Huize Holding Limited (HUIZ) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Huize First Half 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Today's conference call is being recorded, and a webcast replay will be available on Huize's IR website at ir.huize.com under the Events and Webcasts section. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker host today, Mr. Kenny Lo, Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead, Kenny.

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our first half 2026 earnings conference call. Our financial and operational results were released earlier today and are currently available on both our IR website and Globe Newswire services. Before we continue, I would like to refer you to the safe harbor statement in our earnings press release, which also applies to this call as we will be making forward-looking statements. Please also note that we will discuss non-GAAP measures today, which are more thoroughly explained in our earnings release and filings with the SEC. Joining us today are our Founder and CEO, Mr. Cunjun Ma; Co-CFO, Mr. Minghan Xiao; and Co-CFO, Mr. Ron Tam. Mr. Ma will start the call by providing an overview of the company's performance and operational highlights, followed by Mr. Tam, who will go over our financial results for the first half of 2026. Then we will open the call for questions. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Ma.

[Interpreted] Hello, everyone, and welcome to Huize's First Half 2026 Earnings Conference Call. 2026 marks Huize's 20th anniversary. Over the past 2 decades, we have witnessed insurance industry evolve from a market dominated by traditional distribution and agent-led sales into a more digital and professionalized ecosystem. We have product innovation. Customer engagement and operating efficiency have become more increasingly important sources of competitive differentiation. Today, a low interest rate environment and shifting demographics are driving sustained demand for long-term savings, retirement planning and health protection. At the same time, rapid advances in AI are reshaping both the delivery of insurance services and the way companies operate. Against this backdrop, we are building on capabilities developed over the past 20 years to unlock new growth opportunities while continuing to improve efficiency and operating quality in the first half of 2026. In the first half of 2026, GWP facilitated on our platform reached RMB 4.2 billion, up 30% year-over-year and marking a new all-time high, while FYP increased 49% year-over-year to RMB 2.76 billion. As our business continued to scale, total revenue reached RMB 720 million. At the same time, AI became more deeply embedded across our internal operations and core workflows as Huize advances its transition towards an AI-native organization, supporting continued improvements in organizational efficiency and operating capabilities. As a result, net profit attributable to common shareholders increased to RMB 25.3 million. Overall, the first half was marked not only by strong premium growth, but also by broader growth momentum, improved operating efficiency and stronger profitability. We remain firmly committed to our customer-centric approach, continuously deepening customer engagement across the entire life cycle. During the first half, we added approximately 798,000 (sic) [ 789,000 ] new customers, bringing the cumulative number of insurance clients served to approximately 13.1 million as of June 30. The average age of customers purchasing long-term insurance products was 35.3 years with 62.5% coming from Tier 2 cities and above. The average FYP ticket size for long-term insurance products increased 25% year-over-year to approximately RMB 8,211. As of May 31, both our 13th and 25th-month persistency ratios remained above 95%, continuing to rank among the highest. Together, these metrics underscore the quality and long-term value of our customer base. We are also using AI to further deepen customer engagement. Our AI financial planning agents can generate personalized family insurance plans based on each customer's profile and protection needs. Among active users, the plan report generation rate has now reached 45%, demonstrating AI engagement is expanding beyond individual consultations towards more comprehensive household protection plan. This enables us to serve customers' long-term protection needs with greater depth, personalization and efficiency. As of June 30, we maintained stable partnerships with 159 insurance carriers and continue to codevelop customized products across multiple insurance