In The First Half Of The Year, Uniqlo UNIQLO Continued To Return To The Fast Retailing Fast Selling Company At Home And Abroad To Raise The Whole Year'S Expectation.

April 12, 2018: Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. (9983.T) XXX group has increased double-digit growth in almost half of the fiscal year, raising its annual revenue and earnings growth expectations, making it a rare highlight in the retail market during the slowdown of the world's two leading apparel giants, Inditex SA (ITX.MC), India and India Textile Group and Hennes Mauritz AB (Hennes).

At the press conference, Ryui Masa, founder of Tadashi Yanai, said that the "Asian era" was finally coming.

The Japanese group also saw that relying on China's strong consumer market for many years to catch up with Zara and H&M, becoming the world's largest clothing retailer's goal, finally reappeared.

Thanks to the boost from overseas Uniqlo UNIQLO business, Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. rapid sales increased by 16.6% to 11867 billion yen, or 11 billion 75 million US dollars, compared with 42.7% yuan, or 507 billion 400 million yen, from overseas Uniqlo Uniqlo UNIQLO business, with an annual increase of 29.2% and a sharp increase of 65.6% to 80 billion 700 million yen in business profits.

During the period, the group continued to adjust the composition of commodities, improve the accuracy of the numerical plan, and break away from the discount based sales strategy, so that the business profit margin of the business was greatly improved by 350 basis points.

The group pointed out that the performance of all regions exceeded expectations, especially in North America, Greater China and South Korea, and the United States also expanded the sales volume of core commodities on the basis of the above strategies, thereby significantly reducing operating losses.

Japan's Uniqlo UNIQLO, GU best and global brands recorded three, 8.5%, 8.3% and 11.4% revenue growth, all lower than the group average.

However, management reported in the earnings report that the sales growth of 8.4% Uniqlo stores in the Japanese domestic market increased by 0.1% over the same period last year, and the 29% operating profit increase has gone far beyond expectations. This is mainly due to the local cold weather, which has promoted the sales of thermal underwear such as Heatech underwear, down garments and fleece. Besides, 7.5% of the online outlets for sales also recorded strong growth of 31.6%.

In the second half of the fiscal year, the sales situation was further warming. In the spring and summer of March, the best seller of new products stimulated the same store sales to soar by 13%, the highest growth rate since July 2016.

Ryui Masa hopes to become a cheap second Uniqlo UNIQLO.

Brand GU is best protected against cold.

A small number of categories failed to cater for demand, and the same store sales declined slightly in the first half of fiscal year.

The global brand business dominated by fashion brands has worsened. The French women's clothing brand Comptoir des Cotonniers and Theory's Helmut Lang all suffered impairment losses. The French underwear brand Princess tam.tam and the American high-end Cowboy brand J Brand also suffered a continuous loss, resulting in a 5 billion 600 million yen operating loss.

In the first half of fiscal year, Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. quick sales realized 170 billion 400 million yen's operating profit, an increase of 30.5% over the same period, which means the two quarter's operating profit increased 35% to 56 billion 600 million yen.

The expectation is 49 billion 100 million yen.

Net profit increased by 7.1% to 104 billion 100 million yen per annualized year.

And operating profit rates increased by 70 and 160 basis points to 49.3% and 14.4% respectively.

Management now expects year-end revenue growth at the end of August to 13.3% yen to 2 trillion and 110 billion yen, or about 19 billion 644 million US dollars, after an expected increase of 10.1%. The operating profit and net profit growth guidelines were also raised to 27.5% and 9% from 13.4% and 0.6% in the first quarter, respectively. The latest operating profit outlook is 225 billion yen, or about 2 billion 110 million dollars, which is higher than the comprehensive expectation of Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, and the annual dividend will also increase from yen to yen per share.

Uniqlo UNIQLO is located in Barcelona's first store in Spain.

In September 2017, Uniqlo UNIQLO entered the largest apparel retailer in the world and the birthplace of Zara SA, the parent company of Inditex SA. It has opened two stores, and Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. has made a good start in its earnings report.

In the second half of the fiscal year, the brand will also enter the world's second largest market for the first time.

Sweden, the retailer and H&M parent company Hennes & Mauritz AB

Contrary to the strong momentum of rapid recovery from Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. in the past two years, the loss of customers and the rapid rebound of sales on the basis of discount sales, the sales growth of India SA Textile Group has slowed to a three year low. Last year, the profit rate has shrunk to the lowest level in ten years while promoting the pformation of e-commerce and the zero sale of technology. Hennes & Mauritz AB has enjoyed the bitter fruit of ten years of aggressive entity expansion and the pformation of the electricity supplier. Since the beginning of 2014, the monthly sales data of the same store began to cover up the fact that the growth slowed down. Finally, sales fell back in the holiday season in 2017, and for the first time since 1998, the sales volume for the first time could not increase.

The Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. Express Group expects that by the end of August, the total number of stores will reach 3455, with 831 and 1246 stores in Japan and overseas, and 394 outlets in GU's best stores.

The total number of stores in Hennes & Mauritz AB was 4743 in February 28th, and is expected to increase by 200 in the whole year.

Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. (9983.T) 12 reported daily 46900 yen, an increase of 2.07% throughout the day, and recorded a cumulative increase of 34.5% over the past 12 months.