{"id":16680,"date":"2023-03-08T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prnasia.com\/story\/archive\/4035506_CN35506_0"},"modified":"2023-03-08T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T22:00:00","slug":"best-inc-announces-unaudited-fourth-quarter-and-fiscal-year-2022-financial-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transmediavictoria.net.au\/?p=16680","title":{"rendered":"BEST Inc. Announces Unaudited Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2022 Financial Results"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Board Has Authorized a Share Repurchase Program<\/b><\/p>\n

HANGZHOU, China<\/span>, March 9, 2023 \/PRNewswire\/ — BEST Inc. (NYSE: BEST) (“BEST” or the “Company”), a leading integrated smart supply chain solutions and logistics services provider in China<\/span> and Southeast Asia<\/span>, today announced its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2022<\/span>. The Company also announced that its board of directors has authorized a share repurchase program, under which the Company may repurchase up to US$20 million<\/span> worth of its outstanding American Depositary Shares over the next 12 months.<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnny Chou<\/span>, Founder, Chairman and CEO of BEST, commented, “2022 was a challenging year. The COVID-19 pandemic and its related controls seriously impacted general economy, and was particularly hard for the logistic industry. However, under such severe challenges, we prevailed. In the fourth quarter of 2022, both BEST Freight and BEST Supply Chain Management have significantly improved their gross margins and narrowed their losses. At the same time, BEST Global began to show promising operating trends.<\/p>\n

After lifting of COVID pandemic-related controls, we have seen a rapid recovery in general economy and our multiple business lines.  We are confident to deliver a strong growth and financial results in 2023.  In addition, our Board has authorized an up-to-$20M<\/span> share repurchase program.” <\/p>\n

“During 2022, Best Freight focused heavily on digital transformation, cost reductions and quality improvement.  As a result, our operating efficiency and service quality have significantly improved.  In the fourth quarter, Freight’s gross margin grew by 10.4 percentage points and its net loss was narrowed by 69.3% year over year.”<\/p>\n

“For BEST Supply Chain Management, its strong technical know-how and superb service capabilities helped us weather the storm.  Despite COVID-related restrictions throughout the year, BEST Supply Chain Management went above and beyond to make sure we provided our customers with top quality service. As a result, we were rewarded with additional business. Supply Chain Management has added 64 new key account customers in the second half of 2022 and its distribution volume and revenue increased in the fourth quarter by 82.1% and 2.7%, respectively, and gross margin increased to 4.4%, from negative 1.9%, year over year.”<\/p>\n

“For BEST Global, with the lifting of COVID-related controls, we quickly adjusted our strategy, and realigned our organization in response to the evolving Southeast Asia<\/span> market. We greatly elevated our organization’s capabilities, widening our network coverage and significantly improved our service quality.  We also expanded our coverage of small- and medium-sized enterprise customers and the revenue contribution from those customers grew by 13 percentage points to 40.2% in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared with the first quarter of 2022. In addition, we are accelerating our B2B2C and cross border business to provide additional product offerings. We believe this strategic direction will usher in Global’s fast recovery and prompt growth for a much improved gross margin and better cash flow in 2023.”<\/p>\n

“We finished 2022 with a much more resilient, streamlined business infrastructure and improved operating efficiency. Our strengths in technology, domestic and global supply chain management as well as logistics services place us in a strong position to deliver a strong profitable growth in 2023 and beyond.” concluded Mr. Chou.<\/p>\n

Gloria Fan<\/span>, BEST’s Chief Financial Officer, added, “While our revenue for the fourth quarter was dampened by the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost control measures we enacted significantly narrowed our Group non-GAAP net loss by 52.4% year over year. We are actively managing our cash and our balance sheet remains healthy. At the end of 2022, we had cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments of RMB3.2 billion<\/span>, after we used RMB1.4 billion<\/span> during 2022 to repurchase our Convertible Senior Notes due 2024. Our overarching goal is to achieve ongoing sustainable and profitable growth. In 2023, we expect Freight and Supply Chain Management to become profitable in the second quarter and generate positive cash flow and profitable growth throughout the year, and BEST Global to see profitability in certain countries.”<\/p>\n

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS<\/b> ([1])<\/sup> <\/p>\n

For the Fourth Quarter Ended December 31, 2022<\/span>:<\/u><\/b>([2])<\/sup><\/p>\n