categories, addressing customers' increasingly diverse needs in savings, retirement and health protection. As demand for long-term financial planning continues to grow, we further expanded our core annuity product franchise with the launch of Bliss 5.0, a participating annuity product designed to support long-term wealth accumulation, family asset planning and retirement preparation. In health protection segment, we further expanded the scope of coverage and broadened our service offerings. Darwin No.15 Kids Protection integrates critical illness protection for children with long-term medical coverage, extending protection beyond a onetime financial payout towards long-term health support. Changxiang An 5.0 further expands mid- to high-end medical coverage to customers with certain new deals, preexisting conditions and other needs that are traditionally underserved by medical insurance. In the first half of 2026, we remain firmly committed to our AI native strategy, further deepening the adoption of AI applications and expanding the coverage across our business. Huize's AI app completed its upgrade to a 2.0 multi-agent architecture with the number of users engaging in AI conversations increased 65% from the beginning of the year. AI is gradually becoming an important gateway for users to assess insurance services with more customers using AI for insurance consultation, product recommendations and preliminary protection planning. Across our hybrid service operations, AI is becoming more deeply involved in customer analysis, solution generation and customer engagement. Family insurance plans can now be generated in under 5 minutes, while intelligent customer screening and AI-powered outbound calls are helping identify and convert business opportunities, demonstrating that AI is evolving beyond an operational efficiency tool into an intelligent engine for business growth. On the claims side, Xiao Ma Claim AI has expanded from completing its first pilot claim line covering 4 core insurance categories and supporting most of our mainstream products. End-to-end AI claims processing can now be completed within 1 hour with more products processed in minutes. We are also continuing to strengthen fundamental capabilities as our professional insurance knowledge base, providing specialized and granular data support for the deployment of AI agents across a broader range of service scenarios. Going forward, we will place greater emphasis on the practical impact of our AI applications and the kind of value they deliver across customer experience, professional services, operating efficiency and business conversion. On the international front, Poni Insurtech continued to deepen its presence across key Asian markets, generating approximately RMB 220 million in international revenue during the first half. In Vietnam, GlobalCare maintained strong business momentum with GWP and revenue increasing approximately 45% and 24% year-over-year, respectively. Our customized maternal and child health insurance product received a positive initial market response, and we accelerated its rollout through our agent channels, successfully validating local demand for maternal and child health protection. In Singapore, we are focused on serving high-value customers with protection, wealth allocation and long-term financial planning needs while continuing to broaden our high-value offerings through differentiated products. Looking ahead to the second half, Huize will remain focused on 3 priorities. First, we will continue to advance our AI native strategy, deepening the adoption and practical impact of AI applications so that alongside improving customer experience, professional service capabilities and operating efficiency, AI can increasingly generate sustainable business value. Second, we will further strengthen customer-driven product innovation while reinforcing our competitiveness in savings products such as participating insurance. We will accelerate the iteration of long-term health and core protection products and continue to build and upgrade our flagship product franchises to better address customer retirement, health and family protection needs. Third, through Poni Insurtech, we will deepen our operations across key Asian markets, leverage Hong Kong and Singapore as our dual regional hubs and continue strengthening local product and distribution capabilities to build a solid foundation for the long-term development of our international business. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Ron Tam, who will provide a detailed review of Huize's operating and financial results for the first half of 2026.

