Lufax Holding (NYSE: LU) reported Q1 EPS of $0.30, $0.03 better than the analyst estimate of $0.27. Revenue for the quarter came in at $2.33 billion versus the consensus estimate of $2.23 billion.

Mr. Ji Guangheng, Chairman of Lufax, commented, “Thanks to our careful navigation through the recent regulatory uncertainty, we were able to position ourselves favorably to execute our growth strategy in alignment with policy direction to produce strong results for the first quarter. With increased transparency in policy, we are able to confidently push forward with our mission to responsibly and compassionately serve small businesses and underbanked customers, while facilitating the growth of China’s real economy. We’ve now provided financing services to more than 15 million cumulative customers with an outstanding loan balance of more than RMB 580 billion as of March 31, 2021. Our results have given us confidence that even as we transition our business to meet regulatory requirements, we can continue to sustain solid profit growth for our investors.”

Mr. Gregory Gibb, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Lufax, commented, “We produced strong results for the first quarter, exceeding our guidance while delivering strong top- and bottom-line growth. This was driven by a significant rebound in our retail credit facilitation unit economics, as we were able to achieve a 10.0% take rate based on loan balance in the first quarter, all while keeping our APR for new borrowers below 24%. Meanwhile, we made good progress with our funding and insurance partners on our risk-sharing model, as we saw our outstanding balance of loans facilitated with guarantees from third-party partner excluding our consumer finance subsidiary decrease from 95.1% a year ago to 86.8% for this quarter. Looking forward, we plan to prioritize the growth of unsecured loans over secured loans, as unsecured loans provide higher operating margins but smaller ticket sizes and continue improving our technology deployment to enhance our O2O sales productivity and achieve greater operating efficiency. We have already begun to integrate lending and wealth client sourcing within third party channels and will move to an integrated APP for all services during this year.”

Mr. James Zheng, Chief Financial Officer of Lufax, commented, “Driven by robust volume, lower funding costs, lower insurance premiums, and improved operating efficiency, our total income increased by 16.9% year over year to RMB 15.3 billion and net profit grew by 18.7% to RMB 5.0 billion. Although our total expenses grew by 17.1% year over year to RMB 8.5 billion, total expenses excluding credit impairment losses, financial costs and other losses grew by only 10.1% as a result of improved operating efficiencies across most of our business segments. We expect to maintain the momentum in our income growth and margin expansion for the remainder of 2021 as our underlying unit economics continue to strengthen.”

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