Are fintech and online businesses better businesses?

[k1976]

It looks like that at the moment

Good atas High Tech Unicorn.

Leemember??

 

[k1976]

All Bag Holders Fall in


https://www.straitstimes.com/busine...th-stock-sinks-85-as-wild-ipo-rally-collapses

Singapore telehealth stock sinks 85% as wild US IPO rally collapses​

It’s a swift reversal for the stock, which surged more than 580 per cent in its first weeks of trading. PHOTO: MOBILE-HEALTH NETWORK SOLUTIONS
UPDATED

MAY 06, 2024, 08:41 AM

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NEW YORK - Singapore-based telehealth provider Mobile-health Network Solutions, once the top-performing US initial public offering (IPO) in 2024, tumbled below its IPO price for the first time since its April public listing.

The stock plunged 85 per cent on May 4 to close at US$3.39 a share, below the company’s US$4 IPO price. The movement triggered multiple volatility halts.

It is a swift reversal for the stock, which surged more than 580 per cent in its first weeks of trading, making it one of the hottest US IPOs of the year.

The stock began trading above its IPO price on April 10 and rallied to close at more than US$27 a share at its peak, pushing the company’s market value to more than US$925 million (S$1.25 billion) at the time.

 

[Norty]

Yes, fintech is a good business. It offers significant advantages, including lower operational costs, scalability, and global reach. However, success depends on factors like innovation, user experience, and regulatory compliance. Companies like Kindgeek provide a white-label fintech platform https://kindgeek.com/white_label, enabling businesses to launch robust financial products and services quickly while ensuring compliance. I know about its benefits from my own experience.

 

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Grab misses quarterly revenue estimates on tough competition; net loss narrows to $70 million​

The Singapore-based company is focused on profits after years of spending to grow its market share. PHOTO: ST FILE

Aug 16, 2024

SINGAPORE - Grab Holdings’ shares slumped after the ride-hailing company reported quarterly revenue growth that trailed estimates, highlighting intense competition in the South-east Asian market.
The stock slid 7.4 per cent to US$3.12 at the close of trading in New York on Aug 15 after the company said revenue rose 17 per cent to US$664 million (S$878 million) in the three months to June, missing the US$676.9 million analysts predicted on average.
Second-quarter net loss narrowed to US$53 million (S$70 million) from US$135 million a year earlier. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were US$64 million, roughly in line with estimates.
Grab, the largest of South-east Asia’s ride-hailing and delivery companies, is trying to prove that its brutal cost-cutting drive is yielding results. The Singapore-based company is focused on profits after years of spending to grow its market share and fend off competition.
Yet Indonesia’s GoTo Group is proving a tough rival, keeping prices low and margins thin for both companies as they battle it out in the South-east Asian market of 675 million people.
“To us, it wasn’t a miss,” Grab chief financial officer Peter Oey said in an interview. “We’re driving more users to the platform. We’re also launching more new products.”
Shares of Grab, which had been one of the region’s hottest start-ups, are down 69 per cent since it went public through a US blank-cheque company in late 2021. Still, they have stabilised in 2024 as its losses narrowed, outperforming its main regional rivals.

Grab, backed by Uber Technologies, is seeing growth slow from triple-digit rates in years past as customers in the region curb spending to cope with elevated inflation and interest rates. Demand is increasing at a slower pace as Grab’s customer base expands and consumers are less willing to hail a ride or get food delivered to their door in a challenging macroeconomic climate.
Profitability on net income basis, which it has not set a concrete timeline for, will be the next big target in Grab’s effort to prove to investors it can make money.
“For the fiscal year 2024 we’ll have a positive free cash flow, and that’ll be an important milestone for us,” Mr Oey said. “The next milestone for us is to get a positive net income.”
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Nathan Naidu said: “Grab’s investments, such as its tie-up with online travel agent Trip.com, should allow Grab to continue to make gains with travellers amid a comeback in tourism in South-east Asia, particularly tourists from China who are seizing upon visa-free travel.
“The boost to its fintech sales from loan-book expansion amid a further ramp-up of its Malaysian digital bank should allow it to counter normalising sales in its food delivery segment and drive group revenue.” BLOOMBERG

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

PropertyGuru to be delisted in New York in acquisition by EQT Private Capital Asia​

PropertyGuru connects around 28 million property seekers with 46,000 agents each month. PHOTO: PROPERTY GURU GROUP

