FinVolution Group - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for participating in the first quarter 2025 earnings conference call for FinVolution Group. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Today's conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host, Yam Cheng, Head of Capital Markets for the company. Yam, please go ahead.

Yam Cheng (Head of Capital Markets)

Thank you, Wilco. Hello, everyone. Welcome to our 2025 first quarter earnings conference call. The company's results were issued via Newswire Services earlier today and are posted online. You can download the earnings release and sign up for the company's email alerts by visiting the IR section of our website at ir.finvgroup.com. Mr. Tiezheng Li, our Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Jiayuan Xu, our Chief Financial Officer, will start the call with the prepared remarks and conclude with a Q&A session. During this call, we will be referring to several non-GAAP financial measures to review and assess our operating performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. For information about these Non-GAAP measures and reconciliation to GAAP measures, please refer to our earnings press release.

Before we continue, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties are included in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. Finally, we posted a presentation on our IR website, providing details of our results for the quarter. Now, I will turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. Tiezheng Li. Please go ahead.

Tiezheng Li (CEO)

Thanks, Yam. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our earnings call. This is Tiezheng Li, CEO of FinVolution Group. We are happy to speak with you today. We are pleased to report that FinVolution delivered strong financial and operational results in the first quarter of 2025 through effective execution of our local excellence global outlook growth strategy. While navigating the expected seasonal softness in the sector, we achieved 10% year-over-year revenue growth, fueled by our expanding take rate in China and surging international demand. International transaction volume grew robustly, up 36% year-over-year, complementing China's sliding 7% growth. This success drove a record-breaking quarterly net profit of RMB 738 million, the highest since our transition to a loan facilitation model in 2019. This represented increases of 39% year-over-year and 8% quarter-over-quarter, a testament to our operational excellence.

While we are mindful of ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties such as global trade tensions, property sector softness, and evolving regulations in China's consumer finance sector, we maintain a cautiously optimistic outlook. This confidence stems from two fundamental strengths in our business model. First, our proven resilience. Since our IPO in November 2017, we have successfully navigated multiple challenges, including our transition to an institutional funding model, Indonesia's regulatory change, and the COVID pandemic. Notably, we have delivered consistent year-over-year growth in both transaction volume and revenue for every single quarter since 2021. This track record demonstrates our ability to adapt to regulatory changes and respond to market dynamics with agility and balanced risk management with sustainable growth. Second, our strategic diversification initiatives in international markets continue to mitigate the impact of single-country risks.

Since entering Indonesia in 2018 and the Philippines in 2020, we have systematically built a broad crowd tech business designed to reduce geographic concentration risk. Our international business generated a total transaction volume of RMB 3 billion in the fourth quarter and a 36% year-over-year increase. This is outstanding loan balance growing 46% to RMB 1.9 billion. Our international business contributes 20.4% of total net revenue in the first quarter, up from 18.8% in the same period last year. We are on track to achieve our strategic goal of having international business contribute 50% of the group's total revenue by 2030. Our customer base remains the cornerstone of our long-term growth. In Q1 2025, we maintained strong momentum in borrower acquisition across all markets, onboarding 1.2 million new borrowers, up 62% year-over-year. This marked our third consecutive quarter exceeding 1 million new borrowers.

Assuring the effectiveness of our AI-powered marketing strategy and diversified user acquisition channels, in China, we added RMB 512,000 new borrowers, up 37% year-over-year. In our international markets, we attracted RMB 652,000 new borrowers, up 90% year-over-year. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter where international acquisitions have exceeded those in China. We expect this trend to continue thanks to the rising penetration in online lending, as well as our strategic cooperation with the lending e-commerce and e-wallet platforms to acquire borrowers in international markets. Our technology initiatives continue to improve efficiency across our operations. We are exploring the use of large language models in risk assessment, leveraging their diverse capabilities to automatically extract, analyze, and derive insights from unstructured data in consumer credit reports.

For instance, the frequency with which a borrower changes a residential address is unstructured, contextual detail that can provide valuable insights into the stability of borrowers' work and living conditions. Large language models can automatically capture this type of contextual data and convert it into meaningful structured data that can be integrated into our existing risk assessment model to more comprehensively evaluate users' probability of default. In our recent A/B testing, our model achieved observable statistically significant improvements, indicating enhanced risk assessment effectiveness. We've also made substantial progress in automation through our virtual representative program. By integrating large language models, we've upgraded our natural language processing system with intelligent virtual agents that can handle customers' acquisition and complex workflow. Looking ahead, we plan to expand their role across additional business functions to further boost operational efficiency. Before I wrap up, a brief update on our ESG efforts.

