On the evening of April 29, Gree Electric (000651) announced its 2023 annual report and the first quarter report of 2024, which showed that both the total operating income in 2023 and the performance in the first quarter of 2024 hit a record high.
According to the 2023 annual report of Gree Electric Appliances, the total operating income during the reporting period was 205.018 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.82%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company reached 29.017 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.41%. In 2019, the total operating income of Gree Electric Appliances once exceeded the 200 billion mark, reaching 200.508 billion yuan. With the sudden epidemic at that time, it had a huge impact on the entire home appliance and consumer electronics industry, and it also brought an inevitable impact to Gree Electric Appliances.
However, since 2021, Gree Electric's operating income has not stopped growing, and the net profit attributable to the parent company in each year in the past five years has been more than 22 billion yuan, which can also be seen from the high quality of Gree Electric's operation. In 2023, both the total operating income and the net profit attributable to the parent company will record the best results ever.
Gree Electric's dividends have always been generous, with cash dividends of 13.142 billion yuan in 2023 (still to be submitted to the general meeting of shareholders for deliberation), and since its listing, Gree Electric has accumulated dividends of 155.298 billion yuan (including 30 billion yuan of repurchased company shares and 2023 annual dividends).
The 2023 annual report also shows that Gree Electric's performance in the TOC and TOB end in the past year is fully red, in addition to the steady growth of the main business represented by air conditioning, its diversified development layout is also providing a steady stream of impetus for the growth of its total operating income.
During the reporting period, the total operating income of the air conditioning section of Gree Electric Appliances was 151.217 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.13%, the total operating income of the industrial products section was 10.003 billion yuan in the same period, a year-on-year increase of 31.63%, and the revenue of intelligent equipment in 2023 increased even more, up to 55.03%. The performance of the green energy sector is also very beautiful, with a year-on-year increase of 51.16% in 2023 with a revenue scale of 7.106 billion yuan.
In contrast to the achievements in revenue, net profit and diversified development, the operating quality of Gree Electric Appliances has been further improved in 2023, and its annual report shows that the gross profit margin of the air conditioning sector has increased by 4.6 percentage points year-on-year. The revenue of overseas markets is also growing, and the year-on-year growth rate of Gree Electric's export business revenue in 2023 will be 7.02%. It is worth mentioning that its own brands account for nearly 70% of its overseas business.
In 2023, the R&D team will be expanded again, with the number of R&D personnel increasing by 17.76% year-on-year, and the investment in R&D expenses is also increasing, with a year-on-year increase of 8.97% in R&D investment during the reporting period.
The continuous growth trend is also reflected in the first three months of this year, according to the quarterly report released by Gree Electric on the evening of April 29, the total operating income during the reporting period was 36.596 billion yuan, an increase of 2.53% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to the parent company was 4.675 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.77%. Just as the total operating income in 2023 hit a record high, Gree Electric also achieved a historical best result in the first quarter of this year.
Just one day before the release of the 2023 annual report and the first quarter of 2024, Gree Electric announced that it would "invest 3 billion yuan to give back to Gree users and launch a large-scale trade-in activity". Today, when the quantitative game has become a major trend in the domestic home appliance market, Gree Electric Appliances is still driving consumption upgrading through continuous technological innovation and enterprise resource investment, and driving the green development of the entire industry with high-quality and high-quality products and solutions.