Noah Holdings - Earnings Call - Q3 2025
November 25, 2025
Transcript
Operator (participant)
After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Doreen Chiu, Company's Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Doreen Chiu (Senior Director of Investor Relations)
Thank you, Dave. Good morning, afternoon, and evening to everyone, and welcome to Noah's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Ms. Jingbo Huang, our Co-Founder and Chairwoman; Mr. Zander Yin, Co-Founder, Director, and CEO; and Mr. Grant Pan, the CFO. Mr. Yin will begin with an overview of our recent business highlights, followed by Mr. Pan, who will discuss our financial and operational results. They will all be available to take your questions in the Q&A session that follows.
Please note that the discussion today will contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those outlined in our public filings with the SEC and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Noah does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. With that, I would like to pass the call over to Mr. Yin.
Mr. Yin, please go ahead.
Zander Yin (Director and CEO)
[Foreign language]
Good morning to everyone, and thank you for joining us today. During the quarter, we are seeing three very clear trends emerge. First, despite ongoing revenue pressure, our profitability and margins improved significantly, with non-GAAP net income increasing by over 50% year-on-year. Second, investment products have seen accelerated growth and are accounting for a larger share of new revenue. Lastly, key initiatives including the establishment of four overseas booking centers and the rollout of AI-related projects have transitioned from planning to actual implementation. These three trends give us greater confidence that our transformation strategy is making solid progress.
[Foreign language]
Financially, net revenues for the third quarter reached RMB 633 million, down slightly year-on-year but up sequentially, marking the second consecutive quarter of sequential growth. The year-on-year revenue decline was mainly due to continued softness in both domestic and overseas insurance businesses, in line with our expectations that 2025 to 2026 would be a period of revenue mix adjustment. Notably, our revenue mix continues to improve significantly, driven by growing investment products revenues, which accounted for approximately 28% during the quarter, compared to 18% a year ago, a clear improvement compared to the same period last year, and something we will continue to focus on going forward.
As a result, our bottom line delivered a solid performance with non-GAAP net income for the third quarter up more than 50% year-on-year to RMB 229 million. This brings non-GAAP net income for the first three quarters of 2025 to RMB 587 million, a clear reflection of the results our prudent investment strategy and cost controls are delivering.
[Foreign language]
Performance of our overseas and domestic operations are each following distinct trends. For overseas operations, it has maintained a pattern of strong investment product growth and soft insurance product distribution. Net revenues from ARK, our overseas wealth management business, were RMB 146 million in the third quarter, a year-on-year decrease of 22.7%, due primarily to a decline in revenue contribution from the distribution of insurance products. Sequentially, however, revenues were up 13%. By the end of third quarter, overseas AUA reached $9.3 billion, up 6.8% year-on-year. Notably, transaction value of U.S. dollar private secondary products in the first three quarters increased nearly 2.5 times year-on-year to $688 million. Net revenues from Olive, the overseas asset management arm, were RMB 118 million in the third quarter, up 8.6% sequentially, driven primarily by growth in AUM and recurring service fees.
By the end of the third quarter, overseas AUM was $5.9 billion, up 5.3% year-on-year. Net revenues from Glory Family Heritage, which provides overseas insurance and comprehensive services, were RMB 47 million in the third quarter, up 19.8% year-on-year. While investment services remain our core focus, we shall continue to serve clients with insurance products through our capital-light, commission-only broker model. On the domestic side, we are seeing strong momentum in the secondary market, a continued focus on exits in the primary market, and the insurance segment entering an adjustment phase. For Noah Upright, our domestic public securities business continued to benefit from a rebound in the A-share market. Transaction value for RMB-denominated private secondary products in the first three quarters grew 206% year-on-year to RMB 8.97 billion.
Net revenues from domestic public securities for the third quarter were RMB 116 million, up 8.7% year-on-year, and underscoring the strategic direction we are headed in with growing AUA and expanding investment capabilities. Net revenues from domestic asset management, GOFA, were RMB 189 million in the third quarter, up 4.9% year-on-year as it maintained stable profitability and continues to facilitate exits from existing assets. Net revenues from domestic insurance business, Glory, were RMB 5 million in the third quarter, down 44.8% year-on-year. The pace of the fall in net revenues was in line with our planned pace of consolidation and transformation to domestic insurance business. Overall, the rebalancing of our overseas and domestic operations is making solid progress, with investment product growth increasingly acting as a new growth driver.
