Metropolis Capital Holdings Limited provided unaudited consolidated group earnings guidance for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022. For the quarter, the group expects to record an increase of approximately 100% in profit after tax as compared to that for the corresponding period last year. The increase in profit after tax was mainly attributable to the increase in revenue as a result of an increase in interest income arising from factoring arrangements due to the increase in the number of factoring agreements entered into by the Group; and the income derived from the provision of finance leasing advisory services, which accounted for approximately 45% of the total revenue; and decrease in staff costs, which was mainly due to the business adjustment made by the Group to solicit customers through agencies, which led to a decrease in the number of sales staff in direct sales stores and business development staff.

The aforementioned significantly outweighed the recognition of loss allowance on finance lease receivables and receivables arising from sales and leaseback arrangements for the first quarter of 2022, as compared to the reversal of loss allowance on finance lease receivables and receivables arising from sales and leaseback arrangements for the three months ended March 31, 2021. The Group recognised loss allowances on finance lease receivables and receivables arising from sales and leaseback arrangements mainly due to the significant increase in finance lease receivables and receivables arising from sales and leaseback arrangements. In addition, the fresh outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Shanghai, the People ' s Republic of China, caused by the divergent variants of COVID-19 since late March 2022, has led the Group to adopt stricter risk control measures and make provisions in order to prevent future credit risks when the Group conducted impairment assessment on the relevant finance lease receivables and receivables arising from sales and leaseback arrangements.