(Hong Kong, June 21, 2024) – AGTech Holdings Limited (“AGTech” or the “Group”, HKEX stock code: 8279) today announced its final results for the fifteen months ended March 31, 2024. Regarding the change of the financial year end date of the Group from December 31 to March 31, and accordingly, the current financial period covers a period of fifteen months from January 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024.

 

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

 

• Revenue of the Group for the 15-Month Period amounted to approximately HK$766.6 million, representing an increase of approximately 118% over the year ended December 31, 2022. Revenue contributions were mainly derived from provision of electronic payment and related services in Macau of approximately HK$455 million and lottery and related business of approximately HK$311 million.

 

• Adjusted EBITDA of the Group for the 15-Month Period was approximately HK$54.6 million (Year ended December 31, 2022: Negative Adjusted EBITDA of approximately HK$35.8 million). The profit for the 15-Month Period was approximately HK$30.7 million (Year ended December 31, 2022: loss of approximately HK$131.1 million).

 

BUSINESS REVIEW

 

Electronic Payment and Related Business

 

An indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of the Group, Macau Pass, is a leading payment service provider in Macau and an “other financial institution” licensed under Autoridade Monetaria de Macau (“AMCM”). With the long-established foundation of a vast customer base and an extensive merchant network of Macau Pass, coupled with innovative financial technology to further propel digitalization of the suite of services of the Group in Macau, upgrade its data analytics capability and continuously enrich its customer loyalty scheme to enhance customers’ experience in their lifestyle, the Group’s businesses in Macau have gradually evolved into a digital ecosystem that integrates electronic payment services and local consumer services, and will further expand into digital financial services. During the 15-Month period, the electronic payment and related businesses in Macau increased by approximately 152% compared to the year ended December 31, 2022.

 

The electronic payment and tourism market in Macau has experienced significant growth in recent years. According to the statistics of the AMCM, in 2023, the total transaction value reached approximately MOP28.14 billion, an annual increase of approximately 8.8%; and the number of mobile payment transactions was approximately 301 million, an annual increase of approximately 12.9%. According to a study by the China Tourism Academy published in May 2024, Macau was ranked first the most satisfactory destination for Chinese Mainland tourists in the first quarter of 2024. Macau’s tourism industry experienced a robust recovery in 2023, with the annual visitor arrivals surged by 394.9% year-on-year to exceeding 28.2 million.

 

In August 2023, Macau Pass has partnered with Alipay+ to expand the coverage of the cross-border payment business of MPay to more than 40 overseas countries. The expanded cross-border payment coverage of MPay will enhance the e-payment experience of MPay users when travelling overseas and diversify the Group’s sources of revenue. In September 2023, a new payment service allowing Macau residents, who are users of MPay with real name authentication, to use MPay in Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong was launched by Macau Pass. The new service provides Macau residents with a more convenient electronic payment experience outside Macau, thereby enabling a one-stop payment service from local to cross-border spending and creating a cross-border electronic payment ecosystem for MPay users. Building on this foundation, in the first quarter of 2024, MPay has seen a significant increase of more than double in both transaction value and volume in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

 

In 2023, Macau Pass commenced to provide acquiring services to Alipay+ partners’ e-wallets such as GCash (the Philippines), Touch ‘n Go eWallet (Malaysia), TrueMoney (Thailand), Tinaba (Italy), OCBC (Singapore), Changi Pay (Singapore), Public Bank (Malaysia), Toss Pay (South Korea), NAVER Pay (South Korea) and Hipay (Mongolia). This means, in addition to Alipay in Chinese Mainland, AlipayHK, WeChat Pay and other e-wallets launched by other banks in Macau, Macau Pass payment devices can now also accept payments from the aforesaid ten overseas leading e-wallets respectively, following South Korea’s Kakao Pay. Through the cooperation with Alipay+, the innovative one-stop payment solution will accelerate the digital transformation of local merchants in Macau, create a connected international digital payment ecosystem for Macau, solve the problem of cross-border payment for international tourists, and help small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) find new business growth opportunities.

 

Since February 1, 2024, the newly launched “Macau Pass Cards” (the “mCards”) and personalized mCards, have added an NFC linkage feature for two-way top-up with MPay, making it convenient for the elderly, people with disabilities, and children. Family members can now directly use MPay to assist in value adding, thus eliminating the need to prepare change. Currently, there are more than 5 million mCards in issuance, and the number of MPay registered users accounts for over 90% of Macau’s total population. Total number of payment transactions processed by MPay accounted for approximately 80% of the electronic payment transaction volume in Macau for the 15-Month Period.