[Foreign language]
In the third quarter, we continue to make solid progress in our overseas expansion with the establishment of four booking centers, which form the foundation of our global operational system. In the U.S., we officially obtained a U.S. broker-dealer license and will continue to steadily build our business there in accordance with local regulatory requirements. In Singapore, we continue to strengthen our capabilities and build out our team. While in Hong Kong and Shanghai, we continue to serve as a core hub for operations, compliance, and support systems. Our global operations framework is gradually improving, providing an important foundation for future cross-regional client services and asset allocation.
[Foreign language]
AI is a disruptive force in the wealth management industry with immense future potential and serves as our second strategic growth driver for the future. Over the past few months, we have begun implementing our AI RM plus AI operation system plan. Initial pilots were launched during the quarter to improve client outreach, content generation, and backend operations, as well as cross-departmental collaboration in Singapore specifically. In the latest update to our app, we officially launched our AI RM, NOIA, providing clients with deeper engagement and interaction. I want to emphasize, however, AI is not simply a PPT concept for us; it is an institutionalized operational capability. We will continue to develop AI capabilities across the entire value chain in a steady and pragmatic manner.
[Foreign language]
Looking ahead, we remain firmly committed to advancing our three core strategies. First, strengthening our core capabilities in investment product selection, fundraising, and co-investment to increase the proportion of investment products in our revenue mix, drive product innovation, and create a differentiated competitive advantage. Second, establishing AI as our second strategic growth driver by strengthening the development and deployment of AI tools across relationship management, operations, and investment research to firmly embed it into our organizational DNA and operational systems.
Lastly, leveraging our four overseas booking centers as the foundation for a globally coordinated service platform that delivers a consistent wealth management experience for global Chinese clients. At the same time, we will continue to maintain prudent operations and drive quality growth, striving to improve shareholder returns. By improving capital efficiency, optimizing cost structure, and strengthening cash flow, we will continuously enhance our competitiveness and market share in the global Chinese wealth management market. Thank you.
Now, I'll hand over to our CFO, Grant, to provide a detailed overview of the group's financial performance.
Grant Pan (CFO)
Thank you, Zander, for the comprehensive strategy and market overview. Warm greetings to everyone joining us today. For those of you that are in the United States, happy Thanksgiving and holiday season. I also want to make instruction of the AI RM NOIA; she actually did the English translation just now, if you have noticed. I'm very pleased to share NOIA's financial performance for the third quarter of 2025 and resource allocation priorities from a financial perspective. During this quarter, we delivered solid profitability supported by prudent investment decisions and disciplined cost management. Non-GAAP net income reached RMB 229 million, up 52.2% year-over-year and 21.2% sequentially, with a margin of 36.2%. The first nine months of 2025, non-GAAP net income totaled RMB 587 million, a 40.5% increase from the same period last year. This was achieved despite a 7.4% year-over-year decline in total net revenues.
For the quarter, as we continue to optimize our revenue structure by emphasizing on investment products, as mentioned by Zander, and consciously reduce dependence on insurance-related revenue. Total revenue for the third quarter was RMB 633 million, reflecting a year-over-year decline primarily driven by lower insurance income amid intensified competition in both domestic and overseas insurance markets. Yet, it still recorded modest sequential improvement overall, marking our second consecutive quarter of growth. Total transaction value remained high at RMB 17 billion, maintaining the same elevated level as the previous quarter and rising 19.1% year-over-year. RMB denominated products increased 28.7% year-over-year, while U.S. dollar denominated products grew 9.6% year-over-year. The strength in investment-led transactions helped offset softness insurance and domestic management fees, which continued to weigh on overall revenue.
One-time commissions-related investment products grew 85.5% year-over-year, supported by stronger client sentiment, expanded range of quality global investment solutions offered to our clients. Overseas net revenues for the third quarter remained robust at RMB 311 million, contributing 49.1% of total net revenues. Our revenue type, one-time commissions, were RMB 159 million, up 2.2% sequentially. For the first three quarters, the transaction value of RMB private secondary products, which surged 206% to RMB 9 billion, and U.S. dollar private secondary products, excluding cash management, climbed 244% to $688 million. Recurring service fees exceeded expectations, rising 4.7% year-over-year and 3.6% sequentially to RMB 421 million. The increase was supported by higher overseas product management fee contributions and some extensions of domestic PE funds. When domestic exit activities were slower than expected, we do not view this as a structural issue.
