Noah (NOAH) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Date

Wednesday, May 27, 2026 at 8 p.m. ET

Call participants

• Chief Executive Officer — Zhe Yin
• Chairlady — Jingbo Wang
• Chief Financial Officer — Qing Pan

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Takeaways

• Net revenues -- RMB 626 million, up 1.8% year over year and down 14.7% quarter over quarter, driven by declines in insurance and seasonal performance fee income.
• Operating profit -- RMB 236 million, rising 27.1% year over year, with operating margin at 37.8%, one of the highest recent quarterly levels.
• Non-GAAP net income -- RMB 134 million, with a margin of 21.4%.
• Cost management -- Total operating costs and expenses declined to RMB 389 million, down 9.2% year over year and 18.1% quarter over quarter, aided by a 10.4% headcount reduction and 12.2% decline in personnel costs.
• Active clients -- 10,700, up 21.8% year over year, with transaction value reaching RMB 23.3 billion, a 44.8% increase year over year and 37.5% quarter over quarter.
• Domestic mutual fund transaction value -- RMB 9.9 billion, marking 131% year-over-year growth.
• Domestic private secondary product transaction value -- RMB 5.3 billion, up 61% year over year.
• Noah Upright net revenues -- RMB 28 million, up 63% year over year, driven by doubled public fund transaction volume and private secondary fundraising recovery.
• Overseas registered clients -- 20,400, up 11.9% year over year.
• Overseas AUA -- US$9.6 billion, increasing approximately 5.9% year over year.
• AI-supported Singapore AUA -- AUA in Singapore rose by approximately 192% year over year, with revenue per capita reaching 8.5 times prior levels.
• Investment product commissions -- Newly raised product commissions were RMB 53 million, a 46.1% year-over-year increase and 41.6% up quarter over quarter.
• Recurring management fees -- RMB 379 million, down 3.4% year over year and 2.5% quarter over quarter.
• Performance-based income -- RMB 100 million, up 253% year over year, primarily from RMB-denominated private secondary products.
• U.S. dollar private secondary product value -- US$1.293 billion, marking 161% year-over-year growth.
• Group AUM & AUA -- AUM at RMB 140.2 billion and AUA at RMB 233.5 billion, noting an overall decline but growth in U.S. dollar-denominated AUM and AUA.
• Diamond and Black Card clients -- Total 9,030, with overseas count at 1,780, up 3.8% quarter over quarter.
• Balance sheet strength -- RMB 5.13 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments; zero interest-bearing debt and a current ratio of 4.8x.
• Dividend proposal -- Board proposed a payout totaling 100% of 2025 non-GAAP net income as dividends, including a special dividend, subject to June 11 shareholder approval.
• AI operating model progress -- Decline in headcount (11% in prior year, 3% sequentially) attributed to AI integration supporting stable revenue with fewer employees.
• Strategic milestones -- Japan office commenced operations May 4, and U.S. broker dealer license completed final approval, with new team joining in June.
• Shareholder returns -- Since the start of 2020, 2 million ADS repurchased for about US$20 million; since 2024, cumulative repurchases at 3 million ADS and US$35 million.
• Compliance statement -- CEO Zhe Yin said, "the company has always complied with legal requirement under different jurisdiction. … we do not see any impact or basically with no much impact to Noah for our business model."
• Securities business exposure -- The securities business is only contributing less than 1% to total revenue.
• AI scaling in overseas markets -- AI-driven wealth management model in Singapore validated by 191% growth in AUA in the first quarter.

Summary

Noah Holdings Limited (NYSE:NOAH) reported one of the highest quarterly operating margins in recent years, reflecting a structurally enhanced profitability profile as disciplined cost controls and AI-driven efficiency reduced operating expenses faster than revenues declined sequentially. Management indicated clear strategic focus through milestones in Japan and the U.S., and provided explicit global expansion signals as overseas registered clients and assets under administration grew. The company advanced its AI-supported model in Singapore, delivering a near tripling of AUA and productivity, while maintaining robust liquidity and proposing a 100% dividend payout of non-GAAP net income. Shareholder capital returns continued with incremental share repurchases, and updated guidance highlighted a resource shift toward client-facing and technology-driven functions without headline expansion in total headcount.

