Topic: Netfonds reported strong FY24 prelims beating our expectations for sales, while AuA and EBITDA were bang in line with estimates. In detail:
Gross sales came in at € 238m (23% yoy), above our estimate of € 230m. Key driver was the Regulatory & Technology business with an impressive 71% yoy growth resulting in € 134m (vs eNuW: € 122m) overcompensating for the softer Wholesale business that declined by 11% yoy to € 101m (vs eNuW: € 105m) and the Miscellaneous business (-53% yoy to € 2.3m vs eNuW: € 3.3m). The overall topline growth was mainly fueled by AuA growth of 19% to € 28.3bn (vs eNuW: € 28.3bn). Thanks to scale effects, the material expenses ratio should have declined to 80.7% (vs 81.0% in FY23) resulting in net sales of € 46m (17% yoy vs eNuW: € 44m) that were above the guidance range of € 41-43m.
EBITDA stand at € 8.4m (71% yoy), in line with our estimate of € 8.5m, mainly driven by the sound topline development compensating for higher than anticipated OPEX of € 37.6m (9% yoy vs eNuW: € 35.6m) that should have been a result of increasing personnel expenses (18% yoy to € 24.7m vs eNuW: € 23.7m) and decreasing other operating expenses (-5% to 13.0m vs eNuW: € 11.9m). Again, relatively to gross sales, the OPEX ratio decreased significantly to 15.8% (vs 17.9% in FY23). EBT came in at € 2.2m (9% yoy vs eNuW: € 1.7m) as a result of € 4.1m D&A and a financial result of € 0.1m.
With a strong finish in FY24, Netfonds continued the growth of the last years. Thanks to further increasing AuA's and AuM's, driven by inflows as well as the strong performance of stock markets in Q1'25, topline should continue to grow. The anticipated growth should be strongly supported by Netfonds proprietary, 360° finfire platform that is seen to fuel consolidation of the insurance broker market that is, in contrary to the investment adviser market, still highly fragmented.We consider finfire to remain the Groups key mid- to long-term growth and scalability driver.
For FY25 we expect € 31.8bn AuA (thereof € 5bn more profitable AuM) leading to € 54.7m net sales (€ 263m gross sales) and € 16.2m EBITDA, in line with managements guidance of € >50m net sales and "a disproportionately high increase in EBITDA and EBIT".
BUY with an unchanged PT of€ 78.00, based on DCF.
ISIN: DE000A1MME74
