Hi, everyone. Welcome to iPass Corporation's Second Quarter twenty twenty five and First Half twenty twenty five Results Presentation. My name is JP from the Corporate Communications team at iPass. And together with me, we have Chang Chun, our CEO and Terence, our CFO for the session, together with our colleagues from the finance team as well as the corporate cons team. I'll be going through the key summary and Section one on the financial results before Chongqing's introduction to present on Section two, which is on the business updates.
Starting off with a key summary. In second quarter twenty twenty five, our net profit increased by 37.9% year on year to $22,110,000 That's on the back of a 28% year on year increase in our gross revenue to $120,240,000 The increase in second quarter twenty twenty five profitability was driven by growth in the Hong Kong ePension business, a turnaround in IFAZ Global Bank and continuing growth in our core Wealth Management Platform business. For our Wealth Management Platform business, our Group's assets under administration or AUA increased 21.6 year on year to a new record high of $27,200,000,000 Our group's net inflows were also at a record high of $1,290,000,000 in second quarter of this year. So following the initial quarter profitability in fourth quarter of last year, iPass Global Bank continues its profitable growth path. It achieved a net profit of $700,000 in second quarter twenty twenty five, which compares favorably to a loss of $1,560,000 in the previous year.
So that marks the third consecutive quarterly profit for iPass Global Bank. The Bank's profitability in second quarter twenty twenty five was achieved on the back of 85% year on year increase in gross revenue, which stood at $21,100,000 The bank's customer deposits grew 124 year on year to $1,450,000,000 at the end of second quarter of this year. The group's Hong Kong business saw a 33.4% year on year growth in gross revenue to $45,600,000 in second quarter of this year. The increase in revenue reflected the growth of the e pension business as well as the wealth management business in Hong Kong. Profit before tax for the overall Hong Kong operations saw a 17.8% year on year increase to $15,700,000 in second quarter twenty twenty five.
Looking forward and barring unforeseen circumstances, we expect the group's revenues and profitability in second half of this year to show a healthy improvement compared to first half of this year. The E Pension division is expected to improve as the onboarding of the E and P and business continues to progress. The core wealth management business and iPOS Global Bank are expected to continue to grow. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the group expects 2025 as a whole to see robust growth rates in revenues and profitability compared to 2024. The Group has a strong balance sheet with cash and cash equivalents amounting to $821,840,000 as of end second quarter twenty twenty five.
This reflects the conservative balance sheet strategy adopted by IFAW's Global Bank and the strong cash generative business model of the group's wealth management business over the years. The group's return on equity in first half twenty twenty five was at a healthy 24.6% level. A healthy ROE allows the group to be able to pursue robust long term growth strategies while being able to raise our dividend payouts. Regarding the dividend payouts for the second interim dividend for FY 2025, the directors proposed a dividend of CAD0.02 per ordinary share, which is 33.3% higher compared to the second interim dividend of 2024, which was at $0.15 per ordinary share. For FY 2025, the directors expect to propose a total dividend of CAD0.08 per ordinary share or higher, which is at least 25.6% higher than last year's FY 2024 dividend, which stood at CAD0.59 per ordinary share.
Moving on to our group's AUA slide. As mentioned, so AUA increased 21.6% year on year to $27,200,000,000 as at June 30. Q on Q, AUA grew by about 5.9%. The usual split between B2B and B2C is showed here with B2B contributing the majority of the AUA at about twothree of the group's total and the remaining onethree coming from our B2C business division. Regarding the AUA breakdown by markets and products.
So Singapore remains the largest market and Malaysia and Hong Kong are at about the same level of about 11% each. And under others, we have China and UK, which has been growing relatively faster, especially if we look at the same numbers one year ago. And very similarly, because of the bank's progress, as we mentioned, in terms of customer deposits, that amount for AUA breakdown by products in cash account and deposits has also been growing at a relatively faster pace, which now takes up about 9.5% of total AUA. Of course, the majority is still accounted for by unit trust firstly at 56%, followed by stocks and ETFs at 21.9% and bonds at 12.5%. Moving on to Section one on the financial results for the group in 2025 versus second quarter of last year.
So total revenue was at $120,240,000 in second quarter of this year, which is a 28.3% year on year increase. Net revenue grew by 30% year on year to $80,050,000 Net profit was up 37.9 year on year to $22,110,000 EPS was up 35.9% year on year to $0.07 $31 And as mentioned just now, dividend per share at $02 for second quarter of this year, that's 33.3% higher than last year. For financial results for first half twenty twenty five versus first Recording half
stock. Of last total revenue for first half of this year at 2 and $27,160,000 which represents a 26.4 percent year on year increase. Net revenue was up 23.7% to $147,760,000 Net profit was up 34.7% to $41,150,000 in first half of this year. For EPS, it's up 33.1% year on year to $13.68 And for dividend per share, it's up 28.6% year on year. I won't go through the details on this slide, which talks about the results overview for the group for the last few years and first half of this year. I'll move on to PBT margin, the profit before tax margin, which is based on total net revenue. So that's grown to about 34% for first half of this year. Return on equity, it's at 24.6, as mentioned just now, for first half of this year. So that contrasts favorably to the low ROE levels in the period of 2022 and 2023, which was largely due to the share placement related to the acquisition of the bank in The U.
