Capital increase: wallstreet:online AG supports Smartbroker growth with an additional amount of around EUR 8 million

Capital increase: wallstreet:online AG supports Smartbroker growth with an additional amount of around EUR 8 million
 

- The additional capital is to support the growth course of wallstreet:online capital AG and its online broker, the Smartbroker

- The EUR 10 billion threshold for the Assets under Management will probably be crossed at the beginning of 2022

- The necessary licence extension by the supervisory authority of wallstreet:online capital AG is expected for the first half of 2022

- wallstreet:online AG continues to hold more than 95% in wallstreet:online capital AG. A squeeze-out of the minority shareholder is scheduled for the beginning of 2022

Berlin, 1 December 2021

wallstreet:online AG (ISIN DE000A2GS609), the by far largest publisher-independent financial portal operator in German-speaking countries, has subscribed within the framework of a capital increase of its subsidiary wallstreet:online capital AG (WOC), to new shares with a total amount of around EUR 8 million. With the entry in the commercial register carried out, the capital increase was successfully completed.

As a result of the additional capital, the necessary financial resources to continue to advance its growth will accrue to WOC. The Executive Board of wallstreet:online AG expects that the extension of the existing licences as an investment institution applied for by WOC, will be granted by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) during the first half of 2022. In this way, WOC will have the ability to efficiently and valuably optimise its entire business model, to generate a new, digital customer experience.

Very good starting position for further competition

wallstreet:online AG holds more than 95 % of the shares in the Smartbroker operating company WOC. The Executive Board intends to take over the remaining outstanding shares of the WOC minority shareholders during the first quarter of 2022 within the framework of a squeeze-out against compensation.

The personnel build-up necessary to cope with growth at WOC develops on schedule. The planned technical novelties, more particularly, the setting up of a new IT infrastructure, are already in progress and will probably be completed during the first half-year of 2022.

With a view to the Assets under Management (AuM), it has been possible to continue the valuable growth during this year, too. Taking into account the current market conditions, the Executive Board assumes that the EUR 10 billion threshold can be exceeded already at the beginning of 2022. On 31.12.2020 the Assets under Management amounted to around EUR 4.3 billion. This value was more than doubled within only eleven months. Consequently, WOC is already now, measured in the terms of AuM volume, the largest neo-broker operator in Germany.

Again, the most cost-effective provider at Stiftung Warentest

The largest share in the dynamic growth is attributable to the multiple award-winning Smartbroker, which only a few days ago was listed in the comparative list of the renowned consumer magazine "Finanztest" (issue 12/2021) as the "by far most cost-effective provider".

"Thanks to the successfully placed capital increase we can provide the Smartbroker with additional resources and continue to push its growth. Almost exactly two years after the launch of the Smartbroker we are now in a very good starting position for the competition among local providers. I am very proud of our rapid customer growth and the work of my team", says Matthias Hach, CEO of wallstreet:online AG and wallstreet:online capital AG.

About the wallstreet:online-Gruppe:

The wallstreet:online 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. The company manages altogether assets in an amount of more than EUR 8 billion (status 11/2021). At the same time, the Group operates four high-reach stock market portals (wallstreet-online.de, boersenNews.de, FinanzNachrichten.de and ARIVA.de). With around 376 million monthly page impressions (average HY1/2021), the Group is the by far largest publisher-independent financial portal operator in German-speaking countries and the largest finance community. In the forums of the four stock exchange forums more than 830,000 users with financial affinity are registered.

Press contact:

Felix Rentzsch
Head of Communications
Mobile: +49 176 4165 0721
Email: f.rentzsch@wallstreet-online.de
URL: https://www.wallstreet-online.ag

Financial Press and Investor Relations:

edicto GmbH
Ralf Droz / Svenja Liebig
Telephone: +49 69 905505 56
wallstreet-online@edicto.de