Recently, Financial One Account Bank announced that the company has conditionally agreed to sell 100% of its shares in Ping An One Account Bank for a consideration of HKD 933 million in cash. According to the announcement by Lujin, it is the buyer of this transaction.
According to data, Ping An One Account Bank is the first virtual bank in Hong Kong to provide flexible and efficient banking services for small and medium-sized enterprises. Its total revenue in the first half of 2023 was 66 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45.2%.
For the funds obtained from the sale, Financial One Account Express stated that they will be used for general working capital utilization, including but not limited to improving the company's main business operations, optimizing the allocation of resources for technology products and services, etc.
Industry insiders believe that this move by Financial One Account may be aimed at "making up for losses". Since its establishment in 2017 until 2022, the cumulative loss of Financial One Account has reached 7.29 billion yuan.
The recently released third quarter report shows that in the first three quarters of this year, the total revenue of Financial One Account was 2.742 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.9%; The net loss attributable to the parent company was 281 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 410 million yuan, with a decrease of 60%.
The third quarter report also shows that in terms of revenue sources, in the first three quarters of this year, the revenue proportion of Financial One Account from Ping An Group, Lujin Exchange, and third-party customers was 58.1%, 7.5%, and 34.4%, respectively; From a segmented perspective, the business of Financial One Account includes the digital banking sector, digital insurance sector, Gama platform sector, and virtual banking business sector.
The operating entity of the virtual banking business sector mentioned above is Ping An One Account Bank. China Net Finance reporter noticed that in the first three quarters of this year, the revenue generated by Ping An One Account Bank accounted for less than 4% of the overall revenue of Financial One Account.
From the perspective of performance release, losses have narrowed due to the acceleration of the launch of high-definition businesses, but the problem lies in how to turn losses into profits. It is recommended to focus on businesses that can generate sustained and stable income in the future. Personally, I believe that selling virtual banks is related to the overall strategic layout of the group, and can also use new funds to "transfuse" new business in the future. "Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst at Broadcom Consulting, said.