GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — CNFinance Holdings Limited (NYSE: CNF) ("CNFinance" or the "Company"), a leading home equity loan service provider in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023.

Third Quarter 2023 Operational and Financial Highlights

Total loan origination volume[1] was RMB5,105.1 million (US$699.7 million) in the third quarter of 2023, representing an increase of 19.9% from RMB4,257.1 million in the same period of 2022. Total number of active borrowers[2] was 26,624 as of September 30, 2023, representing an increase of 13.0% from 23,560 as of September 30, 2022. Net interest and fees income were RMB255.3 million (US$35.1 million) in the third quarter of 2023, representing an increase of 0.4% from RMB254.3 million in the same period of 2022. Net income was RMB53.0 million (US$7.3 million) in the third quarter of 2023, representing an increase of 15.2% from RMB46.0 million in the same period of 2022. Basic and diluted earnings per ADS were RMB0.77 (US$0.11) and RMB0.71 (US$0.10), respectively, in the third quarter of 2023, compared to RMB0.70 and RMB0.64, respectively, in the same period of 2022.

"In the third quarter of 2023, we continued to focus on growth of scale and asset quality. During this quarter, in order to refine our product mix and cover a broader range of customers, we continued to work on reducing funding costs. During such quarter, we originated loans of RMB5.1 billion in total, representing an increase of 19.9% as compared to the same period of 2022. Besides, as a result of our effective risk control mechanism, we recovered loan principal, interest and penalties which equal to approximately 110% of the actual outstanding loan principal of delinquent loans in the third quarter of 2023.

Given China’s current macro-economic condition, our task remains to be growing our business scale and achieving ‘high-quality development’. We believe the major works to be done are as follows: firstly, in order to serve the financing needs of borrowers with better credit record and collateral, we will strive to extend our reach to funding partners with lower funding costs; and secondly, we will continue to reach out to asset management companies to accelerate the disposal of non-performing loans; and thirdly, we aim to adopt our self-developed big data model  to facilitate the  credit decisioning process of every loan applications to increase efficiency of loan disbursement." Commented Mr. Zhai Bin, Chairman and CEO of CNFinance.

[1] Refers to the total amount of loans CNFinance originated under the trust lending model and loans recommended to commercial banks during the relevant period.

[2] Refers to borrowers with outstanding loan principal of home equity loans as at the end of a specific period.

Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results

Total interest and fees income decreased by 5.5% to RMB424.9 million (US$58.3 million) for the third quarter of 2023 from RMB449.7 million in the same period of 2022.

Interest and financing service fees on loans decreased by 6.0% to RMB387.9 million (US$53.2 million) for the third quarter of 2023 from RMB412.7 million in the same period of 2022, primarily attributable to the decrease of weighted average interest rate of loans outstanding for the third quarter of 2023 as compared to the same period of 2022.

Interest income charged to sales partners, representing interest charged to sales partners who choose to repurchase default loans in installments, decreased by 2.4% to RMB32.7 million (US$4.5 million) for the third quarter of 2023 from RMB33.5 million in the same period of 2022.

Interest on deposits with banks increased by 22.9% to RMB4.3 million (US$0.6 million) for the third quarter of 2023 from RMB3.5 million in the same period of 2022, primarily due to the higher daily average amount of time deposits.

Total interest and fees expenses decreased by 13.2% to RMB169.6 million (US$23.2 million) for the third quarter of 2023, compared to RMB195.4 million in the same period of 2022, primarily due to the lower funding cost of trust company partners as a result of recent regulatory development.

Net interest and fees income was RMB255.3million (US$35.1 million) for the third quarter of 2023, an increase of 0.4% from RMB254.3 million in the same period of 2022.

Net revenue under the commercial bank partnership model, representing fees charged to commercial banks for services including introducing borrowers, initial credit assessment, facilitating loans from the banks to the borrowers and providing technical assistance to the borrowers and banks, net of fees paid to third-party guarantor and commissions paid to sales channels, was RMB27.6 million (US$3.8million) for the third quarter of 2023 as compared to RMB0.4 million in the same period of 2022. The Company has been collaborating with commercial banks since 2021 and such collaboration grew and scaled in the second half of 2022. The outstanding loan principal under the commercial bank partnership was RMB5.0 billion (US$0.7 billion) as of September 30, 2023 as compared to RMB0.6 billion as of September 30, 2022.