K. As well as some of the related start up expenses during that period. But ROE has since improved to the current levels that we see. In terms of the profit and loss at the geographical segment level, so I think if we look at the second quarter of this year, so we see improvement across the various operations. So Singapore's numbers up 11.9% year on year to $9,920,000 in second quarter of this year.
And for Hong Kong as well, up 17.8% year on year to 15,720,000 in second quarter. China's losses have narrowed by almost half to $860,000 in second quarter of this year. And for The U. K. Operation, as mentioned just now, it delivered a profit of CAD0.7 million in second quarter, which contrast favorably to the loss in second quarter of last year.
I won't go through the details for the first half numbers for this slide as well as the next slide, which shows the various details for the P and L for the various operations at the group level for the last few years. The next slide shows the gross revenue at geographical segment level. So I think we can see year on year growth rates for first half of this year across all the various operations, be it Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia or China. Of course, the stronger growth rates that we see came from The U. K.
Operation at iPass Global Bank. Similarly, for net revenue based on geographical segment, so I think we can see the year on year growth rates in first half of this year across the various operations with the stronger growth rates coming from The U. K. As well. So wrapping up our section this segment, it's on the dividend details.
So as mentioned just now, for the second interim dividend for FY 2025, it's at CAD0.02 per ordinary share. And for FY 2025, the directors proposed a total dividend of CAD0.08 per ordinary share, which is at least 35.6% higher compared to FY 2024. And graphically, we can see what the various numbers for the dividend trends have been for the last few years as well as the numbers that we have just mentioned for FY 2025. So I wrapped up Section one. I would now invite Chongqing to share more on the business update. Chongqing?
Thanks. Hi, everyone. Now I'll go to section two. Section two on a business update, I'll essentially highlight some some key points to to talk through.
So the first would actually be regarding the Hong Kong overall performance. Recall that in the previous quarter, we gave updated guidance in terms of the target for 2025. So here, we reproduce what actually happened in the 2025 in Hong Kong dollar. The guidance is Hong Kong dollar because our revenue essentially in Hong Kong dollar for the Hong Kong business. So in the first half, we achieved net revenue of slightly over HKD400 million and PBT of over HKD163 million.
For the full year, we have in the previous quarter gave updated guidance of target PBT of over $380,000,000 this point, in time, yes, there's no change to that. We expect that second half performance will actually be stronger because the largely because the ePatcher division is progressing in the onboarding and the ramping up is happening and that will continue. And the bulk of E and P business will be onboarded by the end of the year. So correspondingly, we expect that the revenue and the profitability will actually be increasing. Next slide.
Regarding the bank, the bank continues its third quarter of profitability. So in second Q, we achieved net profit of CAD0.7 million. This is less than CAD1 million achieved in first Q, but much better than a year before where we had a loss of 1.56. Second Q compared first Q, we essentially have a situation where the easier part of the business, which tend to be more volatile, saw some reduced contribution, reduced revenue. First Q is actually the season seasonally a busier period for the business, largely because of the EAT period
EAP, I think in Singapore, call it higher rate deposit. So that led to higher volume for the EAP business. But overall for the bank, what's important to note is that overall, the deposit continued to grow, driven particularly by the DPB part of the business, digital personal banking. So that has led to a strong ramp up in the overall deposit for the bank. So customer deposit grew 124% year on year to $450,000,000 at the end of second Q twenty twenty five.
So for first half, we basically achieved a profit of $1,700,000 for the bank compared to a loss of $3,850,000 in first of twenty twenty four. So overall, IFAW's Global Bank is actually progressing well, in line with what we have been shooting for. Next slide. In terms of the core wealth management part of the business, we achieved new record high AOA of billion. That is driven by record net inflow of billion in the second quarter itself.
And during the period, the number of customer account that we have as a group, plus PHP1 billion accounts. Next. So this is a chart that we typically show the iFast fintech ecosystem. Typically, every quarter we show this, but we have some updated numbers. So as noted earlier, customer account have crossed 1,000,000.
We currently have over 800 companies as b two b partners. And in terms of number of individual web advisers who are using our platform, as over 14,000 advisers. There's a chart showing the profitability of the bank as I noted earlier. And in terms of the net inflow, you can see that for the first half of this year, we had a net inflow of PHP 2,200,000,000.0. Second quarter itself was PHP 1,290,000,000.00.
So that's quite a strong momentum. The net inflow number does bounce around a bit, but I think the current trend that we have is one where the momentum has actually been picking up. Gross duty subscription, as shown on this chart, that's also trending well. Regarding the return on equity, I think earlier on, we saw a chart for the ROE for the last five years. Here, we actually produce a chart for ROE, for the last ten years.
So what I'd like to highlight really is that if you look at our business, it's actually a business where we generally are able to the nature of the business is such that we're able to achieve a good ROE, especially when the different business unit are contributing profitably. In some years, when certain part of the business are loss making then dragged down the overall ROE. But if you look at 2020, 2021, we saw five good ROE. By 2022, there was quite a substantial drop in ROE. That was a combination of a few reasons.
Firstly, we acquired the bank, the U. K. Bank in March 2022. So that led to some initial startup losses that we saw. Secondly, the overall market itself took quite a significant downturn that affect the overall business momentum for Wealth Management business.
