Chinese investment bank China Securities initiates coverage on YEAHKA LIMITED (9923) with a BUY rating.
In the initiation research report headlined “A Technology-enabled, Industry-leading Mobile Payment Company”, China Securities equity research analyst Ran Zhao is bullish on Yeahka’s addressable market, recognizing the Company’s core competitiveness as “product + channel + ecosystem”.
Key takeaways from the research report include:
Competitive landscape: Market concentration likely to increase
– UnionPay, Lakala and Yeahka are the leading players among third-party non-financial payment service providers. While Yeahka is slightly behind the two peers in terms of transaction volume, it has a larger number of transaction counts. China Securities’ research estimates the market share of these three leading players in China is no more than 30%.
Entry barriers: Limited number of payment licenses
– There are only 31 non-financial payment service providers with national payment licenses in China up to date, of which 16 own a mobile payment license. It is expected that the PBOC will not issue additional payment licenses with ongoing heightened regulatory scrutiny.
Industry outlook: RMB 10 billion+ market ahead
– Increasing penetration of integrated QR code payments could boost one-stop mobile payment services. According to statistics from iResearch and other third-party sources, integrated QR code payment transactions currently accounted for approximately 30% of offline QR code payment transactions, with an average annual transaction volume of more than RMB 200 trillion. Assuming an average payment take rate is 1.5%o, and the market penetration increases 10%, the incremental market size will be RMB 30 billion.
– Yeahka’s technology-enabled business will benefit from the increasing penetration of SaaS. According to China Securities’ conservative estimates, assuming 50% of the 60 million Chinese merchants nationwide purchased SaaS products or services at an annual subscription rate of RMB 1,000, the market size will be RMB 30 billion.
Core competitiveness: product + channel + ecosystem
– Product: as an independent third-party service provider, Yeahka offers SaaS products to help merchants connect with diversified payment, marketing and financial platforms, giving alternative option rather than having to pick between two internet giants.
– Disctribuiton channel: Yeahka’s distribution network spans 8000 partners and more than 300 cities in China. Its payment services served around 4.7 million merchant customers and 491.9 million consumers as of June 30, 2020.
– Ecosystem: Yeahka’s SaaS products developed for merchants include a suite of one-stop payment services, shop operation services and marketing services. The number of technology-enabled service customers reached 585,000 in the first half of 2020.