Collaboration cost for sales partners increased 2.2% to RMB86.9 million (US$11.9 million) for the third quarter of 2023 from RMB85.0 million in the same period of 2022.

Net interest and fees income after collaboration cost was RMB196.0 million (US$27.0 million) for the third quarter of 2023, representing an increase of 15.5% from RMB169.7 million in the same period of 2022.

Provision for credit losses, representing provision for credit losses under the trust lending model and the expected credit losses of guarantee under the commercial bank partnership model in relation to certain financial guarantee arrangements the Company entered into with a third-party guarantor, who provides guarantee services to commercial bank partners, decreased by 71.7% to RMB11.5 million (US$1.6 million) for the third quarter of 2023 from RMB40.6 million in the same period of 2022. In the third quarter of 2023, some sales partners who forfeited their Credit Risk Mitigation Positions (CRMPs) due to the inability to fulfil their obligations to repurchase delinquent loans in last few quarters were able to recommence their payments, which has provided more protection to the loans.

Realized (losses) /gains on sales of investments, net representing realized (losses) /gains from the sales of investment securities, was a loss of RMB9.0 million (US$1.2 million), as compared to gains of RMB0.5 million gains for the same period of 2022.

Net losses on sales of loans was RMB1.5 million (US$0.2 million) for the third quarter of 2023 as compared to RMB0.8 million in the same period of 2022.

Other (losses)/gains, net was losses of RMB0.7 million (US$0.1 million) for the third quarter of 2023 as compared to gains of RMB17.0 million in the same period of 2022.primarily due to the decrease of the balance of CRMPs forfeited by the sales partners as we refined our installment policies to ease the liquidity pressure of sales partners. When CRMPs deposited by sales partners are confiscated by the Company, the Company will recognize the amount forfeited in other gain. In the third quarter of 2023, some sales partners who forfeited their CRMPs were able to continue to fulfil their guarantee responsibility, and associated CRMPs will not be deemed as confiscated.     

Total operating expenses increased by 27.0% to RMB105.5 million (US$14.5 million) for the third quarter of 2023 from RMB83.1 million in the same period of 2022.

Employee compensation and benefits increased by 15.5% to RMB57.5 million (US$7.9 million) for the third quarter of 2022 from RMB49.8 million in the same period of 2022, primarily attributable to an increase in the performance-based bonuses as a result of an increase in loan origination volume during the third quarter of 2023.

Share-based compensation expenses for the third quarter of 2023 was nil as compared to RMB1.4 million in the same period of 2022. According to the Company’s share option plan adopted on December 31, 2019, approximately 50%, 30% and 20% of the option granted was vested on December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively. Related compensation cost of the option granted has been fully recognized as of December 31, 2022.

Taxes and surcharges increased by 10.4% to RMB8.5 million (US$1.2 million) for the third quarter of 2023 from RMB7.7 million for the same period of 2022, primarily attributable to the increase of "service fees charged to trust plans" which is a non-deductible item in value added tax ("VAT"). According to the PRC tax regulations, "service fees charged to trust plans" incur a 6% VAT on the subsidiary level, but are not recorded as an input VAT on a consolidated trust plan level. "Service fees charged to trust plans" increased in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the same period of 2022 due to the increase of scale of some trust plans.

Operating lease cost increased to RMB4.6 million (US$0.6 million) for the third quarter of 2023 as compared to RMB3.8 million for the same period of 2022.

Other expenses increased by 71.1% to RMB34.9 million (US$4.8 million) for the third quarter of 2023 from RMB20.4 million in the same period of 2022, primarily due to the increase in fees paid to local channels. Local channels are rewarded for referring sales partners to the Company, and will also receive commission of a certain percentage of loans recommended to the Company by the sales partners they have referred.

Income tax expense decreased by 11.4% to RMB14.8 million (US$2.0 million) for the third quarter of 2023 from RMB16.7 million in the same period of 2022.

Effective tax rate decreased to 21.8% for the third quarter of 2023 from 26.6% in the same period of 2022.

Net income increased by 15.2% to RMB53.0 million (US$7.3 million) for the third quarter of 2023 from RMB46.0 million in the same period of 2022.

Basic earnings per ADS and diluted earnings per ADS were RMB0.77 (US$0.11) and RMB0.71 (US$0.10), respectively, in the third quarter of 2023, compared to RMB0.70 and RMB0.64, respectively, in the same period of 2022. One ADS represents 20 ordinary shares.