We acknowledge in recurring income may face some pressure in the near term, but we're proactively managing our portfolio and strengthening overseas products fee contributions to mitigate the impact. Performance-based income remained stable from last quarter, stood at RMB 22 million. Our overall operating expenses declined 1.6% sequentially to RMB 461 million. For the first three quarters, it has dropped 6.5% year-over-year, reflecting improved efficiency across the organization. This discipline enabled us to expand our operating margin to 27.6% for the first nine months from 25.5% a year ago, with operating profit reaching RMB 519 million, up 4.6% year-over-year. In the third quarter alone, operating profit was RMB 172 million, with a 27.2% margin. Non-GAAP net income rose to RMB 229 million, up 52.2% year-over-year and 21.2% sequentially, reflecting continuing operational strength and solid investment performance.
That said, we may encounter a moderation in the fourth quarter as market conditions evolve. As of September 30th, 2025, total assets under management AUM stood at RMB 143.5 billion. U.S. dollar denominated AUM grew 5.3% year-over-year and 2.6% sequentially to $5.9 billion, while U.S. dollar denominated assets under advisory, the AUA, increased 6.8% year-over-year and 2.0% sequentially to $9.3 billion. This ongoing expansion in overseas assets highlights Noah's success in capturing offshore investment demand and strengthening our international footprint. Our overseas client base continues to grow, with registered clients up 13.1% year-over-year and active clients reaching 3,561 by the end of the third quarter. The number of newly acquired golden clients, defined as professional investors, has reached over 1,000 by the end of the third quarter, reflecting our ability to attract and retain high-quality clientele. Our balance sheet remains strong and debt-free.
As of September 30th, 2025, cash and short-term investment totaled RMB 5 billion, even after a dividend payout of RMB 550 million. With zero interest-bearing liabilities, we remain significant liquidity and flexibility to support global growth and technology investments. In closing, even under softer revenue conditions, our disciplined operating model and prudent investment approach delivered solid profitability and margin expansion. With a strong balance sheet, growing global presence, and ongoing digital transformation and AI application, we remain confident in Noah Holdings' ability to deliver sustainable growth and create long-term value for all stakeholders. Thank you for your trust and continued support, and we'll now open the floor for questions.
Doreen Chiu (Senior Director of Investor Relations)
Thank you, Grant.
Operator (participant)
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time you want to withdraw your question, please press star and then two. If you would like to state your question in Chinese, you may do so, but then please also restate your question in English. The first question comes from Helen Li with UBS. Please go ahead.
Helen Li (Equity Research Analyst)
Yes. Can you hear me?
Doreen Chiu (Senior Director of Investor Relations)
Yes. Please go ahead.
Jingbo Wang (Chairwoman)
Helen, we lost you. Is she there? Hello?
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Peter Zhang with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Peter Zhang (Equity Research Analyst)
[Foreign language]
Peter Zhang from JPMorgan. Thanks for, congratulations on the very strong result, and, thanks for giving me the opportunity to ask questions. I have two questions. First is, Meg gave very clear guidance on Noah's three, strategy, on AI, on increasing the investment product proportion, and on the four booking center. I have two follow-up questions. First is, can we understand what, what will be the, potential financial impact from these strategies? For example, with the adoption of AI, will we see any cost saving on the, operating plan side, or will we see any improving in, revenue? Regarding the booking center, particularly on the U.S. booking center, will we see very strong upfront investment into the 2026, when, when we, fully launch this business?
The second follow-up question is, we also wish to understand from the investor perspective, is there any matrix we can track on Noah's progress in this strategy in the, say, coming 1-2 years? My second question is on the overseas relationship manager and the domestic covered city. I observed that overseas relationship manager account have dropped in the quarter, while the domestic covered city has increased in the quarter. The third trend is a bit different from the trend we have been observing in the, I think, past two years. We wish to understand what's the rationale behind. Is there any major change in our company strategy, or this is just due to some market or, say, RM account fine-tuning? I will stop here. Thank you.
