application providers including Sky-mobi, resulting in revenue loss for the Company. With these measures expected to continue in the medium-to-long-term, the Company expects China's overall mobile gaming industry, and in particular, its Android casual gaming segment, to continue to be negatively impacted in the near term and potentially in the next few years.
The Company is assessing and will continue to assess the impact of these measures implemented by the three mobile carriers and their implication on its business.
Notable Share Transactions
HANGZHOU, China, April 27, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited (Sky-mobi or the Company) (NASDAQ:MOBI), a mobile application platform and game publisher in China, today announced that it has entered into a share purchase agreement to repurchase from its shareholders, Sequoia Capital China Partners Fund II, L.P., Sequoia Capital China Principals Fund II, L.P. and Sequoia Capital China II, L.P., an aggregate of 1,308,781 ADSs, each representing eight common shares of par value US$0.00005 per share of the Company, at a purchase price of US$2.00 per ADS (the �Share Repurchase Transaction�). The Share Repurchase Transaction is expected to be closed within 20 business days. The Share Repurchase Transaction is not part of the US$20 million share repurchase program announced in May 2014. The Company may, from time to time, repurchase shares on the open market, in negotiated transactions or otherwise in compliance with all of the conditions of Rule 10b-18 and Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, pursuant to the US$20 million share repurchase program.
In addition, the board of directors of the Company (the �Board�) has adopted the 2016 Share Incentive Plan (the 2016 Plan), to motivate, attract, and retain employees, directors and consultants and promote the success of the Company�s business. The maximum number of common shares that could be issued pursuant to all awards under the 2016 Plan is 15,000,000. The Board expects the awards under the 2016 Plan to be made mainly to the Company�s employees that are not directors or officers and awards granted to such employees shall not exceed the number of common shares the Company may repurchase on the open market, in privately negotiated transactions or otherwise from time to time, including the Share Repurchase Transaction.
Comments & Business Outlook
Third Quarter 2015 Financial Results
Total revenue was RMB113.3 million (US$17.8 million) in the third quarter of 2015, compared to RMB211.1 million in the prior year period
Non-IFRS basic and diluted profit per common share were RMB0.07 (US$0.01) and RMB0.07 (US$0.01), respectively, which represents the equivalent of RMB0.56 (US$0.09) and RMB0.56 (US$0.09) per ADS, respectively.
Mr. Michael Tao Song, chairman and chief executive officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "Looking at the third quarter of 2015, we remain confident regarding our business fundamentals. Our Maopao platform1 's average MAUs2 increased by 10.8% year over year to approximately 36.6 million in the third quarter of 2015, despite several secular headwinds that have adversely affected our operations, particularly the various measures tightening payment system security that have been implemented by the big three mobile carriers in China since May 2015. In order to address these challenges, we continued to strengthen our mobile game publishing capabilities by publishing four high-quality foreign mobile casual games in China during the third quarter of 2015 on Android and/or iOS platforms. Excitingly, one game, Starlit Adventures (星光大冒险) , was featured on Apple China's App Store. Going forward, in order to further strengthen our performance and revitalize our growth in the coming quarters, we will continue to focus on introducing high-quality mobile games, driving platform expansion and instituting operational discipline."
Mr. Fischer Xiaodong Chen, chief financial officer of the Company, commented, "As we expected, our total revenue declined in the third quarter of 2015, mainly due to the various measures tightening payment system security that have been implemented by the big three Chinese mobile carriers since May 2015. Despite the challenging operating environment, we returned to profitability in the third quarter of 2015, mainly attributable to lower operating expenses, investment exit gains, foreign exchange gains and other non-operating subsidy income. We are optimistic about the industry's long-term growth potential after the restrictions by the Chinese mobile carriers are loosened, and will continue to broaden our business scope in order to navigate through the industry downturn."
Comments & Business Outlook
Second Quarter 2015 Unaudited Financial Results
Total revenue was RMB164.1 million (US$26.5 million) in the second quarter of 2015, compared to RMB170.2 million in the prior year period.
Non-IFRS basic and diluted loss per common share were RMB0.01 (US$0.00) and RMB0.01 (US$0.00), respectively, which represents the equivalent of RMB0.06 (US$0.01) and RMB0.06 (US$0.01) per ADS, respectively.
Mr. Michael Tao Song, chairman and chief executive officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "During the second quarter of 2015, we increased the number of games published on both iOS and Android platforms with nearly 37.3 million monthly active users ("MAUs"), despite the various measures tightening payment system security implemented by the big three mobile carriers in China since mid-May, which has adversely affected our operations in the second quarter of 2015. In order to address these challenges, we will continue to strengthen and expand our mobile game publishing capabilities by publishing up to ten more high-quality overseas smartphone games in the China market by the end of this year. We believe these efforts will help us stabilize our business and allow us to reestablish solid growth in the coming quarters."
Mr. Fischer Xiaodong Chen, chief financial officer of the Company, commented, "Our revenue from smartphone business continued to grow during the second quarter of 2015, as indicated by the 17% year-over-year increase to RMB154.9 million, accounting for over 94% of our total revenue. Unfortunately, due to the tightening measures implemented by the big three mobile carriers in China, including but not limited to the suspension of certain of their billing and payment channels, our mobile subscribers experienced increased difficulty in purchasing our mobile content, negatively impacting our total revenue. In an effort to mitigate this negative impact, we have initiated a series of cost-cutting measures, including streamlining our operations and employee base and divesting certain businesses that do not offer strong future growth potential such as Hangzhou Mopin Technology Co., Ltd. ("Mopin"), one of our subsidiaries. Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on introducing high-quality smartphone games, platform expansion, as well as operational discipline."
Business Outlook
Since the second quarter of 2015, the three mobile carriers in China (China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom) have implemented various measures tightening payment system security, including suspending certain of their billing and payment channels and introducing additional mandatory payment verification steps to the payment process. These measures have discouraged and disabled mobile subscribers from purchasing certain mobile content from mobile application providers, including Sky-mobi, resulting in lost revenue of these mobile application providers. The Company expects its total revenue for the third quarter of 2015 to be significantly lower than that of the second quarter, as these measures will continue to adversely affect the overall mobile gaming industry in China.
The Company is assessing and will continue to assess the impact of these measures implemented by the three mobile carriers and their implication on its business. In addition, Sky-mobi is in the process of introducing more high-quality smartphone games on both iOS and Android platforms in the coming months, which it believes will partially offset the impact of these measures.
Comments & Business Outlook
HANGZHOU, China, May 18, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application platform and game publisher in China, today announced that the Company has officially released Emma's World on the iOS App Store on May 15, 2015. The Company has licensed the game from Carpazzzi Soft, a Belarusian game developer, and has exclusive distribution rights for the Greater China region1 .
Designed with cute characters and gorgeous, stylistic visuals, Emma's World is an ingenious, fast-paced mobile game for players of all ages. Armed only with a slingshot, a pile of paintballs and a lively imagination, the main character, Emma, bravely journeys through her fantasy world, defeating enemies and saving the day. The game, free to download with in-game purchase features, includes over 100 creatively-designed levels for gamers to enjoy.
"We are very excited to bring Emma's World to the Chinese iOS app store, further underscoring our strategy of sourcing quality international games and localizing them for distribution in the Greater China region," stated Michael Tao Song, chairman and chief executive officer of Sky-mobi. "The successful release of Emma's World marks a significant milestone for our game publishing business. Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on expanding our market share and fortifying our position as a leading game publisher by remaining steadfast in our strategy of enriching our game selection and bringing more popular international titles to our Chinese grassroots gamers."
Victor Hambardzumyan, chief executive officer of Carpazzzi Soft, commented, "We are very pleased with the partnership with Sky-mobi, a trusted partner that has worked tirelessly on Emma's World to provide for optimal localization and tailor the game for the China market. We believe Sky-mobi's solid understanding of the unique app distribution environment in the region as well as its deep insights into Chinese mobile gamers' evolving preferences, habits and behavior will help ensure the success of the game in what is now one of the world's largest mobile gaming markets."
CFO Trail
HANGZHOU, China, April 20, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application platform in China, today announced the appointment of Mr. Xiaodong (Fischer) Chen, as chief financial officer of the Company, reporting directly to Mr. Michael Tao Song, chairman and chief executive officer, effective April 20, 2015.
Mr. Chen brings with him a wealth of capital markets (private and public market fund raising, mergers and acquisitions and investor relations), accounting and financial reporting, business development and legal experience. Prior to joining Sky-mobi, Mr. Chen served as the chief financial officer of ET Solar Group Corp, a leading provider of smart energy solutions, responsible for the company's equity financing, merger and acquisitions financial reporting and business restructuring from 2008 to 2015. From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Chen served as the vice president of financing and investor relations at China Sunergy Co., Ltd, where he was instrumental to the company's 2007 IPO. Between 1993 and 2006, Mr. Chen worked at JPMorgan Chase, where he executed many investment and commercial banking transactions for China-based clients. Mr. Chen received his bachelor's degree in International Finance from Tianjin College of Finance and Economics.
Mr. Michael Tao Song, chairman and chief executive officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "We are excited to welcome Fischer to our team. His strong experience and expertise in capital markets, financial reporting and controls, corporate development, investor relations and legal matters will be a tremendous asset for Sky-mobi. Adding such a seasoned financial executive to our team underscores Sky-mobi's dedication to further strengthening our financial management and controls as we continue to execute our business evolution, bolster our operating results, enhance our financial performance and maximize shareholder value."
