iFast's Q3 net profit up 23.3% to S$7.6m, group unveils 5-year plan to further propel growth

WEALTH management platform iFast Corporation reported a 23.3 per cent rise in group net profit for its third quarter ended Sep 30,2021 to S$7.6 million - from S$6.2 million net earnings in the same period last year.

Revenue rose 23.4 per cent to S$55.5 million.

The group's assets under administration (AUA) increased 46.1 per cent year-on-year to hit a record S$18.38 billion as at Sep 30, 2021. For the year-to-date, AUA is up 27.2 per cent. This is the 6th consecutive quarter of record AUA, iFast said in its release issued over the weekend.

On a per share basis, earnings rose to S$0.0274 in Q3 FY21, up from S$0.0227 a year earlier. The directors have declared an interim dividend of S$0.0130 per share for Q3 FY21, an increase of 62.5 per cent from the S$0.008 interim dividend for Q3 FY20. The interim dividend will be paid on Nov 16, 2021.

The group has set out a 5-year plan focusing on four key aspects: to get bigger and better, to accelerate its growth in Hong Kong, to pursue more licences, and to build a "truly global business model".

Elaborating on the first point, iFast said that it will continue to work on increasing the scale and quality of its fintech wealth management platform, while remaining committed to achieving its goal of S$100 billion in group AUA by 2028.

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In Hong Kong, the group expects to substantially accelerate its business in the next 5 years, especially in 2024 and 2025, as it effectively executes the ePension business and continues to improve on its existing platform capabilities. In 2024 and 2025 respectively, the group targets to achieve gross revenues exceeding HK$1 billion (S$173.4 million) and HK$1.5 billion, net revenues of over HK$800 million and HK$1.2 billion, as well as profit-before-tax margins exceeding 15 per cent and 33 per cent. However, these targets, which are not firm projections, may change if there are unforeseen circumstances, or if there are material changes in the operating environment in the next few years, it added.

In Q3 FY21, the group's net revenue - or the revenue earned by the group after deducting commissions and fees for financial advisers and securities brokerage expense - rose 32.6 per cent to S$30.3 million.

iFast said that as a result of the increasing AUA, the group's recurring net revenue has continued to grow at a robust pace, increasing 29.7 per cent year-on-year in Q3 FY21. "Even though trading activities were generally more subdued in Q3 2021 compared to the earlier part of 2021, growth in non-recurring net revenue was still robust in Q3 2021, supported by contributions from some project implementation fees," iFast said.

Net inflows of client assets remained healthy in Q3 2021 at S$0.87 billion, taking net inflows to S$2.99 billion for the first nine months of 2021.

For the nine months ended Sep 30, iFast's net profit expanded 63.6 per cent y-o-y to S$23.4 million. Revenue rose 32.5 per cent to S$161.7 million; total net revenue was up 38.1 per cent to S$85.0 million.

"The group is on track to see its business performance achieve healthy growth for the full year 2021 as compared to 2020. In addition, as indicated in previous quarters, the group's dividend per share in 2021 has increased as compared to 2020," iFast said in its financial statement. Its profit before tax margin (based on net revenue) increased to 32.7 per cent for the first nine months of this year - compared with 29.6 per cent for 2020 as a whole.

The counter closed at S$9.60 on Friday, down S$0.340.