CNYD China Yida Holding, Co.

FUZHOU, China, Aug. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- China Yida Holding Company (Nasdaq: CNYD) ("China Yida"or the "Company"), a diversified tourism and entertainment enterprise in China, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2012.

Second Quarter 2012 Results

• Total net revenue was $7.4 million, a decrease of 32.5% compared to $11.0 million in the year-ago period
• Net revenue from the tourism business was $2.7 million, an increase of 6.1% year over year, with a gross margin of 35.8%
• Net revenue from the media business was $4.8 million, a decrease of 43.9% year over year, with a gross margin of 64.2%
• Gross profit was $4.5 million, a decrease of 40.2% compared to $7.5 million in the year-ago period
• Operating income was $1.8 million, a decline of 64.3% compared to $5.2 million in 2011
• Net income attributable to China Yida Holding Company was $1.1 million, a decrease of 69.3% compared to $3.5 million in the year-ago period
• Fully diluted EPS was $0.05 per share compared to $0.18 in the year-ago period

"We are pleased to announce that we achieved a solid increase in tourist traffic to two of our key tourist destinations in the quarter as well as a modest rise in revenue from our tourism segment. We believe that this is a result of the successful execution of a number of initiatives, including our strategy to create scale economies in marketing that extends to all of our properties with the goal to boost tourist traffic to all of our sites," commented Dr. Chen Minhua, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of China Yida. "We are encouraged to see that visitor traffic to Great Golden Lake has recovered and that visitor traffic to Yunding Park has begun to flourish, although both sites are hampered by ongoing road access issues. Given that the fundamentals in China's dynamic tourism market remain strong, we expect further contribution from our tourism segment growth to the Company's top and bottom line as the summer tourism season draws to a close." 

"We reiterate that our focused growth strategy is the development of unique and attractive tourist destinations to meet the strong fundamentals for tourism in China and we plan upon strategically shifting more fully towards this segment of our business over time," Dr. Chen continued. "The development of three additional properties is on schedule and we expect to commence operation of these new tourist destinations in early 2013."

Second Quarter 2012 Results

Total consolidated net revenue for the Company's two business segments, Tourism and Media, was $7.4 million in the first quarter of 2012, a decrease of 32.5% as compared to $11.0 million in the year-ago quarter. A review of each business segment follows.

Tourism Business

Net revenue from the tourism business was $2.7 million, an increase of 6.1% as compared to $2.5 million in net revenue in the second quarter of 2011. The increase was primarily attributable to an increasing number of tourists visiting both the Great Golden Lake and Yunding Recreational Park tourist destinations, partially offset by the continued downturn at the Hua'An Tulou site. Gross margin from the tourism business was 43.8% for the second quarter of 2012, compared 51.9% in the year-ago quarter, but it improved sequentially from 17.5% in the first quarter of 2012.

The total number of visitors that entered the Great Golden Lake during the second quarter of 2012 was approximated 86,000 as compared to 76,000 in the same period of last year, and up sequentially from 37,000 in the first quarter of 2012. The site generated approximately $1.4 million in revenue in the second quarter, up 7.9% from the comparable year-ago quarter.

Yunding Recreational Park attracted 48,000 visitors in the second quarter of 2012, a solid increase from the 14,000 visitors in the second quarter of 2011 and a marked increase from the 23,000 visitors in the first quarter of 2012.  The site generated approximately $1.0 million in revenue in the second quarter of 2012, more than triple the amount generated in the comparable year-ago quarter, and a strong improvement sequentially from $0.5 million generated in the first quarter of 2012. The increase in visitors and revenue at Yunding for the quarter is primarily attributable to enhanced marketing efforts of the Company's travel agency.

The Hua'An Tulou tourist destination received approximately 20,000 visitors, compared to 59,000 visitors in the comparable year-ago quarter, and 38,000 visitors in the first quarter of 2012. The decrease was mainly due to tough market competition from two nearby Tulou clusters in Fujian Province. Hua'An Tulou generated approximately $0.3 million in revenue in the second quarter of 2012, a decrease of 71.7% from $0.9 million in the comparable year-ago quarter.

