Moomoo’s Parent Company Futu Announces Investment Grade Rating Reaffirmed by S&P Global Ratings

Moomoo’s parent company Futu Holdings Limited (Nasdaq: FUTU, “Futu”), a leading tech-driven online brokerage and wealth management platform, announced that its long-term issuer credit rating “BBB-” has been reaffirmed with a stable outlook by major global rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P). Meanwhile, S&P also maintained Futu’s “bbb” GCP (group credit profile) rating.

Last year, Futu was granted a BBB- long-term issuer credit rating by S&P, marking the first Hong Kong brokerage to independently receive BBB- rating from S&P.

Being one of the three major global rating agencies, S&P offers third-party forward looking opinions about a company’s relative creditworthiness ranging from AAA to D. Companies rated BBB- or higher by S&P are considered investment-grade, and are believed to have adequate capacity to meet financial commitments and relatively low credit risk.

In its recent report, S&P highlighted Futu’s very strong capitalization, adequate risk controls and expansion strategy on international market, and it expected Futu to maintain the risk appetite, underwriting standards and good loan quality while expanding the business scope and international outreach over the next 24 months.

S&P also underscored Futu’s satisfactory share of about 3% of Hong Kong’s fragmented brokerage market, and its improvements on the diversification of its product offerings and geographic reach. S&P believed that Futu has started to diversify its funding structure and liquidity sources in recent years.

S&P commented in the report that internationalization will be the main strategy for Futu in the next two to three years, as the company is looking to expand the presence in Hong Kong SAR, the U.S., Singapore, Australia and potentially other new markets. As of the end of first quarter, Futu recorded more than 80% of its newly acquired paying clients from Hong Kong SAR, the United States, Singapore and other international markets in first quarter this year.

Having established its presence in Hong Kong in 2012, Futu has led the way in the local brokerage industry for almost ten years and its app Futubull is now a household name in Hong Kong. Futu’s registered Hong Kong users number accounted for approximately one third of Hong Kong adults’ population.

Since July 2020, Futu had become the first retail brokerage included in Category A Stock Exchange Participants by the Hong Kong Exchange, ranking among top 14 brokerage houses together with other top tier global investment banks, in terms of market shares in Hong Kong.

Since Futu made its debut in Singapore last year, its flagship app moomoo has quickly become a technology brokerage platform recognized by local investors. As of June 2022, the number of Futu’s Singapore users accounted for more than 20% of the Singapore’s population aged between 20 to 70. In June 2022, Moomoo Financial Singapore Pte. Ltd officially became the first digital brokerage to receive full memberships from Singapore Exchange, strengthening its leading position in the industry.

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In the U.S. market, moomoo continues to gain interest from traders who seek better tools to trade like a pro. With strong technology supports, moomoo provides investors with seamless trading experience, timely financial information, and powerful investment analysis tools that used to be available only to institutional investors.

Moomoo also announced its official launch in Australia in March 2022, providing trading access of stocks and ETFs listed in the U.S. and Australia to Australian investors. Moomoo is rapidly expanding its presence in Australia by sharing investing knowledge and market insights in financial forums and events, putting responsible investing into practice.

Apart from brokerage business, Futu sharpens edges of its product diversification. In terms of enterprise service business, Futu had 258 IPO and IR clients as well as 459 ESOP clients by the end of first quarter, climbing up 69.7% and 129.5% YoY, respectively.

Additionally, Futu Money Plus has partnered with 64 world’s well-known financial institutions to offer wealth management services, including five new partners – Wellington Investment, Fullerton Fund Management, Lion Global Investors, Nikko Asset Management and UOB Asset Management in first quarter. According to its first quarter earnings report, the total client assets amount reached HK$20.9 billion ($2.7 billion), an increase of 59.1% YoY.