 

 

Lottery and Related Business

The Group is one of the leading suppliers in China of lottery terminals. During the 15-Month Period, the Group won multiple lottery hardware tenders to supply lottery terminals to the Sports Lottery Administration Centres in Anhui Province, Chongqing Municipality, Hubei Province, Hunan Province, Sichuan Province, Guizhou Province, Hainan Province, Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu Province, Shanghai Municipality, Fujian Province, Guangdong Province, Shandong Province and Tianjin Municipality of the PRC. The Group will continue to pursue tenders to supply to the lottery and other hardware markets.

 

During the 15-Month Period, the revenue generated by the Group from the distribution of lottery through retail sales outlets increased approximately 97% over the 12-month period ended December 31, 2022. The expanding network of collaborating retail sales outlets for lottery distribution, increased approximately 12% in the number of outlets as compared to 2022.

 

Local Consumer Services Business

The Group also provides ticket sales and promotional support for live performances, concerts, cinemas, exhibitions and other entertainment, sports and cultural events. Providing marketing services and convenient payment experience are also beneficial for the Group to participate in the cultural and entertainment market.

 

Macau Pass has also promoted the interactive development of the local e-commerce industry and tourism. Together with Alibaba Group and Ant Group's ecosystem enterprises, and cooperative merchants, it has built ecosystems such as "Tourism + Catering," "Tourism + Supermarkets," "Tourism + Ticketing," and "Tourism + Entertainment," constructing a smart tourism ecosystem in the city and assisting merchants in their smart transformation. It actively participates in events such as the "Electronic Consumption Reward Activity" and the "Macau Consumption Carnival," benefiting tens of thousands of local SMEs. Macau Pass also plans to use Amap's products to provide Macau merchants with various information, marketing, operational, and technical support services. At the same time, it actively encourages Amap users to travel to Macau and utilizes the payment and marketing capabilities of Macau Pass to enhance the convenience and service experience of Macau tourists.

 

Macau Pass Travel Agency, as a subsidiary of Macau Pass Group, provides various sightseeing tours, customized travel services, ticket agency services for business, meetings, exhibitions, and entertainment activities. Through the mPass channel, it offers a diverse range of lifestyle and discount travel products, reflecting the vision and intended global business coverage of Macau Pass Group from its Macau base. mPass is a local lifestyle channel in the MPay app which provides local residents and tourists with updates on promotional offers related to food, accommodation, shopping and entertainment.

 

BUSINESS OUTLOOK

 

As one of the leading payment service providers in Macau, the Group strives to contribute to the local fintech development and smart city transformation for Macau and the Greater Bay Area through offering its contactless smart card, e-wallet and multipurpose e-payment system. Through enhancing infrastructure and platform, the Group aims to support the digital transformation of financial services in the Greater Bay Area and beyond, committed to realizing our business strategy of becoming a modern fintech and innovative group in Macau and the Greater Bay Area in the PRC.

 

The Group will also explore on strategic cooperation with Alibaba Group and Ant Group to further develop and create more diverse business scenarios within the e-commerce and digital media and entertainment landscape; provide support for more electronic payment tools from overseas countries and regions to further facilitate the consumption of visitors to Macau, exploring commercialization opportunities within the Macau electronic payment ecosystem and cultural and entertainment market. In the future, we will continue to enhance the payment convenience for the elderly, foreigners coming to live and work in Macau, and other groups. We will strengthen the construction of service scenarios, enrich the provision of payment services, and continuously improve the standard of payment services and the payment experience for these relevant groups.

 

Leveraging the advantages of Alipay+, the Group will integrate relevant industries in Macau through channels and contents, accurately present Macau’s cultural tourism advantages such as entertainment, catering and shopping to potential tourists, assist collaborating merchants to increase their online exposure, keenly build Macau into a new form of “top-notch tourist destination”, strive to help Macau enterprises to provide tourists with more convenient multi-scene services, and support Macau’s economic recovery and growth.

 

 

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About AGTech Holdings Limited

 

AGTech was incorporated in Bermuda and its Shares are listed on GEM (Stock Code: 8279). AGTech is an integrated technology and services company engaged in electronic payment services business, lottery business, local consumer services business and non-lottery hardware supply markets with a focus on Chinese Mainland and Macau. As a member of the Alibaba Group, the Group is the exclusive lottery platform of Alibaba Group and Ant Group.

 

AGTech’s businesses are broadly divided into four principal categories:

 

(i) Electronic payment business:

(a) provision of payment card services and ancillary services;

(b) provision of e-wallet services;

(c) provision of acquiring services for merchants;

(ii) Lottery business:

(a) lottery hardware sales;

(b) lottery distribution through physical channels and ancillary services;

(iii) Local consumer services business: Lifestyle, games and entertainment, marketing technical services and e-commerce; and

(iv) Non-lottery hardware supply business (including sales and leasing).

 

AGTech is an associate member of the World Lottery Association (WLA) and the Asia Pacific Lottery Association (APLA).

 

For more information, please visit www.agtech.com