• Non-operational mark-to-market volatility in net income was isolated, with management stressing that this mainly reflected mark-to-market accounting adjustments on the specific listed investment recorded under income from equity and affiliates.
• Since launching the program for shareholder return in 2024, the company has cumulatively repurchased 3 million ADS for US$35 million, and has declared to distribute 100% of non-GAAP net income as dividends for the third consecutive year.
• Cost reductions notably stemmed from a 10.4% year-over-year decrease in headcount and associated personnel expense declines, specifically driven by AI-led productivity measures throughout mid-back office functions.
• Management asserted that regulatory risk from new cross-border brokerage rules in China is minimal, since “this is not exactly new. But more like a reinforcement of an existing rule… [and] we do not see any impact… to Noah for our business model.”
• The chairlady emphasized that RM (relationship manager) headcount “may no longer be a core indicator of business scale” as the AI+ platform model is globally implemented, with productivity per capita becoming the focus metric going forward.

Industry glossary

• AUA (Assets Under Administration): Total value of client assets managed under administrative services, but not directly managed by asset managers for investment decisions.
• AUM (Assets Under Management): Total market value of investments actively managed by Noah Holdings Limited on behalf of clients.
• RM (Relationship Manager): Client-facing professional responsible for managing and advising high-net-worth clients on wealth management and investment solutions.
• Noah Upright: Noah Holdings Limited's fund distribution platform, focused on mutual funds and secondary private market fundraising in China.
• iNoah: Noah Holdings Limited's proprietary securities trading application for overseas markets.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Zhe Yin: Investors and analysts, and thank you for joining Noah Holdings' first quarter 26 earnings conference call. As we start 2026, the pace of Noah's transformation has become clearer than ever before. In the first quarter, we observed 3 increasingly visible trends. First, our profitability structure continues to improve. With operating margin reaching 1 of the highest quarterly levels in recent years. Second, our domestic business is regaining momentum in core investment and asset allocation. With both active clients and transaction value achieving double digit growth Third, our overseas business continues to advance in line with our strategy of proactively adjusting our revenue mix. While a new operating model driven by globalization and AI gradually takes shape.

Before going into a more detailed review, I would like to share 2 milestones in our global footprint that we recently achieved. Our Japan office officially commenced operations on May 4. And our US broker dealer license has completed the final approval process. With key team members set to officially join in June. These 2 developments mean that our network is entering a new phase. Moving from license deployment to operational execution, Next, I would like to share our progress from 4 perspectives. Financial performance, domestic business, overseas business, and AI strategy. First quarter, we recorded net revenues of RMB 626 million, up 1.8% year over year and down 14.7% quarter over quarter.

The sequential decline was mainly due to a further decrease in contribution from insurance business. As well as a seasonal decrease in performance fee income from overseas private equity products following concentrated year end recognitions. However, on the profit side, benefiting from our disciplined cost control, organizational streamlining and expense management, Operating profit reached RMB 236 million up 27.1% year over year. Operating margin was 37.8%. Marking 1 of the highest quarterly levels in recent years. Non GAAP net income was RMB 134 million It is important to note that this quarter's strong margin performance benefited from continued optimization in our business mix. And further release of additional organizational efficiency.

We expect full year operating margin to remain in a healthy range above 30%. Although quarter to quarter fluctuations are natural due to product mix and expense timing. This quarter also marked our 62nd consecutive quarter of non-GAAP profitability since listing. This is the discipline we have maintained across multiple market cycles. Our active clients reached 10.7 thousand Up 21.8% year over year. Transaction value reached RMB 23.3 billion, compared with RMB16.1 billion in the same period last year. In our domestic business, transaction value of RMB denominated mutual fund products reached RMB 9.9 billion up 131% year over year. While transaction value of from RMB denominated private secondary products reached RMB 5.3 billion up 61% year over year.

Noah Upright recorded net revenues of RMB 28 million up 63% year over year mainly driven by a doubling in public fund transaction volume as a result of structural opportunities in the A share market. Together with a rapid recovery in RMB denominated private secondary fundraising. This series of changes shows that when we refocus our resources on products and investment capabilities, with genuine long term value, the operating performance of our domestic business improves structurally. At the same time, we have become even clearer about the strategic direction of our domestic business going forward. For our domestic business we will continue to focus on the secondary market and building our asset allocation capabilities.