Grant Pan (CFO)
Okay. Thank you, Peter. Thanks for actually asking a pretty comprehensive question. I'll try to take the first question, and Zander will supplement on the second one. For the first question, especially on the three significant measurements, especially for the strategy of optimizing revenue structure, I think a couple of things that the investor could track or pay attention to is one is the weight of revenue that's coming from investment-related products. We do believe that, you know, both revenue and top line will continue to grow. At the same time, the structure that comes from investment-related products, given the actual expansion on product shelf and how the recovery of sentiment relating to investing from our clients, we believe that that's one of the things obviously we could attract.
Secondly, obviously, we want to see a meaningful accumulation on investment-related AUM, and AUA as well. Secondly, to your question, I believe our Chairwoman could also add on is the AI investment. It's not a small optimization or extracurricular activity in terms of AI investments. We're actually looking to innovate the business model on top of the traditional offline or physical RM team, if you will, by actually adding two teams. One is the AI RM that will continue to activate the existing client group to activate sort of the non-active clients or new clients. We believe that AI actually provides a more structured method and a more tailor-made capability to activate the new client leads.
We're actually trying to see if we could, you know, as Noah actually do have a pretty established infrastructure in terms of systematic infrastructure as well as the capability offering various products. We want to see if we could use, with the help of AI, to consolidate or aggregate some of the EM services that seems to be pretty mature in overseas market. Basically, in short, we're trying to see if the AI capabilities that we'll continue to invest in will increase the capability on several fronts. One is obviously client acquisition, new client acquisition, and two is to upgrade the business model in the future. We have been doing that, especially the design, organization structure this year, and we'll have a strategic investment in AI starting from 2026.
To your question on the booking center, yes, we will have a little bit of infrastructure construction, obviously, in the U.S. booking center, but we already had presence in the U.S. market for the past few years. Many of the teams are actually already out there. Obviously, we'll be adding, you know, some of the mid-back office capability for the broker-dealer business. From the budget standpoint, it's actually not going to be a very significant addition in terms of operating expenses, but basically, you know, the necessary infrastructure for the year of 2026. Okay? So Peter, that's the first question.
Zander Yin (Director and CEO)
[Foreign language]
Grant Pan (CFO)
[Foreign language]
Zander Yin (Director and CEO)
[Foreign language]
Let me do a quick translation first. CEO just mentioned for the three strategies, it's actually very correlated because the key thing that we're trying to do is to drive the company as an AUM-driven company. During these structural changes, we've been trying to more, because in the past few years, the clients are more conservative in terms of investment. The recent year we've seen that it has been changed and clients been more active in the investment now. That's why we believe that AUM-driven structure in terms of our revenue is the key engine for the company growth in the near future. When we're talking about AUM-driven revenue growth, that is why we needed to think about the AI development and also the different booking centers that we've been having globally.
Because for AI, investment, that it can help to enhance our business efficiency and also it provides a better experience to our clients, which we believe that it can further reinforce our momentum in terms of giving clients a better service and our sales performance. Also for booking center, basically it's the same idea. We've been trying our clients' footprint as well because we've seen more global demand in terms of the investment need, and that's why we needed to build up the platform and provide these infrastructures to our clients. Yes, it may have a little impact on our clients unavoidably, but we believe that with our strong balance sheet, we've been able to keep a very prudent investment theme, but at the same time been able to support our development.
[Foreign language]
To your second question, Peter, CEO emphasized that we didn't change any of our focus on developing our overseas market. When you have seen that they dropped the number of our overseas RM, I would also say that it's more like an active adjustment internally instead of other reasons. It's because, to have the right RMs is actually requires a lot of investment and time. I mean, we will need to have the right RM, and that's also the reason why we've been started to invest in our AI development and try to introduce the AI RM concept. That is NOIA that you've just met. It's actually our one of the AI RM that we are having. Because when we look at the efficiency, they can actually cover, the number of clients will be a lot, more.
That is what CEO mentioned, the capacity that AI RM could have compared to any human beings. Also, you may have seen the number of cities in domestic markets we cover seems to have increased. Again, that's not exactly the same type, same type of office that we've been having in some of the major cities. Those we increased are mainly just at the N+. We will call it more like a clubhouse. It's more for client relationship, and it's for our elite clients, better experience with us. We wanted to emphasize that our focus on developing overseas markets remains the same.
