FinVolution Group - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Transcript

Speaker 4

Thank you, Rocco. Hi everyone. Welcome to our second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. The Company's results were issued via news wire 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.finvogroup.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 and A section.

Speaker 2

During this call, we will be referring.

Speaker 4

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 the reconciliation of 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 Provision 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 statement except as required under applicable laws.

Finally, we posted a presentation on our IR website providing further details of our results for the quarter. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. Tiezheng Li. Tiezheng, please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Thanks Yan, hello everyone. Welcome to our earnings call following a solid first quarter of 2025. I'm pleased to share that FinVolution Group sustained its healthy momentum in the second quarter, supported by our robust growth in our international business and steady performance in China. Net revenue reached ¥3.6 billion, up 13% year over year, driven by a 10% increase in transaction volume in China and a 39% surge in international transaction volume. Net income also showed solid growth, reaching ¥751 million, representing an increase of 36% year over year and 2% quarter over quarter. Since our transition to the institutional funding model in 2021, we have now delivered 18 consecutive quarters of year over year growth in both transaction volume and revenue, a strong testament to our resilient business fundamentals in today's fast-changing macro landscape.

As discussed in last quarter's earnings call, regulations in China's consumer finance sector have been evolving with the implementation of the new regulation of the internet loan facilitation business in October. We believe it may have implications to the loan mix and risk profile of the assets in the industry, and we are closely monitoring the latest developments and dynamics of the sector. We maintain active dialogue with our funding partners, which expanded from 114 to 119 in the second quarter, to maintain relatively stable funding supply and prepare in advance for the potential impacts on our transaction volumes and risk metrics. Our risk infrastructure, tested across multiple economic and regulatory cycles, positions us well to adapt swiftly and effectively to these changes in the long run. We view that these measures will ultimately foster more sustainable growth across the sector and benefit lending platforms like ours.

Part of our resilient business hinges on the international operations, which offer valuable diversification, benefit, and growth. In the second quarter, international transaction volume increased 39% year over year to ¥3.2 billion, and loan balance rose 50% to ¥2.1 billion. Notably, our international operations contributed 22% of net revenue, up from 18% in the same period last year. Enhanced growth is our expanding customer base. We onboarded 1.6 million new borrowers during the second quarter, a 96% year over year increase. This marked our fourth consecutive quarter surpassing 1 million new borrowers, thanks to our effective AI-powered marketing strategy and diverse user acquisition channels. In China, the transaction volume from new borrowers reached ¥37.1 billion, up 20% year-over-year. In our international markets, we attached 1.1 million new borrowers, up 126% year-over-year.

New borrower growth from our international markets also outpaced that in China for the fifth consecutive quarter, trailed by a diversified service we provide in the ecosystem. Through partnership with leading e-commerce and technology platforms, we expect this trend to continue. On the technology front, we continue to leverage AI in risk management. We have built effective defenses against sophisticated AI fraud like deepfakes, achieving 98.8% detection accuracy. Our proprietary AI analyzed by quant patents, document and text level anomalies, resulting in 95% detection of digital artifacts in large images. We combine this with multi-layered verification including dynamic facial recognition, randomized voice checks, and real-time video authentication. Looking ahead, we are evolving from single mode to multimode detection that simultaneously analyzes video and audio, keeping us ahead against evolving financial fraud. ESG remains core to our long-term strategy.

We published our seventh annual ESG report in July, underscoring our commitment to sustainable, inclusive finance. Throughout 2024, we made substantial progress by combining technology innovation, process improvements, and ecosystem partnerships, particularly in enhancing our anti-fraud capabilities and optimizing service quality. These efforts have meaningfully advanced consumer protection, with our intelligent fraud prevention system now detecting over 7,000 suspicious activities daily. In 2024, we've blocked more than 26,000 fraud attempts, protecting financial institutions from potential losses over ¥300 million while maintaining 98% user satisfaction rates. Also worth noting, FinVolution Group secured two prestigious honors at the Finite Financial Asia 2025 award, winning the Best Strategic Initiatives Award for the Philippines as well as the Most Innovative Use of Technology Award for Mainland China. This recognition affirms the positive value our fintech solutions have brought to financial institutions across multiple markets. Finally, an update on our capital market activities.