Comments & Business Outlook
Fourth Quarter 2014 Financial Results
Total revenue increased by 77.7% to RMB204.7 million (US$33.0 million) from RMB115.2 million in the prior year period.
Non-IFRS basic and diluted earnings per common share were RMB0.09 (US$0.01) and RMB0.09 (US$0.01), respectively, which represents the equivalent of RMB0.73 (US$0.12) and RMB0.73 (US$0.12) per ADS, respectively.
Mr. Michael Tao Song, chairman and chief executive officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "Our fourth quarter financial and operational results mark an impressive finish to our fiscal year and demonstrate the strong growth momentum of our business. The progress we made was driven largely by the increasing popularity of our single-player games. Recognizing this trend, we are heightening our focus on single-player games and aim to introduce an expanded selection of these games, from both overseas and domestic game developers, to further enhance our content offering. We are confident that by continuing to introduce and localize innovative mobile games, we will be able to broaden our community, deepen the connection with our grassroots users and expand our market share in 2015 and beyond."
Mr. Song continued, "Looking at our financial results, the fourth quarter witnessed continued strong growth in our smartphone business and strong year-over-year growth in total revenue. Specifically, our quarterly revenue from smartphone business reached a historical high of RMB181.6 million, representing approximately 88.7% of total revenue. The biggest contributor to the revenue growth during the period was single-player games, which delivered RMB141.8 million to our top-line and carried an ARPU2 of approximately RMB10.0, accounting for 78.1% of our total smartphone revenue. Having finished 2014 by successfully transitioning our business focus to smartphones, we will continue to focus on growing our user base and improving economies of scale. We are confident in our ability to improve our margins and deliver increased long-term value to our shareholders."
Business Outlook
For the first quarter ending March 31, 2015, Sky-mobi expects its total revenue to be in the range of RMB210 million to RMB215 million.
Comments & Business Outlook
Third Quarter 2014 Financial Results
Total revenues increased 24.0% quarter over quarter to RMB211.1 million (US$34.4 million) from RMB170.2 million
Net profit was RMB14.6 million (US$2.4 million), compared to RMB63.4 million in the second quarter 2014. Basic and diluted EPS were RMB0.06 (US$0.01) and RMB0.06 (US$0.01), respectively, which represents the equivalent of RMB0.48 (US$0.08) and RMB0.47 (US$0.08) per ADS, respectively.
Non-IFRS net profit was RMB16.5 million (US$2.7 million), compared to RMB66.1 million in the second quarter 2014. Non-IFRS basic and diluted earnings per common share were RMB0.07 (US$0.01) and RMB0.07 (US$0.01), respectively, which represents the equivalent of RMB0.54 (US$0.09) and RMB0.54 (US$0.09) per ADS, respectively
Mr. Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "We are very pleased with our robust third quarter financial and operational results, which reflect the strong growth momentum of our smartphone business, as well as the further expansion of our mobile game distribution capabilities and enrichment of our mobile game offering. Supported by our deep strategic partnerships with China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, we have refined our model of content distribution over the Maopao platform and further expanded our offline presence at telecom stores nationwide. In addition, in an effort to further diversify our mobile game offering, we recently released the Chinese version of Major Mayhem, a 3D arcade-style shooter game, with exclusive distribution rights in China. Building upon this strong momentum, we plan to also release Battle Tower, Beach Buggy Racing and Dungeon Quest later this year. Furthermore, as we continue to execute our strategy of localizing games and expanding our international footprint, we have selected several popular Chinese games to localize and distribute in Southeast Asia. We are confident in our capability to enrich our game selection and pipeline as we continue to introduce popular games to our Chinese and international grassroots gamers."
Mr. John Bi, Chief Financial Officer of Sky-mobi, commented, "We are very proud to report strong growth in our smartphone business and a sequential increase in total net revenues, which exceeded both the high end of our prior guidance and the analysts' consensus. By adding 500,000 new active users per day on average, our smartphone business generated a historical high of RMB178.6 million in revenues, representing 84.6% of total revenues. The biggest contributor to revenue growth during the period was single-player mobile games, which delivered RMB140.2 million in revenue and saw an ARPU1 of RMB9.5, accounting for 78.5% of our total smartphone revenues. Looking ahead, we will remain focused on improving operating efficiency, providing the most innovative solutions over our diversified mobile gaming platform, further facilitating the strategic expansion of our business and delivering long-term value to our shareholders."
Business Outlook
For the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2014, Sky-mobi expects its total revenues to be in the range of RMB220 million to RMB230 million.
The above represents Sky-mobi's current projections, which are subject to change.
CFO Trail
Management Changes
The Company also announced today that Mr. John Bi has tendered his resignation as the chief financial officer of the Company, effective on November 17, 2014, due to personal reasons.
Mr. Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, commented, "On behalf of the Company, we would like to thank him for his significant contributions to the Company's growth and development, including enhancing the Company's financial system and internal controls, and we wish him well in his future endeavors. The Board of Directors has formed a search committee and is in the process of finding a highly qualified replacement for John and aim to announce the appointment of a new Chief Financial Officer in the near future."
Joint Venture
HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 19, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (MOBI), a leading mobile application platform in China, today announced that the Company, through its controlling subsidiary Mopin Technology Co., Ltd., has entered into business agreements with three coastal provincial divisions of China Unicom. Under the terms of the agreements, Sky-mobi has been designated an official business partner of China Unicom in these regions to promote data packages, and will be eligible to share in a certain portion of the revenue generated.
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi stated, "We are happy to expand our business cooperation with China Unicom, further demonstrating our reliability and value-add as a partner of the Chinese telecom operators. Supported by our thriving Maopao Platform and over 200 million mobile internet users, we are employing cloud computing and big data technology to track user behavior and recommend specific content and games to our users. Our strategy to leverage Data Traffic Manager, an app that assists users to monitor and easily purchase data packages, has proven to be a remarkably effective approach to increasing data consumption."
Mr. Song continued, "The data traffic market in China is huge. At approximately $50 to $70 billion USD, it accounts for around 25 to 30% of the Chinese telecom operators' total revenues. That percentage is expected to continue increasing rapidly. Looking at the telecom sector, our mission is both ambitious and achievable; we aim to assume the role of a 'data traffic bank', which facilitates the smooth roll-over of monthly unused data from month to month, essentially accepting deposits of unused data and allowing users to withdraw at their discretion. Achieving this goal, would enable friends and family members to share data not only over a single carrier's network but across all three of the Chinese telecom carriers' networks. We began executing this strategy in baby steps, but now, capitalizing on the marketed-driven reforms of the Chinese telecom industry and our expanded partnership with China Unicom, we're accelerating our execution and penetrating the market one province after another. With a stronger competitive position and a well-developed business expansion strategy, we are confident that we will be able to secure at least 1% of the data traffic market in China in the foreseeable future."
Comments & Business Outlook
HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 18, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application platform in China, today unveiled its "6+2" model to enhance distribution and marketing capabilities over its Maopao Platform, at the 2014 TFC Global Mobile Game Developer Conference and Game Expo, the largest mobile gaming business exhibition in China. In addition, the company announced the content providers (CPs) who will receive rewards under the Company's new "5 Million Guaranteed Downloads" incentive program.
The "6+2" model incorporates the six Android products - Maopao Games, Maopao Desktop, Maopao Browser, Maopao Community, and Maopao Assistant; and combines them with two critical tools; Zhiyifu, an Android-enabled mobile micro payment product, and Maopaoke, a DIY app promotion platform. Implementing the "6+2" model over the Maopao platform will enable the Company to strengthen its support to CPs in the areas of product marketing and game publishing. The "6+2" model will cover both online and offline channels.
'Hello, Diaosi! III', a mobile game industry report published by Sky-mobi on September 15, 2014, highlights the growing popularity of casual games amongst grassroots users in China. Sky-mobi has been quick to recognize this trend and leverage its extensive experience in the mobile games industry as well as thorough understanding of the grassroots user market to further penetrate the grassroots market with casual games.
The 2014 TFC Conference afforded Sky-mobi the opportunity to share this key business strategy, and introduce important new products and initiatives such as mobile micro payment tools, cloud access functionality, as well as incentive programs for CPs.
For more information regarding "Hello, Diaosi!", including access to a copy of the full report, please visit: http://hellodiaosi.mopo.com/.
Mr. Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, presented at a session of the 2014 TFC Conference, entitled 'The Offline Game Channel and Casual Games'. Mr. Song stated, "With six thriving Android products over our Maopao platform and well-established offline channels, Sky-mobi now has 450,000 daily new users (DNUs), a figure which we expect to more than double to 1 million by July 2015. Reaching 1 million DNUs will make Sky-mobi the leading company in China's mobile distribution market as measured by incremental user growth, representing an achievement that will carry with it massive monetization potential."
Mr. Song continued, "We believe it is important to highlight the impressive incremental growth of our user community, as it has led us to launch a game publishing platform that is able to guarantee qualified games between 10,000 and 30,000 daily downloads. We strongly believe that such a promise will further promote casual games amongst grassroots users, and attract more developers to utilize our Maopao platform as their preferred vehicle for publishing games, creating a virtuous business cycle going forward."
Joint Venture
HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 16, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application platform in China, today announced that the Company, through its controlling subsidiary Mopin Technology Co., Ltd., has entered into a strategic partnership with E Surfing ("Tianyi"), China Telecom's mobile internet services platform.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sky-mobi has been designated as an official business partner with China Telecom to provide customized software services at China Telecom's network of physical stores nation-wide. The cooperation spans a wide array of services which include mobile assistant services, product introduction and installation, operational support and data analytics, as well as software tutorials for China Telecom's sales staff.