As of September 30, 2023, the Company had cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of RMB1.80 billion (US$0.25 billion), compared to RMB1.77 billion as of December 31, 2022, including RMB0.98 billion (US$0.13 billion) and RMB1.16 billion from structured funds as of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively, which could only be used to grant new loans and activities within each structured fund.

The delinquency ratio (excluding loans held for sale) for loans originated by the Company decreased from 18.3% as of December 31, 2022 to 15.0% as of September 30, 2023. The delinquency ratio for first lien loans (excluding Loans held-for-sale) decreased from 21.8% as of December 31, 2022 to 17.6% as of September 30, 2023, and the delinquency ratio for second lien loans (excluding Loans held-for-sale) decreased from 17.6% as of December 31, 2022 to 13.5% as of September 30, 2023.

The NPL ratio (excluding loans held for sale) for loans originated by the Company increased from 1.1% as of December 31, 2022 to 1.8% as of September 30, 2023. The NPL ratio for first lien loans (excluding Loans held-for-sale) increased from 1.1% as of December 31, 2022 to 1.7% as of September 30, 2023, and the NPL ratio for second lien loans (excluding Loans held-for-sale) increased from 1.2% as of December 31, 2022 to 1.8% as of September 30, 2023.

Recent Development

Share Repurchase 

On March 16, 2022, the Company’s board of directors authorized a share repurchase program under which the Company may repurchase up to US$20 million of its ordinary shares in the form of American depositary shares ("ADSs") during a period of up to 12 months commencing on March 16, 2022. On March 16, 2023, the Company’s board of directors authorized to extend the share repurchase program for 12 months commencing on March 16, 2023. As of September 30, 2023, the Company had repurchased an aggregate of approximately US$16.0 million worth of its ADSs under this share repurchase program.

Conference Call

CNFinance’s management will host an earnings conference call at 8:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time on Wednesday, November 29, 2023 (9:00 PM Beijing/ Hong Kong Time on Wednesday, November 29, 2023).

Dial-in numbers for the live conference call are as follows:

International:

+1-412-902-4272

Mainland China

+86-4001-201203

United States:

+1-888-346-8982

Hong Kong:

+852-3018-4992

Passcode:

CNFinance

A telephone replay of the call will be available after the conclusion of the conference call until 11:59 PM ET on December 6, 2023.

Dial-in numbers for the replay are as follows:

International:

+1-412-317-0088

United States:

+1-877-344-7529

Passcode:

4357541

A live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of CNFinance’s website at http://ir.cashchina.cn/.

Exchange Rate

The Company’s business is primarily conducted in China and all of the revenues are denominated in Renminbi ("RMB"). This announcement contains translations of certain RMB amounts into U.S. dollars at specified rates solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from RMB to U.S. dollars are made at a rate of RMB7.2960 to US$1.00, the exchange rate set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as of September 29, 2023. No representation is made that the RMB amounts could have been, or could be, converted, realized or settled into U.S. dollars at that rate on September 29, 2023, or at any other rate.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will", "expects", "anticipates", "future", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates", "confident" and similar statements. The Company may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company’s beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements that involve factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, but not limited to the following: its goals and strategies, its ability to achieve and maintain profitability, its ability to retain existing borrowers and attract new borrowers, its ability to maintain and enhance the relationship and business collaboration with its trust company partners and to secure sufficient funding from them, the effectiveness of its risk assessment process and risk management system, its ability to maintain low delinquency ratios for loans it originated, fluctuations in general economic and business conditions in China, the impact and future development of COVID-19 pandemic in China and across the globe, and relevant government laws, regulations, rules, policies or guidelines relating to the Company’s corporate structure, business and industry. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is current as of the date of the press release, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

About CNFinance Holdings Limited

CNFinance Holdings Limited (NYSE: CNF) ("CNFinance" or the "Company") is a leading home equity loan service provider in China. CNFinance, through its operating subsidiaries in China, conducts business by connecting demands and supplies through collaborating with sales partners and trust companies under the trust lending model, and local channel partners and commercial banks under the commercial bank partnership model. Sales partners and local channel partners are responsible for recommending micro- and small-enterprise ("MSE") owners with financing needs to the Company and the Company introduces eligible borrowers to licensed financial institutions with sufficient funding sources including trust companies and commercial banks who will then conduct their own risk assessments and make credit decisions. The Company’s primary target borrower segment is MSE owners who own real properties in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities and other major cities in China. The Company’s risk mitigation mechanism is embedded in the design of its loan products, supported by an integrated online and offline process focusing on risks of both borrowers and collateral and further enhanced by effective post-loan management procedures.