Sue-Ann Tan
Business Correspondent

Aug 16, 2024

SINGAPORE – Singapore-based property technology company PropertyGuru Group is being bought out and will eventually be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), it announced on Aug 16.
The firm, which started as an online real estate listings portal, is being acquired by investment firm EQT Private Capital Asia for US$1.1 billion (S$1.45 billion).
Shares in the firm will be cancelled and converted into the right to receive an amount in cash equal to US$6.70 a share, without interest. The merger price represents a 52 per cent premium to PropertyGuru’s closing price on May 21, the last unaffected trading day prior to media speculation regarding a potential transaction.
It also represents a 75 per cent premium to the company’s 30-day volume-weighted average share price, and an 86 per cent premium to the 90-day average price.
PropertyGuru began trading on the NYSE in March 2022 at US$8.33.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter, or the first quarter of 2025, subject to conditions, including approval by PropertyGuru shareholders.
Once the transaction is completed, PropertyGuru shares will no longer trade on the NYSE, and it will become a private company with its headquarters remaining in Singapore.

PropertyGuru connects around 28 million property seekers with 46,000 agents each month. It has over 2.1 million real estate listings, alongside advice to help people make decisions, in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The website PropertyGuru.com.sg was launched in Singapore in 2007 and has since expanded, with a finance and home services platform, among other features.
Reports in May had said that American private equity firms KKR & Co and TPG were considering options for PropertyGuru, including a buyout. KKR and TPG owned about 26.5 per cent and 29.6 per cent of PropertyGuru, respectively.
PropertyGuru posted a net loss of $6.3 million for the first quarter that ended in March, compared with a $10.2 million net loss in the same period in 2023.
But revenue for the quarter rose 11.9 per cent to $36.5 million, from $32.6 million a year ago, on the back of strong growth in the Singapore marketplace segment.
Before its listing in 2022, PropertyGuru made an earlier attempt in 2019 that was scrapped due to valuation concerns and a rocky market, reports said. It eventually went public through a merger with Bridgetown 2 Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company, or blank-cheque company.
At the time, after the merger, PropertyGuru had an enterprise value of about US$1.36 billion and an equity value of about US$1.61 billion.

 

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Trust Bank on track to be profitable around end of 2025 as revenue surges, says CEO​

Trust Bank CEO Dwaipayan Sadhu said the lender is on track to reach its profitability target as it continues to grow its customer base and engage clients. PHOTO: TRUST BANK

Prisca Ang
Business Correspondent

Aug 29, 2024

SINGAPORE – Trust Bank expects to be profitable around the end of 2025, said its chief executive Dwaipayan Sadhu, as the lender continues to grow its customer base and revenue.
In the first half of 2024, the digital bank’s total revenue tripled, on the back of an increase in the number of customers to 800,000, according to data released on Aug 29. The customer figure is up from 577,000 a year ago.
But recent full-year financial results of the digital bank, which is backed by Standard Chartered Bank and FairPrice Group, paint a gloomier picture. Trust’s losses stood at $128.4 million in 2023, widening from the $124.5 million it incurred in 2022, according to its financial statement published in May. The bank announces its results for only the full year.
The lender is on track to reach its profitability target as it continues to grow its customer base and engage clients, Mr Sadhu told The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao at an event at Trust’s office in Robinson Road to mark the bank’s second anniversary.
“Profitability is a factor of both the number of clients and also how the clients are engaging with you. On both of these metrics, we are very encouraged by the trajectory,” he said.
Customers use Trust’s card 21 times a month on average, and over 35 per cent of them have used the card overseas, said Mr Sadhu. “These are parameters and numbers which really show us that we have become a part of the client’s life.”
Trust’s deposits surged from $1.2 billion to $3 billion in the first half of 2024, while customer loans and advances grew from $157 million to $486 million within the same period.

Since banks pay interest to depositors and earn interest on loans, an outsized growth in deposits could result in higher funding costs and weigh on a lender’s margins.
Mr Sadhu said the bank’s margins are healthy as it is paying interest to depositors in a sustainable way, and has also been investing deposits in interest-earning assets. He added: “From the beginning, our headline rates, while attractive, are actually much lower than others… We believe we have strong advantages in everything else, in proposition and experience, so we don’t necessarily need to be the highest in the market.
“As a result, the total cost of deposits that we have is lower than the returns that we get when you deploy these deposits, either in our own assets or in MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) bills.”

