Revenue up by 10% to HK$14.9 billion

Net profit up by 4.6% to HK$649 million

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Increase in total dividend per share for the Yea

（(31 January 2019 – Hong Kong) Vinda International Holdings Limited (stock code: 3331) announced today its audited annual results for the year ended 31 December 2018.

2018 Annual Results Highlights:

–        Double-digit growth in revenue despite challenging environment

·    Total revenue grew by 10.3% to HK$14.9 billion

·    Revenue of the Tissue segment grew by 11.0% to HK$12.1 billion

·    Double-digit revenue growth in softpack, wet wipes and kitchen towe

·    Revenue from Personal Care segment up by 7.3% to HK$2.8 billion, accounting for 19% of the Group’s total revenue

·    Basic earnings per share rose by 3.4% to 54.4 HK cents

–        Thanks to effective price increase initiatives, enhanced product mix and solid cost-saving efforts

·    Gross profit grew by 4.7% to HK$4,187 million.

·    Operating profit grew by 3.7% to HK$1,020 million

·    Net profit grew by 4.6% to HK$649 million

–        Double-digit revenue growth in e-commerce and B2B channels

·    E-commerce and B2B continued to record double-digit growth in revenue

·    Traditional distributors, key account managed supermarkets and hypermarkets, B2B corporate customers and e-commerce accounted for 34%, 25%, 16% and 25% respectively.

–        Decrease in total SG&A expense ratio

·    Effective management and strict cost control lowered total selling, general and administrative expenses (“SG&A”) ratio by 1.7 ppts over last year

–        Gearing level maintained

·    Net gearing ratio¹stood at 54%

–        Efficient production capacity plan

·    60,000 tons of new capacity will be added Hubei in 19Q2

·    The annual designed production capacity for tissue paper  is expected to be 1,250,000 tons by the end of 2019

–         Increase in dividend

·    Proposed final dividend is 14 HK cents per share; total dividend for 2018 would be 20 HK cents (2017: 19 HK cents)

Mr. Christoph Michalski, CEOsaid, “ We will focus on the following plans to secure the sales growth and recovery of profit margins: 1) we will always put innovation in place to differentiate ourselves from competitors instead of joining the price competition;  2) we will continue to enhance our product portfolio in a bid to broaden margin profile; 3) we will be cautious on every dollar spent on all functions, projects and business units; 

4) we will keep up our high efficiency of production and operation; 5) we will maintain a healthy financial position, improve the management of working capital and cash generating ability, and; 6) we will deliver this in a sustainable and mindful way as well as respecting our code of conduct.”

Mr. Li Chao Wang, Chairmansaid, “We believe that government-led stimulus such as tax cut and other structural changes of the Chinese economy are beneficial to domestic consumption. In medium-to-long run, we see a lot of positive catalysts that will also benefit the market growth as well as our business development, such as quality-driven type of consumption, per capital increase in usage, evolution of new-retail and more stringent regulated environment rules etc.”

1. Net gearing ratio: Total borrowings less bank balances and cash and restricted deposits divided by total shareholders’ equity