For more information, please contact:

CNFinance
E-mail: [email protected]

CNFINANCE HOLDINGS LIMITED

Unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets

(In thousands, except for number of shares)

December 31,

2022

September 30,

2023

RMB

RMB

US$

Assets

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

1,772,184

1,804,065

247,268

Loans principal, interest and financing
   service fee receivables

9,456,802

8,973,021

1,229,855

Allowance for credit losses

763,996

786,851

107,847

Net loans principal, interest and financing
   service fee receivables

8,692,806

8,186,170

1,122,008

Loans held-for-sale

1,844,438

2,348,530

321,893

Investment securities

518,645

597,655

81,915

Property and equipment

2,284

2,678

367

Intangible assets and goodwill

3,488

3,145

431

Deferred tax assets

76,905

103,113

14,133

Deposits

145,093

160,237

21,962

Right-of-use assets

29,777

30,599

4,194

Guaranteed assets

726,411

888,186

121,736

Other assets

669,889

1,119,226

153,403

Total assets

14,481,920

15,243,604

2,089,310

Liabilities and shareholders’ equity

Interest-bearing borrowings

Borrowings under agreements to
   repurchase

112,642

509,135

69,783

Other borrowings

7,727,559

7,166,585

982,262

Accrued employee benefits

31,645

22,372

3,066

Income taxes payable

186,901

210,456

28,845

Deferred tax liabilities

73,752

69,287

9,497

Lease liabilities

28,583

29,398

4,029

Credit risk mitigation position

1,354,653

1,470,284

201,519

Other liabilities

1,028,471

1,610,472

220,734

Total liabilities

10,544,206

11,087,989

1,519,735

Ordinary shares (USD0.0001 par value;
   3,800,000,000 shares authorized;
   1,559,576,960 shares issued and
   1,371,643,240 shares outstanding as of
   December 31, 2022 and September 30,
   2023)

917

917

126

Treasury stock

(87,631)

(107,327)

(14,710)

Additional paid-in capital

1,024,204

1,024,204

140,379

Retained earnings

2,958,716

3,086,946

423,101

Accumulated other comprehensive losses

(10,212)

(812)

(111)

Non-controlling interests

51,720

151,687

20,790

Total shareholders’ equity

3,937,714

4,155,615

569,575

Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity

14,481,920

15,243,604

2,089,310

CNFINANCE HOLDINGS LIMITED

Unaudited condensed consolidated statements of comprehensive income

(In thousands, except for earnings per share and earnings per ADS)

Three months ended September 30,2023

2022

2023

2023

RMB

RMB

US$

Interest and fees income

Interest and financing service fees on loans(2)

412,665

387,922

53,169

Interest income charged to sales partners

33,516

32,710

4,483

Interest on deposits with banks

3,514

4,301

590

Total interest and fees income

449,695

424,933

58,242

Interest expenses on interest-bearing borrowings

(195,396)

(169,615)

(23,248)

Total interest and fees expenses

(195,396)

(169,615)

(23,248)

Net interest and fees income

254,299

255,318

34,994

Net revenue under the commercial bank partnership model

405

27,623

3,786

Collaboration cost for sales partners

(84,961)

(86,895)

(11,910)

Net interest and fees income after collaboration cost

169,743

196,046

26,870

Provision for credit losses (1)

(40,560)

(11,514)

(1,578)

Net interest and fees income after collaboration cost and
   provision for credit losses

129,183

184,532

25,292

Realized (losses)/gains on sales of investments, net

501

(8,993)

(1,233)

Net losses on sales of loans(1)

(841)

(1,458)

(200)

Other (losses)/gains, net

16,975

(720)

(98)

Total non-interest income

16,635

(11,171)

(1,531)

Operating expenses

Employee compensation and benefits

(49,772)

(57,564)

(7,890)

Share-based compensation expenses

(1,444)

–

–

Taxes and surcharges

(7,739)

(8,500)

(1,165)

Operating lease cost

(3,782)

(4,604)

(631)

Other expenses

(20,363)

(34,888)

(4,782)

Total operating expenses

(83,100)

(105,556)

(14,468)

Income before income tax expense

62,718

67,805

9,293

Income tax expense

(16,698)

(14,801)

