Futu Holdings Limited (FUTU) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Gentlemen, welcome to Futu Holdings Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today's conference call, Michelle Li, Investor Relations Manager at Futu. Ma'am, please go ahead.

Thanks, operator. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our second quarter 2026 earnings results. Joining me on the call today are Mr. Leaf Li, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Arthur Chen, Chief Financial Officer; and Robin Xu, Senior Vice President. As a reminder, today's call may include forward-looking statements, which represent the company's belief regarding future events, which, by their nature, are not certain and are outside of the company's control. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. For more information about the potential risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company's filings with the SEC, including its annual report. And with that, I will now turn the call over to Leaf. Leaf will make his comments in Chinese, and I will translate.

Thank you all for joining our earnings call today. In the second quarter, we acquired 252,000 net new funded accounts, up 23.7% year-over-year and 12.2% quarter-over-quarter. Total funded accounts reached approximately 3.84 million, representing an increase of 33.6% year-over-year and 7% quarter-over-quarter. Client acquisition in Hong Kong accelerated sequentially during the quarter, supported by a robust local IPO pipeline and strong performance in U.S. equities. In Singapore, registered users surpassed the 2 million milestone, further solidifying our leadership among local retail investors. The average revenue per new client in both markets improved sequentially, underpinned by our ongoing investor education initiatives across multiple asset classes, reinforced by our sustained investment in brand equity. In Malaysia, our targeted marketing campaign centered around local IPOs and the AI-driven rally catalyzed a record quarter of client acquisitions, leading all markets in net new funded accounts for the third consecutive quarter. In the U.S., moomoo's prediction markets garnered significant traction, driving incremental new client acquisition and helping improve overall client engagement on our platform. As of quarter end, total client assets stood at HKD 1.4 trillion, up 43.6% year-over-year and 14.5% quarter-over-quarter. The growth was mainly attributable to higher market valuation of client stock holdings and to a lesser extent, net asset inflow. Period-end merchant financing and securities lending balance rose 31% quarter-over-quarter to HKD 95.1 billion, supported by an active Hong Kong IPO market, along with broader positive market sentiment that encouraged clients to take on more leverage. Thanks to favorable market conditions, total trading volume rose 78.8% year-over-year and 54.6% quarter-over-quarter to HKD 6.42 trillion, setting a new record high. U.S. stock trading volume grew 67.2% sequentially to HKD 5.02 trillion, driven by client interest in AI-related names. Hong Kong stock trading volume increased by 15.9% quarter-over-quarter to HKD 1.17 trillion, largely attributable to heightened trading activity in semiconductor, China Internet and newly listed companies. In June, Futu Securities became the first and to date only broker in Hong Kong to launch securities-backed margin financing for virtual assets under an upgraded type 1 license approval from the SFC. We are also exploring extending our unified buying power framework to cover virtual asset holdings, further enhancing capital efficiency across traditional and digital asset markets. Wealth Management client assets were HKD 180.2 billion, up 10% year-over-year and 1% quarter-over-quarter. During the quarter, we observed a shift in client preference from money market funds towards equity funds on the back of strong equity market performance. In Hong Kong, we held our first offline fund roadshow for retail investors centered on the commercial space theme. Amid heightened investor interest, the event drew a full on-site audience and several hundred live stream participants, translating into meaningful follow-on subscriptions. We concluded the quarter with 683 IPO distribution and IR clients, up 32% year-over-year. The Hong Kong IPO market sustained strong momentum in the second quarter with nearly 60% of newly listed companies choosing to partner with Futu. We served as joint book runners for multiple high-profile listings, including those of Star Sports Medicine, Lightelligence and Metis TechBio. Next, I'd like to invite our CFO, Arthur, to discuss our financial performance.

