Huize Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Record growth and improved profitability: First-half GWP reached RMB4.2 billion, up 30% year over year, while FYP rose 49% to RMB2.76 billion. Revenue reached RMB720 million and GAAP net profit increased to RMB25.3 million.
  • Positive Sentiment: Strong customer quality and product momentum: Huize added approximately 798,000 customers, bringing its total to 13.1 million, while long-term insurance persistency remained above 95%. Long-term savings FYP grew more than 45% and long-term health FYP increased 1.6 times year over year.
  • Positive Sentiment: AI adoption is improving efficiency and potentially supporting conversion: The company upgraded its AI app to a multi-agent architecture, generated family insurance plans in under five minutes, and expanded AI claims processing to four core categories. Operating expenses fell to RMB175 million, reducing the expense-to-income ratio to 24.2%.
  • Positive Sentiment: International operations are becoming a growth and diversification driver: International revenue reached approximately RMB220 million, with Vietnam GWP up 45% year over year. Hong Kong is already profitable, Singapore is expected to reach profitability in 2026, and Vietnam is nearing breakeven.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Management said recent regulatory and tax-related news concerning mainland Chinese customers purchasing Hong Kong insurance has not materially weakened demand in July and August, but acknowledged potential effects on customer sentiment and future enforcement uncertainty.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Huize Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

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Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Huize first half 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen only mode. After the management prepared remarks, we will have a question-and-answer session. Today's conference call is being recorded and a webcast replay will be available on Huize IR website at ir.huize.com under the events and webcast section. I'd now like to hand the conference over to your speaker host today, Mr. Kenny Lo, Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead, Kenny.

Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

Thank you, operator. Hello everyone, and welcome to our first half 2026 earnings conference call. Our financial and operational results were released earlier today and are currently available on both our IR website and GlobeNewswire services. Before we begin, I would like to refer you to the safe harbor statement in our earnings press release, which also applies to this call as we will be making forward-looking statements. Please also note that we will discuss non-GAAP measures today, which are more thoroughly explained in our earnings release and filings with the SEC. Joining us today are our Founder and CEO, Mr. Cunjun Ma, Co-CFO Mr. Minghan Xiao, and Co-CFO Mr. Ron Tam. Mr. Ma will start the call by providing an overview of the company's performance and operational highlights, followed by Mr. Tam, who will go over our financial results for the first half of 2026.

Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

We will then open the call for questions. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Ma.

Cunjun Ma
Cunjun Ma
Founder and CEO at Huize

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Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

Hello everyone, and welcome to Huize's first half 2026 earnings conference call. 2026 marks Huize's 20th anniversary. Over the past two decades, we have witnessed the insurance industry evolve from a market dominated by traditional distribution and agent-led sales into a more digital and professionalized ecosystem where product innovation, customer engagement, and operating efficiency have become increasingly important sources of competitive differentiation. Today, a low interest rate environment and shifting demographics are driving sustained demand for long-term savings, retirement planning and health protection. At the same time, rapid advances in AI are reshaping both the delivery of insurance services and the way companies operate. Against this backdrop, we are building on capabilities developed over the past 20 years to unlock new growth opportunities while continuing to improve efficiency and operating quality in the first half of 2026.

Cunjun Ma
Cunjun Ma
Founder and CEO at Huize

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Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

In the first half of 2026, GWP facilitated on our platform reached RMB 4.2 billion, up 30% year-over-year and marking a new all-time high. FYP increased 49% year-over-year to RMB 2.76 billion. As our business continued to scale, total revenue reached RMB 720 million. At the same time, AI became more deeply embedded across our internal operations and core workflows as Huize advances its transition towards an AI-native organization, supporting continued improvements in organizational efficiency and operating capabilities. As a result, net profit attributable to common shareholders increased to RMB 25.3 million. Overall, the first half was marked not only by strong premium growth, but also by broader growth momentum, improved operating efficiency and stronger profitability.