(2,028)

Net income

46,020

53,004

7,265

Earnings per share

Basic

0.04

0.04

0.01

Diluted

0.03

0.04

0.01

Earnings per ADS (1 ADS equals 20 ordinary shares)

Basic

0.70

0.77

0.11

Diluted

0.64

0.71

0.10

Other comprehensive losses

Foreign currency translation adjustment

9,880

2,022

277

Comprehensive income

55,902

55,026

7,542

Less: net income attributable to non-controlling interests 

–

8,954

1,227

Total comprehensive income attributable to ordinary
shareholders

55,902

46,072

6,315

CNFINANCE HOLDINGS LIMITED

Unaudited condensed consolidated statements of comprehensive income

(In thousands, except for earnings per share and earnings per ADS)

Nine months ended September 30,2023,

2022

2023

2023

RMB

RMB

US$

Interest and fees income

Interest and financing service fees on loans(2)

1,178,557

1,195,294

163,829

Interest income charged to sales partners

89,501

98,678

13,525

Interest on deposits with banks

8,756

15,463

2,119

Total interest and fees income

1,276,814

1,309,435

179,473

Interest expenses on interest-bearing borrowings

(583,589)

(535,900)

(73,451)

Total interest and fees expenses

(583,589)

(535,900)

(73,451)

Net interest and fees income

693,225

773,535

106,022

Net revenue under the commercial bank partnership model(2)

1,268

77,682

10,647

Collaboration cost for sales partners

(241,163)

(252,478)

(34,605)

Net interest and fees income after collaboration cost

453,330

598,739

82,064

Provision for credit losses (1)

(95,423)

(141,136)

(19,344)

Net interest and fees income after collaboration cost and
   provision for credit losses

357,907

457,603

62,720

Realized gains on sales of investments, net

16,934

6,724

922

Net losses on sales of loans(1)

(43,211)

(5,621)

(770)

Other gains, net

65,321

15,990

2,191

Total non-interest income

39,044

17,093

2,343

Operating expenses

Employee compensation and benefits

(141,422)

(152,526)

(20,905)

Share-based compensation expenses

(4,331)

–

–

Taxes and surcharges

(24,823)

(24,935)

(3,418)

Operating lease cost

(10,765)

(12,435)

(1,704)

Other expenses

(73,029)

(94,657)

(12,974)

Total operating expenses

(254,370)

(284,553)

(39,001)

Income before income tax expense

142,581

190,143

26,062

Income tax expense

(35,367)

(44,022)

(6,034)

Net income

107,214

146,121

20,028

Earnings per share

Basic

0.08

0.10

0.01

Diluted

0.07

0.10

0.01

Earnings per ADS (1 ADS equals 20 ordinary shares)

Basic

1.59

2.11

0.29

Diluted

1.45

2.00

0.27

Other comprehensive losses

Foreign currency translation adjustment

18,748

9,400

1,288

Comprehensive income

125,962

155,521

21,316

Less: net income attributable to non-controlling interests 

–

17,891

2,452

Total comprehensive income attributable to ordinary
shareholders

125,962

137,630

18,864

(1) In 2022, the majority of sales partners chose to fulfill their guaranteed obligations by making instalment
payments. When sales partners sign the creditor’s rights transfer agreement, the loans to be transferred
will be recognized as "held-for-sale loans (HFS)", and HFS would be measured at the lower of the cost
and fair value. In 2022, the Company reassessed the fair value of HFS, such reassessment had led to
overstatement in net gains/(losses) on sales of loans as well as understatement in provision for credit
losses, which had no impact on net income in the three months ended September 30, 2022 and the nine
months ended September 30, 2022.

(2) To provide more relevant information, the line items of Interest income charged to sales partners and
Net revenue under the commercial bank partnership model, which were included in Interest and
financing service fees on loans in the three months ended September 30, 2022 and the nine months ended
September 30, 2022 have been shown in separate items.

Source : CNFinance Announces Third Quarter of 2023 Unaudited Financial Results

>

This content was prepared by our news partner, Cision PR Newswire. The opinions and the content published on this page are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Siam News Network

MANAMA, Bahrain, Nov. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — The Ministry of Health in the Kingdom of Bahrain has become the first in the Middle East to acquire and inaugurate the use of the cutting-edge NovaSeqTM X Plus machine for human genome sequencing purposes. The move is part of the Kingdom’s commitment to continue developing therapeutic and diagnostic services in line with latest global medical advancements, benefiting the health of all.

