iFAST

[money]

Perhaps i should add that if i am of the opinion that if ifast sticks to its existing business, it may just have a better chance of making money. But i also find its existing business too small to have a significant scale in the long run. As for management buying back its own shares, well i think many of them are better at running the business than making investment decisions

[Curiousparty]

https://research.sginvestors.io/2019/04/...04-30.html

it is a highly regulated industry

Just watch out for its upcoming Q1 results

On the point about bleeding when setting up the VB , a lot of people may not realize that ifast has much of the existing infra in place. It is not doing something from scratch . Hahaha

[Curiousparty]

Instead of competing mainly for local SGD deposits, the proposed digital bank will seek to better tap into Singapore’s global wealth management hub status to attract foreign currency deposits. This is because Singapore has established itself as one of the leading private banking and wealth management
centres globally and in Asia, and has done well in attracting high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals from different parts of the world. 

However, iFAST Corp notes that the global mass affluent are not well-served and sees a tremendous opportunity in this space. By integrating its existing wealth management Fintech platform into the digital bank offering and leveraging on Singapore’s status as a global wealth management hub, the Group believes that it will be able to effectively acquire global mass affluent customers and deposits at low costs. Deposits acquired will be available for lending to corporations, such as to the Small and Medium Enterprises (“SMEs”) in Singapore, which the Group believes will bring about a massive spill over effect to the local economy.


https://links.sgx.com/FileOpen/iFASTCorp...eID=605036

[Curiousparty]

 iFast aims to crack 20% ROE through digital banking in 5 years
22 Feb 2020 09:00
By Natalie Choy
MAINBOARD-LISTED iFast Corporation is targeting an ambitious 20 per cent return on equity (ROE) from its digital banking outfit in the next five years, with the firm "confident" of receiving a wholesale licence come mid-2020, said its top executive.
iFast chief executive Lim Chung Chun's comments come as the fintech group posted on Thursday a 14.4 per cent rise in net profit to S$3 million for the three months ended Dec 31, 2019, on stronger sales. Earnings per share came in at 1.12 Singapore cents for the quarter, versus 0.98 Singapore cent previously.
It has also proposed a final dividend of 0.9 Singapore cent per share, to be paid out on May 19.
iFast - which operates a wealth management platform for over 400 companies across five Asian markets - is leading a consortium comprising China's Yillion Group and Hande Group for a digital wholesale bank licence in Singapore. If awarded the licence, iFast will own a 65 per cent stake in the virtual entity.

[karlmarx]

Most of today's large tech companies, like Amazon and Google, get to their present humongous market value and market power by:

1) Providing as much value as possible to the customer. This meant sustaining losses during the early years, and only making a meager positive return in the later years. Debt and equity were sold to finance expansion and better user experience.

2) Having the right people who not only possess the strategy and skills, but more importantly, the patience/endurance, to do whatever it takes to deliver the above.

During their early years, it was never obvious that Amazon and Google will eventually be leaders in their present markets. They had their worthy competitors (ebay and yahoo). And they weren't raking in big bucks. An investor in either companies during their early years had to endure plenty of uncertainty, for the following 10-15 years, before seeing their emerging market leadership.

[money]

 iFast aims to crack 20% ROE through digital banking in 5 years
22 Feb 2020 09:00
By Natalie Choy
MAINBOARD-LISTED iFast Corporation is targeting an ambitious 20 per cent return on equity (ROE) from its digital banking outfit in the next five years, with the firm "confident" of receiving a wholesale licence come mid-2020, said its top executive.
iFast chief executive Lim Chung Chun's comments come as the fintech group posted on Thursday a 14.4 per cent rise in net profit to S$3 million for the three months ended Dec 31, 2019, on stronger sales. Earnings per share came in at 1.12 Singapore cents for the quarter, versus 0.98 Singapore cent previously.
It has also proposed a final dividend of 0.9 Singapore cent per share, to be paid out on May 19.
iFast - which operates a wealth management platform for over 400 companies across five Asian markets - is leading a consortium comprising China's Yillion Group and Hande Group for a digital wholesale bank licence in Singapore. If awarded the licence, iFast will own a 65 per cent stake in the virtual entity.

i thought it would be fortunate not to make a 2 percent loss on equity from its digital banking outfit

[Curiousparty]

iFAST Corp has developed a well-established Fintech ecosystem in five Asian markets.
In this ecosystem, the Group has continued to improve its Fintech capabilities that enable companies, advisers and clients to invest in a vast range of investment products, powered by better technology and user experiences.

With the efforts the Group has put into strengthening its Fintech capabilities over the past few years, the key infrastructure that is required for running an integrated wealth management platform is largely in place.

In addition, Asian markets present significant opportunities for the Group to continue growing its scalable
Fintech business model. The Asset under Management (“AUM”) in the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow faster than any other region globally, reaching US$16.9 trillion in 2020 and US$29.6 trillion by 20251. According to an MAS report, Singapore will continue to serve as the gateway to growth opportunities in Asia’s wealth management market.2

https://links.sgx.com/FileOpen/iFASTCorp...eID=605036

[money]

iFAST Corp has developed a well-established Fintech ecosystem in five Asian markets.
In this ecosystem, the Group has continued to improve its Fintech capabilities that enable companies, advisers and clients to invest in a vast range of investment products, powered by better technology and user experiences.

With the efforts the Group has put into strengthening its Fintech capabilities over the past few years, the key infrastructure that is required for running an integrated wealth management platform is largely in place.

