OVB Holding AG enjoys strong sales growth in Q3

• Successful Q3 2023 with strong sales growth of 15.8%
• Brokerage income of €260.3 million in the first nine months, 5.3% higher than previous year’s level
• Further increase in number of clients and financial advisors
• Earnings per share on par with previous year, EBIT performance on target

Cologne, 8 November 2023. OVB Holding AG, one of Europe’s leading financial advisory groups headquartered in Cologne, increased its Group brokerage income by 5.3% to €260.3 million in the first nine months of 2023, with momentum picking up in the third quarter.

OVB also again expanded its number of clients and financial advisors. Its client base grew by 4.7% year on year to 4.46 million. The pan-European sales team generated growth of 4.4% compared to the previous year to 5,896, continuing the four-year-long upward trend.

Business performance of the segments

OVB boosted its sales in the Central and Eastern Europe segment by 14.6% from €127.5 million to €146.1 million in the first nine months of 2023. Brokerage income in the Germany segment came to €42.7 million after three quarters, down 5.2% on the previous year. In the Southern and Western Europe segment, brokerage income declined by 4.2% to €71.4 million.

Successful Q3 with strong sales growth

OVB boosted its brokerage income by a significant 15.8% year on year between July and September 2023. All segments contributed to this. Germany achieved sales growth of 7.2%, with the Southern and Western Europe region seeing a 5.6% rise in brokerage income.

The Central and Eastern Europe segment was the most dynamic in the third quarter of 2023, with sales growth of 24.2%.

Mario Freis, CEO of OVB Holding AG: “Thanks to the dedication of the entire OVB team, we have seen increasing momentum throughout 2023 and can therefore look back on a very successful third quarter. Despite ongoing uncertainties, we are entering the end-of-year spurt with the wind behind us and are confident that we will exceed our growth targets for the year as a whole.”

EBIT within target range

Operating income was in line with planning in the first nine months of 2023 at €11.4 million (previous year: €15.4 million). “As well as cost increases due to inflation and higher training costs, this is also due to expenses for our new corporate strategy ‘OVB Excellence 2027’”, explained CFO Frank Burow. “We improved our financial result significantly and thus generated earnings per share on par with the previous year.”

Outlook for the year as a whole

There are currently a number of uncertainties in a still challenging market environment. Nevertheless, OVB remains optimistic given its performance in the financial year so far. If the momentum recorded in the third quarter continues, the Executive Board believes that Group brokerage income for the 2023 financial year in the range of €350 to 360 million is attainable and still anticipates operating income of between €16 and €19 million.

Key operating figures for the first nine months of 2023

Key figures by region for the first nine months of 2023

^{Percentages and figures may be subject to rounding differences. Percentages are calculated on the basis of EUR thousands}