We completed a $150 million convertible bonds offering in June, the first capital market transaction since our IPO in 2017. The funding will support our strategic priorities, accelerating international expansion and lowering capital costs. The transaction also helped us diversify our investor base and deepen engagement with a broader group of investors. We are encouraged by the positive reception from the convertible bonds investors as well as the improvement in our stock's liquidity following the transaction. In summary, our second quarter performance reflects outstanding execution of our Local Excellence Global Outlook strategy. We are encouraged by the resilience of our China business and the strength of our international business, bolstered by ongoing investment in technology, customer acquisition and international expansion. We are well positioned to continue driving sustainable growth and delivering long term value.

Now I'll hand the call over to our CFO Jiayuan Xu for a closer look at our financials.

Speaker 0

Thank you. Hello everyone. Let me go through our key results for the second quarter. I will begin with our performance in China. Despite global trade tension and macro uncertainty, China's economy demonstrated resilience that GDP expanded 5.12% year over year, exceeding market expectations. Also, consumer sentiment improved on the back of a 4.8% increase in overall spending in June. It is encouraging to see continued regulatory support to increase credit supply for consumer finance to boost the economy. Against this backdrop we delivered solid result in China. Our take rate remained stable at 3.4% while the average loan tenure extended slightly to 8.3 months. Risk metrics stayed broadly stable with day one delinquency rate rising 10 basis points quarter over quarter to 4.7% while 13 day collection rate remaining steady at 89%. We maintained our prudent approach to provision supported by a healthy provision coverage ratio of 543%.

Turning to our international business, we drove continued growth despite the spillover impact from Ramadan in early Q2. Domestic macro indicators in our key Southeast Asian markets were largely stable while the underlying consumer demand for credit remained strong. Total international transaction volume grew 39% year over year and 6% quarter over quarter, surpassing RMB 3 billion for the second consecutive quarter, while outstanding loan balance rose to RMB 2.1 billion, up 50% year over year and 30% sequentially. Unique borrowers soared by an impressive 122% year over year to reach 2.3 million, breaking the 2 million mark for the first time. As a result, revenue for international markets increased to RMB 797 million, up 42% year over year. In Indonesia, while macroeconomic conditions showed slight moderation amid trial tensions, our business demonstrated strong resilience.

We maintained momentum by offering longer tenure products to high credit quality borrowers which drove better asset quality and improving take rate. We also continue to expand partnership with local platforms to acquire new customer new borrowers. These initiatives delivered solid results. Loan volume grew 9% year over year with outstanding loan balance increasing 25% to RMB 1.3 billion. Very important and encouraging update on Indonesia at the end of July, the OJK, Indonesia's Financial Services Authority, issued a new circular that keeps the daily fee cap for consumer funding unchanged for its 2024 level. This is a welcome development because it effectively replaced the previous policy which would have required a 0.1% annual reduction in the fee cap through 2023. This decision provides much needed stability.

It addresses concerns that further fee costs could pressure revenue and profitability, and it ensures a healthy, more sustainable environment for business going forward. We see this as a strong vote of confidence in the industry and a positive step for our long term goals in Indonesia. Our business in the Philippines continued to outperform this quarter. Business activity in the Philippines remained high nationwide with an average PMI of 50.7 thanks to ongoing regulatory support for digital finance innovation as well as our brand awareness through effective marketing strategy. Our loan volume more than doubled year over year, accounting for 45% of our international business. Buy Now Pay Later products contributed 32% of volume, up from 30% in the same period of last year, driven by our collaboration with TikTok Shop and efforts to expand new platform partnerships.