Thank you, Leaf and Michelle. Please allow me to walk you through our financial performance in the second quarter. All the numbers are in Hong Kong dollars, unless otherwise noted. Total revenue was HKD 7.2 billion, up 36% from HKD 5.3 billion in the second quarter of 2025. Brokerage commission and handling charge income was HKD 3.4 billion, up 30% year-over-year and 27% Q-o-Q. Total trading volume grew on both year-over-year and a Q-over-Q basis, while blended commission rate declined due to stronger trading activities in higher-priced U.S. stocks and options during the quarter. Interest income was HKD 3.1 billion, up 37% year-over-year and 18% Q-o-Q. Both the year-over-year and Q-o-Q increase was mainly driven by higher interest income from margin financing, bank deposits and security lending. Other income was HKD 718 million, up 61% year-over-year and 27% Q-o-Q. Both year-over-year and the Q-over-Q increase was primarily driven by higher currency exchange income and IPO financing service income. Our total costs were HKD 985 million, up 47% compared to the second quarter of 2025. Brokerage commission and handling charge expenses were HKD 248 million, up 54% year-over-year and 50% Q-over-Q. Both the year-over-year and the Q-over-Q increase was mainly due to higher trading volume. Interest expenses were HKD 513 million, up 36% year-over-year and 24% Q-over-Q. Both the year-over-year and the Q-over-Q increase was mainly driven by higher interest expenses associated with our margin financing business. Processing and servicing costs were HKD 225 million, up 70% year-over-year and 32% Q-over-Q. Both the year-over-year and Q-over-Q increase were primarily driven by higher product service fees. As a result, total gross profit was HKD 6.2 billion, an increase of 34% from HKD 4.6 billion in the second quarter of 2025. Gross margin was 86.3% as compared to 87.4% in the same quarter of 2025. Operating expenses were HKD 1.8 billion, up 35% year-over-year and 11% Q-o-Q. To break it down, R&D expenses were HKD 501 million, up 13% year-over-year and 5% Q-over-Q. The year-over-year and Q-over-Q increase was primarily driven by the increased investments in strategic initiatives like AI and Web 3. Selling and marketing expenses were HKD 657 million, up 53% year-over-year and 18% Q-o-Q. The year-over-year and Q-over-Q increase was mainly driven by the increase of new fund accounts. G&A expenses was HKD 593 million, up 40% year-over-year and 10% Q-over-Q. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to an increase in G&A personnel and professional fees. As a result, income from operations was HKD 4.5 billion, up 34% year-over-year and 26% Q-over-Q. Operating margin of 62% is largely flat compared to the second quarter of 2025. Our net income increased by 42% year-over-year to HKD 3.6 billion. Net income margin expanded to 50.6% in the second quarter compared to 48.4% in the same quarter last year. Our effective tax rate for this quarter was 16.1%. That concludes our prepared remarks. We'd now like to open the call to questions. Operator, please go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is going to come from the line of Emma Xu with BofA Securities.

[Foreign Language] Congratulations on the strong second quarter results. Since the release of the new regulations on May 22, have you seen material changes in Mainland client share account across funded account, AUM and revenue contribution? Have you observed meaningful outflow of accounts or client assets? The second question is against the regulatory backdrop, the group delivered resilient revenue and profit in the second quarter. So could management please share an update of the overseas market development and their contribution to the group?

[Interpreted] I will translate for Leaf. So Futu places very strong emphasis on the compliance, and we are committed to meeting all of the applicable regulatory requirements. So following the release of the new rules, we promptly implemented the relevant compliance measures, and we have maintained ongoing communication with the regulators. As for the cumulative asset outflows since the new regulations, the outflows were about mid-single-digit percentage of our total client assets. And we believe the bulk of the impact has already been absorbed in Q2. And the outflows came from both our Mainland and Hong Kong client base, and the 2 are roughly about the same. The Mainland outflows were primarily compliance-driven adjustments under the new rules, while the Hong Kong outflows were more concentrated in the early period right after the announcement, which reflects some risk-off sentiment as the market digested the news. And most of the Mainland client outflows happened in June, July after we implemented the restrictions on our app. And the pace of client attrition started to moderate in August. And for Q2, our Hong Kong client retention rate stayed above 98% and the retention across our overseas market remained stable quarter-over-quarter. And we continue to see steady growth in overseas new client additions. And going forward, we'll keep directing our resources and the growth focus towards advancing our international business. On the quality of new newly funded accounts, the average revenue per newly funded accounts improved sequentially across multiple markets in the overseas, in particular, like U.S., Singapore and Hong Kong, all posted double-digit growth. We think this both reflects a structural upshift in fund account quality in growing markets like U.S. and also continued acquisitions of higher-value clients in mature markets like Hong Kong and Singapore, together supporting overall revenue growth. Then on the client asset perspective, all fund accounts in overseas markets, including Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Canada grew double digits sequentially in second quarter. And actually, the average client assets rose Q-over-Q across every overseas markets we have the operations, showing that we are growing not just in the number of clients, but also the wallet share. our recent securitizations of the Thailand license also give us a very additional important anchor for our ASEAN footprint down the road. In terms of profitability, our overseas markets are at different stage of maturities. For instance, Singapore has already passed breakeven a couple of years ago. And the absolute level and also the net profit margin continue to expand, thanks to the operating leverage benefit kicking. And I'm also very happy to share Malaysia has recently achieved a breakeven in the operation levels as well. While our other overseas markets are still building out their client and asset base, rising average client assets and the client retentions, we think the groundwork for our long-term profitabilities for the overseas market will be very likely. Thank you.

Our next question will come from the line of Chiyao Huang with Morgan Stanley.

Let me briefly translate. The first question is regarding the Thailand. What's the strategic thinking about choosing this market? And when do we expect Futu to officially launch the business here? And do we see any synergy among in the ASEAN market we are already in? And second question is about the commission rate, which is dropping a little bit Q-on-Q. So what kind of structural changes we're seeing behind this drop?