Jingbo Wang (Chairwoman)
[Foreign language]
can you hear me?
Peter Zhang (Equity Research Analyst)
Yeah, yeah.
Jingbo Wang (Chairwoman)
[Foreign language]
Let me do a very quick translation. What our Chairwoman has mentioned is that we started to invest in different types of AI or investment-related funds since 2016, and we have been staying very close to a lot of top-tier high-tech companies. The reason we bring this up is because we have been trying to demonstrate where all this knowledge about AI and technology we have been adopting comes from. For example, investors or analysts could have seen that we have been launching all these types of infrastructure funds and all our brand as well. We have been trying to demonstrate that we have a very deep knowledge about AI and that we believe that it is going to have very structural changes to the wealth management industry.
In the past, it's more like a RM-driven, a human-driven model, but we believe that going forward it's more like an operational-driven model. What is an operational-driven model? We believe that it depends on, I mean, it depends on development of AI, which is, for example, we can have an AI wealth management team. It could have people still to do the data analysis, and some people may hold license. At the end of the day, it's about AI. They've been able to help and enhance human beings' knowledge about different investment products and their client needs, so that they can come up and they can cover a lot more clients per person, unlike in the past. That's what we call operational-driven.
Also, when we are developing the overseas market, what we've seen is, it's hard to rely on human beings, at the sense that because the cost could be high and also, the loyalty or the disposability may not be as high or, or not be that high. That is why the company believes that using operational-driven wealth management system is a more efficient way of running this business. That not only is happening in Noah, we believe that that is going to be a very, it's going to be a new development in the entire industry in the coming three to five years' time. We have been trying to take advantage, or we've been trying to take step ahead of the industry so that the company can be ahead of the industry to adopt, adopt this operational-driven model.
To supplement this also, we've been introducing the EAM or what we call IES system in the USA. Also, we've been hiring this commission-based agency during our insurance products. That said, overall, we are talking about, or from the company's point of view, it's about building the global platform, the infrastructure for all these operational-driven models being able to deliver good results for the company.
[Foreign language]
Thanks. As a conclusion, we believe that with AI, currently what we are having is that all of our RMs have their own AI assistant, and we believe that can enhance the capacity to, like, become one people become three RMs. More importantly, it is about the new business unit or business line that we have been setting up. Another one would be AI wealth management that we mentioned previously, which is, within the AI wealth management team, they have been able to give better experience to the new clients, and also they have been able to help to dig into our client base and try to reconnect with those clients who may not have been very active in the past few years. Another business side we have been trying to, or we have, we have been developing is also this AI ecosystem team, which is that they have been focusing to serve the EAM business that we mentioned, and also this commission-based agency that will supplement the company's development.
[Foreign language]
Peter, any more questions?
Peter Zhang (Equity Research Analyst)
[Foreign language]
Oh, very, very clear. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Again, if you have a question, please press star and then one. Our next question comes from Calvin Wang with Citi. Please go ahead.
Calvin Wang (Equity Research Analyst)
[Foreign language]
Doreen Chiu (Senior Director of Investor Relations)
Yes, Calvin.
Calvin Wang (Equity Research Analyst)
[Foreign language]
Thanks for taking this and congrats on the solid premium in third quarter. This is Calvin from Citi, and I have a question on investment product sales, which sustained a robust growth in the quarter. What measures have Noah taken specifically and looking into fourth quarter? What is our strategy in investment product sales across domestic and overseas markets? Are there any products that will be our focus? thank you. Thanks.
Zander Yin (Director and CEO)
[Foreign language]
It's, you may be aware that in this company we have this CIO book, CIO report, which has been issued every half year, and during the recent published, we talked about there's three types of product that we believe that should be paid more attention to. For the first type is some fund or investment that is been able to fight inflation, which would be more traditional types of fund, including those property fund or maybe gold or material related types of fund. Secondly would be more technology related, which is using technologies to fight inflation. For example, these AI that would be mentioned, not only for the company's adopting of the using, but also related type of investment as well.
