LAIQON recently successfully placed a convertible bond (5 years duration, 7% coupon, conversion price € 10,50) and collected € 19m. The fact that the transaction was carried by a diversified investors base (eNUW. c. 50% existing shareholders, 50% new investors) and that Achim Plate himself invested roughly € 0.8m are strong signs of conviction in our view. The proceeds should be used to:

• pay the 2023 tranches of acquisitions since 2019 (SPSW, Lange, BV, growney; with that 90% will paid; c. € 10m remain) and pay back the bank loan for the acquisition of BV,
• invest into sales and strategic cooperations (€ 2m), personnel and marketing (€ 2m) and into the further development of DAP 4.0 and LAIC (€ 2m),
• keep the remaining € 5m as reserve for further bold-on transactions.

Apart from that, the recent newsflow was quite promising: LAIQON announced to be in advanced discussions with Union Investment on a joint product development and a potential cooperation. We expect LAIQON´s wealth-tech LAIC to be the core of a potential joint product, which would be a massive boost for LAIC in particular but also for the whole Group.

Furthermore, LAIQON announced that it acquired 30% of the Investment Boutique QC Partners GmbH for an earnings-related low single-digit million Euro amount, payable within the next years. Since QC has € 1.8bn AuM and an existing network of Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken and associated investors, we expect new cross-selling and product expansion opportunities from the cooperation that should materialize within the next years.

All that, paired with the platform thinking and the customer centricity that are essential components of the strategy GROWTH 25, should fuel AuM growth. The AuM guidance of € 8-10bn, implying 15% CAGR (2022-25e), looks hence absolutely reasonable. Nevertheless, the EBITDA margin guidance of >45% (which includes potential performance fees) until 2025 looks too ambitious, in our view. Being more conservative, we are expecting an EBITDA margin of only 11% (without performance fees).

BUY with an unchanged PT of € 9.50 based on DCF.