Lufax Holding, the Chinese online lender backed by Ping An Insurance, reported an 86% year-on-year decline in profit in the first quarter, amid China’s lacklustre economic recovery, reports the South China Morning Post. Net income at the Shanghai-based company stood at RMB 732 million ($103.8 million) in the first three months, compared with RMB 5.29 billion for the same period in 2022, Lufax said in a statement to the Hong Kong exchange on Tuesday. Revenue dropped 42% to RMB 10.1 billion.
Lufax is China’s second-largest non-traditional financial services provider in terms of small-business loans, and Ping An owns about 41% of the company through its subsidiaries An Ke Technology and Ping An Overseas Holdings.
“Challenging economic and operating environments continued to impact our industry and our core SBO (small business owner) customers during the first quarter,” YongSuk Cho, Lufax’s chairman and CEO, said in the statement.