51job, Inc. (NASDAQ:JOBS)

Fourth Quarter 2018 Financial Results:

• Total revenues increased 28.5% over Q4 2017 to RMB1,120.5 million (US$163.0 million), at the top of the Company's guidance range.
• Fully diluted earnings per share were RMB6.22 (US$0.90)
  

Commenting on the results, Rick Yan, President and Chief Executive Officer of 51job, said, "We are very proud to have celebrated our 20th anniversary by delivering robust financial results to our shareholders in 2018. Our online business demonstrated strong growth with progress in ARPU improvement due to greater usage and spending by employers for our ever expanding array of products and platforms. The other HR services area also performed well as we elevated cross-promotion efforts, gained customer acceptance and drove uptake of these value-added services. For 2019, we will stay focused on executing our high quality growth strategy, emphasizing deeper engagements with employers and capturing opportunities across the entire spectrum of HR needs in China."

Business Outlook

Based on current market conditions and factoring in seasonality related to the Chinese New Year holiday in 2019, the Company's total revenues target for the first quarter of 2019 is in the estimated range of RMB935 million to RMB975 million (US$136.0 million to US$141.8 million). Guidance for earnings per share is provided on a non-GAAP basis due to the inherent difficulty in forecasting the future impact of certain items, such as gain/loss from foreign currency translation and change in fair value of convertible senior notes. The Company is not able to provide a reconciliation of these non-GAAP items to expected reported GAAP earnings per share, without unreasonable efforts, due to the unknown effect and potential significance of such future impact and changes. Excluding share-based compensation expense, any gain or loss from foreign currency translation, and any mark-to-market gain or loss associated with a change in fair value of convertible senior notes, as well as the related tax effect of these items, the Company's non-GAAP fully diluted earnings target for the first quarter of 2019 is in the estimated range of RMB4.25 to RMB4.55 (US$0.62 to US$0.66) per share. The Company expects total share-based compensation expense in the first quarter of 2019 to be in the estimated range of RMB31 million to RMB32 million (US$4.5 million to US$4.7 million).