Total costs have also largely stayed flat, rising just 1 per cent from 2023, noted Mr Sadhu.
The cost of acquiring customers is one-seventh of that in the industry, he said, as many clients joined the bank “almost organically” from the FairPrice ecosystem and 70 per cent of new customers are referred by existing ones.
Phillip Securities Research senior research analyst Glenn Thum said that losses are inevitable for digital banks like Trust in order for them to gain market share.
More On This Topic
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Trust also has the benefit of Standard Chartered’s deep experience in managing interest rates, he said. The lender has a full bank licence and faces fewer restrictions than its digital bank peers GXS and MariBank.
“It’s really in the middle between a traditional bank and a digital bank,” said Mr Thum.
Like incumbent players, digital banks are also increasingly focusing on investment and wealth management products, which will help them shore up fee income, he added.
Trust, for example, launched Trust+ in February to give higher interest and other perks to customers who have an average daily balance of at least $100,000 for the calendar month. Meanwhile, MariBank’s Mari Invest account gives 3.85 per cent a year, based on a past four-week return as at July 23.
Trust’s plans to further increase its base of customers include a new cashback credit card it launched on Aug 29.
The product gives new Trust customers an unlimited 1.5 per cent cashback on all spending, with no caps, until Dec 31. Existing customers get 1 per cent. Customers can also receive a quarterly bonus rate of up to 15 per cent on a preferred category, such as dining, shopping or travel.
Earlier in August, the bank launched two new flexible loan products. Split Purchase allows customers to spread credit card payments across three, six and 12 months, while Balance Transfer allows them to borrow for up to six months. Both products charge fees but no interest.
The Split Purchase product, for example, caters to customers who want to better manage their cash flow for smaller purchases that they may not need a loan for, said Mr Sadhu. “We have seen that these types of products essentially attract a very wide range of clients.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Singapore’s digital banks say they serve a niche, need time to turn profits​

GXS Bank, MariBank and Trust Bank reported an increase in total income in 2023 but fell deeper into the red.PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

Chor Khieng Yuit
Dec 18, 2024

SINGAPORE – Digital banks have been up and running for about two years here but turning a profit remains as elusive as ever.

The three banks serving retail customers, GXS Bank, MariBank and Trust Bank, reported an increase in total income in 2023 – the latest numbers available as they report only full-year results – but fell deeper into the red.

“It is a journey. The digital banks are still in their early days,” said GXS Group chief executive Muthukrishnan Ramaswami or Ramu.

GXS Bank, which is backed by Grab Holdings and telco Singtel, tripled revenue to $14.3 million in 2023. However, expenses mounted and sank the firm further into the red with a loss of $152.1 million.

Similarly at MariBank, which is wholly owned by gaming and e-commerce firm Sea Group, revenue jumped sixfold to $10.1 million in 2023, but losses came in at $52.2 million on the back of higher costs.

Unlike its two digital rivals, Trust Bank, which is 60 per cent owned by Standard Chartered Bank and 40 per cent by the enterprise arm of NTUC, holds a full bank licence that allows it to offer services similar to those at DBS Bank, OCBC Bank and UOB, including providing automated teller machines.

The bank stayed in the red in 2023 with a loss of $128.4 million despite revenue jumping thirteenfold to $39.1 million.
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Ms Tania Gold, senior director for Asia-Pacific banks at credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings, said Singapore’s digital banks are not expected to be profitable as they build market share in these early stages of growth. They have to incur significant costs to acquire customers, develop their technology and comply with regulatory requirements, she noted.

Typically, there will be two to three years of losses, added GXS’ Mr Ramu, who said he is not in a hurry to grow the business.

He said that GXS will add deposits at a healthy pace and will be careful about overextending loans, adding: “We have to see that pre-payments are happening and the quality of loans is good.”

“We are pacing the growth, in line with the plans. We are not off track,” he said, adding that the bank will break even by the end of 2026 as stated in its proposal to the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The digital banks had to demonstrate a path towards profitability in their five-year financial plan when they applied for the licences in 2019.

The question now is how they can grow, said Mr Dan Jones, head of management consultancy Oliver Wyman’s digital practice in the Asia-Pacific.

Mr Jones noted that digital banks have an edge over the incumbents because they can operate at a lower cost per customer. They are built on a modern, scalable architecture that allows them to launch new products, features and services very quickly, “certainly quicker than has been possible over the last 10 to 20 years”, he added.

But many customers open digital banking accounts out of curiosity and do not use the account or its services, said Mr Alan Lim, partner and head of Elevate (Digital) practice at strategy consultancy firm Simon-Kucher.

