Huifu sees over 70% hike in H1 net profit

SHANGHAI-BASED Huifu Limited, which is the first listed payment firm in China after debuting on the Hong Kong stock market in June, expects net profit to jump more than 70 percent in the first half, the company said yesterday.

Cross-border payment has become a new growth engine for Huifu whose trade volume grew 16 times year on year in 2017 as it cooperated with Chinese e-commerce firms which expanded business in Asia, Europe and the US, said Helen Mu Haijie, president of the firm.

Huifu sees net profit to surge over 70 percent annually but it didn’t reveal detailed figures.

Huifu differentiates itself from Alibaba and Tencent’s consumer payment service by offering services to 5.8 million small and medium sized enterprises. In the first half, Huifu’s trade volume hit 840 billion yuan (US$123 billion). Huifu is an independent third-party service provider in China, focusing on merchant payment and Fintech services. In 2017 the company, led by Zhou Ye, Mu and Jin Yuan, gained HK$1.99 billion (US$254 million) in revenue.

Last year Huifu invested 130 million yuan on research and development in artificial intelligence such as facial identification payment and robot service assistants.

The research investment this year will be “no less than” last year’s level, Mu said.