International Home Retail (01373.HK) announced on July 12th that the preliminary review of the unaudited comprehensive management accounts for the year ending April 30, 2024, and the information currently obtained by the board of directors. Compared with the equity attributable to owners of the company as adjusted net profit of HK$0.1496 billion for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2023, of which the wage subsidy income of the "Employment Support Scheme" of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government was excluded. The expected profit attributable to the owners of the company for the fiscal year will decrease by about 32% to 38%.
The board of directors believes that the above-mentioned decrease in profits attributable to owners of the company for the year is mainly attributable to the following factors: 1. It is expected that the group's revenue will decrease by about 4.9% this year, mainly due to the high base effect of the surge in demand for anti-epidemic materials in Hong Kong under the "COVID-19" epidemic in the same period last year; Secondly, due to the rising cost of human resources in the first half of the year and the end of the Hong Kong Housing Authority's rent reduction to retail tenants at the end of last year, operating costs for the year have increased. However, the company has achieved better results by tightly controlling this cost and actively negotiating rents with landlords.
In addition, the group has made strategic investments in logistics, involving the relocation and upgrade of the Hong Kong logistics distribution center, to establish a central base for global procurement, enhance logistics efficiency and productivity, and lay a solid foundation for the sustained development of the Hong Kong market.