Cunjun Ma
Cunjun Ma
Founder and CEO at Huize

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Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

We remain firmly committed to our customer-centric approach, continuously deepening customer engagement across the entire life cycle. During the first half, we added approximately 798,000 new customers, bringing the cumulative number of insurance clients served to approximately 13.1 million as of June 30th. The average age of customers purchasing long-term insurance products was 35.3 years, with 62.5% coming from tier two cities and above. The average FYP ticket size for long-term insurance products increased 25% year-over-year to approximately RMB 8,211. As of May 31st, both our 13th and 25th month persistency ratios remained above 95%, continuing to rank among the highest in the industry. Together, these metrics underscore the quality and long-term value of our customer base. We are also using AI to further deepen customer engagement. Our AI financial planning agents can generate personalized family insurance plans based on each customer's profile and protection needs.

Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

Among active users, the planning report generation rate has now reached 45%, demonstrating that AI engagement is expanding beyond individual consultations toward more comprehensive household protection planning. This enables us to serve customers' long-term protection needs with greater depth, personalization, and efficiency.

Cunjun Ma
Cunjun Ma
Founder and CEO at Huize

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Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

As of June 30th, we maintained stable partnerships with 159 insurance carriers and continued to co-develop customized products across multiple insurance categories, addressing customers' increasingly diverse needs in savings, retirement, and health protection. As demand for long-term financial planning continues to grow, we further expanded our core annuity product franchise with the launch of Kuai Xiang Fu 5.0, a participating annuity product designed to support long-term wealth accumulation, family asset planning, and retirement preparation. In the health protection segment, we further expanded the scope of coverage and broadened our service offerings. Darwin No.15 Kids Protection integrates critical illness protection for children with long-term medical coverage, extending protection beyond a one-time financial payout toward long-term health support. Changxiang An 5.0 further expands to meet high-end medical coverage to customers with certain nodules, pre-existing conditions, and other needs that are traditionally underserved by medical insurance.

Cunjun Ma
Cunjun Ma
Founder and CEO at Huize

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Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

In the first half of 2026, we remain firmly committed to our AI native strategy, further deepening the adoption of AI applications and expanding the coverage across our business. Huize's AI app completed its upgrade to a 2.0 multi-agent architecture, with the number of users engaging in AI conversations increased 65% from the beginning of the year. AI is gradually becoming an important gateway for users to access insurance services, with more customers using AI for insurance consultation, product recommendations, and preliminary protection planning. Across our hybrid service operations, AI is becoming more deeply involved in customer analysis, solution generation, and customer engagement. Family insurance plans can now be generated within five minutes. Intelligent customer screening and AI-powered outbound calls are helping identify and convert business opportunities, demonstrating that AI is evolving beyond an operational efficiency tool into an intelligent engine for business growth.

Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

On the claim side, our Xiao Ma Claim AI has expanded from completing its first pilot claim last year, covering four core insurance categories and supporting most of our mainstream products. End-to-end AI claims processing can now be completed within one hour, with more products processed in minutes. We are also continuing to strengthen fundamental capabilities as our professional insurance knowledge base, providing specialized and granular data support for the deployment of AI agents across a broader range of service scenarios. Going forward, we will place greater emphasis on the practical impact of our AI applications and the kind of value they deliver across customer experience, professional services, operating efficiency, and business conversion.

Cunjun Ma
Cunjun Ma
Founder and CEO at Huize

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Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

On the international front, Poni Insurtech continued to deepen its presence across key Asian markets, generating approximately RMB 220 million in international revenue during the first half. In Vietnam, Global Care maintained strong business momentum, with GWP and revenue increasing approximately 45% and 24% year-over-year respectively. Our customized maternal and child health insurance product received a positive initial market response, and we accelerated its rollout through our agent channels, successfully validating local demand for maternal and child health protection. In Singapore, we are focused on serving high-value customers with protection, wealth allocation, and long-term financial planning needs, while continuing to broaden our high-value offerings through differentiated products.

