Original-Research: LAIQON AG (von NuWays AG): BUY

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Original-Research: LAIQON AG - from NuWays AG

15.04.2025 / 09:00 CET/CEST

Dissemination of a Research, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS

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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: 15.04.2025

Target price: EUR 7.40

Target price on sight of: 12 months

Last rating change:

Analyst: Henry Wendisch

FY'24 review: improved cost mix ahead of AuM scaling

To recap: Following preliminary sales and EBITDA figures of March, LAIQON's

final FY'24 results gave deeper insights into the segment performance, cost

mix and cash generation. Here's our takeaway:

Digital Wealth in full swing. Next to a strong increase in AuM (% yoy to

EUR 0.7bn), sales in the segment expanded by a staggering 77% yoy to EUR 3.9m

(흏% yoy in H2'24). This implies an average sales margin on AuMs of 0.65%

in FY'24 (vs. 0.42% in FY'23), showing that the EUR 150m additional AuMs

should have carried an incremental 1.14% sales margin. In our view, this

bodes extremely well for FY'25e, where a substantial part of the group's AuM

growth should stem from the Digital Wealth segment (i.e., "Wertanlage" in

cooperation with Union Investment). Furthermore, the additional sales

carried a 70% incremental EBITDA margin (FY'24 segment EBITDA; EUR -1.7m vs. EUR

-2.9m in FY'23) which also shows the strong earnings potential following

sufficient scale.

Wealth Management paints a similar picture. Similar to Digital Wealth,

Wealth Management expanded AuMs (% yoy) and sales (% yoy), which

implies a sales margin of 0.53% (vs. 0.49% in FY'23). EBITDA improved as

well (FY'24: EUR -0.3m, vs. EUR -1m in FY'23), also carrying a 70% incremental

EBITDA margin thanks to an increasing fix cost coverage.

Improved cost mix. On group level, the above mentioned development showed an

improving cost mix: Relative to sales, personnel expenses decreased by 1.6pp

yoy to 64.2% of sales, but the larger margin driver were decreasing material

expenses by 4.3pp yoy to 15% of sales due to third party services being

internalized. Mind you, that the main cost reductions regarded fix costs,

meaning that with increasing AuM and sales, profitability should expand

disproportionately.

Positive FCF in H2'24. A key highlight was the better than expected FCF

development, which came in even positive with EUR 1.7m in H2'24 (FY'24: EUR

-5.5m), only partially thanks to a positive WC swing.

In sum, the share offers an attractive entry opportunity, as with the Union

Investment cooperation in place, FY'25e is seen as the year of scaling AuMs,

which should come in with strong incremental sales and EBITDA margins, but

also positive cash generation which are all visible already. Therefore, we

reiterate our BUY recommendation with an unchanged PT of EUR 7.40, based on

DCF.

You can download the research here: http://www.more-ir.de/d/32250.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

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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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2117760 15.04.2025 CET/CEST

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