The global payment industry is welcoming significant positive developments. With the signing of the US GENIUS Act establishing a federal regulatory framework allowing banks and non-bank institutions to issue US dollar stablecoins, and the implementation of Hong Kong's Stablecoin Ordinance, stablecoins have taken important steps toward compliance, officially driving the industry into a "fast lane" of development.

The explosive growth of stablecoins is imminent, signaling that the global payment market will usher in a new landscape. Facing the opportunities for payment infrastructure reconstruction driven by the stablecoin compliance wave, leading companies in the payment sector are responding immediately and positioning themselves for early advantage. Among them, PAX GLOBAL (00327) represents a typical example.

The company's recently disclosed 2025 interim results reveal that to seize industry development opportunities, PAX payment terminals already support stablecoins and other emerging payment methods in multiple global locations. Looking ahead, leveraging its global sales network and SaaS ecosystem, there is good reason to believe PAX can deeply benefit from the dividends brought by rapid stablecoin development through its first-mover advantage, scale advantage, and technological advantage.

**New Business Growth Drivers Emerging**

Additionally, it is worth noting that facing the still challenging market environment in the first half of this year, PAX GLOBAL flexibly adjusted resource allocation, focused on high-potential markets, and ultimately delivered a resilient financial "report card." Moreover, PAX GLOBAL announced an interim dividend of HK$0.25 per share in this latest financial report, an increase of 4.2 percentage points year-over-year, demonstrating this industry-leading company's emphasis on enhancing shareholder returns.

**Steady Response to Challenges While Actively Building Strength**

Facing the still challenging market environment, PAX GLOBAL demonstrated composure and risk resistance capabilities matching its outstanding market position. In the first half of 2025, PAX GLOBAL achieved revenue of HK$2.716 billion, gross profit of HK$1.273 billion, corresponding to a gross margin of 46.9%; during the same period, the company's net profit was HK$391 million.

Breaking down the revenue structure, during the reporting period, the company achieved revenue of HK$2.544 billion through sales of electronic payment terminal products and HK$172 million from service provision.

By region, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) remains PAX's largest sales contribution region, with revenue from this region reaching HK$1.084 billion in the first half. During the period, although PAX experienced slower sales in some European markets, structural highlights remained prominent, with the company continuing to achieve considerable results in key markets such as Italy, the UK, and France.

In these markets, the company's flagship Android models A920Pro and A35 are highly favored by local customers, while PAX continues to deepen cooperation with electric vehicle charging companies, promoting sales growth of the unattended payment terminal IM30. In the UAE in the Middle East and Egypt in Africa, PAX also maintains strong growth momentum, while product shipments in sub-Saharan regions continue to rise.

In the first half, PAX's business in USCA (United States and Canada) continued its recovery trend, with order volumes continuously rising, driving sales to increase 39% year-over-year to HK$499 million. Besides further increased market penetration of flagship payment products, customer demand for the IP67 waterproof and dustproof PDA A6650 also grew significantly in this region, while the A920MAX was officially launched for commercial use.

Although sales cycles extended in some APAC markets, through increased investment in high-potential markets, the company's business in this region still achieved steady development overall, realizing HK$449 million in revenue in the first half. For example, in Japan, benefiting from the effective deployment of smart payment terminals, PAX's sales achieved double-digit growth. In this market, new-generation products such as A920MAX and A8700 were deployed on a large scale, with A8700 particularly partnering with one of the country's largest chain retailers, marking PAX's breakthrough progress in the country's retail scenarios. In Australia, PAX's acquisition and integration work targeting local distributors is also steadily progressing.

Due to multiple challenges including economic uncertainty, exchange rate fluctuations, and intensified industry competition, PAX faced certain pressure in sales in LACIS (Latin America and CIS countries) main markets, especially Brazil, with revenue from this region approximately HK$684 million in the first half. However, PAX still strived to grasp certain opportunities under pressure, such as in the Panama market, where PAX steadily advanced Android smart terminal deployment and achieved significant sales growth during the period.

Although overall revenue recovery still requires time, it is worth affirming that PAX GLOBAL maintained resilient profitability under industry pressure. Data shows that the company's comprehensive gross margin in the first half was 46.9%, up 0.1 percentage points year-over-year.

**Investing in New Opportunities to Cultivate New Growth Drivers**

This year is hailed as the inaugural year for stablecoin payments. With major countries worldwide, represented by China and the US, successively introducing relevant policies, the global stablecoin compliance wave is intensifying, and the payment market will accordingly embark on a new journey.

It can be confirmed that the rapid iteration of stablecoins and blockchain technology will reshape the global financial payment ecosystem, driving payment transactions toward higher efficiency. Mainstream industry opinion believes that stablecoins will first explode in the payment field, as traditional financial systems have significant room for efficiency improvement in this area, combined with relative flexibility at policy and compliance levels, making it the most implementable and transformative scenario.

For PAX GLOBAL with its global deployment, leveraging its extensive sales network, SaaS ecosystem, and technological innovation advantages, PAX can completely "replicate" previously validated successful methodologies to the stablecoin payment field, thereby cultivating new growth drivers.

Looking ahead, besides targeting the highly potential stablecoin payment field to cultivate new momentum, PAX GLOBAL will continue to steadily optimize its payment terminal product line while further strengthening its SaaS ecosystem and enhancing value-added service capabilities. According to introductions, PAX is currently accelerating the introduction of artificial intelligence technology to enhance intelligent support and data application capabilities, laying a solid foundation for building next-generation intelligent payment infrastructure.

Considering new changes in the industry environment and PAX GLOBAL's own operational developments, there are reasons to believe that after a period of building strength, PAX GLOBAL is expected to cultivate a second growth curve in the near future. Subsequently, with the vigorous development of stablecoin payments, PAX, holding the "first access" advantage, is highly likely to stand out, seize new market opportunities, and momentum to restart performance growth.