Media Business

Net revenue from the media business in the second quarter of 2012 was $4.8 million, a decrease of 43.5% from the $8.5 million posted in the comparable period a year ago. Fujian Education Television Channel ("FETV") experienced a 41.5% fall in revenue in the quarter year over year to an estimated $4.6 million due to actions by domestic media authorities restricting the broadcasting manner and content of TV advertising. Revenue from the Company's train media business was an estimated $0.1 million for the first quarter of 2012 as compared to $0.8 million for the first quarter of 2011, as a majority of advertising clients terminated their purchases due to the absence of an automatic broadcasting and monitoring system.

Gross margin for the media business was 69.9% for the second quarter of 2012, as compared to 73.2% in the comparable year-ago quarter. The decrease in gross margin was primarily attributable to the fall-off in revenue generated from the railway media broadcasts as well as the increase in contracting costs associated with FETV's commercial airtime.

Consolidated Operating Results

Gross profit for China Yida's consolidated operations was $4.5 million in the second quarter of 2012, representing a gross profit margin of 60.6%, compared to gross profit of $7.5 million and a gross margin of 68.4% for the comparable period of 2011.

Total operating expenses increased by 12.8% to $2.6 million in the second quarter of 2012, compared with $2.3 million in the second quarter of 2011. This increase was primarily attributable to a 20.9% jump in selling expenses, which increased from $1.2 million to $1.5 million, due to higher marketing and operating expenses at Yunding Park compared to the same period last year. Operating income decreased by 64.3% to $1.8 million in the second quarter of 2012 compared with $5.2 million in the year ago quarter.

Net income attributable to China Yida Holding Company for the second quarter of 2012 was $1.1 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, as compared with $3.5 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2011.

Six Month Results

Total net revenue decreased by 33.5% to $15.1 million for the six months ended June 30, 2012, compared with $22.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2011. Net revenue from advertising decreased by 40.3% to $11.0 million, compared with $18.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2011. Net revenue from the tourism business decreased by 5.1% to $4.2 million, compared with $4.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2011.

Gross profit for the first six months of 2012 decreased 40.4% year over year to $9.4 million from $15.8 million in the first six months of 2011. The gross margin for the first six months of 2012 was 62.0% as compared to 69.3% in the year-ago period. Operating income decreased by 61.7% to $4.3 million in the first six months of 2012, compared with $11.3 million in the first six months of 2011.

Net income for the six months ended June 30, 2012 was $2.2 million, or $0.11 per fully diluted share, as compared to net income of $7.4 million, or $0.38 per share, for the comparable period of 2011.

Financial Condition

As of June 30, 2012, the Company had $12.1 million in cash and cash equivalents. Working capital was $1.7 million with a current ratio of 1.1. As of June 30, 2012, the Company had total debt of $40.0 million.  Shareholders' equity was $161.3 million at the end of the second quarter of 2012 as compared to $157.9 million at the end of 2011.

China Yida generated $8.2 million in cash flow from operating activities in the second quarter of 2012 and spent $3.2 million on investing activities. The Company received $3.4 million in proceeds from long-term bank loans in the second quarter of 2012 to fund the development of its tourism destinations.

Business Update

The Company experienced reasonably good attendance at its Great Golden Lake and Yunding Recreation Park tourist destinations in the second quarter of 2012 attributable to the onset of the summer tourism season and despite still-difficult road access to both sites. Tourist traffic to the Great Golden Lake increased by approximately 13% from the comparable year-ago quarter although the road to Shangqing River is still under construction and visitors must now use a rougher, more difficult road.  It is anticipated that the road construction by the local government will be completed in early 2013.  The natural view and tourism facilities at the Great Golden Lake destination have now fully recovered from the severe summer floods of 2010.  

Yunding Recreational Park continued to see strong progress as tourist traffic was up in the second quarter of 2012 almost two and a half times the level seen in the comparable year-ago quarter.  However, tourist traffic is still below that of Yunding's designed capacity since the site is also hampered by poor road access.  However, the new expressway connecting Fuzhou to Yongtai Town is being built by the local government and is expected to be completed by early 2013.  In the meantime, Management has been enhancing its marketing efforts as well as developing second-stage entertainment attractions to further enrich tourists' visiting experience. The Company is planning to put its recently constructed guest cottages into operation the third quarter of 2012 which will enable visitors to extend their stay at Yunding. The new restaurants in Gorges are currently in operation and valley rafting facilities began at the site at the end of June.  In addition, the camping center and shopping plaza are both under development.