In addition, Asian markets present significant opportunities for the Group to continue growing its scalable
Fintech business model. The Asset under Management (“AUM”) in the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow faster than any other region globally, reaching US$16.9 trillion in 2020 and US$29.6 trillion by 20251. According to an MAS report, Singapore will continue to serve as the gateway to growth opportunities in Asia’s wealth management market.2

https://links.sgx.com/FileOpen/iFASTCorp...eID=605036

Yes, this may be true with the growth in AUM. But it doesnt imply that iFast can capture a fair % of it. In the recent sell off, there may be a flight to safety. If i am an investor with 100m, will i put it with iFast or JPmorgan?


by the way ifast has a market cap of about 230m while JPmorgan about 300b? i think whatever iFast can offer to its clients, JPmorgan can do a lot more. ANd there is no worry about counterparty risk

I dont like this hype about fintechs and i may be very wrong. But at this current price that iFast is trading, i just think there is no margin of safety. In fact, even if iFast is trading at 60 cents today, i will still be very doubtful. And i am very fearful of its china operations, i think it is very tough to make money out of the china market, management obviously thinks otherwise. So i wont be surprised that they burn a lot of money in china year after year. I will be happy for you if they can pull it off. And of course, you deserve to make money because you believed in management

[Curiousparty]

Despite very heavy spending to enhance infra, and this was in preparation of the earlier VB application in HK !


Despite all these heavy capex, iFast still managed to achieve a NET CASH position (~40mil cash or 15 cents), which is no mean feat to say the least. 

With the moderation of spending (as mentioned in annual report), margin should improve considerably going forward. This will offset the decline in AUA arising from the current crisis. Plus, government relief package will help to boost the net profit too!!
On a net basis, net profit may not be too adversely impacted. Let the upcoming results speak for itself starting from Q1....

Upcoming Q1 (Jan to March 2020) => estimated $2.5mil (better than Jan-March 2019)
Upcoming Q2 (April to June 2020) => Net profit to be greatly boosted by relief package from Govt. April's wage to be "subsidized" by government. Expect to see a surge in net profit. Likely, profit would likely be much better than same period last year. 


4Q19 one of the best quarters, results above expectations. iFAST reported 4Q19 revenue of S$33.8m (+21% y-o-y, flat q-o-q). Net profit increased 15% y-o-y (+23% q-o-q) to S$2.96m, the best quarter in four years.  
For FY19, net profit of S$9.3m was down 12.9% y-o-y, as 1H19 was weak. Overall, FY19 net profit was 10% above our expectations though revenue of S$125.4m (+3.4% y-o-y) was in line. Expenses remained high and China operation is still loss-making; with net loss of slightly over S$1m per quarter. A 0.90-Sct final DPS was declared, bringing total DPS for FY19 to 3.15 Scts, similar to FY18.

Operating expenses remain high; pace of increase to moderate. Expenses remain high as iFAST continues to invest in and enhance its regional platform capabilities further, and to lay the initial foundations to be a digital/virtual bank. Excluding the application for the digital banking licence in Singapore, iFAST expects its operating expenses to increase by approximately 6.8-9.5% y-o-y to approximately S$59.961.4m in 2020, lower than the double-digit increase over the past few years

[Curiousparty]

to have a sense of the resilience of iFast's earning, there are several examples in the recent years, one of which is the social turmoil in Hong Kong which had greatly disrupted economic activities in HK. Notwithstanding, iFast still manages to eke out increase in profits for HK's segment for 2019!!!

******

Net revenue grew 17.2% YoY to S$16.72 million and net profit before tax grew 29.3% YoY to S$4.42 million in FY2019. • Hong Kong’s AUA grew 24.3% YoY to S$2.28 billion as at 31 December 2019.

• As the market sentiment improved, the B2C division saw strong rebound in unit trust sales in 4Q2019. • Hong Kong B2C platform saw further growth in its bonds turnover in 4Q2019. This is a result of the improvement in investor sentiment surrounding the Chinese property sector, accompanied by encouraging earnings reported by several companies which provided support for bond prices. Among which, there was a notable increase in the number of transactions via Bond Express on the B2C platform. Bond Express is a service that allows professional investors in Hong Kong to trade bonds in ticket sizes from as low as US$5,000. • With the cash account balance continuing to grow in 4Q2019 on the B2C platform, it is likely that investors will deploy their cash for investments when opportunities arise

Hong Kong B2B division revamped its web portal for both iFAST Central and iFAST Global Prestige in 4Q2019. The new web portal allows clients to review their adviser’s recommendations, approve trade transactions, and view consolidated portfolio holdings seamlessly online. Wealth advisers can also enjoy value added services including access to the Client Relationship Management system, product comparison tools and portfolio valuation reports via the new web portal. • iFAST Global Markets (iGM) Hong Kong launched the new iGM mobile app in 4Q2019, which is similar to the iGM mobile app launched in Singapore in early 2H2019.

***

Despite the volatility surrounding the Hong Kong’s market in 2019, iFAST Hong Kong saw continued growth in its AUA, net revenue and net profit during the year. 

Since the launch of US stocks and ETFs trading capabilities, stocks and ETFs trading volumes on both the B2C and B2B divisions have continued to increase, despite subdued performance in the local Hong Kong stock market in 2019.

The B2B division focused its efforts on improving the investment process and user experience of its various platforms in 2019, including:  • • an enhanced workflow for bond trading  in 2Q2019;  • • a revamped website for iFAST Central  and iFAST Global Prestige in 4Q2019; and • • a New iFAST Global Markets mobile   application in 4Q2019.