Domestic and foreign investment and layout have paid off. The 23-year performance bucked the trend. Haitian International issued the 2023 results announcement, achieving annual revenue of 13.07 billion yuan, an increase of 6.2% over the previous year; realized net profit of 2.49 billion yuan, an increase of 10.0% over the previous year; and earnings per share of 1.56 yuan. Against the backdrop of domestic downstream demand recovery falling short of expectations and structural adjustments in the global industrial chain, the company achieved contrarian growth throughout the year thanks to years of domestic and foreign investment layout. The company's consolidated gross margin in 2023 was 32.1%, up 0.3 percentage points year on year; net profit margin was 19.1%, up 0.7 percentage points year on year. The company's net operating cash inflow in 2023 was RMB 2.01 billion, up 13.0% year on year. The company's 2023 dividend per share was HK$0.66, with a dividend ratio of 3.1%.
Continued product innovation and iteration is expected to benefit from the trend of downstream equipment renewal in the first half of 2023, the Jupiter series will benefit from the development of the NEV market, while Mars and the electric series are constrained by the weak prosperity of other downstream industries. In the second half of the year, thanks to the company's continuous product innovation, the gradual recovery of some downstream industries, and the support of the automobile industry chain, the company's various series of injection molding machine products achieved varying degrees of month-on-month growth. In 2023, the sales volume of the company's injection molding machine products was 12.45 billion yuan, an increase of 5.7% over the previous year.
According to the performance announcement, the company's fifth-generation injection molding machine can save about 20% to 40%. As the trend of energy saving and intelligence in the injection molding machine industry continues to advance in the future, the company is expected to benefit deeply. Automobiles and home appliances are the main downstream industries for injection molding machines. With the publication of the “Action Plan to Promote Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-In”, sales in the automotive and home appliance industries are expected to be boosted, and the company's product demand is expected to benefit accordingly.
Overseas markets performed well, and the global layout continued to bring increased performance. In 2023, the company's domestic revenue was 7.92 billion yuan, an increase of 0.01% over the previous year. The main reason is that downstream demand in the domestic market slowed in the first half of the year; while demand for consumer goods and daily necessities recovered in the second half of the year, orders bucked the trend.
In overseas markets, the company continued to increase overseas investment and localized production. Sales in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia increased significantly. In 2023, the company's overseas revenue was 5.15 billion yuan, an increase of 17.3% over the previous year. The company is further advancing the “Five Year Plan” overseas strategy; the Chennai plant in India will be completed and put into use this year; the first phase of the Serbian plant is also under construction. The company has long-term strategic goals and is deeply involved in the European, Asian and Southeast Asian markets. It is expected to further enhance its influence and competitiveness in the global market in the future. Overseas exports will be an important source of performance growth.
Maintain a “buy” rating
The company's performance was in line with expectations. We maintained the 24-25 net profit forecast of RMB 2,88/3.20 billion, and introduced a net profit forecast of RMB 3.52 billion for the year 26, corresponding to EPS of RMB 1.81/2.01/2.21 yuan for 24-26. We believe that equipment upgrades and overseas exports will drive the company's performance to continue to improve and maintain a “buy” rating.
Risk warning: the risk of rising raw material prices; the risk of increasing industry competition; the risk of declining prosperity in the downstream industry