Cunjun Ma
Cunjun Ma
Founder and CEO at Huize

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Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

Looking ahead to the second half, Huize will remain focused on three priorities. First, we will continue to advance our AI-native strategy, deepening the adoption and practical impact of AI applications so that alongside improving customer experience, professional service capabilities and operating efficiency, AI can increasingly generate sustainable business value. Second, we will further strengthen customer-driven product innovation while evolving our competitiveness in savings products such as participating insurance. We will accelerate the iteration of long-term health and core protection products and continue to build and upgrade our flagship product franchises to better address customer retirement, health, and family protection needs. Third, through Hong Kong Insurtech, we will deepen our operations across key Asian markets, leverage Hong Kong and Singapore as our dual regional hubs, and continue strengthening local product and distribution capabilities to build a solid foundation for the long-term development of our international business.

Cunjun Ma
Cunjun Ma
Founder and CEO at Huize

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Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Ron Tam, who will provide a detailed review of Huize's operating and financial results for the first half of 2026.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

Thank you, Mr. Ma and Kenny. Good evening, everyone in Asia, and good morning for those in the U.S. In terms of the first half, again, the backdrop continued macro and geopolitical uncertainty. We have delivered another set of very strong results in the first half for 2026. Total GWP facilitated on the platform has reached a record high of RMB 4.2 billion, representing year-over-year increase of 29.8%. Total FYP also surged by 48.7% year-over-year to RMB 2.76 billion. Total revenue rose to RMB 720 million. Our GAAP net profit increased to RMB 25.3 million. Our financial position remains very solid with cash equivalent totaling RMB 241 million as of the quarter end, June 30. These exceptional results underscore the effectiveness of our omnichannel distribution network, our disciplined focus on attracting high-quality customers from the market, and the extensive application of our proprietary AI technologies.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

Notably, we are steadily advancing our international expansion strategy and additional revenue for long-term sustainable growth and geographical diversification. In terms of core business, FYP from a long-term savings product category rose more than 45% year-over-year to RMB 2 billion, supported by heightened demand for wealth management and financial planning solutions in a sustained low interest rate environment in China. Further, against the backdrop of continued policy support for a multi-tiered healthcare protection system, including the introduction of the National Commercial Health Insurance Innovative Drug Catalogue, we continue to expand our long-term health insurance offerings to address increasingly sophisticated customer needs. FYP of our long-term health insurance category grew by 1.6x year-over-year to RMB 204 million. Our sophisticated distribution network and advanced AI solutions enabled us to broaden our customer reach and cultivate deeper customer relationships.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

Total customer base has reached 13.1 million as of June 30, reflecting a net addition of approximately 0.8 million during the first half of 2026. The repurchase ratio for our long-term insurance products remained high at 33.3%, demonstrating the continued progress we've made in enhancing customer lifetime value through targeted upselling and cross-selling initiatives. I would like to highlight several key operational achievements during the period. First, FYP for our 2A business increased by 44% year-over-year to RMB 216 million in the first half, underscoring the effectiveness of our AI capabilities in improving the productivity of both our in-house consultants and our IFA partners. Second, FYP from our short-term health and accident insurance grew 48% year-over-year to RMB 376 million in the first half, reflecting our relentless efforts in product innovation and growing the breadth of our portfolio.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

And third, as of May 31st, our 13th and 25th month persistency ratios for long-term life and health insurance remained at industry leading levels of over 95%, reaffirming strong customer loyalty and the high quality of our post-sale servicing. And four, average ticket size of our long-term savings products rose 10.4% year-over-year to RMB 140,500 in the first half, partly attributable to higher tickets of premium product in international markets. In the first half, we advanced our systematic three-pillar AI strategy centered on raising operational efficiency, elevating the user experience, and enabling platform-wide transformation. Across the organization, we continue to embed an AI-first mindset by introducing purpose-built applications within individual business functions to automate routine tasks and streamline workflows. For customers, we upgraded our AI app with a multi-agent architecture that supports seamless end-to-end user journeys, spanning product recommendations, insurance underwriting, and policy servicing.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