And thirdly, there was a share placement that we did in 2021 where we raised $100,000,000 So that brought the level of equity up thereby also reducing the ROE. In the last few years, the ROE had been steadily trending up as the business continue to progress. We have the progress on Atlas Global Bank. We also have the progress on the e pension fund business where the overall profitability for Hong Kong start to pick up quite substantially. And of course, the whole wealth management business have been progressing as well.
So in the first half of this year, we saw quite healthy ROE as a whole. So for this quarter, I wanted to talk a bit about ROE just to also highlight some of the overall thinking that we have as a company in terms of how we manage our overall capital. So we have a business model that is inherently quite healthy in terms of ROE because it's essentially fee income. It's cash generative. The part that is require more capital will actually be the bank.
So most banks that they actually find that there's a limit to ROE that they actually have because net interest income drive the part of the overall profitability. But in the case of IFAUST Group, you actually find that we start with a situation where we have 100% fee income. So that fee income from overall profitability that we have. And the fee income part of the business essentially allow the ROE to continue to trend upwards quite well as the scale continue to improve. So if I if we combine the fee income of the business with the the bank part of the income, then you actually find that we have a situation where the overall ROE as a group continues to be quite healthy.
At the same time, it allow us to essentially be able to make a strong use of the capability of a bank. And I think what we are seeing is, yeah, situation where the the efforts that we have been putting in to deliver this business model start to show up better in the overall number. The profitability of Air France Group in the last two years have actually been improving. But before this latest quarter, you find that the dividend payout that we are giving have tend to be a bit more moderate. We have actually in the last one to two years increased our dividend by years in somewhat more moderate because we were going through a stage where we feel that we shouldn't rush while we are trying to build up the overall banking business and while the ePension business, we're still at this initial stages of ramping up.
But we have come to a stage where we feel quite comfortable about the overall cash flow. I think we're looking at based on the dividend that we are declaring in second quarter, we're looking at payout ratio of 26%. We have a ratio of 26%, but actually, the relative the cash payout is actually a bit less because our if you look at our overall profit that we report, that actually include significant level of noncash expenses, basically the PSP, which we knock off 10% from the P and L. So while the headline payout ratio is 26%, but in terms of cash component that we're paying off, it's actually less than that. So with that, we have come to a stage where we feel comfortable that we can start to increase the dividend more significantly.
And as a result of that, we declared the directors declared a 33% increase in dividend for second Q. And for the year as a whole, we're expecting that the dividend per share will be at least $0.8 per share. So that's where we are currently. Next slide. Yes.
Here, we have included the chart for the IFRS bond. Yes. Just for information in case some investor are not aware. In June, we issued I passed bond, a five year bond maturing year 2029. The coupon for that is 4.3%.
And yes, we're happy to say that since then, the bond has actually been performing well. The value of the bond have actually gone up about just over 5%. So on an overall basis, I think the bond has delivered a return of just over 10% in the past one year. The good performance of course led to a declining yield. So currently, we're looking at ICOS bond being traded at a yield of about 2.9, something 2.9.
The key point I wanted to highlight is really the fact that I think the good performance of bond reflect improving confidence that investors have with regard to the overall financial strength of Group. IFRS Group, of course, have continued to show overall improvement in terms of profitability and overall balance sheet strength. And I think we're seeing that recognition being reflected in the bond price. Of course, part of the declining yield arose because the overall interest rate environment in Singapore has been coming down quite significantly. But I would say that it also reflects a slight tightening of the spread for IFRS one.
And therefore it's actually reflecting the improving confidence that investors are having in IFRS Group. And I think having the a situation where I first born is actually being treated at a yield that is not too high, actually brings up a situation where it allow us to look at the overall capital management for the group in a potentially more efficient way. So in the past, we have tended to essentially rely only on equity capital. But where we are now, we have a situation where the bond market is an avenue that opens up for us. So while we don't really need to raise too much money, but it actually put us where, you know, in a situation where we're able to make use of the fact that the capital market, the bond market is confident about our group strength, and we can look at bonds as an alternative source of capital that make our overall cost of capital more efficient.
So that's where there's a situation that we're in currently. Yeah. So this one, I I essentially talk about it. So next. The the third part that I'd like to highlight really is with regard to artificial intelligence.
Of course, the world have been going on getting very excited about AI. We we have not previously mentioned much about AI, artificial intelligence, because we, yeah, are steadily, you know, putting in some efforts to lay the groundwork. But yes, the reality is that we have been quietly within IFA's group, former team since the end of twenty twenty three, and we have been gradually laying the foundation that allow us to make use of AI to help our overall business. We AI is actually an area where we see many different possibilities in terms of how we can help the overall group. But I'll say that it is also something where we need to be clear about how we prioritize because it it does take quite a bit of resources as well to be able to ensure that we can let AI help us in in a in a real and in a effective way.
So it's important that we are clear about what we're trying to achieve, and we prioritize areas that we we want AI to help us in. Yeah. The next two slides sort of some of the potential areas that we have been working on. But I would just like to maybe touch on one key point, which is where quite a lot of effort have been focused on for us in the last one point five years. So the the efforts we we have actually internally prioritized the AI effort on iPass Global Bank.