Thank you, Mr. Ma and Kenny. Good evening, everyone in Asia, and good morning for those in the U.S. In terms of first half, against the backdrop of continued macro and geopolitical uncertainty, we have delivered another set of very strong results in the first half of 2026. Total GWP facilitated on the platform has reached a record high of RMB 4.2 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of 29.8%. Total FYP also surged by 48.7% year-over-year to RMB 2.76 billion. Total revenue rose to RMB 720 million. Our GAAP net profit increased to RMB 25.3 million. Our financial position remains very solid with cash and cash equivalents totaling RMB 241 million as of the quarter end June 30. These exceptional results underscore the effectiveness of our omnichannel distribution network, our disciplined focus on attracting high-quality customers from the market and the extensive application of our proprietary AI technologies. Notably, we are steadily advancing our international expansion strategy and additional revenue to long-term sustainable growth and geographical diversification. Turning to our core business. FYP from a long-term savings product category rose more than 45% year-over-year to RMB 2 billion, supported by heightened demand for wealth management and financial planning solutions in a sustained low interest rate environment in China. Further against the backdrop of continued policy support for a multi-tiered health care protection system, including the introduction of the National Commercial Health Insurance Innovative Drug Catalog, we continue to expand our long-term health insurance offerings to address increasingly sophisticated customer needs. FYP of our long-term health insurance category grew by 1.6x year-over-year to RMB 204 million. Our diversified distribution network and advanced AI solutions enabled us to broaden our customer reach and cultivate relationships. Total customer base has reached 13.1 million as of June 30, reflecting a net addition of approximately 0.8 million during the first half of 2026. The repurchase ratio for our long-term insurance products remained high at 33.3%, demonstrating the continued progress we've made in enhancing customer lifetime value through targeted upselling and cross-selling initiatives. I would like to highlight several key operational achievements during the period. First, FYP for our 2A business increased by 44% year-over-year to RMB 216 million in the first half, underscoring the effectiveness of our AI capabilities in improving the productivity of both our in-house consultants and our IFA partners. Second, FYP from our short-term health and accident insurance grew 48% year-over-year to RMB 376 million in the first half, reflecting our relentless efforts in product innovation and growing the breadth of our portfolio. And third, as of May 31, our 13th and 25th-month persistency ratios for long-term life and health insurance remained at industry-leading levels of over 95%, reaffirming strong customer loyalty and the high quality of our post-sale servicing. And four, average ticket size of our long-term savings products rose 10.4% year-over-year to [ RMB 140,500 ] in the first half, partly attributable to higher tickets of premium products in international markets. In the first half, we've advanced our systematic 3-pillar AI strategy centered on raising operational efficiency, elevating the user experience and enabling platform-wide transformation. Across the organization, we continue to embed an AI-first mindset by introducing purpose-built applications within individual business functions to automate routine tasks and streamline workflows. For customers, we upgraded our AI app with a multi-agent architecture that supports seamless end-to-end user journeys, spanning product recommendations, insurance underwriting and policy servicing. We also launched -- we also launched an AI-powered financial planning feature that generates personalized family financial plan tailored to each household specific production needs and gaps. On the adviser side, we equipped our agents with an AI-powered assistant that enhances productivity across key workflows, including intelligent lead screening, automated interaction summaries, AI-enabled outbound calls, tailored insurance proposals and advanced customer analytics. We also integrated our AI capabilities with our extensive knowledge base to assist insurer partners and optimize the products. Overall, these initiatives produced measurable cost efficiencies and productivity gains. Our total operating expenses decreased to RMB 175 million in the first half, resulting in an improved expense-to-income ratio of 24.2%. Our international arm, Poni Insurtech, delivered another strong performance and remains a key pillar of our long-term growth strategy. In Vietnam, GlobalCare recorded an 11% year-over-year increase in the policies issued through the first half, driving a year-over-year surge in gross written premiums and revenue growth of 45% and 24%, respectively. The local IFA business also made notable progress with the number of policies issued growing 48% year-over-year. In Singapore, we focused on serving high-value customers with increasingly sophisticated protection, wealth allocation and long-term financial planning needs. We continue to broaden our portfolio of differentiated and customized products in partnership with leading insurers, strengthening Singapore's role as an important regional platform for delivering integrated protection and wealth management solutions. The expansion of Poni's regional footprint serves as an important driver of revenue diversification and create additional growth engines for Huize, supporting long-term shareholder value creation. Looking ahead, we're well positioned to capture emerging opportunities across China's evolving insurance landscape and a broader pan-Asian market. Domestically, persistently low deposit rates are expected to further drive household allocation towards higher-yield savings and participating insurance products, while government initiatives to strengthen the multi-tier protection system are expected to sustain demand for commercial insurance and support the industry's long-term development. Beyond China, Poni is leveraging proven business model and proven AI capabilities to deepen its presence across key Asian markets. These initiatives together are strengthening the resilience and diversification of our growth and laying a solid foundation for sustainable long-term value creation. And with that, we'll open up the call to questions. Thank you very much, and over to you, operator.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question coming from the line of Aashi Shah with Sidoti & Company.