Our commitment to sustainable finance continues to deliver meaningful impact. In Q1 2025, we facilitated RMB 15 billion in financing for RMB 442,000 small business owners, up 15% and 10% respectively. These small business loans represent 30% of our China transaction volume, demonstrating our ongoing support for the backbone of China's economy. We further solidified our position as an industry thought leader by serving as a core contributor to the China Finance Consumer Rights Protection Blue Book, a key industry publication developed in a partnership with the National Internet Financial Association of China. With its release in March, we helped shape best practice in consumer protection and financial literacy nationwide. In conclusion, our strong first quarter performance reflects excellent execution of our effective local excellence global outlook strategy. Looking forward, we are well positioned to capitalize on emerging opportunities while maintaining the agility required to navigate the evolving landscape.

Our diversified footprint, technological leadership, and commitment to sustainable growth position us well to continue creating value for all stakeholders. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Jiayuan Xu, who will discuss our operational and financial results.

Jiayuan Xu (CFO)

Thank you, Tiezheng, and hello, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2025 earnings call. Let's go through our key results for the first quarter. To be mindful of the length of earnings call today, I encourage listeners to refer to our first quarter earnings press release for further details. China's macroenvironment remained uncertain in the first quarter due to global trade tensions. However, there were some encouraging signs. China's GDP grew by 5.4% year-over-year, while retail sales rose by 5.9% in March. Total social financing expanded 8.4% in March, up from February. Added manufacturing PMI remained above 50 in February and March, signaling continued recovery momentum. On the regulatory front, we are pleased to see policies supporting consumption and consumer finance, including increased liquidity and credit supply to boost consumption. Against the backdrop, we delivered a solid domestic performance by leveraging our operational powers and tech strength.

Our China business achieved an increase in take rate from 3.3% to 3.4% sequentially, thanks to our strong partnerships with 114 funding partners that led to a 10 basis point decline in funding cost. On the credit front, day-one delinquency also improved by 10 basis points to 4.6%, and our 30-day loan collection rate held steady at 89%. Turning to our international markets, although GDP growth in Indonesia and the Philippines showed marginally due to trade tensions and tariff uncertainty, the overall economy remained resilient, boosted by a large population with solid domestic consumption demand. Unmet credit demand from underserved communities in our footprint market continues to support our strong growth trajectory. Our total international transaction volume exceeded RMB 3 billion for the first time, up 36% year-over-year and 5% sequentially. Outstanding loan balance rose to RMB 1.9 billion, up 46% year-over-year and 9% sequentially.

Our cumulative international borrower base has now reached around 8 million. Notably, our unique borrowers soared to a record high of 1.7 million in the first quarter, marking an impressive 106% year-over-year increase. As a result, revenue from international markets increased to RMB 711 million, up 19.5% year-over-year. As for Indonesia, while we experienced some seasonal impact in March due to Ramadan, growth continued at a measured pace in the first quarter. Indonesia's consumer confidence index stayed above 120, maintaining its high level for nearly 2.5 years. Unemployment also reached its lowest level in the past 10 years during the first quarter. The change in the interest rate cap imposed at the end of 2024 has had a limited impact on our business, as our average loan tenure in Indonesia is less than six months. Moving forward, we will closely monitor potential effects from macroeconomic and domestic uncertainties.

Our transaction volume in Indonesia reached RMB 1.8 billion, up 10% year-over-year, while outstanding balance hit RMB 1.2 billion, up 18% year-over-year. Our user base continued to expand, with unique borrowers reaching 671,000, up 32% year-over-year. With the interest rate cap overhang resolved, we allocated more resources to marketing and focused on quality growth, driving an increase in our new borrowers to 312,000 this quarter, up 69% year-over-year and 4% sequentially, bringing cumulative borrowers in Indonesia to 5.3 million. We also continue to diversify into offline consumption loan under the multi-finance license we acquired, broadening our reach to near-prime customers through scenarios like mobile phone and electronic purchase. All of these efforts drove solid growth in Indonesia amid the seasonal impact of Ramadan. Now, let's zoom in on the Philippines, where we achieved rapid growth and profitability despite Q1 being the traditional low season.

In the fourth quarter, our transaction volume in the Philippines reached RMB 1.2 billion, up 180% year-over-year and 18% sequentially. Outstanding loan balance also grew to RMB 693 million, up 142% year-over-year and 26% sequentially increased. It accounted for 37% of our international loan balance, compared with 23% in the first quarter of 2024. Our outstanding performance in the Philippines has been driven by several key factors, including ongoing improvements in risk management and deeper collaboration with major e-commerce platforms to expand bilateral offers. Our excellent asset quality has consistently attracted institutional funding partners. This quarter, we onboarded Union Digital Bank as a funding partner, with several additional institutions in the pipeline. The percentage of loans facilitated by local financial institutions remained around 70% for the quarter. Bilateral affiliated business continued to grow, contributing 30% of Q1 volume, up from 19% in 2024.