And the reason for that is because given the business model that we have for Air France Global Bank, firstly, is a digital bank. Secondly, we have what we call a truly global business model, meaning we are looking at being able to operate from, you know, one or a couple of countries, but we target customers from around the world. So in order to try to do that, it essentially means that we need to be able to transcend the language barrier. I I think when it comes to banking, most banks around the world still operate on a more localized basis. But if you want a more fully global manner, you want to be able to serve customers from around the world who are using different languages, but you want them to bank with us in one or a few location, then the use of AI will actually be very important in the long run.
So example will be customer service. Customer service, if you want customers to be able to contact us, whether it's by live chat or by call, then the ability to help the customers in multiple languages will actually be important. The ability to have customers not just on office hour, but to be able help them 24 by seven. The ability to eventually be able to service 1,000,000 customers, 5,000,000 customers, or more. I think that requires AI to be able to help us make a difference.
So there's a reason why we have actually been prioritizing the AIFS and IFS Global Bank, including on the customer service front in terms of helping us to serve a customer at different hours to be able to transcend language barrier. Of course, it's still an ongoing effort, but clearly, of our vision is that eventually customers will call in and call in from around the world. We will we'll be able to talk to our robo customer service officer in their different languages. Technology is not fully there, but it's actually progressing. And we are certainly making use of the progression in the overall technology that's been introduced by all the various bank giants.
We use that to apply to our overall business. Although there are as I mentioned, there are there are many other different area, including the ability to use EIS in fraud detection, etcetera, mitigate fraud the risk from fraud, etcetera. But yeah. But basically just highlighting some of the the key areas of priority that we are using currently. Okay.
So with that, yeah, I'll end the formal part of the presentation over here, and we're happy to take questions that come from here.
Thank you, Chongqing. And for the Q and A, those of you who are in the call, you can either type your question in the Q and A box or you can raise hands and we will unmute you so that we hear you ask the question. And of course, we also have some attendees here who have joined us. So we do have a couple of questions already.
So maybe we'll just start with Dusua here. Any questions?
We've got from CGS. I have a few questions. First of all, I think across the region, Singapore, Malaysia is kind of seeing the steady finish in your DEA.
We are comparing to our targets of reaching $100,000,000,000 by 2028? That's my first question. Second question on or maybe I'll just take it question by question.
Think firstly, yes, it's true that the cash part have actually increased quite a bit, partly reflecting our trust global bank, but also I think within Singapore, the cash that we have in trust account and our two sig has actually been very quite strongly. But just to clarify, actually cash is not really a lower margin business.
From our perspective, actually cash is a product, whether it's with the bank or even in Singapore, is a product that actually gives higher than average overall margin. But in terms of the growth of different asset classes, Actually, if you look at the equity market for the last couple of years, one of the interesting thing is that the strong performance of the equity market have been largely driven by US market. So while that has itself boosted the overall business that we actually have, but historically we find that one of the other factor that influenced the overall vibrancy of our business quite a bit is the performance of the overall Asian market. So in the last two years, while U. S.
Market had been hitting records all the time, you actually find that Asian market, including China, hasn't performed very well. And typically, when this segment start to perform better, then you actually find that the overall wealth management business will have become more vibrant, a bigger growth in overall equity funds, etcetera. And overall, there will be a faster growth rate as well. That tended to be the case. So yes, so over the long run, we still expect that the various segment of the asset classes will be able to grow, whether it's equity fund, fixed income fund or cash management product and cash. So that's the expectation that we have.
And you got the second question on Hong Kong. Regarding the guidance unchanged from the first quarter, kind of suggests that the second half revenue recognition will be much stronger. I'm sorry, understanding that there were some feeding issues for the onboarding process for the MPF project previously. I'm just wondering how that has played out over the past two to three months and if the margins from the Hong Kong business will be significantly impacted in the second half.
Also just a little add on is also the effect that you mentioned about how Oso was supposed to we were previously expecting Oso to start in the second half in terms of contribution. So just wondering where we are on the front of the rollout and whether this is one of the reasons why we expect your contribution from Hong Kong to kind of in terms of margins to probably slow down in the second half probably to ramp up this set of the business.
Firstly, with regard to the bidding issues that you were mentioning, I'll say that while operationally, on an ongoing basis, there will always be some little operational hiccups here and there. But I think the leading issue that the market was observing previously that has actually been reduced, right? So the overall EFDA business have been progressing in terms of the onboarding and the ramp up.
So that is actually continuing. And as a result of that, you find that the overall onboarding of the MPS business will pretty much be in line with what has been recently expected or planned. So that's, yes, where things are. Regarding the also business yeah. So on this part, yeah, the original plan start of the Hong Kong postal business was around originally, we were actually looking at second quarter.
That's what was originally planned since a year ago. Along the way, the yes, our sales and our business partner and the various parties decided that given that the priority for this year should really be on the e and p and business. So the decision was actually made to delay the live date of this also part of business. So as a result of that, the current expectation is that the Hong Kong also business will not be contributing in the second half of this year. It will start to contribute only next year.
But that has all been taken into account when we do their guidance for the overall Hong Kong business. So it doesn't negatively reduce the guidance of the credit issue. I think that's all I have for now.
Okay. Thank you, Wigong.
And perhaps I'll just take some of the questions online, which are quite similar to some of the questions that have just been raised. So firstly, I think from Jayden on the ePension business. How many trustees have been onboarded so far? And what is the progress on the remainder? Cost for this project expected to be higher in second half? Or would they be steady on first half levels?
