Noah Holdings Limited
Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 16 Mar 2021

[Operator:]

Good evening, and welcome to the Noah Holdings 4Q '20 Earnings Conference Call. . I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Jingbo Wang, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Noah Holdings. Please go ahead.

[Jingbo Wang:]

Today, for the agenda of the conference call, I will first talk about the macro view then report on Noah's overall performance in 2020 and the development of our major business sectors. Our CFO, Mr. Qing Pan, will then introduce the detailed annual financial results, followed by Q&A session. Looking back on the past year, the market has been moving forward faster like a high-speed train, the supply side reform of China's financial products has continued and the transfer of household assets to NAV-based products has exceeded market expectations. Among them, the value of the new fund increased by 123% year-over-year to CNY3.2 trillion. The outstanding amount of nonmonetary funds continue to grow, reaching a historical high of CNY10.99 trillion, an increase of 59% year-over-year, with a significant increase in active funds.

[Qing Pan:]

Thank you, Chair Lady, and thank you, Sonia. Hello, investors and analysts. Good morning. We're very excited to share with you the strong financial results for 2020, delivering successful transformation in our product offering in the midst of strong stock market performance and favorable primary market environment. Despite that, we recorded a net loss of RMB745.2 million under the U.S. GAAP. We have also achieved a full year non-GAAP net income of RMB1.13 billion, up 25% year-over-year. It's an honor to have ongoing support from our clients, partners and shareholders in the past year. We remain optimistic on the future growth in the wealth and asset management industry and also the group's potential to become a major independent player. I would also like to mention that the GAAP net loss of RMB745 million for the year was due to one-off equity settlement expense of close to RMB1.8 billion related to the Camsing settlement plan. This expense consists of RMB1.3 billion, representing 67.5% of the clients we have settled with us as of December 31 and also RMB0.5 billion for the rest of the clients who have not yet signed the offer, but we anticipate a settlement will be reached in a certain way in the future at similar cost. The latter was recorded as a contingent liability from a conservative standpoint after assessing the probability of the occurrence under GAAP. As of December 31, 2020, 100% of the Camsing-related settlement plan expenses have been booked in 2020. Excluding the settlement expense, non-GAAP net income was RMB1.1 billion, up 30% year-over-year. Now please let me walk you through more detailed financial results of the fourth quarter and full year for 2020. Despite the contraction in overseas insurance due to COVID-19 travel ban and our continued streamlined efforts on the lending business, net revenues for the year were RMB3.3 billion, slightly down year-over-year by 2.5%. But excluding overseas insurance impact, net revenues in 2020 were up 7.2% if we compare apple to apple. Onetime commission revenue in 2020 was RMB804.3 million, down 13.3 year-over-year, again, due to a decrease in overseas insurance distribution. This overseas insurance contributed about RMB154 million net revenue in 2020, comparing with RMB462.2 million in 2019, down by 66.7%. That's a very large drop in overseas insurance revenue. Excluding that part from overseas insurance, onetime commissions were up 40% year-over-year.

[Operator:]

. Your first question comes from Emma Xu from Bank of America Securities.

[Emma Xu:]

So maybe I can briefly translate my question. So the first question is about the growth plan. So Noah -- so management mentioned that Noah is now in a growth mode, and you already have -- have planned for the top line growth, client growth, et cetera. So could you provide us the guidance for active client growth in 2021 and for the long term? Because transaction volume can be volatile due to market volatility, the deep client growth and the number of client growth and legitimate of client increases, the increase of revenue and profit is just a matter of time. So could you provide us more details on your growth plans for client number? And how do you plan to achieve the target? And the second question is about the utilization of cash, which amounted to around RMB5 billion by end of 2020 and accounted for 53% of total assets. You've mentioned previously that you may look to use that cash for some M&A or other potential investments. Could you provide some clues what are the potential area for M&A or investment? And what is the logic behind?

