Ping An Healthcare 607m yuan in red

Ping An Healthcare and Technology (1833), also known as Ping An Good Doctor, narrowed its net loss by 60 percent to 607.7 million yuan (HK$692 million) last year thanks to an increased gross margin and lower marketing expenses.

The smaller loss was also possibly due to a higher comparison base in the previous year.

The online healthcare platform saw its net loss jump 62 percent to 1.54 billion yuan in 2021 on "continuous strategic upgrades," the company said earlier.

Revenue dropped by 16 percent year-on-year to 6.2 billion yuan in 2022 resulting from adjustments in business strategy, the unit of Chinese insurer Ping An Insurance (2318) noted in a filing yesterday.

But the gross margin grew by 4 percentage points to 27.3 percent during the period as it reduced businesses with high investment but lower margins, according to its chief financial officer Zang Luoqi.

In terms of business sectors, sales from its medical services, which include online consultations and hospital referral and appointments, posted a modest 2 percent rise to 2.55 billion yuan.

Income from its health services, which mainly provide standardized healthcare service packages such as health check-ups and beauty care, fell by 25 percent to 3.61 billion yuan.

The selling and marketing expenses for 2022 declined by 37.1 percent to 1.1 billion yuan on cost control, it said.

It had 43 million paying users as of December last year - a 5.3 percent growth from a year ago - out of 454 million registered users.

Shares of Ping An Healthcare and Technology edged up 0.5 percent to HK$17.78 yesterday ahead of the results. But they have lost more than 15 percent so far this year, compared with a 0.4 percent drop on the Hang Seng Index.