We also launched an AI-powered financial planning feature that generates personalized family financial plans tailored to each household's specific production needs and gaps. On the advisor side, we equipped our agents with an AI-powered assistant that enhances productivity across key workflows, including intelligent lead screening, automated interaction summaries, AI-enabled outbound calls, tailored insurance proposals, and advanced customer analytics. We also integrated our AI capabilities with our extensive knowledge base to assist insurer partners and optimize the products. Overall, these initiatives produce measurable cost efficiencies and productivity gains. Our total operating expenses decreased to RMB 175 million in the first half, resulting in an improved expense-to-income ratio of 24.2%. Our international arm, Poni Insurtech, delivered another strong performance and remains a key pillar of our long-term growth strategy.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

In Vietnam, Global Care recorded an 11% year-over-year increase in the policies issued through the first half, driving a year-over-year surge in gross written premiums and revenue growth of 45% and 24%, respectively. The local IFA business also made notable progress, with the number of policies issued growing 48% year-over-year. In Singapore, we focused on serving high-value customers with increasingly sophisticated protection, wealth allocation, and long-term financial planning needs. We continue to broaden our portfolio of differentiated and customized products in partnership with leading insurers, strengthening Singapore's role as an important regional platform for delivering integrated protection and wealth management solutions. The expansion of Poni's regional footprint serves as an important driver of revenue diversification and creates additional growth engines for Huize, supporting long-term shareholder value creation. Looking ahead, we're well positioned to capture emerging opportunities across China's evolving insurance landscape and the broader Pan-Asian market.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

Domestically, persistently low deposit rates are expected to further drive household allocation toward higher yield savings and participating insurance products. While government initiatives to strengthen the multi-tiered protection system are expected to sustain demand for commercial insurance and support the industry's long-term development. Beyond China, Poni is leveraging Huize's proven business model and proven AI capabilities to deepen its presence across key Asian markets. These initiatives together are strengthening the resilience and diversification of our growth and laying a solid foundation for sustainable long-term value creation. And with that, I'll open up the call to questions. Thank you very much. Over to you, operator.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question at this time, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Again, please press star one one to ask a question. Our first question coming from the line of Aashi Shah with Sidoti & Company. Your line is now open.

Aashi Shah
Aashi Shah
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

Thank you so much for taking my question. Can you talk a little bit about the AI investing that you are doing, and can you give us some tangible examples of the returns you are seeing from that investment, whether through lower customer acquisition costs or higher conversion, improved agent productivity, or lower operating costs? Where do you see the most benefit from the AI investment that you're doing? Thank you.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

Thank you, Aashi, and thanks for joining for the first time. Appreciate your presence. With respect to the AI investments and the key value creation that we are trying to achieve, I think we did go over quite in some detail just now in the opening remarks. Just to summarize, I think the key goals that we're trying to achieve here, obviously the first phase of AI adoption mainly is really to turn our organization into more of an AI-native structure. Typically, that would mean that automating workflows, right? Optimizing the workflows and deploying AI agents across the value chain. That typically means that lower operating costs and improve operational efficiency. So that's the first phase of value creation, and I think we have demonstrated that in our operating expenses ratio. We have achieved initial success in that regard.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

The second phase that we're now pushing is demonstrated in the front end, which you have alluded to in terms of lower customer acquisition costs. In a way, it's demonstrated by the increasing amount of self-directed policy purchases that's being addressed by AI consultations in our mobile app. That's also leading to improved conversion rate and higher agent productivity, because with the same number of agents, we're actually producing more premium growth from the same headcount. So that's the phase two of growth and value creation that we're driving right now.

Aashi Shah
Aashi Shah
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

And as you grow your revenue in international markets, can you talk about the profitability in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vietnam individually? Which markets are already profitable today, and what does the path to consolidated margin expansion look like as international becomes a bigger part of the revenue mix?