[Qing Pan:]

Okay. So I'm going to translate a little bit of Chair Lady's answer and I also have my own inputs as well. So she just stressed that we have again clarified and cleared our strategy focus to continue to focus on high net worth individuals and also super high, ultra-high net worth individuals. So basically, in addition to the number of clients that we have also actually focused on increasing the quality of services to this type of client. And also in terms of market share, not only just, again, on the share number of the client groups as well as the wallet share of the existing client groups. One of the things that we have mentioned in the speech is about new service model that we have been implementing for the past year that started the implementation in the last few months. Basically, we have a so-called triangle service model to our clients. As compared to a single point of contact in the past only through the relation manager, now we have basically 3 elements in the service. One is the AR, which is the account representative, will be supported by 1 or 2 -- 1 or more solution representative who's actually has the expertise in the product and services that fit our client's need; as well as the FR, which is basically the service representatives so that our clients actually have a full scope of better client experiences under this new service model. We have seen the passion from the frontline individuals. We actually also realized through this model that they actually increased the service capacity to our clients, even for the so-called elite relation managers basically will expand their capacity to serve more clients and get more higher client wallet share. But in addition to that, Emma, as you have asked about what strategy we have. We do actually clearly set a very clear number of increase in the core client groups for 2021. I'm a little bit reluctant to give guidance on that as it depends actually on quite a few different factors. So I don't want to this to be misleading. But I can tell you that it will be a pretty major growth and will be a clear focus in terms of continued growth and increase that type of corporate clients. Like you said, it will greatly improve the adhesiveness of our client relationships. So that's the answer for the first question. And in terms of the use of cash, Emma. I understand our focus on that. So basically, one of the information that we have disclosed in the 6-K, as you can see that we have used part of the proceeds to repurchase our stock for USD 100 million, where basically, we have completed that repurchase by end of February or March. And in terms of opportunities we've been looking at for the acquisitions, I think we have been very actively looking. And when it comes to actually financial type of institutions, either domestically or oversea, as you would imagine, that we're being very careful in terms of performing due diligence or figuring out what is the right synergy before actually proceed. So obviously, it's very difficult to promise that we will acquire or buy anything. But I guess one of the things I'm confident to say that it remains in the arsenal of the strategy that we are looking at to expand certain capabilities or service or technology or asset management, it also remains one of the targets that we are continuous to look at. Emma, does that answer your question?

[Operator:]

Your next question comes from Han Pu from CICC.

[Han Pu:]

We see our number of the relationship managers was stable quarter-on-quarter while slightly decrease year-on-year. And could you please give us more color on the future growth plans of our relationship managers and also more introduction on the structures under our triangle service model?

[Qing Pan:]

So that's a very good question, very insightful actually. In terms of the 1,200 RM that we have currently. We believe that actually the new triangle mode will continue to be able to help us grow the talent pool of the RM. As you would imagine, that the service mode has been sort of switched from a single-man army into actually a more coordinated group of individuals that will be able to serve our clients. So basically, the more experienced elite RM will be assisted with probably solution experts as well as the fulfillment representative, basically the service type of RM. And this particular mechanism actually will enable the younger professionals to actually come into the industry and have the opportunity to learn beside a lead time, which we actually have a very low turnover ratio, to actually be able to provide more a full comprehensive service to our clients. So we believe that the number of RM actually will continue to see an accelerated growth in terms of relation managers when we are implementing this triangle mode, especially that in terms of cities, that will be more or less into a more coordinated operational unit rather than a single point of contact through the RM to serve the client in the past.

[Operator:]

Thank you. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Pan for closing remarks.

[Qing Pan:]

Okay. And thank you, investors and analysts, for your time. I'm very happy, excited to share the strong performance for the full year with you. And obviously, if you have more detailed questions, we have arranged one-on-one sessions later on. So we'll talk to you later. Thank you very much.

[Operator:]

Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.