James Zheng
Analyst · CICC
This is James. Now it's my turn. Thank you, Arvin. I will now give a more detailed update on our financial results, noting that all figures are presented in RMB, unless stated otherwise. During the past quarter, we adhered to our principles of prudent operation and continued the upgrading of our risk management capabilities and the transformation of overall business. Our efforts yielded satisfying results, evidenced by stable loan origination volume and a strong [indiscernible] growth. Total revenue amounted to approximately RMB 3.7 billion, remaining steady compared to Q2. Net profit showed a significant growth, increasing by 36.7% quarter-over-quarter to reach RMB 310 million. Here are 3 key highlights explaining our robust financial performance. First, substantial profit increase driven by higher revenue take rate. The sharp increase in net profit was primarily driven by higher take rate, which reached a record high of 3.25%, up by 35 basis points from 2.91% of Q2 and 81 basis points from 2.44% of the same quarter last year. The take rate calculation is derived by adding credit-oriented income and the tech empowerment income, subtracting funding costs and the various provisions, then dividing by new loan origination volumes for the quarter. A few core drivers supported this increase, including the following. One, the continued improvement in the risk level of new loans in Q3, evidenced by FPD7, which decreased by about 13% from Q2. Two, a new record low in funding cost of 4.28%, which fell by nearly 100 basis points from Q2 of 5.26% and 6.36% of the same quarter a year ago. We achieved this through ample funding and partnerships with cost-efficient national financial institutions. It also underscores the increasing confidence of our funding partners in our assets. Three, continued optimization of user loan early payoff ratio and the revenue from some value-added peripheral services. Second key highlight is the improved asset quality. The asset quality of our total loan book improved in Q3. Total provision cost, the 4 lines in our income statement, including provisions for financing receivables, contract assets and receivables, provision for contingent guarantee liability and fair value change in our financial guarantee derivatives and fair value loans decreased by RMB 21 million to RMB 1.61 billion from Q2. The day 1 delinquency rate of total portfolios increased by 9% compared to Q2, thanks to our ongoing business transformation initiatives, especially in the risk management upgrading project. As we are gradually phasing out higher-risk existing loans and we generate a better quality new loans, we believe the peak risk level of our total portfolio is behind us. The third key highlight is the enhanced efficiency in customer acquisition. In Q3, we improved customer acquisition efficiency through 2 major channels: one, reactivating dormant customers from our over 200 million accumulated registered user base and iterating the RTA model in online advertising channels. New users with approved credit lines increased to 756,000, up by 44% from Q2. However, the acquisition cost for new users with approved credit lines dropped by 35% compared to Q2. Moving forward, we will continue leveraging our large user base to reactivate more high-quality users at relatively low cost. To summarize the aforementioned operational highlights, despite the macroenvironment and the stable new loan volumes in Q3, we have achieved strong sequential profit growth through healthy and sustainable improvement in revenue take rate, assisted by improved asset quality, lower funding costs and the optimization of overall business operations, including user acquisition efficiencies. Next, I'm going to provide some more detailed overview and explanation of financial statement items. First, on the revenue side. The credit facilitation and service income increased by 11.3% quarter-over-quarter, mainly driven by the higher facilitation volume growth and higher take rate in off-balance sheet loans facilitated, offsetting the lower volume in on-balance sheet loans. Tech-empowered service income fell by 28.2% to RMB 384 million quarter-over-quarter due to the product mix upgrade in Q3. As Jay mentioned, although the newly launched capital-light ICP platform is still in its early stage, we are confident in its future market demand and future volume growth. E-commerce business revenue dropped by 29.5% quarter-over-quarter due to the higher base of GMV in Q2 from the 618 Shopping Festival. We expect e-commerce business lines back to the growth trajectory in Q4. Next, on the cost and expense items. Processing and servicing costs increased by 16.1% quarter-over-quarter due to intensified loan collection efforts. Sales and marketing expenses dropped by 6.3% to RMB 438 million in Q3 as we focused on reactivating dormant users, reducing spending on online advertising business. G&A expense decreased by 11.4% quarter-over-quarter due to cost efficiency initiatives. As a summary of the above, the net income improved by RMB 83 million or 36.7% quarter-over-quarter. The overall net profit margin improved from 6.2% in Q2 to 8.5% in Q3. This is primarily driven by higher revenue from the flat quarterly loan volume, lower credit cost, lower operating cost, partially offset by the increasing processing and servicing costs due to collection and minor losses related to the e-commerce business quarter-over-quarter. This breakdown analysis underscores the healthy profit improvement made in the loan facilitation business despite a flat quarterly loan volume growth. Here is another way to look at the profitability improvement. If we use net income to divide by current quarter GMV, we get the ratio of 0.61% in comparison with 0.44% in Q2. Similarly, if we measure the net income against the average loan balance, it is 1.09% in Q3 versus 0.77% in Q2. For balance sheet items, in Q3, our total cash position was approximately RMB 4 billion, impacted temporarily by the maturity of some trust products. We maintained solid shareholders' equity of over RMB 10 billion. Our provision coverage ratio remained sufficiently at approximately 240% at the end of Q3. As Jay mentioned, we are committed to sustainable value creation for shareholders. The Board has approved an amended dividend payout policy, increasing the payout ratio to 25% of total net profit starting January 1, 2025. We may further increase this ratio as profitability improves in the future. Looking ahead, with the government economic stimulus package gradually take effect and the continued transformation of our business, we expect net profit to grow at a considerable rate on a year-over-year basis for 2025. Although the profit recovery process may take a bit time, Q3 has already marked a strong start. For Q4, we still remain patient with the macroeconomic conditions and will continue to adhere to the prudent operating principles to lay a solid foundation for growth and profitability next year. Based on our current estimates, we expect the GMV of loan originations in Q4 to grow at flat to a lower single-digit rate on a quarter-over-quarter basis. This concludes my portion of the prepared remarks. Operator, we are now open for questions.