Bitauto Announces 2nd Quarter 2019 Results.

BEIJING: Bitauto Holdings Limited ("Bitauto" or the "Company") (NYSE: BITA), a leading provider of internet content & marketing services, and transaction services for China's fast-growing automotive industry, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2019[1].

Bitauto Second Quarter 2019 Highlights

Revenue in the second quarter of 2019 was RMB2.79 billion (US$406.6 million), an 8.9% increase from the corresponding period in 2018.

Gross profit in the second quarter of 2019 was RMB1.67 billion (US$243.8 million), a 3.1% increase from the corresponding period in 2018.

Net loss in the second quarter of 2019 was RMB136.2 million (US$19.8 million), compared to net income of RMB27.4 million (US$4.0 million) in the corresponding period in 2018.

Non-GAAP net income in the second quarter of 2019 was RMB216.0 million (US$31.5 million), compared to Non-GAAP net income of RMB353.7 million (US$51.5 million) in the corresponding period in 2018.

Net loss attributable to Bitauto in the second quarter of 2019 was RMB145.5 million (US$21.2 million), compared to net income attributable to Bitauto of RMB2.7 million (US$0.4 million) in the corresponding period in 2018.

Non-GAAP net income attributable to Bitauto in the second quarter of 2019 was RMB155.3 million (US$22.6 million), compared to Non-GAAP net income attributable to Bitauto of RMB257.3 million (US$37.5 million) in the corresponding period in 2018.

Mr. Andy Zhang, chief executive officer of Bitauto, said, "In spite of sustained weakness in new passenger vehicle sales in China, we continued to achieve steady growth in our overall business in the second quarter of 2019, with total revenue reaching RMB2.79 billion, representing an 8.9% year-over-year increase. Our transaction services business gained further market share during the quarter with revenue growing 17.2% year-over-year to RMB1.49 billion and transaction volume increasing 34% year-over-year, while China's total sales of new passenger vehicles decreased by approximately 14.3% compared to the same period last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers."

"For the second quarter of 2019, we were pleased to see continuous improvement in mobile traffic as well as in the quantity and quality of our sales leads resulting from the rollout of our upgraded Bitauto media app in October last year. Our focus on enhancing user generated content (UGC) further strengthened our competitive advantage by encouraging new users to contribute content on new car models which in turn attracted more new users. According to Questmobile, in July 2019 daily active users (DAU) of the Bitauto media app increased by over 200% from October 2018. In addition, the combined DAU of both the Bitauto media app and Auto Pricing app increased by over 60% over the same period in 2018. Our total number of sales leads grew by 37% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2019, and we continued to see a significant increase in the contribution of organic sales leads, which typically feature higher conversion rates and better quality."

"During the quarter we made substantial progress in growing new business areas and product offerings. Since launching our AI-based marketing solution in the first quarter of 2019, we have received positive feedback from our automaker customers. We expect to roll out our AI-based marketing solution to all of our automaker customers and see more meaningful revenue growth over the next few quarters. We also further expanded our network of independent dealers to over 30,000...