Financial Association News November 8th (Reporter: Shi Sitong) In the afternoon of November 8th, Lanzhou Bank held the 2024 third quarter earnings conference. At the meeting, the management of Lanzhou Bank responded one by one to the issues of interest margin, dividends, and stock price that investors are concerned about.

Financial Association reporters noted that against the background of continuous pressure on interest margins in the industry, Lanzhou Bank's net interest margin has remained relatively stable overall since the beginning of this year. As of the end of September, the bank's net interest margin was 1.45%, a decrease of 1 bp since the beginning of the year.

In response to this, Xu Jianping, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Lanzhou Bank, stated at today's earnings conference that the company's net interest margin has remained stable since the beginning of the year, mainly benefiting from the continuous improvement of liabilities costs. In the future, they will continue to strengthen the cost control of liabilities to mitigate the impact of asset interest rate declines on the net interest margin. However, due to the impact of factors such as the downward trend of loan market quoted interest rates, replacement of existing housing loan rates, and repricing of loans, the net interest margin still faces certain pressure.

In terms of specific operations, as of the end of September, Lanzhou Bank attracted deposits of 360.225 billion yuan, an increase of 6.78% since the beginning of the year; loan and advance balances were 247.825 billion yuan, an increase of 4.10% since the beginning of the year. Xu Jianping stated, 'It is expected that deposits will maintain stable growth for the whole year, and the loan growth rate will also remain steady throughout the year.'

Regarding investors' concerns about the issue of deposit regularization, Xu Jianping responded that the bank has always maintained a relatively high proportion of individual time deposits in the liability structure. This year, the trend of regularization continues to rise but not significantly, and there has been some optimization in the internal structure of time deposits.

In terms of crediting, Xu Jianping further pointed out that this year, due to factors such as weakened effective credit demand and sluggish mortgage loans, the overall loan growth rate of Lanzhou Bank has slowed down. However, with subsequent comprehensive policy implementation taking effect and further promotion of the western development, it is expected that regional credit demand will rebound, and the loan growth rate of the bank is expected to marginally improve.

It is worth mentioning that during this earnings conference, several investors raised related questions about the bank's stock price, including issues like 'how to deal with the problem of broken issuance and net loss' and 'what innovative measures can be taken to boost the stock price.'

In fact, since its listing, the stock price of Lanzhou Bank has been in a continuous decline after an initial peak. It is reported that the IPO price of Lanzhou Bank was 3.57 yuan per share. As of today's closing, its stock price is quoted at 2.61 yuan per share, down 27% from the IPO price, with a latest market cap of 14.87 billion yuan.

In response, Zhang Shaowei, the secretary of the board of directors of Lanzhou Bank, stated that in the future, the company will enhance its fundamental value, continuously promote strategic transformation, fully disclose information, manage investor relations, and strengthen communication with investors. At the same time, based on the company's operational situation, development strategy, and capital conditions, efforts will be made to increase investor returns.

"Our bank attaches great importance to market cap management, but the current banking industry still faces the situation of undervaluation. We will actively manage market cap and increase investor confidence," Zhang Shaowei said. At the same time, in response to inquiries from multiple investors about whether Lanzhou Bank has a willingness to restructure, he responded that the company has no information to disclose regarding restructuring.

Furthermore, during this earnings conference, the issue of dividends continues to be a focus of many investors. In response, Zhang Shaowei stated that the annual general meeting of shareholders of the bank in 2023 has authorized the board of directors to formulate and implement a specific mid-term profit distribution plan for 2024 subject to profit distribution conditions. The board of directors will develop specific plans based on the company's profit situation, cash flow status, and medium to long-term development plans, and will announce the details after the plans are finalized.