The Chairman of the Supreme Council of Health, Lt. General Dr. Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, highlighted the ongoing efforts within the National Genome Project, which aims to utilize gene sequencing in adopting effective national health policies and therapeutic and preventative management plans.

For her part, the Minister of Health, Dr. Jaleela bint Al-Sayed Jawad Hassan noted that acquiring this device is in line with continuing efforts to keep abreast of latest technological trends in the health field, while further developing the National Genome Centre, which will reflect positively on the various diagnostic and therapeutic services in place for the benefit of the community.

Meanwhile, Dr. Gregory Essert, General Manager of Emerging Markets at Illumina, stated, "Through our latest specialized device in genome sequencing, NovaSeqTM X Plus, we can generate more than 20,000 whole genomes per year – 2.5 times our previous capacity, we look forward to contributing to the National Genome Centre’s goal in the Kingdom of Bahrain by employing technology to gain a better understanding of diseases and potential genetic risks, thereby developing healthcare plans."

Likewise, Mr Abdelrahman Ramadan, the Chief Executive *officer* of Zahrawi Group who’s the local representative of Illumina in Bahrain has emphasized, "We believe that the

Bahrain National Genome Project, in tandem with Zahrawi Group’s vision and mission, symbolizes a significant step towards achieving excellence in genomics research, fostering trust, and making meaningful contributions to the well-being of people in the GCC region and beyond".

It is worth mentioning that the National Genome Project was launched in the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2019, and awareness campaigns have been initiated by public health institutions to encourage community participation in the program, with a target of collecting 50,000 samples by 2024.

A national delegation of specialists from the National Genome Centre was sent to Harvard University in the United States to undergo specialized training, including the latest methods of genome sequencing, biological data classification, clinical analysis, scientific data analysis, and genetic data management.

Source : Bahrain, First in the Middle East to Acquire Latest Machine used for Human Genome Sequencing

>

This content was prepared by our news partner, Cision PR Newswire. The opinions and the content published on this page are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Siam News Network

SHANGHAI, Nov. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — In recent years, the Chinese pharmaceutical industry has been undergoing significant changes in its operational methods, driven by improvements in national regulations and changes in user behaviors and attitudes. Traditional operational approaches and marketing techniques of pharmaceutical enterprises are experiencing diminishing marginal effects, prompting an increasing number of pharmaceutical companies to prioritize and upgrade their digital marketing strategies to adapt quickly to these changes.

Zhang Yu, Tencent Health

As the interaction between pharmaceutical companies and domestic digital platform enterprises becomes more closely intertwined, digital platform companies, known for their rapid iteration and flexible adaptation to customer needs, are providing intelligent and customizable professional tools for pharmaceutical enterprises. In 2023, Tencent released NGES, a new-gen customer interaction solution catering to Health Care Professionals (HCP), marking another milestone in the digital practice of the pharmaceutical industry.

Several renowned pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca and Eisai Co, have adopted NGES for digital innovation, reporting progress in compliant operations, precision marketing, and collaborative work. NGES makes communication between pharmaceutical sales representatives and healthcare professionals as smooth as daily conversations on WeChat, with the system automatically handling the materials and summaries required before and after communication. This allows both parties to focus their energy and time on academic efforts.  

What drives Tencent and numerous pharmaceutical companies into this digital innovation? Zhang Yu, Vice President of Tencent Health and the initiator of the NGES project, has witnessed all these changes. At the T-Inspire industry summit on November 17th, he publicly discussed the current needs and pain points in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as how he and his R&D team adopted innovative concepts and model innovation to promote the precise digital upgrade of medical care.

Pharmaceutical Industry amid Tremendous Changes

Previously, pharmaceutical companies focused on core markets in large cities and internal hospital markets, employing a large number of sales representatives for face-to-face communication with customers. They relied on graded questionnaires to gain insight into customer demographics. However, the profit margins of pharmaceutical enterprises narrowed by medical insurance Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) have necessitated cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Additionally, the crackdown on medical corruption has compelled enterprises to rely more on compliant academic promotion for marketing. The rapidly changing market environment has led to a continuous reduction in the number of offline sales representatives, requiring fewer personnel to engage with a larger number of doctors.