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi stated, "Since 2010, we have worked extensively to develop and refine our model of content distribution via telecom operators' physical stores. Building upon our pre-existing strategic partnerships with China Mobile and China Unicom, the additional cooperation with China Telecom will allow Sky-mobi to expand its coverage with China's big three telecom giants' network of physical stores, strengthen its leadership position and accelerate market penetration amongst grassroots users in China. According to our operational statistics, as of June 30, 2014, the distribution network for our services covered 40,000 operator stores. By the end of 2014, we expect to extend our coverage to over 100,000 locations."
Mr. Song continued, "Having carefully studied user behavior and consumer characteristics, we view our partnership with China Telecom as another win-win opportunity, in which China Telecom stands to improve its traffic management capabilities and user satisfaction by leveraging our expertise in big data and cloud services, and Sky-mobi will benefit from the expanded monetization opportunities resulting from a significant increase in users and content consumption. Supported by our established strategic partnerships with China's big three telecom operators, as well as our on-going smartphone initiatives, we are very confident in our ability to improve our core business, provide innovative solutions in the industry and achieve solid financial growth going forward."
Comments & Business Outlook
HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 11, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application platform in China, today announced that it will release the Chinese versions of three popular international games: Battle Towers, Major Mayhem, and Dungeon Quest. The Company has licensed the games from overseas developers and has exclusive distribution rights for them in China.
1) Battle Towers is a strategy game developed by Game Insight, a global developer and publisher of free-to-play mobile games. Battle Towers was ranked #18 in games, and #12 in arcade and action games on RU Google Play, Russia's Google Play application store. Sky-mobi has exclusive distribution rights for the game over Android and iOS platforms in China.
2) Major Mayhem is a 3D arcade-style shooter game, which is set in outer space. It is one of the most popular games available over the US iOS App store based on downloads. Major Mayhem was ranked #1 in simulation games according to AppAnnie, and rated 8.5 of 10 by IGN. Sky-mobi has exclusive distribution rights for the game over the Android platform in China.
3) Dungeon Quest is a casual single-player 3D role-playing game with superb graphics and visual effects. Requiring less than 50 MBs of hard drive space, the game's casual nature, excellent graphics and minimal capacity requirements characterize it as an optimal addition to Sky-mobi's game portfolio. Dungeon Quest was ranked #5 in role-playing games by downloads on Google Play. Sky-mobi has exclusive distribution rights for the game over Android and iOS platforms in China.
"We are excited to introduce these three popular international titles to our loyal grassroots users in China, further underscoring our strategy of sourcing quality casual games and localizing them for distribution in the China market," stated Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi. "To ensure a blockbuster debut with Chinese grassroots gamers, we have worked tirelessly to provide for optimal localization by revamping the mobile payment interface to suit the nature of the game, improving game tutorial features to flatten the game's learning curve, and strengthening overall compatibility to minimize bugs and defects. Supported by our multiple integrated payment channels and unique Maopao distribution platform, we are recognized by prominent global game developers as the most effective integrated casual game publishing channel in China. Our newly-launched "5 Million Guaranteed Downloads" incentive program will help provide global developers an efficient channel to publish games and enable them to better track game players' behavior and further improve game quality. Looking ahead, we remain focused on enriching our game selection and pipeline, and introducing more popular casual games to our China grassroots gamers."
Notable Share Transactions
HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 5, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application platform in China, today announced that it has entered into a share purchase agreement to repurchase from its shareholders, Sequoia Capital China Partners Fund II, L.P., Sequoia Capital China Principals Fund II, L.P. and Sequoia Capital China II, L.P., an aggregate of 16,000,000 common shares of par value US$0.00005 per share at a purchase price of US$0.985 per share. Each ADS represents eight common shares of the Company. The share repurchase transaction is expected to be closed within 20 business days. The share repurchase transaction is not part of the US$20 million share repurchase program announced on May 30, 2014. The Company may, from time to time, repurchase shares on the open market, in negotiated transactions or otherwise in compliance with all of the conditions of Rule 10b-18 and Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, pursuant to the US$20 million share repurchase program.
Comments & Business Outlook
Second Q uarter 2014 Financial Results
Total revenues increased 32.4% quarter-over-quarter to RMB170.2 million (US$27.4 million), from RMB128.6 million in first quarter 2014 and an increase of 35.9% from RMB125.2 million in the prior year period.
Basic and diluted earnings per common share ("EPS") were RMB0.26 (US$0.04) and RMB0.26 (US$0.04), respectively, which represents the equivalent of RMB2.12 (US$0.34) and RMB2.11 (US$0.34) per ADS2 , respectively.
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "We are excited with our robust second quarter financial and operational results, primarily due to the strong growth momentum of our smartphone business and further expansion into mobile game distribution. Driven by deep collaboration with telecom operators, we have expanded our offline presence to over 40,000 telecom stores nationwide. In addition, we continue to diversify our mobile content offering and selection of light casual games available on the Maopao platform. During the second quarter of 2014, we successfully extended our third-party game distribution channels to more than 100 partners, including Tencent, Baidu/91, Xiaomi and Qihoo 360. As affordable smartphones continue to be the fastest growing smartphone segment both in China and globally, we believe our strategic partnerships with handset manufacturers and telecom operators as well as third-party mobile game distribution channels will further entrench Sky-mobi in the ever accelerating mobile universe with a unique offline platform and the most innovative and diversified light casual games distribution platform."
Mr. Song continued, "As we continue to expand our international footprint, we have selected several games developed in China to be localized and distributed in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. By entering into direct partnerships with major local telecom operators to facilitate game distribution and monetization, we are able to create win-win situations for both the telecom operators and Sky-mobi. We are confident that our well-designed strategic initiatives and the growing demand from grassroots smartphone users in these markets will enable us to continue to drive long-term value for our shareholders."
John Bi, Chief Financial Officer of Sky-mobi, commented, "We are very proud to report the strong growth in our smartphone business and a sequential increase in total revenues that exceeded the high end of our prior guidance. By adding 450,000 new users per day on average, our smartphone business reached a historical high of RMB132.5 million in revenues, representing 77.8% of total revenues. The biggest contributor in revenue growth during the period was single player mobile games, which reached RMB93.1 million and an ARPU of RMB 8.8, accounting for 70.3% of our total smartphone revenues. In addition, we continued to strengthen our cost controls and effectively manage operational expenses, as reflected in the significant improvement in operating margin. Beginning this quarter, we will present revenue breakdown by mobile gaming types, to better reflect our focus on mobile gaming as well as provide more key operational metrics for improved transparency of our business model. Going forward, we aim to continue to grow our business intelligently and profitably and provide our shareholders long term value."
Business Outlook
For the third quarter ending September 30, 2014, Sky-mobi expects its total revenues to be in the range of RMB 200 million to RMB 210 million.
Comments & Business Outlook
HANGZHOU, China, June 26, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application platform in China, today announced an exclusive licensing arrangement with MIHOYO Co, Ltd ("MIHOYO"), a mobile game developer in China, for the distribution of the mobile game, The End of School II, over the iOS platform.
MIHOYO was founded in 2011 with the mission to develop innovative and high quality ACG for smartphones. Recognizing the MIHOYO team's strong development capabilities and pioneering design concept, Sky-mobi strategically invested in MIHOYO in early 2012 and cultivated its growth by providing game players preference, innovative gameplay, and most popular trend of graphic designs. During the past two years, MIHOYO has built up a strong brand and reputation for its advanced designs and creative gameplay through a series of highly-engaging game releases, including The End of School II.
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi stated, "We are proud of our involvement in and contribution to MIHOYO's success of The End of School II, ranked No. 1 and No. 9 in the App Store paid games and popular games categories respectively after debuting on the iOS platform and further achieved grossed revenue over RMB10 million in recent month. As its publisher, Sky-mobi has fully leveraged our integrated resources by investing smartly in promoting the game online and off-line, catching proper timing to attract players, and bringing critical players' feedback to MIHOYO. We strongly believe that Sky-mobi has successfully entrenched its position in both Android and iOS platforms as a professional mobile game publisher, proven by our distinguished way of selecting games. As the momentum has been built up, we are expecting future success in publishing mobile games and higher return to all investors."
Comments & Business Outlook
HANGZHOU, China, June 18, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application platform in China, today announced the sale of its 37.9% equity interest in Shanghai Fangcun Information Technology Co., Ltd. ("Fangcun"), a leading China-based mobile game developer, to Guangdong Alpha Animation and Culture Co., Ltd. (SZ:002292), a company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The Company realized a capital gain of RMB56.4 million 1 from this transaction.
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "We are extremely pleased with the growth of Fangcun's capabilities for mobile games in China. MonsterxMonster, a light mobile game, which we closely collaborated on with the Fangcun team from concept design to product distribution, has become a recent hit in China and overseas. The success of Fangcun as well as the increasing recognition of Sky-mobi's other strategic investments demonstrate our strong capabilities in discovering and cultivating game developers. These strengths are undergirded by our ability to leverage our deep understanding of Chinese light mobile game players' preferences and identify strategic investments that possess tremendous potential. One of our strategic objectives in solidifying Sky-mobi's leadership in the mobile game publishing market is to continue our dedication in collaborating with and investing in start-up mobile game developers with innovative and unique solutions. We endeavor to consistently distribute the highest-quality and most popular mobile games and applications through our well established distribution networks. Motivating us in this endeavor is our strong commitment to further supporting growth for every participant in our eco-system. We believe that the Fangcun deal is just the beginning of this commitment to strengthen our pipeline of talent. Going forward, we may further leverage our broad platform and explore opportunities of investing in such talented emerging gaming developers, adding an additional avenue of growth in near future."
