Ping An Good Doctor’s first-half losses narrow amid expansion into offline business and Southeast Asia
Net loss shrinks 2.6pc on the back of a 150pc surge in revenue for the six-month period
Ping An Good Doctor, China’s biggest online health care platform, said on Thursday that losses narrowed by 2.6 per cent in the first half of the year, helped by strong growth in the number of users.
In its first earnings report since going public in May, the company, officially known as Ping An Healthcare and Technology, reported a net loss of 444.2 million yuan (US$64 million) for the first six months, while revenue jumped 150 per cent to 1.1 billion yuan from the year-earlier period.
The mobile app Ping An Good Doctor had 228 million registered user by the end of June, up 19 per cent from the end of last year. Monthly active users, who tapped on the app for online medical and wellness consultation services, reached 48.6 million, climbing 51 per cent year on year.
In its aggressive expansion into new markets and offline businesses, Good Doctor has set up a US$120 million joint venture with ride-hailing platform Grab to enter Southeast Asia and fully acquired Wanjia HealthCare, a former unit of Ping An Group that runs a network of private clinics across China.
“We will increase cooperation with internet companies and insurers to lift profit margin and control costs,” said Wang Tao, chairman and chief executive of Good Doctor.
We will increase cooperation with internet companies and insurers to lift profit margin and control costs
Spun off from Ping An Insurance Group, China’s biggest insurer by market value, Good Doctor was the first technology unicorn, a start-up valued at over US$1 billion, listed in Hong Kong this year.
It raised US$1.1 billion from the most sought-after initial public offering in Hong Kong since 2009, with the retail tranche of the offer oversubscribed by 654 times.
The flotation came amid high anticipation for technology IPOs following the stock exchange’s listing rules reform in April to capitalise on China’s technology boom over the past decade. Good Doctor is the eighth largest technology firm by market capitalisation listed in Hong Kong, based on Bloomberg data.
Yet, technology shares have tumbled with a cooling market, dragged by declines in their US peers and deteriorating investor sentiment amid the US-China trade war.
Good Doctor priced its offering at the top end of the HK$50.80 to HK$54.80 range, but the stock has fallen 22 per cent below the IPO price. It closed 2.3 per cent down at HK$42.50 on Thursday, before the earnings were announced.
The company suffered a net loss of 1 billion yuan in 2017, its third straight year of annual losses.