Can you talk a little bit about the AI investing that you are doing? And can you give us some tangible examples of the returns you are seeing from that investment, whether through lower customer acquisition costs or higher conversion, improved agent productivity or lower operating costs? Like where do you see the most benefits from the AI investment that you're doing?

Thank you, Aashi, and thanks for joining for the first time. I appreciate your presence. With respect to the AI investments and the key value creation that we are trying to achieve, I think we did go over quite in some detail just now in the opening remarks. But just to summarize, I think the key goals that we're trying to achieve here, obviously, the first phase of AI adoption mainly is really to turn our organization into more of an AI-native structure. And typically, that would mean that automating workflows, right, and optimizing the workflow and deploying AI agents across the value chain. And that typically means that lower operating costs and improve operational efficiency. So that's the first phase of value creation. And I think we have demonstrated that in the operating expenses ratio, we have achieved initial success in that regard. The second phase that we're now pushing is demonstrated in the front end, which you have alluded to in terms of lower customer acquisition costs. And in a way, it's demonstrated by the increasing amount of self-directed policy purchases that's being addressed by AI consultations in our mobile app. And that's also leading to improved conversion rate and higher agent productivity because with the same number of agents, we're actually producing more premium growth from the same headcount. So that's the Phase 2 of growth and value creation that we're driving right now.

And as you grow your revenue in international markets. Can you talk about the profitability in Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam individually? Which markets are already profitable today? And what does the path to consolidated margin expansion look like as international becomes a bigger part of the revenue mix?

Sure. Thanks for the question. In terms of the international markets, we have to say that in the key markets of Hong Kong, for example, we are already profitable since last year, and that's been contributing to our bottom line results. Our Singapore business has just started since the fourth quarter of last year, still ramping up, but we are expecting to also drive profitability from that region this year in the full year. In Vietnam, we are almost there in terms of the profitability. Vietnam is still in a high growth phase, as you can imagine, albeit it's still not EBITDA positive, but then the loss there is actually quite minimal given the low absolute number of the business compared to the product group. So overall, international markets are profitable, combined with the Chinese business, which is also profitable. The main reason for a relatively low net profit margin is due to the fact that we continue to invest our cash flow into AI, close to USD 10 million pretty much last year and this year, working around the same number in terms of operating expenses in the R&D front and also on CapEx. So I think that would answer your question.

Yes. No, that's really helpful. And lastly, can you just discuss a little bit about your capital allocation strategy? And will you be needing to raise any cash in the next 12 to 18 months?

Great. In terms of capital allocation, I think we just touched on it just now. AI is front and center in terms of the organic investment in the group's organic business. In terms of international markets, we think that right now, we are happy with what we have. So further new markets is not likely in the next 12 to 24 months. And we just want to scale and -- the existing businesses to a more healthy level. And I think -- what's the third part of the question? I missed the last part.

Yes. Will you be needing to raise more capital?

We are unlikely to be raising capital at this stage because we still have decent cash on balance sheet. Until we identify some major transformative M&A opportunities, it's quite unlikely that we will be tapping the market given the relatively low valuation right now of the company.

Our next question coming from the line of Amy Chen with Citi.

Congrats on another resilient quarter. My question will be regarding to the Mainland Chinese Visitors business in Hong Kong. After the news flows regarding Decree 837 and the latest media reports inciting that local tax authorities are charging 20% tax on core product dividends, I'm wondering if Huize has observed any changes in terms of customer demand on the ground, both in terms of overseas business as well as domestic business.

Thank you, Amy. So just to clarify your questions on the impact from the recent regulatory documents and news article on the MCV business. So I guess the quick answer to that is based on what we are seeing in the month of July and month-to-date in August, we see that the overall market sentiment and momentum, particularly in Hong Kong, for example, is still robust from our numbers and as well as from our channel checks in the market. We do think that there will be some degree of impact on certain customers' mindset with respect to the 837 Decree. And with the media article that you mentioned, the content of the article is actually nothing new. It's actually something that has been long term written in the relevant regulations in China. So it's a matter of future and potential endorsement of the relevant tax clauses in that document. So we do believe that the underlying customer demand or the logic behind overseas or offshore insurance purchases still remain intact, given the attractiveness of the underlying asset allocation for international products provided by insurers in Hong Kong and Singapore, for example, which is a diversified global strategy for the consumers. And the prevailing differential in the interest rate environment should also continue to underpin a strong demand for offshore products.

And I am showing no further questions in the Q&A queue at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Kenny Lo for any closing comments.

Thank you, operator. On behalf of the Huize's management team, we thank you, everyone, for joining our earnings conference call. And if you need further information, please feel free to connect us through our e-mail address. This concludes the call. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live Call.]