Digital banks will have to figure out ways to engage with these customers and drive more activity on their platforms, he added.

This has prompted them to expand their offerings to cover all banking needs, from savings to borrowing and spending.

Mr Jones said the digital banks are also moving into fee-generating products like investments and insurance.

“That will hopefully give customers a lot more options and enable them to fulfil their financial needs through a digital-first channel,” he added.

MariBank is the only digital bank with an investment offering. Mari Invest launched in September 2023, offering access to investment products, including the Lion-MariBank SavePlus fund, which is managed by Lion Global Investors, a wholly owned subsidiary of OCBC.

The fund invests in Singapore government bonds and other high-quality bond funds so it is relatively low-risk.

Ms Natalia Goh, chief executive of MariBank Singapore, said assets under management (AUM) in the Lion-MariBank SavePlus fund grew more than eightfold within just one year of its launch.

AUM stood at $920 million as at Nov 30, 2024, making it one of the largest Singdollar-denominated cash alternative funds in Singapore, she added.

GXS Bank and Trust Bank will introduce investment products in 2025. Mr Ramu said GXS’ offering will be very simple and distributed in unitised form. This means each investor needs to fork out only a small sum to invest in the fund.

“We are trying to cater to investors who do not know enough about what to invest in,” he noted, adding the fund will be low-risk.

GXS will start with one fund and is still in the “beauty parade” to pick a fund manager, Mr Ramu said.

It is also considering whether the fund should have an embedded insurance product. For example, if a Grab delivery rider invests in the fund, he could also buy insurance that will pay out for every day that he is unable to work.

Mr Ramu said: “The key here is not to make it so complex that claims become complicated. That is why the payout cannot be huge but at the same time, it will be enough to give the rider three meals a day.”

Trust Bank’s investment product, TrustInvest, will be available to all eligible customers in early 2025.

“It introduces a new way to invest that is easy and transparent,” said Trust Bank chief executive Dwaipayan Sadhu.

Trust’s research showed that customers in the mass and mass affluent segments tend to keep their money in savings accounts or fixed deposits, and so miss out on returns they could have earned by investing, said Mr Sadhu.

The research also showed that these customers find investing hard and are not aware of the investment charges.

Simon-Kucher’s Mr Lim said most digital banks are expanding their offerings and focusing on higher-margin products, such as investments or loans.

This “strategic move”, he added, allows them to better monetise their customer base, which is often acquired at a high cost through attractive saving rates or other rewards.

Oliver Wyman’s Mr Jones said there are opportunities to learn from how Chinese digital banks collaborated with other stakeholders in their business ecosystem to become one-stop shops for customers for everything from buying cinema tickets to paying bills.

Mr Lim said the digital banks in Singapore are part of a broader network or ecosystem – GXS is with Grab and Singtel, MariBank with Sea and e-commerce firm Shopee, while Trust Bank is with NTUC.

These connections and partnerships enable them to embed their banking services into customers’ everyday lives, he added.

There are also other ways to increase the activity and engagement with customers. For instance, Ms Goh said MariBank is the first digital bank to join the Singapore Quick Response Code Scheme (SGQR+) initiative to unify QR payments in Singapore.

MariBank customers will be able to scan the SGQR+ label at merchants and make payments through their digital wallets from the second quarter of 2025.

Mr Lim noted that there is also a niche segment of sole proprietors and micro-businesses within each ecosystem that is underserved by the banks.

“In these segments, we often see a financing gap, where clients struggle to access loans for business purposes at reasonable rates,” he said.

MariBank introduced a business account and short-term loan facility – Mari Business Credit Line – for merchants on its Shopee ecosystem in June 2023.

It followed up with a longer-term business loan offering – Mari Business Term Loan – in the fourth quarter of 2024.

GXS will launch its business banking solutions for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises by the end of the first quarter of 2025.

Mr Ramu said loans to such firms are too small for the incumbent banks and the cost of servicing them is high.

Banks do not want to take the credit risk if a firm defaults but GXS is able to use data from the Grab and Singtel ecosystem to assess if it can extend loans to these enterprises.

“If you are a hawker stall owner who wants to buy a new set of cooking ware, we can make the loan because we know how much you are earning through your sales on the Grab platform,” Mr Ramu added.

“Similarly for merchants who are Singtel customers, we can get a good idea of their business and use that data to make our credit decisions.

“We will never compete head-on with the big banks in all products. I do not think that is something we can deliver realistically.

“It is only this niche that they cannot serve which we will serve.”