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

Sure. Thanks for the question. In terms of the international markets, we have to say that in the key market of Hong Kong, for example, we are already profitable since last year, and that's been contributing to our bottom line results. Our Singapore business has just started since the fourth quarter of last year, still ramping up. We're expecting to also drive profitability from that region this year in the full year. In Vietnam, we are almost there in terms of the path to profitability. Vietnam is still in a high growth phase, as you can imagine. Albeit it's still not EBITDA positive, the last day is actually quite minimal, given that the low absolute number of the business compared to the product group. Overall, international markets are profitable, combined with the Chinese business, which is also profitable.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

The main reason for a relatively low net profit margin is due to the fact that we continue to invest our cash flow into AI. In the close to $10 million pretty much last year and this year, working around the same number in terms of operating expenses in R&D front and also on CapEx. I think that would answer your question.

Aashi Shah
Aashi Shah
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

Yeah. No, that's really helpful. Thank you so much.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

Thank you.

Aashi Shah
Aashi Shah
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

Lastly, can you just discuss a little about your capital allocation strategy, and will you be needing to raise any cash in the next 12-18 months?

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

Great. In terms of capital allocation, I think we just touched on all that just now. AI is front and center in terms of the organic investment in the group's organic business. In terms of international markets, we think that right now we are happy with what we have. So further new market is not likely in the next 12-24 months. We just want to scale the existing businesses to a more healthy level. I think, what is the third part of the question? I missed the last part.

Aashi Shah
Aashi Shah
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

Yeah. Will you be needing to raise more capital?

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

Oh, we are unlikely to be raising capital at this stage because we still have decent cash on balance sheet. Until we identify some major transformative M&A opportunities, it is quite unlikely that we will be tapping the markets given the relatively low valuation right now of the company.

Aashi Shah
Aashi Shah
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

All right. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Amy Chen with Citi. Your line is now open. Amy Chen, your line is now open. Please check your mute button.

Amy Chen
Amy Chen
Analyst at Citi

Hi, thank you for giving me the opportunity, and congrats on another resilient quarter. My question would be regarding to Mainland Chinese visitor business in Hong Kong. After the news flows regarding Decree 837 and the latest media reports inciting that local tax authorities are charging 20% tax on core product dividends, I am wondering if Huize has observed any changes in terms of customer demand on the ground, both in terms of overseas business as well as domestic business. Thank you.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

Thank you, Amy. Just to clarify your questions on the impact from the recent regulatory documents and news article on the MCD business. I guess the quick answer to that is based on what we are seeing in the month of July and month to date in August. We see that the overall market sentiment and momentum, particularly in Hong Kong, for example, is still robust from our own numbers as well as from our channel checks in the market. We do think that there will be some degree of impact on certain customers' mindsets with respect to Decree 837. The media article that you mentioned, the context of the article is actually nothing new. It's actually something that has been a long time written in the relevant regulations in China.

Ron Tam
Ron Tam
CFO at Huize

It's a matter of future and potential enforcement of the relevant tax clauses in that document. We do believe that the underlying customer demand or the logic behind overseas or offshore insurance purchases still remain intact, given the attractiveness of the underlying asset allocation for international products provided by insurers in Hong Kong and Singapore, for example, which gives a diversified global strategy for the consumers. The prevailing differential in the interest rate environment should also continue to underpin a strong demand for offshore products.

Operator

Thank you. I am showing no further questions in the Q and A queue at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Kenny Lo for any closing comments.

Kenny Lo
Kenny Lo
Investor Relations Director at Huize

Thank you, operator. On behalf of the Huize management team, we thank you everyone for joining our earnings conference call. If you need further information, please feel free to connect us through our email address. This concludes the call. Thank you.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Kenny Lo
      Kenny Lo
      Investor Relations Director
    • Cunjun Ma
      Cunjun Ma
      Founder and CEO
    • Ron Tam
      Ron Tam
      CFO
Analysts