The first one would be some newly developed, that business is more like the crypto that we've been paying, or we've been advising our clients to pay more attention to. I mean, as our Chairwoman mentioned, luckily we've been connecting with the U.S. product market since 2016, and we have developed a team there to sourcing different types of funds or investment products for our clients. That's why we've been able to, been enhancing our product shell in the past few years. That's why starting from the last few years, you may have been able to see reflecting on our financial performance, instead of just PE fund being able to sell to clients, we have seen a very substantial improvement in selling hedge funds.
That is, the secondary market, secondary market types of fund that have been able to sell to our investors or to our clients. Also, really about the RMB market, we may have to say that yes, because of the performance of our A-share market, we have seen a lot of interest in our client for the RMB related products. However, the company still keeps a very rather prudent and conservative belief towards the RMB type of product. We still believe that our strength or our focus is more on overseas investment products, more particularly, these technology related type, AI related type products.
[Foreign language]
Jingbo Wang (Chairwoman)
[Foreign language]
Thank you, Chairwoman. What she mentioned, promoting to CEO's answer is, we probably shouldn't just look at a particular type of products when we've been answering this question. It's more about the company's position. It's also about our own DNA, which is, we've been able to serve all the global Chinese. We understand them and we know how to give them better services. It's also about the infrastructure that we have, the booking centers globally and the different business units. For example, ARK in Hong Kong, in Singapore, they've been able to provide services for opening accounts, buying equities, buying bond-related products. We have all of our asset management, that's been strong traditionally in PE funds, and we're now introducing hedge fund. Our brand Glory, we've been able to provide trust services or even insurance, advice and family planning.
It's about the infrastructure that we've been having and means that we've been always able to meet our clients' needs. For our example, that's why, what we've been keep on saying, we wanted to be an AUM-driven, revenue model. That's also why we've been starting to build up the commission-based insurance agency team, because we've been trying to lower the running cost, but at the same time still provide comprehensive services to meet our clients' needs. I guess that's our advantage of the company. It's not about picking what products to be sold to the clients, but we've been able to provide whatever our client needs and meet their demand.
[Foreign language]
Our Chairwoman explained the strategy. Since starting this year, I mean, we wanted to focus on the Chinese high net worth, so it's no longer competing by providing what type of product, but about we've been able to provide the services. She emphasized again about the RM team that we've been building, the booking center we've been able to have globally so that we've been able to provide services across different time zones and across different geographical restrictions. Also, when we've been serving this high net worth, one thing is different. They no longer just relate to one geographical place. They've been speaking different languages. When we have been entering different markets, we also face the difficulties of regulatory requirement.
That is one of the lowest competitor edge because if any wealth management company with a smaller scale, that may be a very difficult thing to override. That is why we've been in the right size to be able to set up our global infrastructure platform, been able to cooperate with local EAM IAF team so that we've been able to provide global services to any potential high net worth tenant client that we've been able to reach.
[Foreign language]
I guess, the Chairwoman wanted to further share her confidence and happiness.
[Foreign language]
I guess she's very excited and everyone can sense that. We've been able to find the right strategy going forward to develop this company. Again, she emphasizes about the global platform. It's about the different business unit that we have already developed and invested in the previous years. It's also about the new development like ecosystem and AI RM. Together we've been able to serve globally and meet all the clients, all the, particularly Chinese high net worth needs, in this global market. She is very confident and has a very high hope about this development strategy for the company.
Calvin Wang (Equity Research Analyst)
[Foreign language]
That's it from my end, thank you.
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Xian Zhong'en with CICC. Please go ahead.
Xian Zhong’en (Equity Research Analyst)
[Foreign language]
Jingbo Wang (Chairwoman)
[Foreign language]
Xian Zhong’en (Equity Research Analyst)
[Foreign language]
Thanks for taking my question. My first question is, about the investment income and income from, equity in affiliates. I see that, both these items, have significant meaningful contribution to the growth of net profits. I would like to, oh, could you please share the reasons behind and the trend in the fourth quarter? The second question is about the active clients. I see that the active clients increased both double digits, YY and QQ. Could you please share, what you have observed, from the client's behavior, the impact on the financial statements and the trend in the fourth quarter? Thanks.