Moving forward, we are optimistic over the transaction volume growth in the Philippines as we deepen our market presence, broaden our founding partnerships, and diversify our business offerings to capture emerging opportunities. Overall, our strong operational performance this quarter produced impressive financial results across the board. Net revenue reached RMB 3.6 billion, reflecting robust year-over-year growth of 30% and a sequential increase of 3%. Net income also saw significant momentum, rising 36% year over year to RMB 751 million, underscoring our ability to drive profitable goals. Our financial position remains solid with RMB 7.9 billion in cash and short term investments, providing ample liquidity to support our strategic priorities. We continue to maintain a prudent balance sheet with a leverage ratio of 2.6 times, defined as risk bearing loans to shareholders' equity.

Finally, we continued returning capital to shareholders and have repurchased $63.8 million of shares in the first half of 2025, including repurchases made in conjunction with the convertible bond issuance in June. The convertible bond proceeds to fund our international business will optimize capital costs and accelerate expansion. In short, we maintain our strong growth trajectory through disciplined execution of our local excellence and global outlook strategies. We remain confident in our ability to adapt quickly to the evolving regulated environment in China while driving growth in untapped international markets. We believe the new regulation may foster a healthy development of the industry and benefit leading players' market share in the long term. As such, we are reiterating our full year 2025 revenue guidance of RMB 14.4 to 15 billion or 10% to 15% year-over-year growth. With that, I will now open the call for questions. Operator, please continue.

Speaker 5

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone keypad. If your question has been addressed and you'd like to remove yourself from the queue, 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 Wong with China Renaissance.

Speaker 0

Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my question and congrats for the good result in the second quarter. I have two questions here. First, regarding new regulation on internet loan facilitation in China, how do you see the impact to your business? Would you slow down new loan volume in the second half to adjust loan structure and ensure asset quality? Second, the new loan volume in international markets in the second quarter maintained rapid growth. What is the current run rate in July and August, and is there any target customer profile change in Indonesia and Philippines in the second half? Thank you.

Okay, thanks indeed. Yeah, I will take your questions. Your first question is about the new regulation in China. You know the new regulations on internet loan facilitation business will come into effect in October. First, we think it will provide more order to the industry and in the long run promoted consolidation, there might be some impact on the different types of assets. Right now, as for those high priced assets, the funding supply has reduced and the funding partners now become more cautious and selective on the cooperation with the platforms. They like to choose the platform which can bring the good economics or have the manageable risk reward. For those high quality assets, where our core business is, liquidity and the funding costs remain stable. The tightening of the industry liquidity has introduced some challenges, but the overall impact to us remains manageable for three reasons.

First, we have the know-how for acquiring and operating the high quality assets. We have long been focusing on the funding and the pricing high quality assets from the information fee channel. Now the funding market is shifted to the high quality assets we should benefit. Second, as proven in the previous credit cycle, you know we have been disciplined on risk management. Thanks to the efforts on the high quality customer strategy and the continuously build the competitive capabilities, we saw the delinquency rate standing at a reasonable and manageable range. We will continue to dynamically balance the risk exposure and the transaction volume as we step into the second half year. We expect maybe the regulatory uncertainty will continue to weigh on the industry. Third, our international mobilities can continue to be a growth driver and more important a source of our diversification to our business.

In the second quarter as transaction volume increased by around 14% year-over-year as the revenue contribution surpassed 22%, we also see a better profitability trajectory than expected in our international markets. This structure growing trend in international markets provide a cushion to the short term volatility in China market. In conclusion we expect maybe a low single digit quarter-over-quarter decline in the transaction volume. In the China market it was reasonable fluctuation in risk levels and the largely stable peak rate. We are maintaining our full year revenue growth guidance of 10% to 15% subject to the industry not being significantly different in the coming quarters. Your second question is about our overseas business. As we mentioned, in the first half of 2025 our international markets continued to show very strong momentum. The transaction volume was up nearly 40% year-over-year and 11% quarter-over-quarter.

