亚信科技

Summary:

--- Operating revenue was about RMB 6.895 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14.5%;

--- Revenue from “Three New” businesses was about RMB 1.568 billion, a year-on-year increase of 101.0%, accounting for 20% of total revenue for the first time;

--- Gross profit was about RMB 2.645 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14.8%;

--- Gross margin reached 38.4%, a year-on-year increase of 0.1 percentage points;

--- Profit for the year was about RMB 783 million, a year-on-year increase of 18.2%;

--- Net profit margin reached 11.3%, a year-on-year increase of 0.3 percentage points; 

--- Proposed dividend at the end of period was HK$0.416/share, with an annual profit dividend payout yield of about 40%.

Text:

On March 7, 2022, AsiaInfo Technologies Limited (“AsiaInfo” or the “Company”, stock code: 01675.HK) announced the Company’s consolidated results as of December 31, 2021.

Over the past year, the Company adhered to the strategy of “One Consolidation, Three Developments”, continued to promote and implement the Company’s five-year plan, achieving a continuous acceleration in overall development. In 2021, the annual operating revenue, gross profit and net profit have all achieved double-digit growths; the “Three New” businesses doubled again, with the proportion in operating revenue exceeding 20% for the first time, showing remarkable business transformation results.

The revenue showed significant growth and the profitability remained stable

In 2021, the Company’s operating revenue reached about RMB 6.895 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14.5%. The revenue from “Three New” businesses reached approximately RMB 1.568 billion, a year-on-year increase of 101.0%, accounting for 20% of total revenue for the first time; the gross profit margin reached 38.4%; the profit for the year was about RMB 783 million, a year-on-year increase of 18.2%; net profit margin reached 11.3%, a year-on-year increase of 0.3 percentage points, and profitability remained stable.

After fully considering the factors such as shareholder returns, company profitability, cash flow level and capital needs for future development, the Board of Directors decided to suggest the Annual General Meeting distributing the final dividend of HK$0.416 per share in 2021, with the annual profit dividend yield about 40%.

“Three New” businesses witnessed a rapid progress, accounting for 20% of total revenue for the first time, and DSaaS revenue doubled again

In 2021, the Company has seized the new opportunities created by the development of digital economy, continued to increase its efforts to develop DSaaS business, fully tapped the value of data information, promoted various innovative business models such as payment by result, sharing settlement, subscription, etc., cooperated with first-tier Internet companies in private domain traffic operation for enterprises, and successfully achieved such services as multi-point replication within the groups of customers, provision of user and content operation services, big data construction-operation integration services of government affairs, and the solution to private domain traffic operation for enterprises. Based on legal and compliant data sources, the Company gave full play to digital value and supported the value operation of customers with a strong AI and middle-ground technology sharing system. In 2021, DSaaS business revenue reached about RMB 730 million, a year-on-year increase of 107.5%, which doubled again. DSaaS accounted for 10.6% of operating revenue, becoming the strongest driver for the Company’s revenue growth among the “Three New” businesses.

In terms of vertical industries and enterprise cloud business, the Company focused on vertical industries such as government affairs, finance, postal services, transportation, and energy, and has made significant progress in the fields of government affairs and energy. In terms of government affairs, it has created replicable solutions around the digital government, and acquired benchmarking projects such as the Shanghai Municipal Data Platform, the Jieshou Digital Urban Brain, and the Zibo Big Data Platform. In terms of energy, it took initiative to participate in the 5G production private network project of China Nuclear Power, and has promoted the implementation of several typical 5G private network application scenarios in nuclear power, wind power, thermal power and other industries, promoting the digital transformation of energy industry, and supporting China’s plan to realize the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. In addition, the Company has established strategic partnerships with mainstream cloud vendors such as Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Baidu Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Tianyi Cloud, Mobile Cloud, Wo Cloud and CE Cloud to deepen cooperation and develop customers, increased the number of delivered projects with Alibaba Cloud, and signed the first ten-million yuan project with Tencent Cloud. In 2021, the revenue from the Company’s vertical industries and enterprise cloud business was bout RMB 425 million, a year-on-year increase of 135.6%.

In terms of OSS business, the Company gave full play to the advantages of technology-neutral software vendors, actively participated in the construction of network intelligence and network management system of operators, and provided customers with globally virtualized, globally intelligent, and globally perceivable products to help operators realize the coordination of supporting capabilities of the business domain and network domain. In 2021, the scale of the Company’s OSS business grew rapidly, with revenue reaching about RMB 413 million, a year-on-year increase of 66.7%.

In terms of BSS business, the Company continued to occupy a high market share and maintained its leadership in market. In the face of the changing external environment, the Company strived to tap new sources of businesses, improve efficiency, actively meet customers’ needs for business transformation and innovation, and help achieve digital and intelligent upgrades for customers. In 2021, revenue from traditional business reached about RMB 5.327 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.7%. At the beginning of 2022, AsiaInfo successfully won the bid of the China Broadcasting Network Group Corporation Ltd. to build a 5G business support system. In this way, the BSS customer map and market share were further expanded, reflecting AsiaInfo’s forward-looking strategic layout and excellent industry practice experience in this field.

Investment in innovation and R&D was further increased, and the empowerment level was continuously improved

In terms of technology R&D, the Company has enhanced innovation and increased investment in R&D in emerging businesses, including multi-party secure computing, federated learning, edge AI, digital twins, 5G private network, 5G network intelligence, database and other new technologies and new products, as well as rich 5G industry solutions, which empowered the construction of 5G+X ecosystem. A number of high-quality products have been successfully commercialized and implemented in the communications industry and vertical industries, supporting the rapid development of “Three New” businesses. In 2021, the Company’s R&D cost was RMB 1.006 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19.7%, accounting for 14.6% of operating revenue.

The Company deeply participated in the work of 20 international/national technical standards organizations such as 3GPP, ITU, ETSI, IEEE, TMF, O-RAN, and contributed to 40 technical standards for international communications. The Company’s 5G network intelligence product system is international leading, has been selected into the Gartner 2022 Mainstream Supplier Matrix, and won Wu Wenjun AI Science and Technology Award, the Highest AI Award in China.

Digital and intelligent full-stack capabilities have been built to fully activate business growth drivers

The “14th Five-Year Plan” proposes, “We will usher in the digital age and accelerate the construction of a digital economy, a digital society, and a digital government.” Moving toward the development period of “14th Five-Year Plan”, the digital economy has become a new driver for China’s economy to make a high-quality leap, and software industry to gain more development opportunities.

At the beginning of 2022, after acquiring iResearch, AsiaInfo relied on seven capabilities of consultation planning, product R&D, implementation and delivery, system integration, intelligent decision-making, data operation and customer service to constantly provide customers with end-to-end full-stack digital and intelligence support, forming a closed loop of customer service and becoming a leading provider of digital and intelligent full-stack capabilities.

The management of AsiaInfo stated that the Company will push forward the “One Consolidation, Three Developments” strategy, actively release the advantages of traditional business efficiency, fully activate the growth driver of “Three New” businesses, and strive to achieve the goal of “building a business scale of over 10 billion by 2025, with the new businesses occupying almost half the market share”.