Puyi Inc. (NASDAQ:PUYI) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Thirdly, we will rigorously develop our family office business by promoting insurance premium trust products and the number of completed trust consulting service projects reached a new record high. As of June 30, 2023, we had assisted an aggregate of 366 affluent family clients to set up trust accounts with entrusted assets exceeding RMB4.1 billion through our trust consulting service. At the same time, we have diversified and will continue to diversify our service offerings for our high-net worth clients through establishing cooperation with education service providers, tax firms, law firms, health care service providers and other professional firms. We believe that through our comprehensive service offering, our capability in serving high-net worth clients will continue to improve, creating greater value for clients and achieving a more stable and sustainable development.

Fourth, we developed a self-developed IT infrastructure to assist in the continuous improvement of our core business. In the fiscal year 2023, we have concentrated our resources on supporting the development of our core business. We have placed emphasis on upgrading the Puyi Fund app institutional transaction platform, family office business internal systems and our core transaction system. For the Puyi Fund app, we further improved it as a full scope online transaction processing service platform. We successfully upgraded its intelligent investment advisory system through digitalization and artificial intelligence, integrating companionship and adviser service to the client’s entire investment life cycle. And in terms of institutional transaction platform, we have launched a smart port system to connect with other financial institution systems to support the development and expansion of our financial institutional clients.

We have also optimized and integrate the functionality of the institutional transaction platform, further enhancing our service levels. For our family office business internal system, we have a cost focus on three key aspects. We have integrated our IT infrastructure to connect with other trust company systems and their information network, achieving information through digitalization and improving trust process efficiency. Then we have strengthened our digitalization construction by opening self-service channels and allowing our financial advisers real-time tracking of trust progress and status. Lastly, we’ve overall optimized and improved our family office business internal system to better support the development of our family office business.

Last, in terms of core transaction system, we have replaced and integrated the functionality by expanding the existing functional system such as adding payment systems and investment advisory systems. Fifth, we deeply optimize our organization and expense management, achieving a significant cost reduction. In terms of marketing expense control, considering the current external operating environment and the company’s yet to achieve profitability, we have changed our marketing initiatives for public raised fund product portfolio from stimulating the growth of new accounts to stimulating the growth of new investments. And in terms of our organizational structure, we divest our one subsidiary and closed several branch offices with long-term losses and minimal business activity in conjunction with personnel optimization.

As of June 30, 2023, the number of employees decreased by approximately 48% compared to that on June 30, 2022, while the office area of the headquarters decreased by approximately 40% and the office area of the branch office decreased by approximately 6% — 60%. In all, during the fiscal year 2023, we have significantly alleviated resource consumption, resulting in a 34% year-on-year decrease in operating costs. Next, I will briefly discuss the financial condition of our company in the fiscal year 2023. Our net revenue for the fiscal year 2023 were RMB114.4 million, $15.8 million, with a decrease of 39.4% year-on-year as compared to RMB188.7 million in the fiscal year 2022. Now let’s turn to each individual business line. First, for our wealth management service.

Net revenues generated from our wealth management service decreased year-on-year by 44.6% from RMB171.5 million in the fiscal year 2022 to RMB95 million, $13.1 million. Net revenues generated from distribution of privately raised fund products decreased year-on-year by 58.2% from RMB61.6 million in the fiscal year 2022 to RMB25.7 million, $3.6 million. In the fiscal year 2023, the decrease was primarily due to, first, the investors’ negative sentiment for private raised fund products and other high-risk products and investors’ willingness to redeem funds has increased due to market volatility. Therefore, during the reporting period, both the transaction value and outstanding balance of our private raised fund products have decreased resulting in a decrease in commission income, including management fees.