Yeah. The first trustee was on boarded starting June. And since then, pretty much every month, there's a new trustee that's actually being onboarded. So that has been something that's ongoing.
And yes, for the next few months as well, actually expect that every month, there's pretty much one additional trustee being onboarded. And that's part of the that's largely in line with what has been planned in last one year. Yes. As far as costs are concerned, costs has actually been increasing for us for the MPF part of business because we've been adding more headcount and hiring. The headcount will continue to grow in the next three, six months as we continue to get ready for higher volume.
By the same time, we expect that in the second half of this year, the revenue will be increasing further as well as onboarding increases. So that's why on an overall basis, we expect that profitability in second half will be better than in this half.
Thank you, Chung Chun. So Alan also has questions pertaining to the Hong Kong ePension business. So as for ePension contributions in second quarter, we saw an uptick versus first quarter where we previously expected the uptick to happen in second half.
Could you share more on why this has been brought forward? And also how will contribution from ePension trend in the next two quarters?
Terence here. So I'll just share a bit about the revenue we've been recognizing on the eMPF project. So I think as we guided previously, it's sort of linked to certain milestones and of course the onboarding rate is one of the key milestones that we are looking at to recognize revenue. So as we progressively onboard more and more trustees then this is where you see that bump up in revenue recognition. So I think in the first quarter I think there was generally there was less on boarding activity. I think that sort of picked up in the second quarter. And I think really aligned with what we've been seeing so far is that in the second half of this year this is where we expect to see the largest trustees being on boarded under the MPS. So that's where we expect to see that bump up in revenue. So hopefully that answers the question.
Thanks, Terence. And from Xiaopui, also pertaining on the Hong Kong business, can we have a bit more colors on the net margin? I suppose it's related to the specifically to the Hong Kong business itself. Are we expecting any steep increase in operating costs for the ePension project? And where can we expect the peak of the operating expense, especially for the ePension business?
So operating expense is expected to be higher in third Q over second Q, fourth Q over third Q. That's the kind of ramp up that we actually expect to see currently. But I suppose, as noted, even with that, we expect that the profitability in 3Q and 4Q will likely still be able to grow yes, because revenue increases will be sufficient. And yes, so if I look into next year, I think we expect that year as a whole, we'll still be able to see increases in revenue and profitability. 2019 should see further growth compared to 2019, is why we have guided for other of double digit growth in 2026 compared to 2025.
Alan also has a question on could you share more colors on the buildup of trade receivables and if that is worrying?
Yes. I'll just share some color on the trade receivables. I think as we have explained before that I think the business is no longer just a plain vanilla so called wealth management business that we've been running all these years. So I think the bank is definitely one of the new businesses that's come in so it's consolidated as part of the group. And the bank does have receivables related to for instance the remittance business even some of the investments that does some of the true interest and all that does flow into that line.
Even on the wealth management business we have also launched margin financing. So as a new service then of course margin receivables as they grow also add to the trade receivables line. And of course I think on the Hong Kong business that's where we have also seen some trade receivables coming in. Of course then that will be sort of offset by the cash collection that we've been doing. So I think overall from the previous quarter to end of the first half, I think we're actually seeing that number come down a bit.
First, we actually released some of the working capital at remittance business. So there was a bit of extra working capital that led to a slight buildup in trade receivables for the first quarter. So that's all in the trend and then we released some of that. So I think we actually saw some decline in the second quarter. So just to give some color on quite a lot of different factors that go into that number.
I'll carry on with a couple more questions still related to Hong Kong, a question on the ePension. So from Ernest, is there a deadline whereby you have to onboard all trustees by October 2025? That's the first one. And the second question, in the worst case scenario, what happens if you are unable to onboard all trustees by the deadline?
The target that MPFA have said has been that all processes will be on boarded by the end of the year.
So that continues to be the target that they actually have. I suppose in a worst case scenario where not all are able to be onboarded by December, then I think it, you know, just mean maybe the delay of a couple of months and that will essentially, yeah, the the current situation. I would say that it doesn't fundamentally change the overall financial picture too much. It will be pretty much still in line with our outlook idea.
Okay.
We'll probably move to a couple of other questions. I think Benjamin has raised hand, is that right?
I have just a few questions. My first one is on the core wealth management business. I think we saw very strong net inflows this quarter. Just wanted to check whether this strong inflows was mainly in May and June? Or was it or did we even or did we also see strong inflows in April?
So like, I. E, was there good inflows to buy the dip from the retail?
I think all three months were essentially quite strong.
Okay.
And are you seeing, like, AUA outflows from The US markets to Asian markets?
I think in terms of the where where the inflows go to in terms of which asset class or which equity market, typically, you see some, yeah, fluctuations, some volatility from month to month, quarter to quarter. A bit difficult to pin down exactly what truly is the trend.
Okay. No worries. My second question is on the Hong Kong PBT. Think you mentioned that we will see a step up in second half this year. I just wanted to understand how we should think about it.
Would it be a step up in Q3 and Q4 will be flattish? Or will it be a gradual ramp up, so Q3 slightly higher and then Q4 even higher?
I think likely Q3 is higher and then Q4 will be higher than That's slightly less.
All right. Got it. Thank you. And my last two questions, sorry, very quickly. On the EV remit, I think we saw lower volumes in Q2.
