Our reporter Li Bing
On August 16th, OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "OneConnect"), which is listed on both the Hong Kong and US stock markets, announced its second quarter and first half results as of June 30th of this year.
At the performance conference held on the evening of August 16th, when asked if there would be a dividend plan for this year after achieving profits in the first half of the year, the management of Financial One Account stated that the company's dividend plan would be comprehensively considered based on the company's development needs, financial situation, regulatory regulations, and shareholder value feedback. If there are any new developments, they will be promptly announced to the market.
In the future, the focus will be on three aspects
Data shows that in the first half of 2024, the continuous operation business of Financial One Account (excluding virtual banking business data, the same below) achieved a revenue of 1.416 billion yuan, a decrease of 22.8% year-on-year from 1.833 billion yuan in the same period last year. During the reporting period, the gross profit margin and adjusted gross profit margin of Financial One Account were 37.1% and 39.4%, respectively.
In its financial report, Financial One Account mentioned that due to the one-time delivery income from the sale of its virtual banking business in the second quarter, it achieved profitability in the first half of the year for both ongoing and discontinued operations, with a net profit attributable to the parent company of 139 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 173%; The net profit margin attributable to the parent company was 9.8%, an increase of 20.2 percentage points year-on-year.
At the performance conference, Luo Yongtao, Chief Financial Officer of OneConnect, stated that this is the first time in the company's history that it has achieved profitability, which is of great significance. In order to further achieve the strategic goal of mid-term profitability in sustainable business operations, the development keywords will be focused on increasing third-party revenue, continuously improving gross profit margins, and expanding overseas business.
According to disclosure, in the first half of the year, Financial One Account signed 40 new digital retail customers for its retail business targeting banks; Regarding bank credit business, 23 new customers have signed up for digital credit. At the same time, Financial One Account is also promoting the intelligent credit system that has been validated in the domestic market to go global, and the intelligent credit system has been widely applied in the Southeast Asian market.
In terms of digital insurance, Financial One Account continues to cooperate in the deployment of end-to-end SaaS systems for real estate insurance, and has currently partnered with more than ten insurance institutions to create benchmark cases. In terms of life insurance, Financial One Account signed contracts with 9 customers in the first half of the year.
Shen Chongfeng, Chairman and CEO of Financial OneConnect, stated that currently, financial institutions have urgent needs for retail promotion, credit risk control, and digitalization of property and life insurance. Financial OneConnect will continue to enhance its product capabilities and optimize and integrate its solutions, empowering financial institutions to improve quality and efficiency, and supporting digital transformation and upgrading.
Overseas business maintains growth
According to the financial report, in the first half of 2024, the overseas customer revenue contribution of Financial OneConnect increased by 14.8% year-on-year, and its proportion in third-party revenue increased to 21.2% (excluding data from the virtual banking business sector), an increase of 5.6 percentage points year-on-year. As of now, OneConnect's financial services cover 20 countries and regions including South Africa, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, and Vietnam, serving a total of 186 overseas financial institutions, including the top three regional banks in Southeast Asia and two of the top ten insurance companies worldwide.
According to Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst in the financial industry at Broadcom Consulting, "From the performance report, the strategy previously promoted by Financial One Account has begun to show results, effectively driving it to gradually find a break even point. At the same time, the digital empowerment of its banking and insurance business is showing a trend of deep development. With the deepening of digital popularization in the industry, it is expected that the company will still have the opportunity to expand its institutional digital empowerment map in the future
Overall, Financial One Account intends to expand its diversified revenue sources and adopt a 'multi legged' strategy to help improve its performance. From the industry background, the booming development of the domestic digital economy has spurred financial institutions to invest in digital construction and provided excellent opportunities for the growth of financial technology companies. Su Xiaorui, a senior researcher at Suxi Zhiyan, told Securities Daily reporters that from the perspective of the development path of financial technology companies, there are several key aspects in the future: first, how to enter more effective scenarios and achieve effective customer acquisition; Secondly, how to increase research and development and promote competitiveness enhancement; The third is how to seek broader institutional cooperation and use technology to provide more empowerment for the financial ecosystem.
Shen Chongfeng stated that in the future, Financial One Account will continue to be driven by technological innovation, focusing on product upgrades, deep customer cultivation, and overseas business expansion. While continuously optimizing flagship products such as intelligent voice robots, all-round agents, and intelligent credit systems, it will also make reasonable use of sufficient cash reserves to invest in the research and development of cutting-edge technology products, meet the core needs of financial institutions and enterprises in business development, and help upgrade and transform the financial industry.