Market changes have also brought about a revolution in marketing strategies. Pharmaceutical companies are expanding their target markets from tier-one and tier-two cities to broader regions. Interaction with doctors is no longer confined to hospital departments, with online content marketing and academic conferences becoming increasingly important. In the post-pandemic era, there is a willingness to embrace new online methods such as virtual academic conferences, with AstraZeneca revealing that around 35,000 meetings per month in the Chinese market are held on Tencent Meeting.

The evolution of online communications has enabled pharmaceutical companies to comprehensively understand user behavior data, which is more objective than those from traditional questionnaires and offers a more diverse customer profile. Based on these data, pharmaceutical companies can implement data mining and label analysis. Utilizing the insights from user behavior data, pharmaceutical companies can recommend personalized content, resulting in a more precise marketing strategy.

Behind these needs of pharmaceutical companies, there is a requirement for comprehensive technological support, such as social contact, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud services, and security. Zhang Yu and his team at Tencent Health have astutely perceived that Tencent has the opportunity to excel in this untapped market space.

Tencent’s Vision: Facilitating Professional Interactions in the Healthcare Ecosystem

Tencent, with its rich experience in communication, social media, and online marketing, and boasting a national-level application—WeChat—with over 1.3 billion monthly active accounts, has been actively involved in the digital upgrade across various industries. When talking with pharmaceutical companies, Zhang Yu made it clear that at this pivotal moment in enterprise marketing, Tencent aims to leverage its products and technology to facilitate professional interactions between pharmaceutical enterprises and doctors.

Zhang Yu painted a scenario for executives of pharmaceutical enterprises, emphasizing that many successful stories of pharmaceutical companies demonstrate that WeChat is the most frequently used online tool by doctors. Through various channels on WeChat, pharmaceutical companies can reach customers comprehensively, forming a rich ecosystem for the pharmaceutical industry. He cited an example, "Doctors use WeChat Official Accounts to obtain medical information and knowledge. WeCom also provides a solid foundation for efficient internal collaboration within pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical sales representatives and medical science liaisons can share information, leading to more targeted explanations and more efficient summaries after visits."

"WeChat’s Official Accounts, applets, and Tencent Meeting provide a more convenient way for pharmaceutical sales representatives and doctors to interact online, with data fusion completed in the backend. We have always considered placing HCP at the center, helping pharmaceutical companies find the right audience, push the right content at the right time and in the right way. Ultimately, we have facilitated the integration and innovation of Tencent’s existing resources to create a brand-new NGES for pharmaceutical companies and doctors." added Zhang Yu.

A multinational pharmaceutical company executive told Zhang Yu, "We really need this platform. After the pandemic, there is an urgent need for iteration in our external meeting systems. We have multiple candidate solutions, but we have found that the primary social tool for pharmaceutical sales representatives and doctors is WeChat. When it comes to non-professional meetings, the most widely used tool is WeChat Meeting. Can WeChat be developed into a professional communication platform that complies with the pharmaceutical industry’s regulatory requirements?"

With nearly 20 years of experience in the field, Zhang Yu, faced with the urgent need of pharmaceutical companies for a solution, showed a mix of optimism and a measured approach, "An ancient Chinese poem goes, ‘Moistening things quietly without making a sound,’ depicting the gradual and comfortable process of adaptation. We hope to adapt to the traditional habits and new demands of the pharmaceutical industry through a gentle and soft progressive approach."

Innovative Customer Interaction in the Healthcare Sector

Over the past two years, Tencent Health has continuously upgraded NGES based on user feedback in the healthcare industry, creating an all-encompassing platform for customer interaction within the healthcare sector. The platform consists of three layers, with the top layer featuring a new generation of interactive scenes deeply integrated into the Tencent ecosystem. Leveraging widely-used Tencent products in doctors’ daily lives, such as HCP WeChat, Official Accounts, applets, Tencent Meetings, among others, this layer serves as a bridge connecting pharmaceutical enterprises and healthcare professionals. Through bidirectional interactions with doctors via WeCom, pharmaceutical companies can efficiently advance their digital operations, including customer classification, meeting execution applications, new customer requests, speaker management, offline and online visits, medical inquiries, and collection of doctor perspectives, making academic promotion in healthcare more efficient.

The digitized mid-layer of the platform assists pharmaceutical companies in uniformly recording doctors’ identities and behaviors across different channels, generating high-quality comprehensive data. The data are then mined to create a tag system, offering insights into business operations. The accumulated data in the mid-layer are further analyzed and learned by the underlying medical big model through AI, enabling functions such as automated content generation and intelligent customer service.