The increase in tourism segment revenue at both the Great Golden Lake and Yunding Recreational Park was partially offset by the decrease in revenue at the Hua'An Tulou tourism destination, attributable to strong competition among the homogeneous tourism destinations, Nanjing Tulou Cluster and Yongding Tulou Cluster.  The Company plans upon utilizing its travel agency to promote the site as well as offer more promotions in Xiamen City.  China Yida's tourism marketing center designs and executes proactive marketing strategies that include developing creative and constructive relationships with travel agencies and explores new markets for its tourist destinations.

As of June 30, 2012, China Yida has made significant progress in the development of its three new tourism destinations in Anhui and Jiangxi Provinces, the Ming Dynasty Entertainment World in Bengbu City, Anhui province, the China Yang-sheng (Nourishing Life) Paradise in Zhangshu City, Jiangxi province, and the City of Caves in Fenyi City, Jiangxi province.  The development and construction of these new tourist destinations are in line with the Company's schedule. In the second quarter of 2012, the Company invested approximately $0.5 million in the acquisition of land use rights and approximately $2.6 million in the construction of tourism facilities for these new tourist destinations.

Management believes that it can finance all of its ongoing capital expenditures from cash on hand, cash from operations and bank loans secured against its land bank. Entering 2012, new construction and development was adversely affected by more-than-normal rainy days. However, the Company will undertake its best efforts to complete Phase I construction of these new projects and expects to commence operation of the new tourist destinations by the first quarter of 2013.

In terms of its media segment, the Company has previously disclosed that due to strict regulations on certain types of TV advertising, it expects that FETV's advertising revenue may continue to decline further in the quarters ahead.  Beginning on January 1, 2012, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) disallowed any commercial advertisements that are inserted in the midst of certain TV programming with the result that ad time is now minimized and only able to be inserted at a program's end.

The Company's strategic plan is to transition from what is currently a media and tourism company to one that is primarily a tourist company, where revenues derived from its tourism properties account for an ever-increasing percentage of its total revenues.  China Yida foresees diverse revenue streams emanating from its tourist properties which the Company expects will drive a sustainable level of revenue and earnings growth.

Conference Call

China Yida will conduct a conference call at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Monday, August 13, 2012, to discuss its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2012. To participate in the live conference call, please dial any of the following numbers five to ten minutes prior to the scheduled conference call time.

If you are unable to participate in the call at this time, a replay will be available for two weeks starting on Monday, August 13, 2012 at 12:00 p.m. ET. To access the replay, dial 855-859-2056 or 404-537-3406, international callers dial +1-800-585-8367. The Conference ID is 16778586.

About China Yida

China Yida is a leading tourism and media enterprise focused on China's fast-growing leisure industry and headquartered in Fuzhou City, Fujian province of China.  The Company provides tourism management services and specializes in the development, management and operation of natural, cultural and historic scenic sites. 

China Yida currently operates the Great Golden Lake tourist destination (Global Geopark), Hua'An Tulou tourist destination (World Culture Heritage) and China Yunding Park (National Park).  China Yida is also developing three additional tourism projects, Ming Dynasty Entertainment World, China Yang-sheng (Nourishing Life) Tourism Project and the City of Caves.

The Company's media business provides operations management services including content and advertising management for the Fujian Education Television Station ("FETV"), and "Journey through China on the Train", an advertisement-embedded travel program. 

For further information, please contact the Company directly, or visit its Web site at http://www.yidacn.net.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "future," "may," "will," "would," "should," "plan," "projected," "intend," and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of China Yida Holding Co., Inc. (the "Company") to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company's future operating results are dependent upon many factors, including but not limited to: (i) the Company's ability to obtain sufficient capital or a strategic business arrangement; (ii) the Company's ability to build and maintain the management and human resources and infrastructure necessary to support the anticipated growth of its business; (iii) competitive factors and developments beyond the Company's control; and (iv) other risk factors discussed in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available for review at www.sec.gov.

FINANCIAL TABLES FOLLOW

The notes in the Company's 2012 10-Q are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

SOURCE China Yida Holding Company