Chairman Statement

Over the past year, the macroeconomic environment was full of challenges. Factors such as the restructuring of the real estate market, sluggish consumer demand and trade disputes have dampened economic growth. Despite these obstacles, Symphony Group has remained committed to promoting steady development of its business by leveraging its diversified business portfolio and proactive approach for increasing flexibility.

The Group is operating outlets and community malls in mainland China under the brand name of “Park Outlets”. During the Year, “Park Outlets”, especially the outlets located in Shenyang and Xiamen, achieved satisfying performance. Driven by brand upgrading and adjustment as well as a wide variety of well-planned events organised by the Group throughout the year, these outlets recorded growth in revenue, and customer traffic flow even recorded high double-digit growth year on year. “Park Outlets” in Xiamen achieved monthly performance of exceeding RMB100 million for the first month of the year for three consecutive years. Outlet has attracted a number of prestigious international brands to expand their business, and set up its first outlet in Fujian province. “Park Outlets” in Shenyang has introduced the largest global coffee chain brand, creating greater synergies with other brands. The renovation and upgrading works in some zones of the outlet have been completed, creating a more premium shopping environment. Through online and offline promotion campaign efforts, the abundance of original content has successfully attracted consumers to spend in our outlets. For the community malls located in Chongqing and Tianjin, with the merchants mainly engaging in the catering and service industries such as education centres, gymnasiums, barbershops, etc., the demands for necessary consumption by the residents in the neighbouring areas brought stable foot traffic. In recognition of its performance by the industry, “Park Outlets” received several awards and honours during the Year, including “Top 50 China Outlets Index 2023–2024” by the organizing committee of the 11th Outlet Summit, the “2024 Peak Navigatior Award” (2024巔峰領航獎) by Douyin Life Service (抖音生活服務), etc.. After years of operating history in a pursuit of excellence, “Park Outlets” has achieved business growth in terms of comprehensive strength, and has become the first-choice retail brand for the consumers and brand customers.

The Group’s branding business covers different fields. It currently operates the world’s first compression sportswear brand “SKINS”, health care business Supremium Bio-Technology Limited (“SBT”) and Japanese wine brand “Hakuryu”. Products of SKINS are sold to many countries across the world, mainly targeting on end-user base of professional athletes. However, in light of the intensifying competition in the compression sportswear market currently, the Group underwent brand re-planning and took proactive measures to adapt to the new market environment, including enhancing brand and product innovation, exploring suitable distributors in some regions and strengthening cooperation with business partners. Meanwhile, the Group improved product quality and enrich collection mix, and sponsored Olympics golden medal winners, internet celebrities and international games, in an effort to increase brand exposure.

As for SBT, which focuses on the local health care market, is mainly engaged in R&D, production and distribution of health care products. Its products include self-owned brands and client brands, and its sales network covers pharmacies, retail chain stores and duty-free shops in Hong Kong. With the increasing healthcare awareness of the consumers, we witnessed growing demands in the health care product market. SBT further strengthened relationship with its business partners over the past year, including selling its products on the leading e-commerce platforms in the Mainland, and exploring business in Southeast Asia, etc.

The Group invested in Japan’s 200-year-old Yoshida Brewery Limited. Following the production line having commenced production in the second half of 2023, the business has made steady progress. The Group proactively carried out promotion via a number of platforms and expanded cooperation networks, laying a solid foundation for business development.

The Group has been operating financial business in Hong Kong for a number of years now, mainly providing margin financing, underwriting and sales, consulting services and lending, and focusing on serving long-term customers. Driven by increasing fundraising activities and a positive market atmosphere in the second half of the year, the Group’s financial business has remained healthy and stable growth.

Looking ahead, the external economic environment remains surrounded with uncertainties, such as ongoing international trade disputes, restructure of global supply chain, debt risks, etc.. Faced up with challenges, Chinese government is actively expanding domestic demand and enhancing market confidence, and has introduced a series of well-targeted and diverse policy measures to further optimise the economic structure and development momentum. The Group firmly believes that under the forward-looking planning and policy support of the Chinese government, China’s economic will underpinned by robust fundamentals and maintains a sustained positive growth trajectory. The Group will continue to enhance its own advantages and seize the opportunities brought by the government to promote the strength of each business segment.

For the retailing segment, by seizing the policy opportunity arising from the national initiative of “Special Initiatives to Boost Consumption”, and taking into consideration of the business opportunities brought by the trade-in subsidy and servicebased pro-consumption policies, “Park Outlets” will leverage on its existing advantages to unleash market potential. The Group will proactively invite international brands and local quality merchants to join us to establish a diversified mix of consumption brands, and organise all kinds of promotion campaigns at different festivals throughout the year, translating favourable policies into market growth. Upholding the concept of asset-light operation, the Group will actively explore the new blue ocean market, and provide solutions to the industry by leveraging the extensive operation experiences of our team and standardised management system. The Group will also seek to form strategic cooperation alliance with other developers, with an aim to achieve win-win results for business partners through co-branding and entrusted management models. Furthermore, the retail business will optimise operation efficiency with application of big data and artificial intelligence technology, gain an in-depth understanding of users’ needs through in-time analysis of consumption trend, in an effort to offer consumers a more customised and scenario-based shopping experience and developing each outlet into a new hub for quality lifestyle.

In terms of branding business, the Group will further optimise the compression sportswear business and consolidate its resources to develop key markets. Continuous efforts will be made to improve product competitiveness and enduser experience, aiming to enhance brand advantage. While continuing to focus on the Hong Kong market, the health care product business SBT will explore new business opportunities in the surrounding regions, and will enhance product development and sale. For the Japanese wine business, with the increase in production capacity, it will proactively step up effort in marketing promotion in the future to accelerate business development. The Group is cautiously optimistic about its future development and will continue to strive for progress with its own business, facilitating steady development and ushering in a brighter future.

On behalf of the Board, I hereby extend my sincere thanks to shareholders, employees, banks, customers and business partners for your consistent trust and support. In pursuit of perfection, we will work further to drive business development and create greater values for all stakeholders.