I'm very happy to share that this strong trend is steady running into July and August. Based on current trends, we are projecting both Indonesia and the Philippines to deliver solid double-digit quarterly growth again in Q3. As for Indonesia, the most important update is regulation. In late July, the OJK confirmed a new interest rate policy. It will effectively maintain the interest rate cap at which we have been operating since the end of last year. The directive issued in 2023 was to reduce the interest rate cap gradually from 0.4% to 0.1% in 2026. With the major circular, the reduction is not resolved. This removal of the uncertainty is a huge positive for the entire industry and allows us to plan for the long term with much greater clarity. In terms of the business, we are continuing to deliver diversified product offerings.

For our online cash loan, we proactively launched marketing initiatives to go after better quality customers in the first half year. For example, we offered attractive terms and repayment flexibility to those high quality customers to appear to customer base we are able to reach. For the offline front, we acquired the Multi Finance license last year. We are expanding into offline installment scenarios like smart homes, motorbikes, and home appliances. We have partnered with major Chinese electronic brands and local brands to offer offline installment loan options at the point of sale. This business is still relatively small at the moment, but we are quite confident it could be a market of very substantial potential. For the Philippines, it's our second largest overseas market. It has been consistently exceeding our expectations and the micro environment remains very favorable.

For our brand operator cooperation with the TTOC shop, it continued to be a very huge success. It's already contributed to 32% of the Philippines total transaction volume and its product lines have already become profitable. Building out this success, we have recently expanded partnerships with the local telecom operator to fund phone credits with banopilator products. With these partnerships, we aim to onboard a new customer base that we haven't sold before. Looking forward, we continue to expand and diversify the consumption scenarios and the partners ecosystems to build a financial product metrics that covers the wider user base to speed up the overseas business goals. Looking ahead to the second half year, although the Philippines might experience some typhoon-related seasonal impact in Q3, we will stay prudent in our customer acquisition strategies.

Given the powerful momentum for our ecosystem partners and our expanding product offerings, we are very confident in maintaining the growth trajectory for the full year. Thank you, Cindy.

Thank you. Very clear.

Speaker 5

Thank you. Our next question today comes from Alex Yi with UBS Investment Bank. Please go ahead.

When she.

Speaker 0

So I'll.

you for my question. First question is about the asset quality. Can you give us more color on the drivers for the Q1Q movement in your day one delinquency ratio and collection ratio, and how has been the trend you have seen in July and August? Are you concerned about the potential spillover risk for your core customer base from the current regulatory uncertainty? Second question is about your overseas business. Can you walk us through how has been the development of your overseas business compared to plan in the beginning of the year, in particular given you have issuance and convertible bonds earlier? How is that expected to contribute to your overseas growth in the coming quarters? Should we expect diversity growth to accelerate from here? Thank you.

Okay, thanks. Yeah, let me take your question. Your first question is about the domestic business again. Let's get back to the domestic business. Overall risk level was largely in check in Q2, although we observed a moderate uptrend in July and August. We started to see the early spillover of the risk from 36% assets to 24% assets, but it remained under control as we preemptively managed the loan portfolio. In Q2, our key risk metrics remain largely stable. As we mentioned, it also affected the slightly long tenure of the portfolio. In the quarter, the daily delinquency rate held steady at 4.7%. Our 30-day loan collection rate remained strong at 89%. The vintage delinquency rate was 2.5%. In July, we saw a bit of upward movement. Our daily delinquency rate ticked up slightly by 20 bps to 4.9%.

We moved quickly to adjust our risk management strategies, and by August, the existing rate had stabilized at the 4.9% level, and our 30-day loan collection rate held firm at around 89%. In view of the uptrend of risk, we have proactively tightened our risk management in the following aspects. First, we reduced our exposure to the assets from those low quality channels, which historically carry the high risk, and for those high quality channels, maybe the information feed channel, we further adopt different credit strategy for our borrowers. For example, we reduce the credit limit to borrowers of the higher debt, offered better terms to borrowers of better credit score, and remove the credit limit that are not utilized.

