Märkte & Kurse

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Original-Research: LAIQON AG - from NuWays AG

13.03.2025 / 09:02 CET/CEST
Dissemination of a Research, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS
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The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this research. The
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Classification of NuWays AG to LAIQON AG

     Company Name:                LAIQON AG
     ISIN:                        DE000A12UP29

     Reason for the research:     Update
     Recommendation:              Buy
     from:                        13.03.2025
     Target price:                EUR 7.40
     Target price on sight of:    12 months
     Last rating change:
     Analyst:                     Henry Wendisch

Prelims show solid underlying growth; all eyes on scaling AuM

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. EUR 2.4m; part of the Group
segment) burdened reported group sales, which only grew by 1% to EUR 31m, but
nevertheless slightly better than expected (eNuW: EUR 30.5m) thanks to higher
performance fees of EUR 2.3m (vs. eNuW: EUR 1.7m). - see p. 2 for details

On group level, AuMs grew by 8% to EUR 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 EUR
-4m (vs. eNuW: EUR -5.9m; i.e. overestimated OPEX of c. EUR 1.5m), despite some
EUR 0.7m one-off expenses in H2, implying an almost break-even H2'24 adj.
EBITDA of EUR -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 EUR 8bn by FY'25e (guidance:
EUR 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 EUR 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 EUR 7.40 (old: EUR 6.80), based on DCF.

You can download the research here: http://www.more-ir.de/d/31960.pdf
For additional information visit our website:
https://www.nuways-ag.com/research-feed

Contact for questions:
NuWays AG - Equity Research
Web: www.nuways-ag.com
Email: research@nuways-ag.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nuwaysag
Adresse: Mittelweg 16-17, 20148 Hamburg, Germany
++++++++++
Diese Meldung ist keine Anlageberatung oder Aufforderung zum Abschluss
bestimmter Börsengeschäfte.
Offenlegung möglicher Interessenskonflikte nach § 85 WpHG beim oben
analysierten Unternehmen befinden sich in der vollständigen Analyse.
++++++++++

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2099830 13.03.2025 CET/CEST

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