Lufax Holding Ltd (NYSE:LU) Q4 2023 Results Conference Call March 21, 2024 9:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Xinyan Liu - Head of Board Office and Capital Markets
Yong Cho - Co-CEO & Chairman of the Board
Gregory Gibb - Co-CEO & Director
Siu Choy - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Emma Xu - BofA Securities
Richard Yu - Morgan Stanley
Yada Li - CICC

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Lufax Holding Limited Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]. After management's prepared remarks, we will have a Q&A session. Please note, this event is being recorded.

Now, I'd like to hand the conference over to your speaker host today, Ms. Liu Xinyan, the company's Head of Board Office and Capital Markets. Please go ahead, madam.

Xinyan Liu

Thank you very much. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Our quarterly financial and operating results were released by our newswire services and are currently available online. Today, you will hear from our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Y.S. Cho, who will provide an update of our latest business strategies, the macroeconomic trend, recent developments of our business and special dividends. Our co-CEO, Mr. Greg Gibb, will then go through our fourth quarter results to provide more details on our business priorities and outlook. Afterwards, our CFO, Mr. David Choy, will offer a closer look into our financials before we open up the call for questions.

Before we continue, I would like to refer you to our Safe Harbor statement in our earnings press release, which also applies to this call as we will make forward-looking statements.

With that, I'm now pleased to turn over the call to Mr. Y.S. Cho, Chairman and CEO of Lufax. Please.

Yong Cho

Thank you. Thanks for joining today's call. During the fourth quarter, the economy environment remains complex and SBOs continue to come under pressure. Nevertheless, as we prioritize quality over quantity, we have now completed our major derisking actions and will continue to carry out a prudent strategy. We are confident that the strategic initiatives we have implemented from a solid foundation for longer control and profitability and believe that cumulative impact of our strategic upgrades will optimize and recalibrate our risk return profile to align with the prevailing macro environment in China.

Now, let me provide some updates to our quarter -- for the quarter. First, the broader macro environment remained challenging for SBOs. This is reflected in the SME development index published by the China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, which declined slightly to 89.1 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Furthermore, the SME business conditions index published by Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business declined from 49.9 in September to 47.8 in December. This indicates that SBO segment is likely to recover at a somewhat slower pace.