LAIQON released FY’24 sales and EBITDA prelims, which not only showed a solid underlying growth, but also came in slightly ahead of expectations thanks to performance fees. Here’s our key takeaway:

Solid underlying sales growth. During FY'24p, LAIQON expanded sales organically by 9.5%, driven by its core business segments Wealth Management (+15% yoy) and Digital Wealth (+77% yoy), whereas the cash-cow segment Asset Management grew only slightly (+3% yoy) due to challenging capital markets. The divestment of a non-core legacy business (LLOYD FONDS Real Assets) in Dec'23 and the subsequent absence of its sales (c. € 2.4m; part of the Group segment) burdened reported group sales, which only grew by 1% to € 31m, but nevertheless slightly better than expected (eNuW: € 30.5m) thanks to higher performance fees of € 2.3m (vs. eNuW: € 1.7m). - see p. 2 for details

On group level, AuMs grew by 8% to € 6.6bn (as of 28th Feb'25), which is in line with capital markets (DAX: +23%, SDAX: - 3%); an AuM split over the segments was not disclosed, but given the steep sales increase in the Digital Wealth segment, we expect AuMs in Digital Wealth to have grown accordingly.

Profitability improvements ongoing. Although the prelims did not gave insight into the cost mix, FY'24p EBITDA came in better than expected at € -4m (vs. eNuW: € -5.9m; i.e. overestimated OPEX of c. € 1.5m), despite some € 0.7m one-off expenses in H2, implying an almost break-even H2'24 adj. EBITDA of € -0.4m. In our view, this shows that LAIQON is on track to improve profitability thanks to a mix of slight growth and OPEX reduction.

Outlook 2025e - All eyes on AuM growth. Following further additions to the sales team and based on the recent product launch "WertAnlage" with Union Investment (whose upfront set-up costs should have been mainly incurred in FY'24e), we expect AuM to expand significantly to € 8bn by FY'25e (guidance: € 8-10bn), which implies a 21% yoy AuM growth. With that, we expect rising sales (+ 15% yoy) and thus an improving fix cost coverage, which should lead to a positive EBITDA of € 2.8m for FY'25e.

In sum, LAIQON looks set to expand AuMs, sales and profitability significantly in FY'25e and beyond, thanks to strategic steps taken over the last years. Against this backdrop, we reiterate our BUY recommendation with a new PT of € 7.40 (old: € 6.80), based on DCF.