Zander Yin (Director and CEO)
[Foreign language]
Jingbo Wang (Chairwoman)
[Foreign language]
About the investment game that we've been having, one of the major reasons is due to the previous investment the company is having, particularly being the GP for some of these PE funds. We've been seeing some exit in the recent years during the good market. Also, we can have a valuation gain for some of the investment as well. In terms of active clients, we've been able to have a better result because we've been now more focusing on investment products, which for investment products like insurance, clients may have repeat buying with us. We've been able to enhance or help or maintain a rather stronger relationship with them. The CEO emphasized that's the reason why we would like to be more focused as an AUM-driven company.
[Foreign language]
Zander Yin (Director and CEO)
[Foreign language]
Jingbo Wang (Chairwoman)
[Foreign language]
The Chairman and Chairwoman further explained that that is because one of these, I mean the investment game that we've been able to have, is because the right decision that we've made in the past. So being invested in different types of all these PE funds or also even listed in the USA, we may have some hurdles in the previous year, but that we've been seeing good results. For example, this investment income, that is one of the examples showing that the company's been able to make right decisions in the in the previous years. And that's also the reason explain why. I mean when we have good result investment, that is an attraction point to our clients. That's, that made them more willing to invest with us.
Xian Zhong’en (Equity Research Analyst)
[Foreign language]
Very clear, thank you.
Grant Pan (CFO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Helen Li with UBS. Please go ahead.
Helen Li (Equity Research Analyst)
[Foreign language]
Jingbo Wang (Chairwoman)
[Foreign language]
Helen Li (Equity Research Analyst)
[Foreign language]
I have a follow-up question regarding AI application. How will AI support client acquisition in the overseas market? Given the recent decline in overseas relationship managers, does this suggest a strategic shift towards serving existing clients' overseas investment needs rather than focusing on expanding local client acquisition? Is the reduction in headcount primarily affecting back office RM, or does it also affect client-facing front office RM? Do you still plan to expand the client-facing front office RM team? Previously, the target was to grow the overseas RM team to 300 in the medium term. With the adoption of AI, has there been any change to this medium-term target? Thank you.
Jingbo Wang (Chairwoman)
[Foreign language]
Zander Yin (Director and CEO)
[Foreign language]
Jingbo Wang (Chairwoman)
[Foreign language]
So, to answer your question, the Chairwoman was just joking about that we do not want to share the secret of how we have been able to get clients, but that is more like a joke because, I mean, ultimately it is about how many clients that we have already been served. We have already served more than 400,000 clients over the last 22 years. Also, with all these different types of PE funds that we have invested, we have mapped a lot of our potential high net worth or going to be high net worth or have become high, high net worth individuals by their business development.
The company is very confident that we have already had the database, but in the past, one of the difficulties is that if we have the capability or if we are capable to serve these types of clients in a good way. With the AI's assistance, we believe that we've been able to deliver better services and better solutions to all our clients. That's why with this client base that we already have, we've been able to give the right service to them with the assistance of AI. She also provided one example: we have this client in Singapore, we met him and he became our client. He invested with us, only took five days, and that is impossible in the past.
It may take more than two months in the past, but now with the assistance of AI, that is providing solutions, explanation, and different types of understanding. That is the reason why it has enhanced the company's efficiency in getting potential clients.
Zander Yin (Director and CEO)
[Foreign language]
The CEO just further explained that how AI is affecting the company. We believe that everyone's talking about AI, every company wanted to use AI, but it's about if they have the basic to be able to really adopt AI. That is, because using AI and using AI efficiently is two different topics that we've been talking about. Why Noah has been able to ahead in this competition is because we have adopted digitalization. I mean, in the early stage, we have developed the right system. We internally have all this data, analysis, our system build-up, even the OA structure and all that. Because of that, we've been able to adopt AI in a faster pace compared to some of our peers.
Also, when Helen is asking how AI has been able to help the company, CEO's answer was, yes, we have already seen some benefits been arrived using AI, but that AI's adoption could be out of our imagination. The benefit that we've been experiencing could be a lot more in the future. Hello? Yes, one question.
Operator (participant)
It's concluded our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Doreen Chiu for any closing remarks.
Doreen Chiu (Senior Director of Investor Relations)
Yes, thanks, Dave. Thank you very much for joining us today. If anyone has any further questions, please contact the IR team as usual. Thank you very much.
Operator (participant)
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.