In terms of the loan collection, we employed AI technology to identify and alert high risk borrowers who are in the early stage of the past due and set up the collection effort accordingly. Looking ahead, while we continue to be vigilant on risk for Q3 and Q4, we also have a risk buffer in place. Our provision coverage ratio has climbed to 543%, up significantly from 465% in Q1. We will remain flexible and adapt to the market dynamics. We are confident to stay constructive over the long-term development of the industry and the position of the leading platforms. That's for your first question. Your next question is about the overseas business and the impact of the convertible bonds. Our international performance, as we mentioned, the first half of the year has played out very much as we expected.

The transaction volume came in at RMB 6.2 billion, up 38% from last year. The outstanding balance grew to RMB 2.1 billion, a 50% increase, and the revenue reached RMB 1.5 billion, up 30%, making up 21% of the group's total revenue. The default cost in international markets has held steady, and we have continued to deepen relationships with more financial institutions. As we mentioned before, we have focused on attracting high quality borrowers in Indonesia, where we have seen a 50% improvement in credit costs compared to the start of the year. The credit cost in the Philippines has held steady. This has driven a steady improvement in our take rate. On top of that, the recent removal of the LIBOR transition in Indonesia could normalize the liquidity and provide us a stable environment to execute consistent customer acquisition and our risk pricing strategy going forward.

For our new market such as Pakistan, after we got the NBFC license last year, we just recently secured a Buy Now Pay Later license in July, and it can make us the first fintech platform that can operate both online and offline, representing a powerful endorsement from the regulators. Now our plan is to roll out more diversified consumer finance product offerings to serve our customers throughout their life cycles. Finally, I want to touch on how we are funding these goals. Our $150 million convertible bonds issuance in June was a strategic move. We used around $16 million for concurrent buyback, and the rest is gradually deployed to fund our international business. Our average overseas funding cost, you know, it's about 12% compared to the 2.5% coupon for CB. That's roughly 10% potential savings from the working capital management perspective.

This CB funding gives us more flexibility on funding cost when we engage with the local funding partners. All of these positive developments together with the gradual use of the CB funding led us to expect better profitability for our international business. We now expect the profit contribution from our international business of no less than $15 million this year, up from our prior estimate of $10 million. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. The next question comes from Dong Ping Zhou with CICC. Please go ahead.

Let me translate.

Speaker 2

I would like to inquire about.

Speaker 4

The company's future shareholder returns progress.

Speaker 2

We noticed that the company had repurchased about $60 million in shares during the period.

Speaker 0

First half of this year.

Speaker 2

Could you give me some color on the future progress of the repurchase? In addition, the company previously raised the year dividend payout ratio to the range of 20% to 30%. Is there a more specific dividend ratio?

Speaker 4

Plan available for disclosure to the shareholder at present?

Speaker 2

That's all. Thank you.

Speaker 0

Okay, thanks, Dongping. I will take your question. You know, the same capital to our shareholders is always a very important strategy for us. We were the first in the industry to launch the Capital Research program back in 2018. Since then, our commitment has been substantial. We have cumulatively returned $830 million to our shareholders, representing around 35% of our current market cap. Regarding the two pillars of the return, the dividend and the buyback. First, for the dividends, we are deeply committed to growing dividend. Our DPS reached $0.277 for 2024, up a strong 70% year-over-year. That actually marked our fifth consecutive year of growth with an impressive 80% case. This year, in March, our board approved a significant upgrade to our dividend policy, moving from a minimum of 10% of net profit to a new range of 20% to 30% annually.

Due to this enhanced policy and our performance, we will track the DPS goals to ensure a sustainable dividend growth strategy. Second, as for the share repurchases, we see the buybacks as a powerful and complementary tool. We had a $115 million buyback program in place until March 2027. In the first half of the year, we have repurchased $63.8 million, representing a 12% increase year-over-year. We believe this new buyback and upgraded dividend policy stand a key message. We are committed to returning capital to our shareholders and a sign of our confidence in sustained growth, profit potential, and expanding the international presence. Okay, thanks, Dongping.

This concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

All right, thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact our IR team. Thank you again for joining.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

Speaker 0

Thank you.