Comments & Business Outlook
HANGZHOU, China, May 30, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application platform in China, today announced that the Company's Board of Directors has approved a fiscal year-end change from March 31 to December 31, beginning in the calendar year ending December 31, 2014. Additionally, the Company also announced that its Board of Directors has approved a program to repurchase up to US$20 million of the Company's American depositary shares ("ADSs") over the next 12-month period, ending on May 30, 2015.
The Company's decision to change its fiscal year end is intended to improve its comparability with industry peers on both a quarterly and annual basis, to align Company's reporting cycle with the calendar year and to provide more consistent quarter-to-quarter comparisons.
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi stated, "Sky-mobi has delivered robust growth both operationally and financially in the past few quarters. Through our well designed initiatives and dedicated efforts, we are confident of the strong growth momentum of our mobile gaming business and hope to effectively present the fast-changing business dynamics to our shareholders. By redefining our revenue breakdown, starting in the second quarter of 2014, and aligning our reporting periods with our peers, we believe investors will be able to better understand our business and develop growing confidence of our tremendous potential as a leading distribution platform in China's mobile application market."
The Company expects to purchase shares on the open market, in negotiated transactions or otherwise in compliance with all of the conditions of Rule 10b-18 and Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The timing of the shares repurchased will be at the discretion of management and will depend on a number of factors, including price, market conditions and regulatory requirements. The Company retains the right to limit, terminate or extend the share repurchase program at any time without prior notice.
John Bi, Chief Financial Officer of Sky-mobi stated, "We have experienced significant revenue growth in the past few quarters at our smartphone business and our growth momentum is back on track with our successful transition. Given our strong balance sheet, long-term growth prospects, and successful turnaround story, we believe that now is the right time to enhance shareholder value through share repurchases and continued investment in growth initiatives."
Comments & Business Outlook
Fourth Quarter 2014 Financial Results
Total revenues were RMB128.6 million (US$20.7 million), an increase of 11.6% from RMB115.2 million in the fiscal third quarter ended December 31, 2013 ("third quarter 2014").
Basic and diluted earnings per common share ("EPS") were RMB0.02 (US$0.00), which represents the equivalent of RMB0.16 (US$0.03) per ADS2 . Non-IFRS basic and diluted earnings per common share were RMB0.04 (US$0.01), which represents the equivalent of RMB0.30 (US$0.05) per ADS
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "We are proud to report that our revenues for the fourth quarter 2014 exceeded the high end of our prior guidance by approximately 22%, primarily due to strong growth in our smartphone business. During the quarter, we continued to focus on distributing and publishing mobile games, which have further improved users' interaction on our platform. This success can be highlighted by the fact that after four quarters of declining revenue, we have turned the corner and are now showing top line growth again.Driven by continued smartphone penetration and growth for light social games as well as the Maopao smartphone platform, our smartphone revenues reached a historical high of RMB87.5 million, representing 68% of total revenues in the fourth quarter 2014. Moreover, we are very excited to report improved gross margin, which expanded to 25%, demonstrating our continued goals of profitable growth and bottom line improvemen
"Last year, we began a strategic shift from feature phone business to one more focused on developing and expanding our smartphone platform. In doing so, we have established a solid foundation in the smartphone market while maintaining strong cash flow from our feature phone business. By adding an average of over 414,000 new users per day, we have reached 147.3 million users on our smartphone platform as of March 31, 2014. Notably, we have achieved strong sequential growth in monthly active users (MAU) to 25 million in March 2014, as compared to only 20 million in December 2013. We believe that this strong foundation in the smartphone business will further support and fuel robust growth going forward."
John Bi, Chief Financial Officer of Sky-mobi, commented, "We are very pleased to see a strong growth in our smartphone business and a sequential increase in revenues that exceeded our prior expectations. Our continuous effort in improving our operating efficiency by strengthening cost controls helped us to reduce our operating expenses, excluding share based compensation, to RMB27.8 million, or 21.6% of total revenues in the fourth quarter 2014. The combined effect of both robust business growth of Sky-mobi's smartphone service as well as our effective operational and financial management has enabled us to continue to support and execute our future growth initiatives. This success is exemplified by the fact that during the fiscal year of 2014, we generated positive cash flow from operating activities, and had over RMB594 million of cash and bank deposits and short-term investments as of March 31, 2014."
Business Outlook
For the fiscal first quarter 2015 ending June 30, 2014, Sky-mobi expects total revenues to be in the range of RMB 135 million to RMB 145 million.
Joint Venture
HANGZHOU, China, March 17, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application store in China, today announced that the Company, through its controlling subsidiary Mopin Technology Co., Ltd., has recently entered into a strategic partnership with the Wo Store of China Unicom, the official application store of China's second largest mobile operator. Under the terms of the agreement, Sky-mobi was designated as an official business partner of China Unicom to provide customized and tailor-made software services at China Unicom's network of physical stores nation-wide.
This strategic partnership enables China Unicom to significantly improve the customer experience of purchasing a smartphone over the counter through offering quality customized software service from sales staff coached by Sky-mobi, marking another significant step in Sky-mobi's overall cooperation with major telecom operators in China. Sky-mobi's partnership with China Unicom initially covers its physical stores in the lucrative smartphone markets of Zhejiang, Guangxi and Shandong provinces, and will be expanded to cover Hubei, Heilongjiang, Hunan, Shanghai and Guangdong throughout 2014.
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi stated, "We have been arduously working on this project since 2010 when we found through customer feedback that customers visiting the operator's physical stores expected more than just assistance with choosing and purchasing a new phone. Rather our insights suggested they expect much more on the in-store service front, such as receiving advice on how to use smartphone applications effectively and smartly. Recognizing this consumer characteristic, we view our partnership with China Unicom as a great opportunity to better serve customers and assist telecom operators in promoting their monthly data-packages. The momentum of this strategy was evident last September, when we successfully deployed our customized and tailor-made software services solution for Zhejiang Mobile throughout most of their physical stores in Zhejiang province, allowing the carrier to benefit both from improved customer satisfaction and significantly-increased monthly data traffic consumption.
"Building on this previous experience, our partnership with China Unicom will also improve attraction and servicing of smartphone users, through providing advice and assistance with smartphone apps and services at China Unicom's physical stores. Sky-mobi will benefit through leveraging, at no additional cost, China Unicom's extensive physical store network, which has become an increasingly critical offline channel to immediately access new smartphone users. With this enhanced cooperation with telecom operators as well as our on-going smartphone initiatives, we're very confident in our overall capabilities of expanding our user base and monetization opportunities over the long run."
Comments & Business Outlook
Third Quarter 2014 Financial Results
Total revenues were RMB115.2 million (US$19.0 million), a decrease of 1.2% from RMB116.6 million in the fiscal second quarter ended September 30, 2013 ("second quarter 2014") and a decrease of 21.6% from RMB146.9 million in the fiscal third quarter ended December 31, 2012 ("the prior year period")
Basic and diluted earnings per common share were RMB0.02 (US$0.00), which represents the equivalent of RMB0.16 (US$0.03) per ADS2
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "We are pleased that our fiscal third quarter 2014 revenues exceeded the high end of our prior guidance by approximately 15% due to our stronger than expected growth in our smartphone business. During the quarter, we realized over 763 million user visits and over 128 million downloads which helped drive our financial and operational turnaround. Having achieved an over 66% quarter-over-quarter increase in smartphone revenues, our smartphone revenues now represent over 56% of total revenues. This dramatic shift has occurred within only six months since we began the monetization of our smartphone business. Our success in migrating loyal Maopao community users from feature phones to the Maopao smartphone platform was largely achieved due to our strategy of allowing them to maintain usage habits they were accustomed to on their feature phones. With this strong performance and growth momentum, we are confident that our strategies are working and our capabilities are strengthening as we aim to further monetize our Maopao smartphone platform."
"Our strategic cooperation with handset manufacturers and telecom carriers, especially by partnering with telecom carriers' physical stores where we pre-install the apps, content and offerings, has been a key driver of our strategy and will continue to be a significant entry barrier for our competitors in the fast-growth, low-cost smartphone market. By adding over 380,000 new users per day, we now have over 110 million users on the Maopao smartphone platform. In addition, our diverse content offering has become another key aspect of our successful turnaround. By enhancing the appeal of our smartphone platform to users through greater content selection, we have been able to retain and grow our overall user base. Our mission is to improve our users' experience by enabling ease-of-use for new smartphone owners, while also offering them a wide array of enjoyable and entertaining content."
John Bi, Chief Financial Officer of Sky-mobi, commented, "We are very pleased that our smartphone business continues to grow and increase as a percentage of sales above our expectations. Our smartphone business has become an increasingly important driver to our overall financial performance. We continued to strategically maintain cost controls in our legacy feature phone business while maximizing its cashflow, and prudently investing in our smartphone business. We also maintained positive cash flow during the quarter, growing our cash and deposits to over RMB527 million as of December 31, 2013."
Business Outlook
For the fiscal fourth quarter 2014 ending March 31, 2014, Sky-mobi expects total revenues to be in the range of RMB 90 million to RMB 105 million.