How much did FX volatility contribute to this lower volumes?
I would say it's more of a function of the seasonal factor because easier for us, the the market is pretty much a Middle East market where majority of the workers are Muslims. So during the Eid festival or area of Horsa period, then you find that a lot of them were sending money back home, their home country in March, for instance. So that actually boosted the overall performance during the quarter. So that was the bigger factor during the quarter.
Got it. And my last one is on your dividends. Over the medium term, is it on the target payout ratio? Or is it more on absolute dividend per share?
I would say it's more of a target payout ratio.
And the target remains 25 to 30 like last time?
At this point in time, we are looking at that 25 to 30. I think, yeah, it's a function of how much we build up the overall balance sheet further, how big is the overall shareholder's equity. As balance sheet get bigger and bigger, then we probably feel more comfortable about being able to increase the payout ratio. But at this point in time, we are still looking at 25 to 30%.
Got it. Thanks, Yongjun. Thanks for all my questions.
Okay. Thanks, Benjamin. So since we're on wealth management as well, we have another question from Jayden, which is on the wealth platform. Are there any private funds or anything else that differentiates the platform versus other peers, either in the B2B or B2C space?
In terms of differentiation, I suppose as a business, there are certainly many different areas of differentiation that we actually have.
I think there's always been one fundamental core thinking that we actually have. In order to ensure that as a business, we are able to continue to be at the forefront of the industry, continue to be competitive, continue to be a market leader, that is important that we have sufficient level of differentiation. The differentiation varies between B2B business and versus B2C. If I take B2B, the differentiation is not just in terms of product. Product is actually one of it.
I would say at this point in time, the private funds isn't something that is to be effective for us. A bigger part of the differentiation for b two b really is the overall ability to deliver on the overall services for the various business partner that we work with. Because we you know, b to b business is is really one where we are making available a whole range of product across different asset classes. By the same time, we're also delivering various support in terms of IT support, operational support, support in terms of being able to help them perform the business efficiently, being able to collect their advisory fee efficiently, being able to advise a client across different asset classes ranging from mutual fund to ETF to bonds to stocks and and cash and being able to, yeah, help the client, perhaps even diversify where they hold their assets in terms of which jurisdiction, right, not just Singapore, but Hong Kong as well and UK as well, etcetera. So it's all these different area of differentiation and making sure that we are the best of which provider.
So that's one broad example of how we look at the business on the B2B business. B2C has its own unique set of consideration, but certainly, yeah, the ability to give a holistic place for clients to invest across their different set classes and making it easy for them to handle all the different things and see it fitting it in the same location. That's, you know, part of it.
Yeah. Hi.
Ben from. So I think looking at your China business, seeing that the deposits are narrowing quite fast in this this half. I guess any sort of reason for that? And is there any sort of forecast now to solve when the time business will turn to go?
So the the reason why the losses have been narrowing is because, firstly, we have been clear by ensuring that we manage the cost properly. We have gradually been reducing the cost. That's the first part. Second part is there has been some gradual improvement in the revenue from the China part of the business as well.
Because for us, we look at China part of the business is about being able to help the clients and the business partner both onshore in China as well as offshore, the offshore Chinese client and Chinese money. And in recent times, I think the offshore part particularly have actually been progressing at more rapid rate. So it's a combination of those factors that allow the losses to narrow. We are aware that there's still a level of performance that is not good enough. We certainly want to work towards profitability.
But I think, yes, the current expectation is that, yes, we will be able to narrow the losses further in the quarters ahead and eventually get into profitability.
We have Jovi, who has raised 10. Jovi? Jogi, can you hear us?
Hi. Can you hear me? Hello?
Yes, we can hear you now.
Okay, great, great. Sorry, just following up on Ben's question from earlier.
So are you able to give forecast for when China would be able to breakeven or are you just giving it for now?
Yes. Well, in the past, we have given some actual targeted time frame and so on. We, in the past, unfortunately, didn't manage to meet it. So as of now, I'm not immediately placing a certain specific period.
What I would say is that we are actually making progress in terms of being able to reduce the losses, and we see the profitability coming up in the horizon, but we haven't been down the exact period sales.
Okay. No worries. I understand. Just one other small question here.
So some analysts have looked at small and mid cap stocks here. They've named iFAST as a potential beneficiary of the funds to be launched by the three chosen asset managers by MAS. So what are your thoughts on this? Are you able to comment at all?
Well, we would like to believe that yeah, we we should be one of the more interesting company outside of the STI component or the m e MSCI stocks.
Reason being that we are a sizable company. We are making good progress in terms of growth. We continue to have a pretty strong growth plan. We're clear of our strategy. We see a lot of business opportunity on an ongoing basis, and we're working towards it.
Yes. So in an environment where the interest in the overall Singapore market improved, then we certainly believe that we should be benefiting. I think we have been seeing increasing levels of interest from investors, from fund managers. We've been getting increasing number of requests or meetings and so on. So those are positive signals from our perspective.
We'll take a couple of questions. Yes. Thank you, Joey, for your questions. We'll take a couple of questions from Reggie. So Reggie has a few very supportive and kind comments to the management team with regard to the results.
But let's move to first his question. Can you give an update on the progress of the China desk?
Yes. The China desk is seeing good progress since we started it. I think the overall business that we are generating from overseas the Chinese money have actually been growing.
