PPDai posts 128 percent net profit growth for 2018

New York-listed PPDai Group Inc posted a net profit growth of 128 percent year on year in 2018 on Friday, despite the strict industry regulation environment in China.

PPDai, a Shanghai-based online finance platform, attributed the growth to an increase in borrowers and improved risk control.

In 2018, PPDai’s net profit reached 2.47 billion yuan (US$369 million), a 128 percent growth year on year. Revenue was 4.29 billion yuan, up 10.1 percent from a year ago.

“The stricter enforcement of regulations in the consumer lending space has led to rapid industry consolidation,” said Zhang Jun, chief executive of PPDai. “We firmly believe that a strengthened regulatory framework around consumer lending is crucial to supporting a healthy and sustainable industry.”

By the end of last year, PPDai had 88.9 million register users, including 14.4 million borrowers and 66.7 million investors. Some users are both borrowers and investors.

China has strengthened regulation in the financial technology sector recently after some online lending platforms were involved in fraud cases, which led to many personal investors losing loss up to 1 million yuan or more.

PPDai has invested heavily on risk control systems with new technologies like AI and big data analysis, the company said previously.

China's investment in financial technology soared ninefold last year to US$25.5 billion to account for almost half the global total — which more than doubled to US$55.3 billion, Accenture said in a report last month.