With key priorities including public mutual funds, private secondary market products, AI driven client operations, and Noah Upright's fund distribution platform capabilities. We will continue to drive the enhancement of our operations in these areas We believe the domestic wealth management industry is gradually moving away from the past stage which was driven by real estate and non standardized products. And returning to a true long term era centered on investment research and asset allocation. As of March 31, overseas registered clients reached 20.4 thousand Up 11.9% year over year. Overseas AUA was US$9.6 billion up approximately 5.9% year over year. Transaction value of U. S. Dollar denominated products was US$1.15 billion for the quarter. Broadly flat year over year.

Our overseas client base and AUA continue to grow steadily, and the pace of our revenue mix adjustment is consistent with the view we shared during our third quarter earnings call last year. Over the past few years, we have continued to build our presence across key regions, serving global Chinese clients, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Canada, Europe, Australia, and The United States. What we are seeing more clearly is that global Chinese clients are entering a new stage. Their assets, families, identities, education, and next generation planning are becoming increasingly globalized. In the past, serving global Chinese families across multiple languages, and generations was a business that relied heavily on individual experience.

And was extremely difficult to scale or replicate. For the first time, AI makes it possible for this kind of service to be globally coordinated in a systematized, platformized, and scalable framework. This is why we believe 1 of our most important long term positions is not only to be a wealth management institution, but also becoming a global wealth management platform, serving Chinese high net worth families around the world. Over the past 2 decades, the logic to drive growth in the wealth management industry was clear. But linear. 1 more relationship manager meant more revenue. 1 more client relationship meant more assets.

This logic worked well in the past, but it also meant that the industry's expansion was structurally constrained by labor costs and overall management of the organization. Our view is that AI is fundamentally changing this equation. It is not simply adding another efficiency tool It is redefining the front office structure of the wealth management industry. In the past wealth management was primarily driven by a single RM model Today we are gradually forming a new model driven by the collaboration of 3 front office engines. First, AI enhanced relationship managers. RMs remain the most important long term driver of strong client relationships. But AI is significantly enhancing their ability to cover clients.

In the future, RMs will focus more on deep client engagement rather than repetitive process work. Second, AI wealth management department. This is a new type of front office team that we are actively building. The AI wealth management department does not rely on traditional headcount expansion. Instead, it uses AI to drive client operations, content services, allocation support, and global collaboration. Enabling a lighter organizational structure to serve broader client needs. Singapore is the first fully developed testing ground for this model. Over the past quarter, AUA in Singapore grew by approximately 192% year over year and revenue generation per capita reached 8.5x.

This is the first validation that without materially expanding the number of relationship managers AI can elevate individual service capacity breadth of coverage, and professionalism of asset allocation by an order of magnitude. Third, AI plus ecosystem expansion. We believe the future of wealth management will not belong only to the internal RM systems of large institutions. More and more independent financial advisors family offices, and external professional firms need a platform that can provide a global asset supply chain. An AI workbench, a compliance foundation, global execution capabilities, and brand credibility. We are gradually building this ecosystem We believe these 3 engines will together form our growth drivers going forward.

And the future competitive landscape of the wealth management industry will no longer be defined simply by who has more RMs, but by who has stronger AI capabilities. Who has a more complete global compliance network, who has deeper customer context data, and who has more replicable platform based service capabilities. This is our most important strategic vision for 2025 and 2026. Based on this strategic vision, we have made substantive progress at 3 levels. First level, enhancing organizational efficiency, Last year, while maintaining stable net revenues, our total headcount declined by approximately 11% compared with 2024. In the first quarter of this year, headcount further declined by approximately 3% quarter over quarter.

Behind this is the gradual embedding of AI into key areas such as client interaction, content generation, and operational processes. Enabling the same revenue scale to be supported by a more streamlined organization This is the first direct evidence of returns on our AI investment. Second level, productization of operating capabilities. Our i-RM platform officially went live in the third quarter of last year. It covers client research, generation of allocation recommendations, service record keeping, and content output. And is being integrated in parallel across our 4 booking centers. AI is no longer just a back office tool. It is becoming a collaborative partner for our RMs. Third level reconstruction of the operating model itself.