We had some staff who joined us from China office relocating to Singapore, and that certainly have helped as well. They have been able to help us grow the business more rapidly. Having said that, we are also mindful that what we are seeing today is still not too big a number. I think the potential would actually be far more than what we're seeing today and we will continue to put in more effort and additional initiatives to ensure that the growth for us can accelerate further.
Yes.
And Reggie's other question was with regard to the announcement we've made on a new subsidiary in Guangdong, what is the background relating to the incorporation?
I believe you are referring to the announcement that we have created a subsidiary in Fosun in Guangdong, China. The reason why we have created that subsidiary is essentially because we it's for the purpose of our Hong Kong e and p and business. So we are currently, the employees that we have for the e and p and business are essentially in Hong Kong and in KL. But recently, we decided that in addition to Hong Kong and and TL, we should actually hire some employee in China, especially in Forsan, Guangdong.
The reason why that location is chosen is also because there's a location where there are one or two big trustees from Hong Kong. One one or two have quite a number of their bedroom employee while who have been located there. And as we move towards onboarding the business further, then there's opportunity for us to hire some of the experienced staff that they actually have in in that location. So that's yeah. So so basically, the Forsyth business is for the purpose of helping us to recruit additional staff for the Hong Kong EMBF business so that we don't have to hire as many Malaysia, for instance, and diversify our overall hiring.
And I think that will be something that will be good for our E and P business.
We'll take a couple of questions on The U. K. Business. So from Royston.
So Royston asked a couple of questions. The first one also which we have kind of answered. So his question on the bank, as for iPass Global Bank, are there new products to be released for the digital transaction banking and digital personal banking divisions? And how will these contribute to higher net interest income or fee income?
Firstly, on the digital personal banking, yes, in terms of products and services, back in at the March, we launched the debit card services.
So that has actually helped to help the digital personal banking division in the acquisition of client. It helped us to increase the number of clients, particularly The UK residents. And with that as well, that has actually helped us to grow the deposit base at a faster pace. So that's something that is relatively new and we expect that to continue to contribute to further growth. As we progress further, there will still be other partner services that we will be adding on so that we can become a more complete service for the different client.
One additional thing that we are looking at is yeah. There's this service that we call a x service in in UK where it actually allow customers to be able to, you know, pay for their monthly utility bill, etcetera, more easily and or faster. And, yeah, things like that are work in progress for us. We we hope to be able to introduce some of that by early next year. And yeah.
So it's an ongoing effort for us to broaden the range of services that we have so that we become more appealing to a broader range of. On the DTB, digital transaction banking. So previously, we got digital transaction banking. Now we we we sort of call it the digital call it business banking. So transaction banking is part of the business banking.
Deal Group transaction banking has in the last two years been catering mainly to the customers who are electronic money institutions, EMIs. Those are in the payments business. But as we move on, we want to broaden the customer base, including to the various SMEs. SME customers who want to use us for payment services as well as for deposits, etcetera, including SMEs who are from Asia, for instance, who actually find that it's quite often difficult to get a bank to to help them to open bank account. So so these are all the different additional efforts that we're putting in to broaden our overall service and to be able to grow the overall business banking at a longer period.
The other question on the bank is from Benjamin Ng. So can you share iPass Global Bank's profit potential and how will we achieve it? I suppose we thought about profit potential then is, my view is the sky's the limit, all right?
I'm not I'm not saying in the short term, we can achieve that, but if you think in terms of the true potential, it's it's massive. I've always been saying that the most and the the least competitive part of the financial sector is actually banking for the simple reason that the number of new players going into the industry is actually limited.
Right? How many if I take Singapore, how many retail banks are there in Singapore? Right? Yeah. The yeah.
The a few the three main local bank, you have now you have two new digital bank. This is for the retail banking. And yeah. You or or three new digital bank. Right?
And I think these these are the main ones that you have. And and if you look at the overall financial sector, I've also been making the remark that I believe that DBS Bank itself makes more profit than all the local nonbank financial institutions in Singapore put together. Right? If you can take all the local Singapore company and stock broking and insurance sector, wealth management, fund managers, etcetera, you add up all their profit. I don't think they can match DBS on its own.
So and and if you talk about most banks around the world, you are talking about them making a huge amount money. So So if you have a a right business model, you know, you tap into a segment of the banking sector where the service has not been as well developed where customers are underserved, then certainly, that is huge level of potential. So we we call our bank, I trust Global Bank, because we want to operate from one or few markets, but we're not back into potential customers from around the world. And, yeah, how big is that market? I I think well, DBS Bank makes 1,000,000,000 a month today.
Right? I'm not saying we are aiming for 1,000,000,000 a month, but I suppose in my lifetime, if we can make 1,000,000,000 a year from the bank, I think that is that is something that we should be shooting for. That's how I look at the potential.
Okay. Thank you, Chun.
And we have a few more questions online, but maybe just to turn back to whoever is here. Any questions? If not, I'll go back to the questions online. So in terms of expanding your AI capabilities, can we expect a significant impact on CapEx?
The CapEx are already in a box.
The CapEx in AI are already part of the numbers that you're seeing for the group as a whole. So you did this particular slide shows that for 2025, we're looking at $7,000,000 in CapEx. So part of the expenses in CapEx, part of it would actually be in the actual expenses that are being expensed off on a monthly basis. So we won't be expecting a major ramp up in CapEx or expenses because of the AI. Certainly not no, nothing like what we are seeing or all the other AI players around the world, really pumping billions of dollars every year.