I will translate. So Thailand is the third largest economy in Southeast Asia. And the local investors there are quite digitally savvy with growing demand for global asset allocation as well as digital investing tools. And according to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, as of the first half of 2026, over 4.5 million investors had opened accounts online. So for moomoo, entering Thailand is really a natural next step in the Southeast Asia market after Singapore and Malaysia. And it allows us to leverage the infrastructure and the operations that we have already built in that region. So moomoo has already obtained the Type A securities license from Thai SEC. And combined with our licensed operations in other overseas markets, this reflects the ongoing recognition from regulators of our ability to operate compliantly across multiple jurisdictions and the overall pace of our overseas expansion remains steady. And as for the timing of the official launch, we still need to go through the regulators' readiness and inspection to receive final approval. So we don't really have a specific time line to share at this point. We'll continue to work closely with the local regulator and make sure all the prelaunch preparations are thoroughly in place. First, there was no any price menu change in the second quarter across all of our markets. So the take rate change Q-on-Q is mainly driven by our customers' behavior. Number one is the contribution from the derivative in the second quarter compared with the first quarter slightly down Q-o-Q. But on the absolute levels, the contribution is still very healthy. Secondly is more clients are trading the U.S. stocks in the second quarter with a very high concentration on some high-value AI SIEMs and the tech leading names, which led our implied commission rate down a little bit. Thank you.

Our next question is going to come from the line of Charles Zhou with UBS.

So first of all, congrats to the management on the very excellent results and also I think also a strong beat to the market consensus. This is Charles Zhou from UBS. And I have 2 questions. First, can we maybe get some color on the trajectory of your C-A-C, CAC in the second quarter? And what the key drivers were should we think about the CAC in the coming quarters? My second question is also, could you maybe provide some breakdown on the newly added funded accounts and the period-end funded accounts by markets, in particular, the contribution mix from your overseas markets?

So in the second quarter, the blended CAC rose sequentially to around HKD 2,600, which is still within our full year guidance range of HKD 2,500 to HKD 3,000. And the quarter-on-quarter increase in CAC for Q2 was mainly driven by the relatively lower net new funded accounts as a result of the regulatory development. And at the same time, we maintained a certain level of brand investment to support the long-term growth and the higher client lifetime value across our markets. And additionally, the CAC trended higher in July relative to Q2.

Malaysia has led all markets in terms of new fund accounts growth for 3 consecutive quarters, followed by Hong Kong. Together, these 2 markets make up for more than 50% of net new fund accounts acquired in this quarter with Singapore being the next largest source among the remaining markets. By the end of the second quarter, moomoo's share of total fund accounts has increased to nearly 60%, led by Singapore, Malaysia and the U.S. Thank you.

Our last question is going to come from the line of You Fan with CICC.

Congratulations on the outstanding results. This is You You Fan from CICC, and I have 2 questions here. Firstly, would you please share more color on our Q3 trend such as the run rate of the new funded accounts, the trade flow and also the client AUM? Secondly, since moomoo has launched the prediction market in the U.S., can you share more on this business trend? And how do you view the future monetization and growth opportunities of prediction markets? These 2 questions.

So on the Q3 quarter-to-date run rate basis, our key metrics are trending modestly softer against the backdrop of market volatility. So the net addition of funded accounts moderated compared with Q2. And as for net asset inflow, so in Hong Kong and our overseas markets, net asset inflows have returned to a normalized level. And as for the trading volume, so total trading volume was down modestly sequentially. So this is primarily reflecting accruing of the retail sentiment in the Q3 quarter-to-date relative to the previous quarter.

We got the license in May from FCM license from CFTC and moomoo U.S. officially launched the protection market trading service for our retail clients in the U.S. in early June. The number of the event contracts, as Leaf mentioned in the opening remarks, trade exceed $200 million within 1 month of the launch, reflecting a very strong demand from the U.S. retail investors for prediction markets products. And the event contracts has delivered great results in our observation in both acquiring new clients and driving engagement with clear cross-sell synergy with our core brokerage business. For instance, users who trade event contracts are more active in security trading, showing that event contracts are not a substitute for security trading, but rather a driver of it. The purpose for our U.S. production market rollout, I think, serves 2 purposes. Number one is definitely to capture the near-term opportunity as production markets took off locally. But more importantly, it let us build up the product design, operational and risk management expertise that will support our ability to bring prediction markets to other regions we have the operation down the road. Thank you.

Thank you. And I would now like to hand the conference back over to Michelle Li for closing remarks.

So that concludes our call today. And on behalf of the Futu management team, I would like to thank you all for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or any of our Investor Relations representatives. Thank you, and goodbye.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.