AI is not a PowerPoint concept for our organization. It has already become a new operating system that can generate real business results and has the potential to be replicated globally. Supporting these AI capabilities is the global foundation we have already built. Our 3 global platforms, Arc, Olive, and Glory, support client and account execution, asset management, and insurance, trust and inheritance services. And our 4 booking centers in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and The United States. Together form our compliance and execution infrastructure. Going forward, our long term AI build out will continue to advance across 4 dimensions. Clients, relationship managers, products, and governance.

Remainder of 2026 our work will continue to focus on the 3 priority areas clearly set out by our Chairlady in her 2025 letter to shareholders. First, expanding our overseas client base, Second, further growing our global asset allocation capabilities. Third, continue to optimize the revenue structure of Olive. Our asset management business. And lastly, deepen AI applications in our core operating processes. And gradually expand global collaboration capabilities within a compliant framework. As of March 31, we held RMB 5.13 billion in cash. Cash equivalents and short term investment maintained a healthy balance sheet with zero interest bearing debt The board announced a dividend proposal for approval at our shareholders meeting.

Including a special dividend that brings the total payout to 100% of full year 2025 non-GAAP net income. Subject to approval at the June 11th meeting, the plan will be implemented. This would extend our shareholder return framework for a third consecutive year based on 100% of non-GAAP net income. We will continue to invest in globalization and building AI capabilities while maintaining financial discipline. We are still in the midst of our transformation The short term pressure points are visible. But the logic of our long term operating model is becoming clearer than ever before. The first quarter is not the destination. It is more like a starting point where our new operating model is beginning to be validated.

We are evolving from a traditional wealth management institution into an AI driven global platform serving Chinese families around the world. This process will not happen overnight. But our direction is becoming increasingly clear. Thank you. I will now hand the time over to our CFO, Pan, to review our financial performance in greater detail.

Qing Pan: Thank you, Zhe, and good day to everyone joining us. The first quarter of 26 marked a solid start to the year and continued progress on our transition toward a more investment led and quality driven global wealth management platform. Would like to highlight 3 key messages. First, while total revenue remains stable, the quality of our revenue mix improved meaningfully. Driven by strong growth in investment related fundraising fees and performance based income. Second, disciplined cost management and structure efficiency initiatives delivered substantial operating leverage, operating profit increased significantly and operating margin expanded further. Third, reported net income was affected by non operational volatility.

This mainly reflected mark to market accounting adjustments on the specific listed investment recorded under income from equity and affiliates. Excluding that specific mark to market impact, non-GAAP net income would have reached RMB 2 million up 28% year over year. For the first quarter, total net revenue was RMB626 million, up 1.8% year over year. This stability was achieved despite a deliberate 49.9% reduction in insurance related revenue as we continued to optimize our business mix. 1 time commissions were RMB 113 million, up 5.9% quarter over quarter. Within this, commissions from newly raised investment products increased to RMB 53 million. up 46.1% year over year and 41.6% quarter over quarter.

Recurring management fees were RMB 379 million down 3.4% year over year and 2.5% quarter over quarter. Performance based income reached RMB 100 million, up 253% year over year. Primarily driven by strong realization from RMB denominated private secondary products. Overall, the quarter further demonstrates our continued shift toward a higher quality investment and revenue structure. Our lean operating model continues to deliver measurable financial results with AI increasingly serving as the structural driver of our. Total operating costs and expenses declined to RMB 389 million down 9.2% year over year and 18.1% quarter over quarter. As of the end of the quarter, group headcount was 2.6 thousand down 10.4%. Leading personnel costs to decline 12.2%.

Year over year to RMB 267 million This reflects productivity gains rather than business contraction. Our AI strategy focuses on improving output per capita, and operational efficiency. AI driven tools now support client engagement automated reporting suitability processes and routine workflows that previously required manual intervention. This enables us to scale global operations while maintaining disciplined cost control and service quality. SG&A expenses were RMB 103 million down 10.8% year over year and 35.1% quarter over quarter. Total operating costs and expenses were RMB 389 million down 18.1% compared to last quarter. As a result, operating profit increased to RMB 236 million up 27.1%. Year over year.