Comments & Business Outlook
Second Quarter 2014 Financial Results
Total revenues decrease in the fiscal second quarter ended September 30, 2012 ("the prior year period")
Basic and diluted loss per common share was RMB0.02 (US$0.00), which represents the equivalent of RMB0.13 (US$0.02) per ADS2 d 16.6% to RMB116.6 million (US$19.1 million) compared to RMB139.8 million
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "We are pleased that our fiscal second quarter 2014 revenues exceeded the high end of our prior guidance by approximately 11% due to stronger than expected growth in our smartphone business. Anticipating the continued decline of the feature phone market, we have continued to effectively reallocate cash flow and resources away from our feature phone business and into development of our smartphone platform. By focusing more heavily on growing our smartphone business, we were able to see revenues from this line more than double quarter-over-quarter to over RMB39.2 million, or 33.6% of total revenues. One remarkable phenomenon behind this growth is that long-time Maopao community users on feature phones are more comfortable migrating to smartphones using the familiar features we offer them. As a result, this same group of users is quickly developing increased digital consumption habits through our smartphone Maopao platform. These impressive results demonstrate the strong growth and monetization potential of our large Maopao community user base accumulated in our feature phone business.
"We have proven our strategy of user penetration through two competitive distribution channels: pre-installations with smartphone handset manufactures and engagement with physical stores where we install mobile applications on smartphones directly. By adding over 360,000 new users per day, these initiatives have allowed us to grow to over 73.4 million users on our smartphone platform. We believe the success achieved from this long-term strategy will continue to be a significant entry barrier for our competitors in the fast-growth, low-cost smartphone market. In addition, another key element to strengthening our position in the smartphone business is our content offering. We strive to provide enjoyable and entertaining content to users in order to improve user experience and, in turn, deliver sustainable financial and operational growth."
John Bi, Chief Financial Officer of Sky-mobi, commented, "We are pleased with the accelerating growth in our smartphone business. Since we began to monetize on our smartphone platform last quarter, this business has become an increasingly important contributor that drives our top-line growth significantly as well as our overall user base expansion. We continued to implement cost control measures to maximize cash flow from our feature phone operations, while allocating more resources to our smartphone business. In the fiscal second quarter, we continued to maintain positive cash flow and had RMB519 million cash and deposits as of September 30, 2013."
Business Outlook
For the fiscal third quarter 2014 ending December 31, 2013, Sky-mobi expects total revenues to be in the range of RMB 90 million to RMB 100 million.
CFO Trail
HANGZHOU, China, Oct. 30, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application store and mobile social network community operator in China, announced today the appointment of Mr. Yijia (John) Bi as Chief Financial Officer of the Company, effective October 30, 2013.
Prior to this appointment, Mr. Bi held a senior executive position at Accenture China, a global consulting firm, and served as the Chief Financial Officer to a joint venture of Accenture and China Telecom from 2012 to 2013. From February to September 2011, Mr. Bi served as Chief Financial Officer of Cathay Industrial Biotech, a clean-tech company based in Shanghai, China. From 2009 to 2011, he worked as the corporate finance director of Asia Timber Products, a manufacturing company owned by CVC Asia Pacific, the Asian affiliate of CVC Capital Partners, a leading global private equity firm.
From 2008 to 2009, Mr. Bi served as the Chief Financial Officer of Jingwei International Limited, and worked as a consultant to Jingwei International Limited from 2007 to 2008. In 2006, Mr. Bi was the director of corporate finance and accounting of Timken (China) Investment Co., Ltd. and from 2004 to 2006 was the financial controller of DIC (China) Co., Ltd.
From 1997 to 1999, he served as the financial controller of Lear Jiangling Interior System, Inc., a joint venture between Lear Corporation and Jiangling Motors Company (Group). From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Bi worked for Motorola (China) Electronics Ltd. as a credit analyst and a financial analyst.
Mr. Bi received an MBA from the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University in Canada in 2002 and a bachelor's degree in economics from Renmin University of China in 1994 through China's self-study examination system (whereby self-study examinees can receive a record of higher education by passing examinations). From 1990 to 1994, Mr. Bi studied at Yanjing Overseas Chinese University (now part of the Capital University of Economics and Business) where he received a diploma in Financial Accounting.
Mr. Bi replaces Mr. Carl Yeung, who stepped down as the Company's Chief Financial Officer earlier this year, but remains a non-executive director of the Company.
"We are pleased to welcome John as our new CFO," said Mr. Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "We believe that John's excellent corporate finance background and strong management experience will significantly contribute to Sky-mobi's growth and development. We are fortunate to have John join us at this stage and look forward to him helping us build Sky-mobi."
"In his three and a half years as Chief Financial Officer, Carl did a tremendous job guiding the Company during a period of growth and expansion," continued Mr. Song. "I am pleased that Carl has been available to assist the Company during its transition to a new CFO. We thank him for his important contributions and look forward to his continued involvement as a director of Sky-mobi."
Notable Share Transactions
HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 17, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application store and mobile social network community operator in China, today announced that its board of directors has approved a twelve- month extension for its previously announced share repurchase program through August 11, 2014.
Upon such extension, Sky-mobi is authorized, but not obligated, to continue to repurchase, up to the remaining balance of the US$10 million, its American Depositary Shares, or ADSs from time to time, in both open market and privately negotiated transactions at the discretion of the Company's management and in compliance with applicable legal requirements. The timing and actual number of shares purchased will depend on a variety of factors such as price, corporate and regulatory requirements, and other prevailing market conditions. To date, the Company has repurchased a total of 2,930,482 ADSs, representing 23,443,856 common shares, for aggregate consideration of approximately US$6,741,364 (including commissions) under the existing share repurchase program.
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "Our decision to extend our share repurchase program reiterates our commitment to maximizing shareholder value while reflecting our steadfast confidence in Sky-mobi's strategy and long-term growth potential. As we continue to make solid progress in growing our smartphone business, we believe that the extension of the share repurchase program is in the best interests of our Company and the shareholders."
Comments & Business Outlook
First Quarter 2014 Financial Resul ts
Total revenues decreased 18.3% to RMB125.2 million (US$20.4 million) compared to RMB153.4 million in the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, 2012 ("first quarter 2013"). Revenues from smartphones represented 14.7% of total revenues
Gross margin increased to 27.4%, up from 24.2% in first quarter
Basic and diluted loss per common share was RMB0.00 (US$0.00), which represents the equivalent of RMB0.01 (US$0.00) per ADS2
Non-IFRS basic and diluted earnings per common share ("EPS") were RMB0.02 (US$0.00), which represents the equivalent of RMB0.12 (US$0.02) per ADS
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "We were pleased that our fiscal first quarter 2014 revenues exceeded consensus estimates and the high end of our prior guidance by approximately 8.9% due to stronger than expected growth in our smartphone business. In the first quarter of monetizing our smartphone business, we have already generated over RMB18.5 million in revenues from our smartphone business, or 14.7% of total revenues, demonstrating the strong monetization potential of our large installed user base and utilizing our application store on more economically priced smartphones."
"This initial success in smartphone monetization was driven by expanding our smartphones penetration through pre-installations with manufacturers, as well as increasing in the number of physical stores where we service phones directly. As a result, our channels are currently contributing 300,000 new users per day, up from 140,000 per day three months ago. We now have over 40 million users of our application store, more than double from last quarter. Our pre-installation channels have become one of our key competitive advantages in growing our smartphone business, which not only provides immediate access to new users through pre-installations, but also continues to serve as a significant barrier-to-entry for our competitors in the low end smartphone segment. We expect continued strong growth in the adoption of low-end smartphones throughout China as users stand to benefit from the transformational capabilities these devices can bring to users."
Carl Yeung, Chief Financial Officer of Sky-mobi, commented, "We were pleased with our strong top line and bottom line performance as we continue to penetrate the smartphone market. Due to conservative financial controls in addressing the declining feature phone market and prudent resource allocation in developing our smartphone platform, we continued to maintain positive cashflow, growing our cash and deposits for the sixth consecutive quarter to RMB614 million."
"Although gross margin and Non-IFRS gross margin decreased from previous quarters due to current revenue sharing agreements with our smartphone handset partners, we expect it to recover as we begin to monetize our light game platform and mobile online games in future. Our strategic investments in the smartphone business have progressed solidly and based on our strong initial success, we aim to generate an increasing percentage of revenues from our smartphone platform going forward."
Business Outlook
For the fiscal second quarter 2014 ending September 30, 2013, Sky-mobi expects total revenues to be in the range of RMB95 million to RMB105 million.
Comments & Business Outlook
Fourth Quarter 2013 Financial Results
Total revenues decreased 10.1% to RMB161.0 million (US$25.9 million) compared to RMB179.0 million in the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, 2012 ("fourth quarter 2012"). Revenues collected from third party channels (i.e., revenues not collected through mobile network operators) represented 21.4% of total revenues
Basic and diluted earnings per common share ("EPS") were RMB0.12 (US$0.02), which represents the equivalent of RMB0.95 (US$0.15) per ADS2
Non-IFRS basic and diluted EPS were RMB0.13 (US$0.02), which represents the equivalent of RMB1.06 (US$0.17) per ADS
Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "We were pleased that our fiscal fourth quarter 2013 revenues exceeded the high end of our prior guidance by approximately 28.8% and achieved 9.6% sequential growth. Even though we revised up our full fiscal year guidance last quarter we still managed to beat the high end of the guidance by 6.4%. These results are a testament to our proactive strategy to address the declining feature phone market by focusing on expanding our Maopao Community, which delivered over 13% year-over-year growth through game monetization.