Eisai Co., Ltd.is one of the first users  of NGES, and a partner providing extensive feedback and industry insights. Faced with continuous improvement suggestions, Zhang Yu and his team have tried to release multiple versions in a day to meet customer demands.. "The medical industry has a very strong demand for timeliness, especially in the face of digital transformation today. We hope that the platform architecture can, from bottom to top, output complete solutions, reduce delivery thresholds, and shorten project timelines. Of course, we are open and cooperative towards industry partners and welcome reliable collaborators to join this ecosystem, serving customers together and achieving accelerated innovation."

Three Distinct Features of Tencent NGES

Compared to similar digital tools, Tencent NGES boasts three major features.

Integrated All-Channel Marketing: Firstly, it integrates key modules such as CRM, Events, and MCM, completing all-channel marketing scenarios around doctors seamlessly. This integration breaks down data silos within enterprises, forming a unified and complete profile of doctors and representatives, thereby optimizing business operations. Notably, NGES helps address data fragmentation issues caused by using different systems during work, as reported by Eisai Co. Thanks to NGES, the operational maintenance, which previously involved four systems working in parallel, has now been streamlined to just one, leading to cost reduction and significant efficiency improvement.

Strong Social Attributes Based on Tencent Ecosystem: Secondly, NGES leverages the powerful social attributes of the Tencent ecosystem, enabling doctors to interact conveniently with sales representatives through popular applications like WeChat, Tencent Meeting, and applets. This natural fusion of daily communication and academic promotion enhances doctors’ enthusiasm for engagement, providing more diverse communication channels compared to traditional visits.

AI Empowerment from Tencent’s Large Model: Thirdly, NGES benefits from Tencent’s AI capabilities, making Tencent the only service provider in the pharmaceutical industry with self-developed large model capabilities. With the support of large models, more innovative methods can be proposed by enterprise managers, bringing about a revolution in the field of pharmaceutical marketing.

Tencent AI Empowering Innovative Healthcare Scenes

Not long ago, Tencent, in collaboration with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, released China’s first vector database standard. The vector database is a foundational component for training AI large models, signifying Tencent’s leading position in the industry. Zhang Yu mentioned that his team has explored the potential of products built with AI large models and listed several typical innovative scenes achieved by NGES through AI large models:

Personalized Material Generation: Through AI-driven interactive tools, NGES utilizes Tencent’s accumulated professional content in the medical industry, combined with compliant content from the enterprise’s material library, to achieve personalized material generation. In various scenarios, it completes professional Q&A, assists representatives in preparing topics and content before visits, and provides action recommendations. Eisai Co. revealed that the company is exploring the application of NGES’s AI technology to enable sales representatives to input different academic topics, allowing the backend to retrieve corresponding content from a vast amount of data, automatically filter and sort it before delivering refined academic presentation.

ASR Speech Recognition in Medical Conferences: In medical conferences, NGES utilizes Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology to accurately convert speech into dialogic transcripts. After the conference, AI can quickly extract key information from the content, generate meeting summaries, offer questions and answers aimed at the meeting content, and even actively highlight compliance risks in the meeting content. Eisai Co. said that the audiences were afflicted with the regional accent of speakers during meetings, but now AI digital finds a way out.

Voice Recognition for Content Reporting: During meetings, NGES employs voice recognition technology to help sales representatives automatically fill in content, improving the efficiency of report submission and gather more valid data. Simultaneously, NGES collects authentic feedbacks from customers, quantifying sales representatives’ competences from multiple dimensions, such as academic capabilities, communication skills, and compliance performance. After a visit, NGES can quickly provide scores for sales representatives’ academic abilities, communication skills, and compliance performance, offering improvement suggestions to continually enhance sales capabilities.

Zhang Yu stated that Tencent Health has mapped out a well-defined plan for the future development of the NGES customer interaction management platform in three years to come. The goal for 2023 is to leverage Tencent’s experience and advantages in product design and user experience to create a product that pharmaceutical companies and doctors will love to use. By 2025, based on the accumulated real data, NGES will extend its empowerment from sales representatives to enterprise executives. Through big data analysis and mining, it will provide insights into business operations, optimize resource allocation and layout, and identify compliance and business risks to support high-quality decision-making.

Source : Zhang Yu with Tencent Health: AI-Driven Customer Interaction Solution NGES Effectively Supports Pharmaceutical Enterprises' Smart Operations

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