Operating margin, therefore, expanded to 37.8% compared with 30.3% in the first quarter of last year. Excluding government subsidies, operating profit was RMB 2 million up 33.7%. These results highlight the stability of our platform and financial benefits of our structure optimization. Below the operating line, investment, interest and other income totaled RMB 19 million. Interest income was RMB 32 million. Investment income was negative RMB 2 million. Foreign exchange loss was RMB 6 million. And contingent expenses was RMB 3 million. Share of losses from equity affiliates was RMB 65 million. As a result, non-GAAP net income attributable to Noah was RMB 134 million with a margin of 21.4%.

Total transaction values reached RMB 23.3 billion. up 44.8% year over year and 37.5% quarter over quarter. U. S. Dollar denominated private secondary products reached US$1.293 billion up 161%. Year over year. When RMB denominated private secondary products reached RMB 5.3 billion up 61% year over year. This fundraising momentum directly supported the growth in investment related commissions and reinforced our strategy. As of the end of the quarter, group AUM was RMB 140.2 billion. And AUA was RMB 233.5 billion. Total AUM and AUA at the group level declined yet our U. S. Dollar denominated base continued to grow. Overseas AUM reached US$6.2 billion up 5%. And overseas AUA reached US$9.6 billion up almost 6% year over year.

Total Diamond and Black Card clients reached 9.03 thousand. Overseas, Diamond and Black Card clients reached 1.78 thousand up 3.8% quarter over quarter. Reflecting continued traction in overseas markets. Our balance sheet remains strong and highly liquid. As of the end of the quarter, cash and cash equivalents was RMB 4 billion, and short-term investments were RMB 834 million. Total assets were RMB 11.6 billion and total liabilities were RMB 1.7 billion. Our asset liability ratio remained low at 14.5%. And our current ratio was 4.8x providing ample flexibility for growth and shareholder returns.

We believe our current market valuation does not fully reflect the strength of our balance sheet the resilience of core earnings and the scalability of our operating model. With shareholders' equity, of about RMB 9.9 billion, the company is trading at roughly 0.5x book value. When delivering an annualized return on equity of approximately 5.4%. In our view, this does not adequately reflect our intrinsic value of long term earnings potential. And since the beginning of 2020, we have repurchased 2 million ADS for approximately US$20 million representing about 2.7% of outstanding shares.

And since launching the program, shareholder return in 2024, we have cumulatively repurchased 3 million ADS, US$35 million plus we have declared to distribute 100% of our non-GAAP net income as dividends for the third consecutive year. These actions reflect management's confidence. In the company's intrinsic value and our commitment to enhancing long term shareholder returns. So in summary, the first quarter reflects disciplined execution of our strategic transition. Revenue quality improved operating leverage strengthened, and AI driven productivity. Gains continued to enhance structural efficiency. While reported earnings were influenced by non operational volatility, the underlying health of our core business continues to improve.

With a fortress balance sheet, a leaner and more scalable operating platform and continued capital returns through share repurchases, we believe the company remains fundamentally undervalued relative to its intrinsic strength and long term earnings potential. So we remain fully committed to disciplined execution, prudent capital allocation, sustainable long term value creation. Thank you, everyone. And we will now open the floor for questions.

Dorian Chiu: Thank you, Pan. Thank you, Mr. Yin, for the presentation. And operator, please open the floor for questions.

Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, Your first question today comes from Calvin Leon from Citi. Please go ahead.

Analyst (Calvin): Great. And I think I am I will quickly translate my question. Thanks for taking this, and this is Calvin from Citi. Last Friday, China tightened the regulations on cross border brokerage businesses. What is management's view on the evolving regulatory landscape on this front? And what is the potential impact to Noah's domestic market business? Considering a few offshore brokers were cited by regulators regarding the unauthorized brokerage businesses, What is management's take on the compliance risk in domestic market going forward? Thank you.

Dorian Chiu: Let me do the translation.

Zhe Yin: The CEO we confirmed that the company has paid attention to this news. However, we have to emphasize that this is not exactly new. But more like a reinforcement of an existing rule that has been introduced to the market a couple of years ago. However, we would like to emphasize that the company has always complied with legal requirement under different jurisdiction. And particularly for the overseas accounts that have been opened are all under the compliance requirements of, say, for example, in Hong Kong would be all the KYC requirement. and all that.