Going forward, we are confident of maintaining rapid transaction volume growth in the Philippines as we cement our roots in the country, further expand our funding sources, and diversify our business models. Moving on to our financial metrics, this quarter's operational excellence resulted in a strong financial performance. Net revenue for the quarter reached RMB 3.5 billion, marking a 10% increase year-over-year and a 1% increase sequentially despite the low season. Net income was RMB 738 million, representing a 39% increase year-over-year and an 8% sequentially increase. Meanwhile, sales and marketing expenses rose by 18% year-over-year to RMB 530 million, as we continue to strengthen efforts to acquire new borrowers of higher qualities in both China and international markets. Leverage ratio defined as risk-bearing assets divided by shareholders' equity improved to around 2.7 times.

Our total liquidity position, consisting of cash and cash equivalent plus short-term investment, remained strong at RMB 8.5 billion. Next, a brief update on our ongoing efforts to enhance shareholder value. Since 2018, we have continuously returned value to our shareholders in the form of share repurchase and dividends. Recently, our board of directors approved our seventh annual dividend in the amount of $0.277 per ADS, reflecting a DPS increase of 17% year-over-year. This dividend was distributed on May 7, 2025, bringing our total dividend distribution to shareholders for fiscal year 2024 to $70.3 million. In summary, strong execution of our local excellence global outlook strategy drove continued growth in the first quarter of 2025 despite macro headwinds and seasonal softness. We remain confident in capitalizing on China's recovery while maintaining momentum in our international expansion.

As such, we are reiterating our 2025 full-year revenue guidance of RMB 14.4-15 billion, representing 10%-15% growth year-over-year. With that, I will now hand it over to our Q&A. Operator, please continue.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone keypad. If your question has already been addressed and you'd like to remove yourself from the call, please press star then two. For the benefit of all participants on today's call, if you wish to ask your question to management in Chinese, we ask that you please kindly repeat your question in English. Today's first question comes from Cindy Wang at China Renaissance. Please go ahead.

Cindy Wang (Director)

[Foreign language] Thanks for taking my question and congrats for the great first quarter result. I have two questions here. First, with recent new regulation on loan facilitation in China, do you see any business impact from it, and what are our business adjustments for this? Second, given the recent US tariff uncertainty, have you seen any impact on the Indonesia or Philippines' consumption loan demand since April, and how do you expect the international new loan volume in second quarter? Thank you.

Jiayuan Xu (CFO)

Okay, thanks, Cindy. I will take your first question, and Tiezheng will take your second question. Your first question is about the new regulations. Yeah, you know it's about the loan facilitation model, and the new regulation was announced in April and will be effective in October. I think it's the first time to clearly define the core model of loan facilitation as the loans issued by the traditional financial institutions through their external third-party platforms. It marks the official inclusion of the loan facilitation business in China's financial regulatory framework. It references the regulatory authority's formal recognition across the sector. Meanwhile, we noted that the regulations were just following the regulator's focus on consumer finance. We believe it's a positive signal to promote the healthy development of the industry and to encourage the increase in supply of consumer finance products and boost the consumer's confidence.

If we look at some details in the regulation, we can find the final version seems to be relatively moderate compared with the draft ones. It focuses more on qualitative aspects than the quantitative ones. According to the regulation, banks now are required to implement a whitelist management system for those cooperative internet platforms. The financing costs are clearly defined with all revenue costs to be included and disclosed in the contract. We think it will promote the industry's compliance level and benefit those leading platforms which have adequate capital, strong risk management capabilities, and high compliance standards. In conclusion, we believe the overall impact of the new regulation is manageable, and it's crucial for the long-term development of the industry. Okay.

Tiezheng Li (CEO)

Hi, Cindy. I will answer the second question. Yeah, we do have observed the global trade tensions, have introduced certain economic challenges to Southeast Asia. Some of the trade-oriented economies in the region are encountering slower than expected economic growth. Right now, many countries are currently engaged in negotiations with the U.S. to secure favorable tariff rates. This year, the macroeconomic trends of Indonesia and the Philippines are different. In the first quarter, Indonesia's GDP growth rate decreased to 4.9%, slightly below the 5.2% target. The PMI in April declined by 11% month-on-month to 46.7. In the Philippines, GDP growth came in at 5.4%, up slightly by 0.1% from previous quarter. Keeping it among Asia's fastest-growing economies, domestic demand continues to drive the economy, with consumer spending making up nearly 80% of GDP in Q1.

