OVB achieves growth in client numbers while business performance remains largely stable in the 2017 financial year
|
Cologne/Frankfurt am Main, 23 March 2018 – Sales and operating income at the European financial advisory group, reached almost the high level of the previous year in the 2017 financial year. The number of clients advised developed satisfactorily, rising from 3.27 million to 3.35 million year-on-year. Given the challenging conditions in some national markets, OVB is satisfied with this business performance. At €225.3 million, total sales commission was slightly down, by 2.8%, on the level of the previous year. OVB continues to benefit from the impressive commitment of its financial advisors and the group’s broad international positioning. Despite increased expenses incurred as part of the “OVB Evolution 2022” strategy, the OVB Group’s operating income, at €16.0 million, was only slightly, namely 3.3%, below the substantial previous year’s figure of €16.5 million. As a result of this largely stable development, the Executive Board and Supervisory Board will propose payment of an unchanged dividend of 75 cents per share to the Annual General Meeting in June.
Mario Freis, CEO of OVB Holding AG: “In the course of the ‘OVB Evolution 2022’ corporate strategy adopted in 2017, we are investing more in the future of our financial advisors and are focusing on future market requirements across Europe.”
“OVB Evolution 2022” strategy
The corporate strategy focuses on four areas, namely exploitation of potential, digitalisation, modernisation and expansion, and is backed up by extensive measures.
In the “exploitation of potential”, development of the Europe-wide training and professional development system is of major significance, for instance. OVB will also exploit the business potential inherent in its 3.35 million existing clients: there is considerable potential for cross-selling and up-selling activities throughout Europe. In the case of “digitalisation”, OVB is focusing primarily on the efficiency of its business processes, the modern advisor’s workplace and expanding the options for interaction between clients, financial advisors and OVB. An up-to-date approach to target groups is paramount in the case of “modernisation”. The group-wide development and expansion of social media activities will create additional opportunities for attracting financial advisors and clients. “Expansion” is primarily about expanding into additional promising European national markets and consequently continuing the European success story. “OVB Evolution 2022” makes clear that OVB still sees great potential in the existing business model and, besides modernisation, is sticking to tried and tested success factors.
Outlook for the 2018 financial year
“The strategy entails necessary investment and increased ongoing expenses, which will have a negative effect on the company’s result temporarily but will open up additional earnings opportunities in the medium term”, explains CFO Oskar Heitz. For the 2018 financial year, the Executive Board expects a slightly reduced sales performance and operating income of €13.0 million to €13.5 million. The OVB Group’s extremely sound financial position, will nevertheless allow it to maintain dividend continuity.
About the OVB Group
The OVB Group, with its holding company headquartered in Cologne, is one of Europe’s leading financial advisory groups. Since being founded in 1970, OVB’s business activities have focused on long-term, comprehensive and above all customer-oriented financial consulting for private households. OVB works with more than 100 high-performance providers and uses competitive products to serve its clients’ individual needs, from subsistence and property/asset insurance to pensions and asset building and growth. OVB currently operates in 14 European countries.
4,702 full-time financial advisors currently advise 3.35 million clients.
In 2017, OVB Holding AG and its subsidiaries generated total sales commission of €225.3 million and EBIT of €16.0 million. OVB Holding AG has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Prime Standard, ISIN DE0006286560) since July 2006.
Key figures of the OVB Group for financial year 2017
| Unit | 2016 | 2017 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Key operating figures | ||||
| Clients (31/12) | Number | 3.27 m | 3.35 m | + 2.4% |
| Financial advisors (31/12) | Number | 4,972 | 4,702 | - 5.4% |
| Total sales commission | € million | 231,8 | 225,3 | - 2.8% |
| Key financial figures | ||||
| EBIT | € million | 16.5 | 16.0 | - 3.3% |
| EBIT margin* | % | 7.1 | 7.1 | ± 0.0%-pts. |
| Consolidated net income | € million | 12.5 | 12.1 | - 3.1% |
| Key Share figures | ||||
| Share capital (31/12) | € million | 14.25 | 14.25 | ± 0.0% |
| Number of shares (31/12) | Number in million | 14.25 | 14.25 | ± 0.0% |
| Earnings per share (basic) | € | 0.88 | 0.85 | - 3.1% |
| Dividend per share** | € | 0,75 | 0,75 | ± 0.0% |
* Based on total sales commission
* Proposed for 2017
Key figures by region for financial year 2017
| Unit | 2016 | 2017 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central and Eastern Europe | ||||
| Clients (31/12) | Number | 2.20 m | 2.27 m | + 3.1% |
| Financial advisors (31/12) | Number | 2,944 | 2,753 | - 6.5% |
| Total sales commission | € million | 109.7 | 109.0 | - 0.6% |
| EBIT | € million | 9.5 | 9.5 | + 0.1% |
| EBIT margin* | % | 8.7 | 8.7 | ± 0.0%-pts. |
| Germany | ||||
| Clients (31/12) | Number | 633,025 | 623,138 | - 1.6% |
| Financial advisors (31/12) | Number | 1,300 | 1,296 | - 0.3% |
| Total sales commission | € million | 63.9 | 59.1 | - 7.5% |
| EBIT | € million | 6.7 | 6.7 | - 0.7% |
| EBIT margin* | % | 10.5 | 11.3 | + 0.8%-pts. |
| Southern and Western Europe | ||||
| Clients (31/12) | Number | 432,712 | 453,044 | + 4.7% |
| Financial advisors (31/12) | Number | 728 | 653 | - 10.3% |
| Total sales commision | € million | 58.2 | 57.2 | - 1.8% |
| EBIT | € million | 8.3 | 7.6 | - 8.2% |
| EBIT margin* | % | 14.2 | 13.3 | - 0.9%-pts. |
* Based on total sales commission