And also about the money into this investment account is from legitimate financial institution operators and are under HKMA's regulation that all the money transferred in the investment account is from those validated financial institution. But having said that, the security business the revenue contribution to the company is rather small. So all in all, we do not see any impact or basically with no much impact to Noah for our business model. And we must once again say that all of our operations under different jurisdiction has always complied with the legal requirement.

Jingbo Wang: We serve high-net-worth Chinese family around the world. To supplement the answers. The company has been paying huge attention to this newly executed rules and the situation. And we have been immediately reviewed our internal procedure applying to the SFC requirements. And we are very comfortable in saying that we are fully compliant with the legal requirement. And that is not only in Hong Kong, but across Singapore, USA all of our booking centers. So different from or slightly different from these securities online platform. What we serve is the global Chinese high network. So as a slightly different from the business model, happens that the securities business is only contributing less than 1% to our total revenue.

And we further emphasize again all the money transferred to the investment account are from overseas banks, none of the money transferred into the investment account is from Chinese banks. So she's slightly optimistic that maybe this could be a chance for Noah because we have always been compliant with regulations. So iNoah, which is our app for security trading, in the company. And all the operational system and also the technical support systems are all placed in overseas market. And overseas like in Hong Kong. So and also for iNoah, we have zero employees basically refers to iNoah in the domestic market. So again, we are fully compliant to the requirements of the CSRC and SFC.

And further, the company is already reviewing the referral requirement for the business from domestic to overseas according to the legal department.

Operator: Calvin, I hope that answers your question.

Dorian Chiu: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from Peter Zhang from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Analyst (Peter): Thanks for giving me the opportunity to ask this question. This is Peter Zhang from JPMorgan, and I have 2 questions. First is, I noticed that wealth management product transaction volume has picked up sequentially in first quarter, which is a really good trend. We are wondering what is the operating trend in second quarter? Do we see continued strong investment sentiment at our clients and how's the client demand for domestic and overseas products investment products. Secondly, my question is on the cost side. We have a really good cost control in first quarter. I am wondering whether management can share what is the full year guidance for our headcount growth and operating expense trend? Thank you.

Zhe Yin: Okay. Yes. Thank you, Peter. So To answer Peter's questions, I appreciate for what you have asked. We will want to answer the question divided into 2 parts, which is the domestic market and also the overseas market. We must admit that for investment sentiment, a lot of time it is affected by the entire market situation. And that is why we have been seeing that in 2025 and 2026, until now, the investment sentiment has improved a lot compared to 2 years ago. However, what we have been really doing is not just I mean, getting business according to the market situation.

So what we have been doing is really try to promote the idea that we have been helping clients to do the wealth management, which is to diverse their asset into different classes and different products so that they can have a better portfolio. And that we have been seeing the progress in the domestic market. And for overseas market, 1 of the thing about being a wealth management company is the ability to get the good products. And according to the CIO report and also in the market I mean, in the current market, AI has been a very important idea for an investment idea.

And that is why we have different products that is AI related from infrastructure to AI company. And that we have been doing that and also again, promote the same idea of helping clients to do their wealth allocation for a better portfolio. And that we believe that with all these good quality product on hand, we should see a better sales allocations as a result. And we must also emphasize that in terms of selling abilities, that now we have been using AI to support the company or the RMs to do the clients risk analysis So we have been promoting products according to the clients' need. That is more specified than the mass promotion like in the past.

Which again, we believe that we believe should enhance the efficiency of our selling. And ultimately, the selling results for the company.

Jingbo Wang: So we remember the real history of Noah, We have been talking about to protect our clients asset before growing. In 2022. And in 2023, it is about all this pricing in China that is going overseas market. And since last year, we talked about AI and for this year, emphasized in AI infrastructure product. What we have been demonstrating here is we are a real wealth management company. So what we are doing is about how to make sure our clients asset can be well protected and ultimately have growth.

And I mean, from a lot of our friendly competitors and our peers, Then I would say we always reveal to them how much profit our clients made every year. And that has been a very key KPI for the staff here.

And so, I mean, in a simple way of saying that the company could not control a lot of things like the market cap or if the size of the company can grow drastically, However, if we look at what we have been doing with our clients, when we look at within profitability for over 62 consecutive quarters, when we have been looking at all these rights decisions in the past in history, we are confident that we have been able to keep the company up with the company and ultimately, we will be seen by the market. Okay.

