On November 29th, Miniso (NYSE: MNSO, HKEX: 9896) released its "report card" for the third quarter of 2024. During the period, Miniso achieved a revenue of 12.281 billion yuan (RMB), a year-on-year increase of 22.8%; The profit during the period was 1.826 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.6%; The adjusted net profit was 1.928 billion yuan, an increase of 13.7% compared to the same period last year.
Ye Guofu, founder, chairman, and CEO of Miniso, stated that the company's global store layout continues to steadily expand. As of September 30, 2024, the global number of stores has reached 7420, with 859 new stores added in the first nine months of 2024, just one step away from achieving the goal of a net increase of 900 to 1100 stores in 2024. Among them, MINISO's overseas and TOP TOY's net store growth in the first nine months of 2024 exceeded that of the entire year last year. The total revenue at the overall group level reached 12.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23%, mainly attributed to a 19% increase in the average number of stores and low single unit same store sales growth. "We are steadily moving towards our development goals for this year.
Zhang Jing, Chief Financial Officer of Miniso, stated that thanks to the increase in overseas revenue contribution and MINISO brand upgrade, the company's gross profit margin reached 44.1% in the first nine months of 2024, an increase of 3.7 percentage points compared to the same period last year. The proportion of overseas revenue contribution has increased from 32% last year to 37% this year. With the effective implementation of IP strategy, the gross profit margins of various business sectors have improved, especially MINISO Overseas and TOP TOY, which have achieved medium to high single digit increases in gross profit margins. Our investment in important strategic markets such as the United States is ongoing. During this period, our number of directly operated stores in overseas markets has doubled compared to the same period last year. Although overseas markets are still in the investment period, we have maintained a healthy profit margin through effective cost control measures. The adjusted net profit for the first nine months of 2024 was 15.7%, and the adjusted EBITDA profit margin was 25.3%. We believe that with refined operations and disciplined expense management, our profit margin will gradually stabilize
Miniso generated net cash from operating activities of RMB 2.03 billion and free cash flow of RMB 1.47 billion in the first nine months of 2024. As of September 30, 2024, the company's cash position was 6.28 billion yuan. In terms of capital distribution, the company has distributed over 600 million yuan in cash dividends at the end of September this year. Since the beginning of the year, the company has returned approximately 1.6 billion yuan to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases. Zhang Jing stated that the future capital allocation strategy will continue to balance the company's growth and commitment to providing stable and predictable returns to shareholders.
On the evening of September 23, 2024, Miniso announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary would acquire 29.4% of Yonghui Supermarket's shares for 6.27 billion yuan in cash, including 21.1% held by Milk Company and 8.3% held by JD.com. After the transaction is completed, Miniso will become the largest shareholder of Yonghui Supermarket, which also means that it has further expanded and improved its offline retail layout. Regarding this transaction, Ye Guofu, founder of Miniso, stated that Yonghui Supermarket has opportunities for collaboration with approximately half of Miniso's stores in China through numerous high-quality channels, and can also leverage Yonghui's advantages to upgrade its channels. Wang Shoucheng, Vice President of Yonghui Supermarket, stated that they will communicate with Miniso to promote cooperation in IP business. Both parties are expected to achieve resource sharing and complementary advantages, and improve the operational efficiency of the supply chain and channels.
We issued a notice of the special shareholders' meeting regarding the Yonghui equity transaction last Friday, which will be held on January 17, 2025. Currently, the transaction progress is in line with expectations and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025, "said Zhang Jing.
Zhang Jing stated that the expected consideration for this transaction will not exceed 40% and will come from our own funds in the future. "We will make full use of our borrowing resources to optimize our capital structure and improve our capital return rate while still having sufficient cash reserves. Our financial strategy will maintain discipline in budgeting, cost control, and capital allocation, as we are committed to providing stable profits and healthy cash flow