"Our focus remains on the tremendous opportunities associated with China's fast growing smartphone market, especially the dramatic increase in the adoption of low-end smartphones. This strategy resulted in accelerated growth in the number of smartphone users which more than doubled quarter-over-quarter to over 20 million users. This strength continues to demonstrate the success of our multi-pronged approach for growing our smartphone business. More specifically, our partnerships with over 160 smartphone handset partners continues to provide immediate access to new users through direct pre-installations on smartphones. Also, our established offline presence through physical stores for application installation in partnership with Suning, one of China's largest consumer electronics and appliance retailers, as well as provincial carrier stores has become an increasingly important growth avenue which has resulted in over 140,000 daily smartphone user additions. Looking ahead, as China's smartphone market is increasingly driven by the adoption of low-end smartphones, we remain focused on the monetization opportunities available in this segment and are confident in our strategy to service these users, staying in front of China's evolving marketplace."
Carl Yeung, Chief Financial Officer of Sky-mobi, commented, "We were encouraged by our better-than-expected top line performance and the substantial improvement in operating profit and margins we experienced in the past quarter. In addition, through strategic analysis and disciplined investments, we continue to actively roll out our innovative growth initiatives that led to our improved quarter. As a result, we managed to maintain positive cashflow with our cash and deposits position growing to RMB608 million as of March 31, 2013. Given our recent success in navigating the macro shift to smartphones in China, we remain cautiously optimistic as we continue to adjust our model to better target these new emerging opportunities and improve shareholder value over the long term."
"In addition, beginning this quarter we have started to disclose additional operating metrics for our smartphone operation. We believe this additional disclosure will help investors to better understand our progress in expanding our reach and audience footprint in the increasingly important smartphone business. Combined with our ongoing share repurchase program, we believe that these efforts demonstrate our commitment to generating shareholder value as well as confidence in achieving long-term growth."
Business Outlook
For the fiscal first quarter 2014 ending June 30, 2013, Sky-mobi expects total revenues to be in the range of RMB 100 million to RMB 115 million.
Notable Share Transactions
HANGZHOU, China, Aug. 12, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application store and mobile social network community operator in China, today announced that its board of directors has approved a share repurchase program.
The board has authorized the Company to repurchase up to US$10 million of its own American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") during the period from August 13, 2012 to August 12, 2013. The repurchases will be made from time to time on the open market at prevailing market prices, in negotiated transactions off the market, in block trades or otherwise. The timing and extent of any purchases will depend upon market conditions, the trading price of ADSs and other factors, and subject to the restrictions relating to volume, price and timing under applicable law, including Rule 10b-18 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Company expects to implement this share repurchase program in a manner consistent with market condition and the interest of the shareholders. The Company's board of directors will review the share repurchase program periodically, and may authorize adjustment of its terms and size accordingly.
"A variety of factors have impacted the valuation of US listed Chinese stocks in recent months, and resulted in Sky-mobi's stock trading at what we believe to be a significantly undervalued level," said Mr. Michael Song, Sky-mobi's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We have made significant progress in the smart phone segment and are confident about establishing a leading market position in the segment through the year. Our strong balance sheet and cash flow from the feature phone business provides strong financial base to execute our smart phone strategy. At the same time, we feel it is important to use a portion of our cash to enhance shareholder value."
Comments & Business Outlook
First Quarter 2013 Highlights
Total revenues decreased 7.6% to RMB153.4 million (US$24.1 million) in first quarter 2013 compared to the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, 2011 ("first quarter 2012"). Revenues collected from third party channels (i.e., revenues not collected through mobile network operators) represented 21.8% of total revenues
Loss from operations was RMB9.2 million (US$1.4 million) in first quarter 2013, compared to profit from operations of RMB8.1 million in first quarter 2012
Non-IFRS1 loss from operations was RMB0.9 million (US$0.1 million) in first quarter 2013, compared to Non-IFRS profit from operations of RMB20.5 million in first quarter 2012
Net loss was RMB5.1 million (US$0.8 million) in first quarter 2013, compared to net profit of RMB7.5 million in first quarter 2012
Non-IFRS net profit was RMB3.1 million (US$0.5 million) in first quarter 2013, down 84.3% from first quarter 2012
Basic and diluted loss per common share were RMB0.02 (US$0.00). Non-IFRS basic and diluted earnings per common share ("EPS") were RMB0.01 (US$0.00)
Basic and diluted loss per ADS 2 were RMB0.16 (US$0.02). Non-IFRS basic and diluted earnings per ADS were RMB0.10 (US$0.02)
Revenues collected from carrier channels decreased 17.4% to RMB112.5 million (US$17.7 million) in first quarter 2013 from first quarter 2012. Sky-mobi's application store experienced 4.2 billion user visits with 764.0 million downloads in first quarter 2013
Revenues collected from third party channels increased 38.8% to RMB33.5 million (US$5.3 million) in first quarter 2013 from first quarter 2012. Sky-mobi had 15.9 million active members of the Maopao Community with 810.3 million member log-ins in first quarter 2013
1 Non-IFRS figures exclude share-based compensation expenses. Please see "About Non-IFRS Financial Measures" in this release for more information.
2 American Depositary Shares, which are traded on the NASDAQ, each represents eight common shares of the Company.
Commenting on the Company's results, Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, remarked: "We made significant progress in the smart phone market while maintaining strong cash flow from the declining Chinese feature phone industry in the June quarter. Since the launch of our smart phone series of products at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in May, we have entered into partnership agreements with 50 handset manufacturers to pre-install our smart phone application store platform, application store assistant, browser, mobile game competition platform or game content.
"The quick pace of adoption by industry players since the recent launch of our platform is proof of the commercial competitiveness of our products as well as our monetization capabilities in China. We expect to continue our rapid development by adding more manufacturers to work with our smart phone products. Once these manufacturers begin shipments over the next few quarters, we are confident we will become one of the top smart phone players in China by the end of the year," Mr. Song continued.
"We remain the market leader in the feature phone segment, experiencing a year-on-year revenue decline of only 7.6% compared to the overall industry estimate of about 25%. This is the result of the increased revenue contribution from our game-based mobile community and improvement in Average Revenue per User (ARPU) as we launched new games for users. The feature phone market is expected to continue to decline for the rest of the year but we will continue to optimize our products so that our feature phone business continues to provide a strong source of cash flow to support our smart phone growth," Mr. Song concluded.
Commenting on the Company's results, Carl Yeung, Chief Financial Officer of Sky-mobi, said: "Our revenue for the quarter came in behind the low end of our most recent guidance by 1% but we maintain our most recent full year guidance. As we entered our new fiscal year, the use of carrier based payments has become a material portion of our community revenue and we began to defer a portion of our carrier based revenue similar to our revenue deferral policy for revenues collected from third parties. In addition, we did not book a small component of revenue from a partner that demonstrated an unproven collection track record in accordance with the IFRS accounting policy.
"Our non-IFRS gross margin and operating margin were lower due to a smaller top line compared to historical quarters while the relative number of employees was higher due to our investment in developing products for low cost smart phones. Our financial strategy is to continue to generate strong cash flow from feature phones to support our growth and penetration into the smart phone market while maintaining a reasonable cost base to complete the transition from feature phones to smart phones without seeking additional capital.
"With 60 percent of all staff now dedicated to smart phones, recent rapid client wins, a strong financial base and a prudent financial strategy, we are one of the best positioned dedicated mobile internet companies in China today," concluded Mr. Yeung.
Business Outlook
For the fiscal second quarter 2013 ending September 30, 2012, Sky-mobi expects total revenues to be in the range of RMB135 million to RMB145 million.
Revenues for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013 are expected to be in the range of RMB545 million to RMB560 million.
These are Sky-mobi's current projections, which are subject to change. You are cautioned that operating results in first quarter 2013 are not necessarily indicative of operating results for any future periods.
Comments & Business Outlook
Fourth Quarter 2012 Results
Total revenues increased 0.9% to RMB179.0 million (US$28.4 million) in fourth quarter 2012 compared to the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011 ("fourth quarter 2011"). Revenues collected from third party channels (i.e., revenues not collected through mobile network operators) represented 17.1% of total revenues
Profit from operations was RMB9.0 million (US$1.4 million) in fourth quarter 2012, down 37.4% from fourth quarter 2011
Non-IFRS1 profit from operations was RMB17.0 million (US$2.7 million) in fourth quarter 2012, down 38.1% from fourth quarter 2011
Net profit was RMB12.0 million (US$1.9 million) in fourth quarter 2012, up 170.9% compared to fourth quarter 2011
Non-IFRS net profit was RMB20.0 million (US$3.2 million) in fourth quarter 2012, up 14.2% from fourth quarter 2011
Basic and diluted earnings per common share ("EPS") were RMB0.05 (US$0.01). Non-IFRS basic and diluted EPS were RMB0.08 (US$0.01)
Basic and diluted earnings per ADS2 were RMB0.37 (US$0.06). Non-IFRS basic and diluted earnings per ADS were RMB0.61 (US$0.10)
Commenting on the Company's results, Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, remarked: "We are pleased to have completed the quarter and full fiscal year with revenues ahead of our most recent guidance. The Chinese feature phone industry in the March quarter experienced minor growth from the December quarter mainly due to the Chinese New Year Holidays. The strong performance in revenue was the direct result of our continued focus on intensifying our monetization efforts in order to stabilize revenues as the domestic market transitions from feature phones to low cost smart phones."
"We formally announced at the Global Mobile Internet Conference last week the launch of our smart phone series of products we have been working on for the last six months, including the Android application store and PC suite, Android social gaming platform, and Android payment solution for developers. We are excited to see these products reach commercial readiness at this critical time, as local Chinese manufacturers begin to launch their sub RMB1,000 Android devices in volume," Mr. Song continued.