Qing Pan: So I will take Peter's second question. We actually do not have a set agenda or set targets for frontline teams, obviously, although we see a decline in the number of RMs, but that is really driven by performance. So as you could see, we are still achieving much higher fundraising volume because of the higher quality and higher efficiency. So we do not expect to have I would say, intentional shrinking of the frontline team. We want to make sure, obviously, that they are fully occupied and able to generate enough volume as CEO and Chairlady just mentioned. There might be opportunity given the current policy situation.

At the same time, obviously, we are targeting mid back office efficiency, especially with the tool of AI. We believe that many positions in the past that were basically being performed by pure labor or pure hands are now being at least consolidated merged into fewer positions. So that actually leads to significant I would say, optimization in mid back office structure. But in the meantime, I think from the standpoint of the whole year, although we do not expect to see huge expansion or growth in headcounts, we are going to see some key fulfillment in key markets worldwide. and other just a couple of people. And obviously, we will continue to invest in AI and technology. Peter?

Dorian Chiu: Thank you. Very clear. Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from Yumin Tang from CICC. Please go ahead.

Analyst (Yumin): I will translate my questions This is Yumin Tang from CICC. I have 2 questions. First is transaction value, client numbers and RM numbers. Overseas business declined Could you please talk about the reasons? You mentioned overseas business has moved from a licensed setup to formal operation. what is the growth outlook for this segment going forward? And my second question is about AI. AI wealth management department in Singapore has delivered much stronger revenue generation and client service efficiency. Could you please talk about how AI helps RMs develop their business. Thank you.

Operator: So about your question about overseas, business performance, We do see that sequential drop in first quarter, however, when we look at the year on year, we still see a growth as reflected that.

Zhe Yin: We believe that is a normal performance across different quarters various changes. And about how AI has been enhancing our RMs, I guess we have been slightly touched upon the current way of doing business. We are now trying to be more focused and more accurate in taking certain products to certain clients. So we have been able to distinguish a higher level of clients, so that would be more efficient in terms of in terms of suggesting product to our clients and allocate the resources that we have on hand.

And also we have introduced a Noah-Pay rewarding system since late last year, and that is more like a rewarding system we have been providing certain rewards to our clients. That again would be focus on higher quality clients. And that, as a whole, means that our selling methodology could be a better allocated in terms of our resource booking As you may aware, we have been basically fully licensed in Hong Kong. And in Singapore, we have different types of license under the regulation of MAS. We are currently applying for the asset management license as well. So back to your question about The U. S. Market booking center license.

And again, it is 1 of the important steps that completes the development as we are having very important strategic booking centers for the company. And after the license being granted, we are now working on the details of redeploying business in that market. And that we believe is going to be a very important strategic move for the company.

Jingbo Wang: The chairlady is now doing a post not an announcement, but a suggestion to all our analysts When you are doing the analysis of the company, maybe no longer we should use the number of RMs as an indicator of RMs to indicate the company's business size in the future. But what we have been trying to suggest that because of the enhancement of AI, all the human RMs are supported in the first hand.

And secondly, we have built up the AI plus wealth management department as in the CEO's presentation we talked about how this AI plus wealth management is able to do all the supporting to take care of our clients but without enhancing more human resources on that. And also, what we have been further developing is the AI plus ecosystem. That is more like a referral business to cooperate with different types of professional individuals in the market. That should help us to get clients under the AI plus wealth management system. So as using Singapore as an example, yes, Singapore is not an easy market. it is small but competitive.

And it is really difficult to hire the right RM. The cost will be very high. And that is why we have been using AI as a test when we started in this market. And we have found out that or we have been getting very good results from that market. And that as mentioned, we have 191% growth in AUA in the first quarter. And that is why we have been going forward to try to apply this same system into different overseas markets as well. I mean, also, ultimately, we would like to apply that in the domestic market too.

However, some limitation of the I mean historical structure also because of the different AI systems, that may be slower. However, we should expect that the AI application to different overseas market should be bringing results to the company in the near future.

Operator: Is there any more questions? There are no further questions at this time. This concludes our question and answer session.

Dorian Chiu: I would now like to turn the conference back over for any closing remarks. Thank you. Thank you everyone for joining us today and please feel free to reach out to the IR team for any further questions. Thank you very much.

Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. May now disconnect.

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