Fortunately, our customers are mainly consumers, and the loan demands are less affected by the trade war. On the ground, we've seen some seasonal softness in Indonesia. Reminders slowed things down a little bit, but volume was still up nearly 10% year-over-year. We expect a nice rebound in Q2 with sequential growth. In the Philippines, it's been a strong start in Q1. Volume jumped 18% quarter on quarter. In Q2, we are projecting another solid quarter with good sequential growth. Thank you, Cindy.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question today comes from Alex Yee with UBS. Please go ahead.

Alex Yee (Research Analyst)

[Foreign language] So I have two questions. First one is on the loan application demand trend in China in the past two months, and do you plan to tighten the credit approval preemptively given the rising macro uncertainty, and how would that impact your full-year loan volume outlook? The second question is regarding the drivers for the improved take rate for the Chinese business and outlook ahead. Thank you.

Jiayuan Xu (CFO)

Thanks, guys. I will take your questions. The first question is about the credit demand in April and May. Yeah, we have delivered solid results in the first quarter, and in terms of the loan application demand, we observed the rate holding steady in April and May. While April, we saw a slight month-on-month decline and rebounded in May. It surpassed the March levels. Historically, the main demand tends to be softened slightly due to the seasonal holidays. This year, we are seeing the moderately better demand. Yeah, so that's about the application rate. In terms of the credit performance, yeah, it showed slightly improvement in the first quarter and have remained stable in the second quarter so far. As the macroeconomy still has a lot of uncertainties, and given the moderately supportive demand, we have selectively adjusted our risk appetite for marginal assets.

Meanwhile, we will closely monitor the macroeconomic trends and the industry development, and they will dynamically balance between the risk management and the business growth. The performance of April and May, the transaction volumes indicate that a healthy growth trajectory has emerged. Given our current business performance and operation capabilities, we are confident in achieving our guidance of 10-15% full-year revenue growth. Okay, that's about the first question. Your second question is about the take rate in our domestic business. Yeah. In the first quarter, our take rate in China increased by 10 basis points sequentially, primarily driven by several factors. Yeah, number one, we further improved the funding cost by 10 basis points quarter over quarter. Number two, our long tenure extended slightly from eight months to 8.2 months with the improved risk performance.

Currently, both risk metrics and funding cost are at historical favorable levels. Looking ahead, we expect that both will remain stable. It will stabilize the take rate at current level. We will continue to drive high-quality growth in China market with refined operations and management. Okay, thank you, guys.

Thank you. Our next question today comes from Yadong Li with CICC. Please go ahead.

Yadong Li (Analyst)

[Foreign language] I was wondering if you could give more color on the latest business updates regarding the international expansion, any guidance for revenue and profit in 2025? Besides Indonesia and the Philippines, could you elaborate more about the development of other regions as well? That's all. Thank you.

Jiayuan Xu (CFO)

Okay, thanks, Yad. I will take your question. For international markets, despite the uncertainties in the macroeconomic environment, with our proven technological capabilities and the risk control expertise across those diverse markets, it enables us to deliver a strong first-quarter performance. The transaction volume in our international market surpassed RMB 3 billion for the first time in this quarter, with a year-over-year increase of 36% and a quarter-over-quarter increase of 5%. Yeah. The number of unique borrowers reached a historical high at 1.7 million, with triple-digit year-over-year growth. The net revenue for our international market boosted to RMB 711 million, marking a year-over-year increase of nearly 20% and accounting for 20.4% of total revenue. In terms of the revenue and the profits, we maintain our full-year revenue growth target of 10-15%. The contribution for international markets is expected to increase to 25%.

That indicates the growth rate of international revenue will outpace overall growth. In the first quarter, Indonesia and the Philippines collectively achieved a modest profit, aligned with our projection. Looking ahead, we expect they will generate a minimum net profit of $10 million in 2025. For our expansion into the new markets, we have mentioned in the early earnings call, we shared that we recently obtained the banking finance company license in Pakistan. The operation in Pakistan is still in an early stage. Meanwhile, we were actively exploring the new countries to support our long-term strategy. That means we aim to deliver at least a 15% revenue contribution from international markets by 2030. We would be happy to share if there are any updates. Okay, thanks, Yadong.

Operator (participant)

Thank you.

If there are no further questions at this time, I'd now like to turn the call back over to the company for closing remarks.

Yam Cheng (Head of Capital Markets)

Okay. Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us and our investor relations team. Thank you so much.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. This concludes this conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.