New Oriental Education and Technology Group, Inc. American Depositary Shares (each representing ten (10) Common Shares) 2027 Q1 Earnings Call

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to New Oriental's first fiscal quarter 2027 earnings conference call. Our financial results for the period were released earlier today and are available on the company's website as well as on Newswire services. Today, Stephen Yang, Executive President and Chief Financial Officer, and I will share New Oriental's latest earnings results and business updates in detail with you. After that, Stephen and I will be available to answer your questions. Before we continue, please note that the discussion today will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, our results may be materially different from the view expressed today. A number of potential risks and uncertainties are outlined in our public filings with the SEC.

New Oriental does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. In addition, a webcast of the conference call will be available on New Oriental's investor relations website at investor.neworiental.org. I will now first turn the call over to Mr. Yang. Stephen, please go ahead. Thank you, Cissy.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call. We're pleased to start the new fiscal year with an encouraging first quarter, with revenue growth exceeding our guidance upper range. In addition to the resilience of our core business, East Buy and our new venture have also contributed outstanding results to the group this quarter. I'm glad to report our efforts across all of our business initiatives have resulted in healthy growth amid economic headwinds and external challenges. In this quarter, total net revenue grew 23.1% year-over-year to $1,874.5 million, and non-GAAP operating income rose 21.2% to $406.8 million. Our core education business and East Buy recorded year-over-year expansion in their respective operating margins, primarily attributable to the enhanced operational efficiency and improved utilization of our learning centers.

I do want to highlight here that East Buy experienced a rapid growth in the past quarter, which means it now accounts for a larger share of the group's revenue, and therefore carries greater weight in our consolidated operating margin. Please rest assured that our overall margin remains very stable. Yet, we would encourage you to also look at each business on a stand-alone basis, as this gives a clearer and more accurate picture of our underlying performance. As said, all of our business lines continue to maintain healthy margins. At the group level, the consolidated margin reflects both the margin of each business and its relative share of revenue. Changes in the business mix can influence the overall figure without indicating any deterioration in the underlying businesses. Now, I'm pleased to share the strong momentum demonstrated by our core business and new initiatives this quarter in detail.

Breaking it down. Overseas test prep business recorded a revenue increase of about 8% year-over-year for this quarter. Overseas study consulting business recorded revenue increase of about 7% year-over-year for this quarter. Our adults and university students business recorded a revenue increase of 22% year-over-year for the first quarter of 2027. Our non-academic tutoring business has been rolled out to around 60 existing cities. Market penetration has been steady growth, particularly across high-tier cities. The top 10 cities contribute around 60% of the business. Our intelligent learning system and devices business has been launched in around 60 cities. We're encouraged by continued enhancement in customer retention and scalability, with the top 10 cities contribute around 50% of this business. In summary of above, our new educational business initiatives delivered a 25% year-over-year revenue increase in the first quarter of 2027.

Turning to our integrated tourism business, which spans study tours and research camps for K12 and university students, as well cultural tours for middle-aged and senior travelers. We have been leveraging our cultural travel, China study tour, global study tour, and camp education products to deliver value through knowledge enrichment, personal growth, and experience for culture immersion. Our students programs now operates in about 55 cities across China, with the top 10 cities generating over 50% of the revenue. Our premium adult offerings cover around 30 provinces in China, along with selected international destinations. We're also expanding into senior health and wellness tourism through an asset light model, partnering with the more than 65 wellness facilities in key destinations such as Hainan, Yunnan, Guangxi, and Shandong. As for our OMO teaching platform, investments in revamping and upgrading the system continue to be in the books.

In this quarter, we invested $28.2 million to improve and maintain our OMO platform, which enable us to provide uninterrupted high-quality instructions to students and cater to their individual learning needs. Building on our launch of our proprietary AI-powered personalized learning platform, ongoing investment, and the refinements of AI-enabled products remain our organizational priorities, to which we expect progress contributions in the coming quarters. The platform has completed in the first phase of deployment, generating meaningful sales within just the 25 days of launch. Purposely built as a specialized vertical learning system rather than a general-purpose large language model. It's close to New Oriental's deep educational heritage and enhance the competitiveness of our product in many aspects. This encouraging early result affirms strong market traction and product-market fit, and we will continue to advance AI-driven solutions to extend our market reach and improve operational efficiency.

