Smartbroker Holding AG: Smartbroker Holding AG publishes preliminary half-year figures 2022 -

Smartbroker Holding AG publishes preliminary half-year figures 2022 -
H1 results on target despite challenging market environment

• H1 2022: 16% revenue growth to €27.6m
• EBITDA before customer acquisition costs of €7.9 million
• Reduction of revenue guidance, EBITDA guidance remains in place
• Smartbroker 2.0 expected to launch mid-2023

Berlin, 24 August 2022

Smartbroker Holding AG (previously wallstreet:online AG, ISIN: DE000A2GS609, FSE: WSO1, the “Company”, the “Group”) closed the first half of 2022 in line with expectations - despite the challenging market environment. According to preliminary, unaudited figures, the Group generated revenues of €27.6 million (+16% year-on-year, H1 2021: €23.8 million). The preliminary operating EBITDA before customer acquisition costs amounted to €7.9 million in H1 2022 (H1 2021: €9.0 million). The full interim report for the first half will be published on 16 September.

The Smartbroker Group thus achieved an increase in turnover, despite a material change in the capital markets environment due to the Ukraine war, rising inflation and the increase in key interest rates.

Changed market environment hampers target achievement - EBITDA guidance 2022 remains in place

Investor uncertainty, among other things due to the Ukraine war and difficult to predict volatility in the capital markets, led to a decline in transactions per custody account to around 20 p.a. (extrapolation based on the preliminary results for the first half of 2022), compared to the approximately 30 transactions planned for 2022. In addition, the number of page impressions on the Group's four media portals (wallstreet-online.de, finanznachrichten.de, boersennews.de and ariva.de) decreased slightly, which had a negative impact on advertising revenues. Although a renewed increase in the number of transactions, page views as well as advertising revenues has been observed recently, the Company is adjusting its revenue guidance. The planned EBITDA target after customer acquisition costs for Smartbroker remains in place.

The Company now expects revenues at group level to be between €54 million and €57 million (previously €62 million and €67 million), but continues to expect the consolidated operating EBITDA to be between €10 million and €12 million. The expected customer acquisition costs for Smartbroker will be reduced to €4 million (previously €6 million), therefore operating EBITDA before customer acquisition costs is now expected to be between €14 million and €16 million.

Smartbroker 2.0 - The new trading platform is expected to launch in mid-2023

Over the past few months, important progress has been made on the Smartbroker 2.0 project. The rebranding of the former wallstreet:online AG to Smartbroker Holding AG and wallstreet:online capital AG to Smartbroker AG were recently completed. The strategic focus is now also clearly reflected in the company name, which facilitates external communication and underlines the commitment to the corporate vision.

The Smartbroker 2.0 project includes the development of a proprietary transaction and trading platform that includes all processes from the opening of a securities account, order placement, routing, settlement, and reporting to the connection to clearing houses and trading venues. This internalisation of large parts of the brokerage value chain also includes the creation of a completely new front end – both for the web trading interface and the first-time introduction of a mobile trading app.

Additional development needs became apparent during the product testing phase. The launch will therefore be postponed by a few months. The necessary steps have been taken to complete the missing tasks in the first half of 2023. Among other things, further processes will be internalised instead of outsourcing them to external partners.

Due to the later product launch, the Company expects to onboard fewer new customers than originally planned for 2022. This factor is already incorporated into the revised guidance. It also changes the basis for the scenario analysis presented in the "Case Study 2026". The Company will present a new medium-term plan after the announcement of the exact product launch date.

André Kolbinger, CEO and founder of Smartbroker Holding AG: "The financial sector is one of many industries facing a challenging market setting due to the recent crises. The Smartbroker Group is in a special position to face this due to its unique mix of relevant media and its own broker, which combines a comprehensive product offering with very favourable conditions for our retail customers. With our financial portals, we reach more than three million investors per month and continue to generate substantial revenues at robust margins despite a difficult market environment.

My re-joining the board coincides with the crucial phase of the Smartbroker 2.0 development: Smartbroker 2.0 – this is not just the introduction of a mobile app, but the creation of a comprehensive proprietary trading platform. The project is extensive and complex and as undesirable as any delay in the schedule may be - for us, quality and service are our top priorities. We want to offer our customers a top product that is fully developed in all technical and service aspects from day one. I look forward to doing just that together with our experienced team of product and market experts.

Our business model is profitable - not least because of our valuable, experienced clients who trade actively even in a challenging market and hold an average volume of over €30 thousand in their Smartbroker securities account. In addition, the entire Group is based on the solid foundation of our media business, which continues to be highly profitable and will grow further as the number of Smartbroker clients increases. I am therefore very confident about the future prospects of our business."

About the Smartbroker Group

The Smartbroker Group operates the Smartbroker – a multiple award-winning online broker, which is the only provider in Germany to combine the extensive product range of traditional brokers with the extremely favourable conditions of neo brokers. In addition, the Group operates four high-reach stock market portals (wallstreet-online.de, boersenNews.de, FinanzNachrichten.de and ARIVA.de). With several hundred million monthly page impressions, the Group is the by far largest publisher-independent financial portal operator in German-speaking countries, and also hosts the region’s largest finance community.

Press contact:

Felix Rentzsch

Head of Communications

Phone: +49 (0)176 4165 0721

Mail: f.rentzsch@smartbroker-holding.de

Investor Relations contact:

Sabrina Kassmannhuber

Investor Relations Manager

Phone: +49 (0)30 20 456 500

Mail: ir@smartbroker-holding.de