Jay Xiao
Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please ask your question Frank
[Foreign Language] Good morning and evening everyone. Its my pleasure to speak with all of you again. In the first quarter, with the gradual recovery of consumption post-pandemic and the continued improvement of the overall macroenvironment, consumer finance started moderate growth as this maintains growth through a two-wheel drive strategy with upgrading and data-driven optimization, we achieved another quarter of strong results. RMB60.9 billion in loan origination volume, up 41% year-over-year. Total outstanding balance at RMB107 billion, up 28.0% year-over-year. Revenue at RMB2,980 million, up 74.0% year-over-year. Net profit of RMB327 million, an increase of 302% year-over-year. As demonstrated by the first quarter results, our profitability has continued to improve. With net profit margin rising to 11.0% from 4.8% in the first quarter of last year. And has grown steadily for the fourth consecutive quarters and various operating indicators are moving in a positive direction. Let me elaborate in more detail. There were three major operational highlights in the first quarter. First, as we enhanced our user risk assessment capabilities, we accelerated our pace in reducing high-risk user segments and therefore improve the overall asset quality. Second, we continue to refine operations and further optimize operational efficiency. Third, we have been implementing cost efficiency initiatives, as a result, our profitability has been steadily rebounding. First, in terms of asset quality, we further pushed ahead on overhauling our risk management system, focused on maintenance and operation of high quality existing customers and gradually eliminated more high risk users. We have iterated and upgraded the user assessment system, the risk renting model, which automatically integrates a variety of risk models along with the combination of multi-dimensional risk factors into an overall user risk assessment scheme. These upgrades help us to conduct more comprehensive risk assessments and therefore, make more accurate decisions on users. After being put into use, the new loan volume in the first quarter contributed by prime users increased to 88.0% from 77.0% a year ago. Second, in terms of operational optimization, we upgraded our marketing system and segmented our user into more detailed and various categories. Based on the underlying customer tagging system and over 10 evaluation models of users borrowing with a mix, marketing preferences, responsiveness, offer satisfaction, and et cetera. For some certain customer groups, the application this new detailed separation of user segment model pushed up the operating profit of that specific customer group by 70.0%. On this basis, we sorted out a marketing strategy decision tree structure and launched marketing strategies accordingly which significantly boosted users' activities. Under this new optimized operational system, in the first quarter, our telemarketing capabilities has been significantly strengthened and the loan volume contributed by the telemarketing channels grew by 92.0% sequentially. At the same time, the cost significantly decreased in the quarter with telemarketing cost per sale fell 49% year-over-year, we expect it to save 23.0% of the original annual telemarketing cost. On front [ph] of reactivating paid up customers, the conversion rate increased 15.0% quarter-over-quarter. Loan volume from those converted customers grew 15.0% quarter-over-quarter. Additionally, this results were achieved with half of the marketing cost. Third, we have enhanced profitability attributing to our continuous efforts in cost optimization initiatives and a further reduction in financing costs. In the first quarter of 2023, G&A expenses stood at RMB97 million, a 17.0% decrease from a year ago. This is a clear indication of our improved operational efficiency. Funding costs further dropped to 6.6%, which is 0.2 percentage point lower than last quarter and 1.6 percentage point lower from a year ago. It's worth noting that this is a historic low of funding costs during the past three years. In April, we successfully resumed our Annual Financial Partners Conference, which got suspended during the three-year pandemic period. In the conference, we are very honored to have over 100 financial institutional partners with whom we will surely strengthen our business cooperation in the future. We remain committed to investments in research and development as we firmly believe in technology is the core engine of our business growth. In the first quarter of 2023, research and development investments reached RMB130 million, maintaining one of the highest technology input levels amongst our peers. On the data front, we have put tremendous effort in data mining and analysis of our entire data. Accordingly, we're able to find links and correlations amongst various data sets. And links between low level fundamental data sets and business models, -- foundation of Lexin's data-driven and intelligent decision-making approach. Furthermore, we developed simulation predicting model attribution model of abnormalities, AB testing platform, and et cetera. AuthBridge [ph] empowered management to steer business in a more data-driven and intelligent manner. We have been continuously exploring the utilization of new technology in optimizing operation efficiency and users' experience. In the first quarter of 2023, we expanded the application of our AI large language model in our business at this faster pace. We saw a noticeable improvement in efficiency among the application areas including coding assistant tools, initiatives of designs, telemarketing, and smart customer services. For example, the application of this AI model in our telemarketing scenario pushed up credit line approval rates by 70% versus the technology service supplied by vendors and also boosted order placing rates on the exact date that borrowers are granted with credit line by 10%. Looking ahead, we'll also comprehensively apply the model to the areas of risk management, anti-fraud, and et cetera. In addition, we further enhanced our existing unique Lexin ecosystem. First, e-commerce business reached RMB113 billion GMV, an increase of 69.0% from last year. Cumulative customers grew by 71.0% compared to last year. The robust growth of GMV end users in e-commerce business effectively fueled the engine of Lexin consumption ecosystem. Second, the technology impairment SaaS business achieved tangible progress, therefore, won the recognition from various financial partners including local commercial banks with AUM over RMB1 trillion, regional urban, and rural banks. The technology impairment service facilitates our cooperation with financial partners and deepens our business relations. Third, we plan to expand our offline sales team and leverage our expertise in direct sales channels in light of the gradual recovery of China's economic activity. Our offline acquisition channels bring more first-hand user information hence more accurate credit assessments and eventually creating a unique competitive advantage. The strong results in the first quarter were mainly attributable to our risk management capabilities upgrading in customer's assessment and therefore, the improvement in customer and asset quality. It is also due to our continued refining of operations and cost reduction initiatives. As of the -- as for the second quarter, we understand the economic recovery and resuming consumption is a long process. We'll continue to undertake a more prudent approach. Based on preliminary affirmations, loan volume in the second quarter is expected to reach RMB63 billion to RMB63.5 billion, a 28% to 29% growth year-over-year. Next, I'll hand over the call to our CFO, James to share more detailed financials. Thank you.