Pre-tax profit of EUR 64.2m as of September 2006 - growth targets for comvalue programme clearly raised - new product: Tagesgeld PLUS 3.1% p.a. - full distribution and special dividend in 2007
Quickborn/Frankfurt/Main, 23 October 2006. In the first nine months of the year, comdirect bank (www.comdirect.de) achieved pre-tax profit of EUR 64.2m. Consequently, it has not only outperformed the previous year's figure of EUR 44.9m by 43.2%, but also already exceeded the results for the full 2005 financial year (EUR 52.8m). "We have set a new record and are already soon to meet our target for the year of more than EUR 70m," said Andre Carls, CEO of comdirect bank.
In the first nine months of 2006, 6.61 million securities orders were executed for comdirect bank customers, 36.7% more than in the same period in the previous year (4.84 million). Net commission income rose by 47.1% to EUR 103.7m (previous year: EUR 70.5m). In addition to increased customer order figures, this rise was due to growing income from funds business and advice. More customer deposits and increased market interest rates in the first nine months led to higher net interest income before provisions. At EUR 64.8 million, this figure is up 35.0% on the previous year (EUR 48.0m).
The comvalue programme launched in 2005 was further progressed during the year. As a result, administrative expenses rose by 16.8% to EUR 99.5m. Other administrative expenses increased by 19.8% to EUR 67.8m and personnel costs by 13.8% to EUR 24.7m. Depreciation was up 2.3% to EUR 7.1m. The cost/income ratio improved year-on-year from 65.0% to 59.8%. "Steady growth in profit coupled with the trend in the cost/income ratio clearly show the earnings power of comdirect bank today," said Carls.
The aim of the comvalue growth programme was to significantly increase the number of customers within three years. After around 20 months, the interim results are convincing: the overall customer base at the end of the third quarter stands at 759,986, a rise of almost 140,000 since the start of comvalue. The numerical increase in current accounts since the start of 2005 was similar; these were up from 88,905 to 229,719 as of September 2006. The number of custody accounts climbed by more than 55,000 to 593,819 in the same period and the number of advisory customers rose by almost 14,000 to 15,854 in total. "We will meet the comvalue growth targets for 2007 much sooner than planned," announced Carls. "We are therefore exploiting this momentum and starting a new chapter of our growth story."
The next phase of comvalue will also focus on an additional product in the market offensive along with the successful current account: with "Tagesgeld PLUS", comdirect bank is offering new and existing customers a high interest call money account offering 3.1% p.a. from 9 November 2006. "With the addition of Tagesgeld PLUS, we intend to exploit our leverage on the growth potential in the direct banking market," explained Carls, announcing considerably higher growth targets: by the end of 2009, the bank intends to increase the number of customers by around 550,000 to over 1.3 million. This includes gaining around 650,000 Tagesgeld PLUS accounts as well as doubling the number of current accounts to approximately 450,000. comdirect bank also wants to further expand its business activities in brokerage and advice. To achieve this, the bank will invest up to EUR 150m of additional funds in growth between 2007 and 2009. For 2010, the earnings target stands at considerably more than EUR 100m before tax.
Andre Carls: "With comvalue, comdirect bank is adding value on a sustainable basis and this will also benefit our shareholders." Carls announced the target for return on equity for the first time: at least 25% before tax from 2010 onwards. comdirect bank will be proposing a special dividend of one euro per share at the annual general meeting for the coming year. This corresponds to a distribution of EUR 141m. In addition, the bank is maintaining its dividend policy of recent years by distributing the net profit to the shareholders in full.
Overview
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |EUR '000 | Q3/05| Q1/06| Q2/06|Q3/06 | 9M/05|9M/06 |9M/06 v.| | | | | | | | | 9M/05| |----------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+--------| |Net interest income before |16,745|19,017|21,910|23,830|47,964| 64,757| 35.0 %| |provisions | | | | | | | | |----------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+--------| |Provisions | -486| -854| -417|-1,267|-1,085| -2,538| 133.9 %| |----------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+--------| |Net commission income |26,735|39,051|37,544|27,082|70,490|103,677| 47.1 %| |----------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+--------| |Other income | 7,393| 1,305|-2,717| -731|12,649| -2,143|-116.9 %| |----------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+--------| |Administrative expenses |30,022|33,324|34,628|31,564|85,167| 99,516| 16.8 %| |----------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+--------| |Pre-tax profit |20,365|25,195|21,692|17,350|44,851| 64,237| 43.2 %| |----------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+-------+--------| |After-tax profit |14,521|16,149|13,982|10,886|30,140| 41,017| 36.1 %| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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Press contact: Ullrike Hamer, comdirect bank AG, Tel.: +49 (0)4106-704-1960, e-mail: [email protected].
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