East Money’s Q1 revenue surged 44% year-over-year, with all three major businesses booming and net profit up 38% | Financial Report News

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As the largest online broker in China, East Money’s performance is highly linearly amplified by every bit of trading enthusiasm in the A-share market.

The first quarter report released on Friday evening shows the company achieved total operating revenue of 5.031 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 44.34%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 3.738 billion yuan, up 37.67% year-on-year, equivalent to basic earnings per share of 0.2365 yuan.

In terms of revenue structure, all three major business segments achieved double-digit growth: net income from fees and commissions was 2.867 billion yuan (+46.45%), net interest income was 1.101 billion yuan (+53.60%), operating revenue (mainly from financial e-commerce) was 1.063 billion yuan (+31.05%). Meanwhile, net profit excluding non-recurring items reached 3.695 billion yuan, an increase of 36.95% year-on-year, with high-quality net profit and minimal disturbance from non-recurring factors. Weighted average return on net assets rose to 3.99%, up 0.68 percentage points from the same period last year, continuously optimizing capital usage efficiency.

However, this quarter was not flawless—proprietary investment returns came under notable pressure, down 30% from the same period last year, indicating that the company faces certain challenges in its investment side amid complex market volatility. Expenses also expanded, especially sales expenses (+57.33%) which outpaced revenue growth and warrants attention.

Brokerage Business Explodes: Fee Income Accounts for Half the Revenue

Net fee and commission income is East Money’s core growth engine this quarter. Net income of 2.867 billion yuan, up 46.45% year-on-year, accounted for over 57% of total operating revenue of 5.031 billion yuan, holding an absolutely dominant position.

From the balance sheet perspective, the ending balance of funds for proxy securities trading reached 181.415 billion yuan, up more than 40 billion yuan from the start of the year at 141.082 billion yuan, an increase of 28.59%, directly reflecting rapid expansion in the scale of client trading funds. Settlement reserves also rose from 19.577 billion yuan to 26.906 billion yuan (+37.43%), and the simultaneous expansion of client reserves confirms a substantial leap in brokerage business scale.

This growth corresponds closely to the high activity in the A-share market in the first quarter. The average daily turnover in the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets far exceeded last year, and East Money leveraged its internet customer acquisition advantage to achieve impressive elasticity in both user scale and commission income.

Net Interest Income Exceeds 1.1 Billion Yuan: Margin Financing & Securities Lending Continues Expanding

Net interest income grew 53.60% year-on-year, reaching 1.101 billion yuan, making it the fastest-growing line among the three major revenue segments. Funds lent out (i.e., margin balance) at period-end was 81.271 billion yuan, a slight increase from the beginning of the year, but the interest income from lending showed a marked improvement year-on-year, indicating an increase in both the average scale and interest returns of the margin business.

Financial assets purchased under resale agreements grew from 7.956 billion yuan at the start of the period to 11.528 billion yuan, an increase of about 44.9%, showing greater asset allocation in businesses such as stock pledges.

Additionally, margin deposits increased from 5.634 billion yuan to 6.069 billion yuan. Overall, interest-related businesses centered on financial intermediation steadily expanded in scale, continuously contributing stable returns in a high interest rate environment.

Financial E-commerce Services: Steady Growth, Solid Base

Operating revenue (primarily reflecting financial e-commerce services, including internet wealth management like fund sales) reached 1.063 billion yuan, up 31.05% year-on-year, with growth being relatively moderate among the three segments but the absolute value steadily rising.

Correspondingly, sales expenses rose to 110 million yuan, up 57.33% year-on-year, outpacing income growth in the segment—this shows the company is ramping up user acquisition and marketing investment in financial e-commerce, paving the way for future user base expansion. In the short term, this dilutes profit margins somewhat, but it is an active strategic deployment.

Stunning Turnaround in Operating Cash Flow: Nearly 10 Billion Reduction in Trading Assets Releases Flexibility

Operating cash flow swung from -4.566 billion yuan to +30.433 billion yuan—this "roller coaster" reversal is the most notable item in this period's financial report.

Breaking it down, there were three driving factors: First, net cash received from proxy securities trading hit 22.885 billion yuan (last year this was a net outflow of 606 million yuan), with the market’s activity generating a significant fund sedimentation effect; Secondly, financial assets held for trading purposes net decreased by 5.533 billion yuan, whereas last year it net increased by 18.757 billion yuan, a 180-degree turn that contributed roughly 24 billion yuan difference in cash flow; Third, net cash inflow from repo business was 1.933 billion yuan, and cash from interest, fees and commissions received was nearly 6 billion yuan.

Looking at investing cash flow, net cash inflow was only 1.701 billion yuan, down 72.74% from 6.239 billion yuan last year, mainly due to a sharp drop in cash received from investment redemption, from 11.941 billion yuan to 4.849 billion yuan, indicating that the company’s pace of exiting existing investments slowed significantly this year in the first quarter.

Proprietary Business Under Pressure: Investment Income Drops 30%

Investment income was 449 million yuan, down 30.06% year-on-year, marking a clear "blot" for the quarter.

The company explained this as a decline in proprietary business investment returns. Combined with the slight shrinkage in the scale of trading financial assets from 109.5 billion yuan at the start of the year to 107.671 billion yuan, it’s evident that the company proactively reduced some proprietary positions at market highs, resulting in less realized gains.

However, fair value change income recorded 153 million yuan, up 155% year-on-year, partially offsetting the decline in investment income. The combined return from these two items still fell short of last year, and the stability of the proprietary business amid increased market volatility remains to be seen.

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