"With a portfolio of commercially competitive products for Android that have real monetization capabilities compared to the competition, we look forward to garnering solid support from our current network of Chinese handset manufacturers and developers. Our solid cash flow from feature phone operations and highly competitive, new products for low cost smart phones make us one of the best positioned mobile internet companies in China," Mr. Song concluded.
Commenting on the Company's results, Carl Yeung, Chief Financial Officer of Sky-mobi, said: "In addition to the pickup in feature phone sales during the March quarter, we began direct operation of China Mobile's reading and gaming base, which more than offset the systematic deterioration in the service provider billing industry. We expect the service provider billing sector to continue to deteriorate as operators place tighter controls on the use of mobile billing codes. However, our increased use of third-party payment providers and ability to regulate more revenue traffic directly to the carriers should largely offset this decline."
"Our non-IFRS net profit of RMB20 million is higher than that of any of the previous eight quarters, due to higher margins from our direct cooperation with China Mobile and prudent cost management designed to maximize cash flow from our feature phone operations. The cash flow will provide for a solid base for further development of smart phone programs and operations."
"Despite the stronger than previously expected fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2012, we want to be conservative in our approach to guidance and look to over achieve when smart phone products begin to monetize," concluded Mr. Yeung.
Business Outlook
For the fiscal first quarter 2013 ending June 30, 2012, Sky-mobi expects total revenues to be between RMB155 million to RMB165 million.
For the fiscal year 2013 ending March 31, 2013, Sky-mobi expects total revenues to be between RMB545 million to RMB560 million.
These are Sky-mobi's current projections, which are subject to change. You are cautioned that operating results in fourth quarter 2012 and fiscal year 2012 are not necessarily indicative of operating results for any future periods.
Joint Venture
HANGZHOU, China, March 5, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application store and mobile social network community operator in China, today announced that its subsidiary, Hangzhou Mijia Technologies Co., Ltd., has entered into a partnership agreement with China Mobile's reading platform. Content from China Mobile's reading platform will be published and promoted on Sky-mobi's Maopao platform.
Under the terms of the agreement, China Mobile's mobile reading application software will be made available as a downloadable application via the Maopao's browser, application store and via technical plug-ins to Sky-mobi's Maopao Community. China Mobile's mobile reading platform will share revenue with Sky-mobi based on viewed content following the download of its reading application software. With the popularity of smartphones and the advent of the mobile Internet era, the mobile reading market has entered a stage of dramatic growth. China Mobile's mobile reading platform owns 280,000 electronic publications on its mobile-phone platform, which attracts visits by 70 million mobile-phone users a month.
Mr. Michael Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "We are excited to expand our relationship with China Mobile by making its mobile reading application and content available to our user base. By adding one of China's most popular reading application software and extensive mobile reading database to our platform, we expect to further increase our market presence in the mobile application sector and the stickiness of our Maopao Community."
Mr. Hezhong Dai, General Manager of China Mobile's reading platform, stated, "We are excited to make our high-quality reading application available to millions of additional mobile users of China Mobile Group via Sky-mobi's Maopao platform."
Comments & Business Outlook
HANGZHOU, China, March 1, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE ) -- Sky-mobi Limited ("Sky-mobi" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:MOBI), a leading mobile application store and mobile social network community operator in China, today announced that its subsidiary, Hangzhou Mijia Technologies Co., Ltd., has entered into a partnership agreement with China Mobile Group Jiangsu Company Limited ("Jiangsu Mobile"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Mobile Group, to provide content and operational cooperation for China Mobile's gaming platform nationwide.
Under the terms of the one-year agreement, Sky-mobi will provide cooperative content, including single user games and applications, online multi-player games and other content, on China Mobile Group's gaming platform along with customer service and operation cooperation for the games and content for feature phones. Jiangsu Mobile is responsible for development and maintenance of the gaming platform, new game screening, launches and related gaming channel operations, including collections. Jiangsu Mobile will share revenue with Sky-mobi based on paid downloads and usage. Over the course of the agreement both parties will work together on marketing, promotions and user development.
Mr. Michael Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, stated, "We are pleased to partner with China Mobile to provide content and operational cooperation for its mobile gaming platform. China Mobile Group is the leading mobile service provider in China and our cooperation will further enhance our industry presence and increase confidence amongst our subscribers. Through this arrangement, high quality games will be available to 80% of our Maopao users throughout China. We expect this partnership will provide both parties with operational and financial benefits going forward."
Comments & Business Outlook
Third Quarter 2012 Results
Total revenues increased 3.8% to RMB167.3 million (US$26.6 million ) in third quarter 2012, compared to the fiscal third quarter ended December 31, 2010 ("third quarter 2011"). Revenues collected from third party channels, i.e., revenues not collected through mobile network operators, represented 17.6% of total revenues
Basic and diluted earnings per common share ("EPS") were RMB0.02 (US$0.00). Non-IFRS basic and diluted earnings per common share were RMB0.07 (US$0.01)
Basic and diluted earnings per ADS were RMB0.20 (US$0.03). Non-IFRS basic and diluted earnings per ADS were RMB0.59 (US$0.09)
Commenting on the Company's results, Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, remarked: "Our performance was in line with our expectations. The transition from feature phones to premium feature phones and smart phones in China is accelerating, as reflected in the decline in revenue from our application store. According to a report dated July 2011 issued by Analysys International, an independent research and advisory firm, the feature phone market is the largest mobile phone segment in China and is expected to continue to dominate the mobile phone market for the next few years. Therefore, the transition to smart phones is still in its early stages and we are adapting to these changes with increased focus on the Maopao Community and Android products."
"Given the macro decline in the feature phone market and overall more challenging economy, we will remain prudent on expenditures and focus on investing in areas of future growth such as Maopao Community and Android products," concluded Mr. Yeung.
Business Outlook
For the fiscal fourth quarter 2012 ending March 31, 2012, Sky-mobi expects total revenues to be in the range of RMB168 million to RMB178 million.
Revenues for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012 are expected to be in the range of RMB 674 million to RMB 684 million .
These are Sky-mobi's current projections, which are subject to change. You are cautioned that operating results in third quarter 2012 are not necessarily indicative of operating results for any future periods.
Comments & Business Outlook
Second Quarter 2012 Results
Total revenues decreased 0.4% to RMB173.2 million (US$27.2 million ) in second quarter 2012, compared to the fiscal second quarter ended September 30, 2010 ("second quarter 2011"). Revenues collected from third party channels, i.e., revenues not collected through mobile network operators, represented 15.2% of total revenues
Basic and diluted earnings per ADS1 were RMB0.22 (US$0.03 ). Non-IFRS basic and diluted earnings per ADS were RMB0.61 (US$0.10 )
Commenting on the Company's results, Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, remarked: "Our second quarter revenues were in line with our expectations. We continued to make good progress in socializing the Maopao application store, introducing 17 new single-user applications with social functions through the OPENSKY platform. This resulted in a 45 million year-over-year increase in the number of downloads to a near record 845.2 million . The Maopao Community grew to a record 16.7 million active users with 1.4 billion member logins."
"We continue to invest heavily in Android in order to best position Sky-mobi once Android handset shipments reach meaningful levels early next year. We recently made a strategic investment in an Android ROM developer and have a strong pipeline in development. Following the launch of a card game center in September, we plan to launch a full Android community including an application store, PC suite and multimedia player by year end," Mr. Song continued.
"We anticipate a continued growth in our user base, along with higher monetization rates, as we expand our relationships with leading Chinese social media and content partners, such as the recently announced SINA Weibo that went live on our community, encourage developers to provide compelling content via OPENSKY and establish our Android infrastructure. We are also exploring opportunities to expand our relationships beyond service providers to include carriers," Mr. Song concluded.
Commenting on the Company's results, Carl Yeung, Chief Financial Officer of Sky-mobi, said: "As our business becomes more established, we are better able to streamline our operations and manage costs to benefit from operating leverage. As a result, we saw significant improvement in gross margin and profitability during this quarter, with non-IFRS gross margin expanding 560 basis points to 34% and non-IFRS net income increasing almost 70% on a year over year basis. Going forward, we will continue to manage our business prudently while making strategic investments to ensure our profitable growth."
Business Outlook
For the fiscal third quarter 2012 ending December 31, 2011, Sky-mobi expects total revenues to be in the range of RMB 163 million to RMB 171 million .
These are Sky-mobi's current projections, which are subject to change. You are cautioned that operating results in second quarter 2012 are not necessarily indicative of operating results for any
Comments & Business Outlook
First Quarter 2012 Results
Total revenues increased 2.0% to RMB166.0 million (US$25.7 million) in first quarter 2012, compared to the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, 2010 ("first quarter 2011").
Basic and diluted earnings per ADS 1 were RMB0.23 (US$0.04). Non-IFRS basic and diluted earnings per ADS were RMB0.62 (US$0.10) and RMB0.61 (US$0.09), respectively
Commenting on the Company's results, Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi, remarked: "While our Maopao application store generated a record 5.8 billion user visits, downloads were lower than anticipated at 787.2 million during the quarter. As a result, our first quarter revenues came in slightly below our expectations. This mainly reflects lower than expected overall China handset sales and lower store monetization rate with a tougher operating environment for the mobile service providers."
Commenting on the Company's results, Carl Yeung, Chief Financial Officer of Sky-mobi, said: "During the quarter, while net margin was very healthy, we saw some pressure on gross margins, primarily due to higher costs associated with our carrier-based collection channels. However, we are encouraged by the record levels of revenue through K Currency, the primary form of payment allowed for purchases in the Maopao Community, as this is a critical element of our strategy to diversify payment channels. We expect the contribution from K Currency as part of our revenue mix will continue to increase with the growth of the Maopao Community, relieving gross margin pressure for the rest of the year."