Now, turning to East Buy. We are hugely encouraged by its rapid growth in the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, which underscores the success of our ongoing pursuit of the evolution and optimization. We accelerate private-label development in our very own three highest standard: high safety, high quality taste, and high value for money. Stringent raw material screening, factory audits, and finished product testing before every product launch reflects our commitment to stringent quality control. Today, our private-label lineup has grown beyond 1,000 SPUs across food, nutrition, and health, apparel, skincare, and other categories. Notably, several flagship products have managed to deliver robust sales. For its livestreaming platform, the addition of professional live streamers and operational specialists has strengthened East Buy's content capabilities.

The new vertical accounts launched on Douyin have now expanded our channel matrix to over 30 channels across a wide range of product categories. We also draw on user feedback to continually improve the customer experience in our livestreaming platforms. Offline sales by network. East Buy leverage New Oriental's nationwide learning center network to explore new retail opportunities. We currently have 4 offline experience stores and are advancing campus store rollout on the group level. We have also developed instant retail capabilities with front warehouses in place and 1-hour delivery trial underway in Beijing and Shanghai. For the rest of the year, East Buy will continue its multi-channel strategy to cast the wider net, accelerate private-label development in food and daily necessities, optimize membership operations on its proprietary app, and improve supply chain efficiency.

Together, we're convinced that these initiatives will support sustainable growth and deliver a lasting impact. Now, I would like to share updates on a new initiative we have been piloting since fiscal year 2026 Q3, and that is New Oriental Home. This family-centric app assembles our education service, East Buy offerings, and cultural tourism product into a single platform, serving an entire household at every stage of life. New Oriental Home scale up a full spectrum resource hub that caters not only to learning, but extensive individual needs. The point-based incentive program, which now reaches large number of students, has become woven into the daily teaching and customer service, while linking positive learning habits to product and reward redemption. We're excited to share that our registered users rose substantially with over half of them proactively redeeming points across our 10 learning and family-oriented offerings.

Collectively, these results validate our education offerings can extend naturally into a one-stop shop for the broader family. Hosting customer and all that we can offer in a synergistic ecosystem. New Oriental Home also lowers customer acquisition costs and improves cross-selling efficiency. This program has been launched across 69 cities, including Chongqing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Xi'an, with over 1,678,000 registered families by the end of this quarter. New Oriental Home has achieved cumulative activity participant rates of over 90%, scoring a campaign activation rates for the quarter reached 33%, and significantly outperforming many public domain e-commerce platforms. We're ecstatic with the opportunity to further enhance customer lifetime value and are eager to build on this encouraging momentum in the quarters ahead. Now, I will turn the call over to Cici to share with you about the key financials. Cici, please go ahead. Yeah.

Thank you, Stephen. Let me now walk you through the key financial highlights for the quarter. Operating costs and expenses for the quarter were $1,499.8 million, representing a 23.7% increase year over year. The increase was primarily due to the cost and expense related to the substantial growth in East Buy private-label products and livestreaming e-commerce business. Cost of revenue increased by 28.1% year over year to $817 million. Selling and marketing expenses increased by 30.7% year over year to $262.2 million. G&A expenses for the quarter increased by 12.6% year over year to $420.7 million. Total stock-based compensation expenses, which were allocated to related operating costs and expenses, increased by 31.3% to $30.6 million in the first quarter of 2027. Operating income was $374.7 million, representing a 20.5% increase year over year.

Non-GAAP income from operations for the quarter, excluding share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions, was $406.8 million, representing a 21.2% increase year over year. Net income attributable to New Oriental for the quarter was $273.2 million, representing a 13.5% increase year over year. Basic and diluted net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental were $1.76 and $1.74, respectively. Non-GAAP net income attributable to New Oriental for the quarter was $300.9 million, representing a 16.5% increase year over year. Non-GAAP basic and diluted net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental were $1.94 and $1.92, respectively. Net cash flow generated from operation for the first fiscal quarter of 2027 was approximately $195.4 million, and capital expenditure for the quarter were $65.8 million. Turning to the balance sheet. As of August 31st, 2026, New Oriental had cash and cash equivalents of $1,754.6 million.