So in our case, we are, of course, not operating at a level of the tech giant. We are essentially riding on the capabilities that they have been building to build applications and capabilities for ourselves to service our customer. So the, yeah, the the nature of how we use AI are quite different. We wanna make sure that we can serve our customers effectively and and more efficiently on an ongoing basis. So the level of spending is completely different from the other big AI deals that you hear about.
A couple of questions on the wealth platform side. So on your margin financing business, which asset classes and markets do you cover?
So as opposed to I think what's common is stockbroking, we actually offer margin financing on all WSH products. And I think one the key differences is that our margin financing product is actually more targeted towards the high net worth segment. So it's the AI clients as well.
And the other question related to the website, very specific to bonds per month. Could you give us an update on the bonds per month business? How significant can this be for the group overall?
We see the bonds more business as something that help to lay the foundation for a much bigger overall fixed income business. So our vision has been that we want to be in a position to make trading in bonds as almost as seamless as trading in stocks.
So stocks, you have stock exchanges around the world. But bonds, you don't actually have bond exchanges, certainly not for individual investors. So Bonds Rewards vision is to create something as close to that as possible. And as we're able to do that, then we expect that the overall level of own business that we are doing as a group in a different market will improve. So that's how we actually see it.
And so in the long run, we we certainly expect that the fixed income business will grow by many fold. Right? Because once you improve the manner by which bond investors can buy and sell the bonds and make it a lot more transparent. You see the different level of prices. You can, you know, buy and sell instantly instead of having to ask for a quote and and things like that.
Then, yeah, the the volume will be at a much higher level than what's generally been seen by us and by the industry today. So the potential in our view will actually be very substantial.
Can I ask a So question to for this bond market, first of all, that you laid down to take off, does that require your own balance sheet to balance out some of these bonds to facilitate trading? Or do you think you can make use of your partner's balance sheet to provide that liquidity of course for people to buy and sell?
So perhaps also just to give some background, I think prior to this recognized market operator license, so I think since actually 2016, we have been running a program called Bond Express. So of course this is where we warehouse a small number of bonds and then we then sell that to customers in odd lot sizes so they can diversify when you're investing in bonds. So I think the difference now is that with the RMO, it actually allows for finance to cross trades with each other. So they can actually match buys and sells because that's a function of the RMO. And of course for us to also continue making some prices there then we continue to do that.
But if you look at our what we have put on our balance sheet under other investments the health for trading the size of the health for trading securities they have actually not increased quite a bit over the years. So we are still doing that function but we are not putting a whole lot of resources into this because it is I think as more participants are in the marketplace then generally there's a lot of metal if we can see now.
Yes. Thank you, Terence. And one last question in the Q and A box that we have from Alan. So it's back to the Hong Kong ePension business. So can I check if the headcount hired during the onboarding stages could see a significant reduction once onboarding is completed and the trustees are getting more comfortable with the digital platform?
I would say that yeah. I think it is true that onboarding period is one of the most difficult period because during this period, you suddenly have to do a, you know, a whole new set of processes, a whole new set of clients come on board, and then we have to rush to ensure that everything is done in a timely manner and so on. Once onboarding has been completed, then the processes should become more manageable steadily. So the implication for that really is that over time then there is room for us to work on ensuring that we have better efficiency and effectiveness. So so that means there is actually room for us to be able to reduce our headcount for us for for this E and P part of the business.
Having said that, of course, at this point in time, we're not in a rush to think about when we can reduce the headcount because the the key priority is to make sure that everything can be as smooth as possible. We'll make sure that we can deliver the services as well as possible. Yeah. But once our onboarding have happened, we are meeting our SLAs nicely and so on, then we will be gradually looking at improving the overall efficiency.
And one last question from Benjamin Ng.
So it's related to Hong Kong as well. Would there be a penalty in case of delays in onboarding the trustees by 2025?
Yes. For for us, us, it's not yeah. We we we don't on our own, yeah, directly have any potential penalty unless the delay is caused by us.
So, yeah, the answer to that is we are not expecting that. Of course, having said that, as part of overall business, we have a different service level agreement, different SLAs to meet. So if you're not able to meet SLAs, then there there will be some penalties involved. As part of our overall planning projections and so on, we can claim or build in some provisions already for some potential penalties. If you have questions from Q and A box, we'll wrap up perhaps with Heidi.
And Heidi here from your. I just want to check on the also, whether there's any new additional trustee or is it just the one major one? And then for the last time in the fourth quarter, mentioned that Macau potentially have something you can change any update.
Yeah. In terms of additional trustee for also, as of now, it's still that one major one. On Macau, we have just very recently started to see some business. And I would say just early early this early early July, some of the business start to come in. But I will say that you should expect that actual contribution, yeah, from the but for the business will be coming in gradually and slowly as a in terms of size of business in the short term, you won't be able to see a good percentage.
But that has actually started to contribute starting this July.
Okay. We don't have any more questions from our media partners and analysts here.
Yes, we should wrap up.
Yes.
With that, it brings us to the end of our results briefing. Thank you, everybody, for joining the call.
Yes. Thank you, everyone.
Bye bye.