"We want to take a conservative approach as we provide revenue guidance for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, as the sales of mobile phones in China and the operating environment for service providers are not expected to improve significantly. However, we are taking this opportunity to accelerate the transformation of business model from a visitor-based application store to a mobile community with sticky users. The operating metrics of our community currently all point in the right direction. We believe investing in increasing user traffic and allocating resources into the community will yield better long-term value than squeezing near-term revenue from the application store." concluded Mr. Yeung.
Business Outlook
For the fiscal second quarter 2012 ending September 30, 2011, Sky-mobi expects total revenues to be in the range of RMB170 million to RMB175 million.
Revenues for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012 are expected to be in the range of RMB680 million to RMB690 million.
These are Sky-mobi's current projections, which are subject to change. You are cautioned that operating results in first quarter 2012 are not necessarily indicative of operating results for any future periods.
Comments & Business Outlook
Preliminary Fourth Quarter 2011 Highlights
Total revenues increased 20.8% to RMB177.5 million (US$27.1 million ) in fourth quarter 2011, compared to the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, 2010 ("fourth quarter 2010"). Maopao Community revenues through K Currency, i.e., revenues not collected through mobile network operators represented 12.1% of total revenues, compared to 1.6% in fourth quarter 2010
Profit from operations was RMB14.4 million (US$2.2 million) in fourth quarter 2011, down 35.2% from fourth quarter 2010
Non-IFRS profit from operations was RMB27.5 million (US$4.2 million) in fourth quarter 2011, up 13.9% from fourth quarter 2010
Net profit was RMB4.4 million (US$0.7 million) in fourth quarter 2011, compared to net loss of RMB109.9 million in fourth quarter 2010
Non-IFRS net profit was RMB17.5 million (US$2.7 million) in fourth quarter 2011, up 48.4% from fourth quarter 2010
Basic and diluted earnings per common share were RMB0.02 (US$0.00) and RMB0.02 (US$0.00), respectively. Non-IFRS basic and diluted earnings per common share were RMB0.07 (US$0.01) and RMB0.07 (US$0.01 ), respectively
Application store revenue increased 5.7% to RMB149.4 million (US$22.8 million) in fourth quarter 2011 from fourth quarter 2010. Sky-mobi's application store experienced 5.0 billion user visits with 847.7 million downloads in fourth quarter 2011
Maopao Community revenue through K Currency increased 798.3% to RMB21.4 million (US$3.3 million) in fourth quarter 2011 from fourth quarter 2010. Sky-mobi had 11.0 million active members of the Maopao Community with 884.1 million member log-ins in fourth quarter 2011
"We are pleased with our fiscal fourth quarter 2011 performance. Our application store had a record 5 billion user visits and 847.7 million downloads and our Maopao Community grew to a record 11 million active members and 884.1 million member log-ins ," stated Mr. Michael Tao Song, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sky-mobi. "We entered into important partnerships during the fiscal fourth quarter 2011. We signed a strategic partnership with Tencent in January and a mobile advertising contract with Sohu in March. More recently, in conjunction with the launch of OPENSKY, we announced SINA Mobile, SNS Game (the promoter of the Chinese version of a hit game, Zombie Farm) and other major Internet and videogame companies became the first international players to join the Maopao Community. We look forward to more exciting partnerships as Maopao becomes the platform of choice to access the hundreds of millions of mobile users in China. In addition, OPENSKY will offer our users an unprecedented experience in enjoying applications with other users, increasing our user stickiness and monetization ."
For the fiscal first quarter 2012 ending June 30, 2011, Sky-mobi expects total revenues to be in the range of RMB180 million to RMB190 million.
IPO Activity
Sky-mobi Limited plans for Initial Public Offering
Company Snapshot:
Operates the leading mobile application store in China
Industry Snapshot :
China has the world’s largest mobile subscriber market. According to reports released by the PRC Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, or MIIT, in January 2006 and February 2010, the number of mobile subscriptions in China increased from 393.4 million as of the end of 2005 to 747.4 million as of the end of 2009, representing a CAGR of 17.4%. Correspondingly, the Chinese mobile handset installed base has also grown to 792.2 million units at the end of 2009, according to the Analysys Report. The handset market in China can be divided into three segments: feature phones, smart phones and basic phones. Feature phones are low cost multi-function mobile communication devices that have proprietary operating systems which make it difficult for users to install and remove software. According to the Analysys Report, the feature phone market segment represented approximately 64.2% of the total mobile handset installed base in China in 2009, and is expected to remain the largest segment in the foreseeable future as feature phones offer China’s price-sensitive mobile phone users broad functionality at compelling price points. Smart phones accounted for 15.8% of the total mobile handset installed base in China in 2009, according to the Analysys Report, and they are expected to grow rapidly, reaching approximately 36.9% market share in 2013.
Historically, the majority of applications and services provided through mobile data services were based on short messages, or SMSs, and were either accessed through a mobile carrier operated menu or pre-installed on mobile handsets. These services included ring tones, simple games and wallpapers, among others. Today, users seek to consume more sophisticated multimedia and interactive functions via mobile phones. Increasingly rich content and more complex applications are therefore becoming available. Key growth areas of mobile applications and services include mobile social games and social network applications and content.
Despite relatively modest average income levels of mobile users, mobile services are used by a wide spectrum of Chinese consumers, with users younger than 30 years old representing 59.3% of all mobile subscribers in 2009, according to the Analysys Report. These users have a strong desire for social interaction, acceptance and affordable entertainment. The majority of the growth of mobile Internet application and services revenues in China has been derived from users younger than 30 years old, who accounted for 71.2% of the mobile Internet user base as of June 2010, according to a report released by China Internet Network Information Center, or CNNIC, in July 2010.
Independent mobile application stores have emerged in China to aggregate applications or content from different content providers in a central platform which enables a large number of users to easily browse, find and pay for applications and content. These mobile application stores enable a more efficient ecosystem for mobile Internet application and content development, distribution and consumption by addressing major challenges facing the mobile Internet application and services market in China, including limited payment alternatives, the difficulty for users to find content and for content providers to reach users, the high cost of content development and the lack of incentive for handset manufacturers. These independent mobile application stores allow more flexible payment options, enhance user experience through content aggregation, enable more efficient and cost-effective content development and increase incentives for content distribution. The mobile Internet application and services market size in China is expected to increase from RMB7.7 billion in 2008 to RMB260.4 billion in 2013, according to the Analysys Report, representing a CAGR of 102.2%.
Use Of proceeds:
approximately $20 million for the enhancement and expansion of the Maopao application store to support further development of our Maopao Community and community-based applications and other content;
approximately $5 million for sales and marketing activities, including the promotion of our brand among users;
the balance for general corporate purposes, including overseas expansions and research and development activities.
Underwriter:
Citi
Piper Jaffray
Oppenheimer & Co.
Rodman & Renshaw, LLC
Proposed offering price : $8.00 and $10.00
Post IPO Share Calculation : (Using a 8 to 1 Ordinary to ADS conversion ratio).
25,090,700 : Pre IPO fully diluted share count used in EPS calculation.(Includes shares from convertible preferred)
7,250,000: Newly issued ADS shares ( 6,125,000 from company + 1,125,000 from selling shareholders).
1,087,500: Underwriter over-allotments ADS shares (9 18,750 from company + 168,75 from selling shareholders).
GeoTeam® best effort calculation of total post IPO ADS count to be used in EPS calculations, assuming full conversions and a Ordinary to ADS conversion ratio of 8 to 1: 32,134,450
Financial Snapshot : March Year End
2010 vs. 2009
Revenues: $81.3 million vs $30.9 million
Adjusted Net Income: $17.3 million vs. $6.6 million
Six Months September 2010 vs 2009
Revenues: $50.3 million vs. $35.8 million
Adjusted Net Income: $3.6 million vs. $10.3 million
Please note that 2009 net income figures includes a small tax benefit vs. tax expense in 2010.
Pro Forma Valuation : using mid point offering price of $9.00 and new share count
Trailing EPS (ADS): $0.33
Trailing P/E: 27.3
Financials
The following table sets forth the reconciliation of adjusted profit for the year/period, a non-IFRS financial measure, from loss for the year/period, our most directly comparable financial measure presented in accordance with IFRS, for the periods indicated.
For the Fiscal Year Ended March 31,
For the Six-Month Period Ended September 30,
2008
2009
2010
2009
2010
(RMB)
(RMB)
(RMB)
($)
(RMB)
(RMB)
($)
(In thousands)
(unaudited)
Loss for the year/period
(10,600
)
(113,453
)
(229,802
)
(34,348
)
(91,960
)
(53,566
)
(8,005
)
Share-based compensation expenses
8,964
5,421
3,606
539
1,272
23,789
3,555
Loss on changes in fair value of convertible redeemable preferred shares
4,156
134,616
290,135
43,365
160,913
59,620
8,911
Loss (gain) on changes in fair value of warrants
239
18,423
7,548
1,128
(1,176
)
4,051
605
Loss on modification of convertible redeemable preferred shares
—
—
44,439
6,642
—
—
—
Foreign exchange (gain) loss relating to loss on changes in fair value of convertible redeemable preferred shares and warrants
(1,943
)
(755
)
(256
)
(38
)
(194
)
(9,766
)
(1,460
)
Adjusted profit for the year/period(1)
816
44,252
115,670
17,288
68,855
24,128
3,606