Investor Relations release

26.07.2012 - comdirect: half-year pre-tax result up by 5% to EUR 53.1m

Quickborn/Frankfurt/Main. The comdirect group closed the first half of 2012 with pre-tax profit of EUR 53.1m, a rise of 5% on the previous year (EUR 50.4m). "We have held back on marketing expenses and thus achieved a strong result in a lacklustre market environment," says Dr. Thorsten Reitmeyer, CEO of comdirect bank AG. "In the second half of the year, we intend to invest more in growth and aim to achieve pre-tax profit of between EUR 85m and EUR 90m for the year as a whole," adds Reitmeyer.

In the first six months of the year, the comdirect group generated total income of EUR 165.8m, a rise of 2.7% on the previous year (EUR 161.5m). This development is mainly attributable to the increase in net interest income after provisions, which was up 12% on the previous year (EUR 70.3m) at EUR 78.7m. The rise stems primarily from lagging effects resulting from higher market interest rates in previous quarters. At EUR 83.5m, net commission income was down 8% on the previous year's figure (EUR 90.5m). This is due to a market in which the major proportion of investors acted more cautiously. The rise in total income was countered by a slight increase in administrative expenses of 1.5% to EUR 112.7m (previous year: EUR 111.0m).

At the end of the first half of the year, the total number of customers in the comdirect group stood at 2.72 million and total assets under custody amounted to EUR 45.43bn. In the B2C business line (comdirect bank AG), the number of customers has increased by 32 thousand to 1.66 million since the start of the year. In the first months of the year, assets under custody climbed to EUR 25.97bn compared with EUR 24.90bn at the end of 2011. 834 thousand customers had a current account, which is a rise of 60 thousand in the first six months. Over the same period, the number of Tagesgeld PLUS ("call money plus") accounts increased by 47 thousand to 1.28 million and the number of custody accounts by 10 thousand to 793 thousand.

In the B2B business line (ebase GmbH), the number of customers serviced climbed to 1.06 million. Compared to year-end 2011, the rise of around 59 thousand was primarily attributable to the takeover of custody account management from Generali Investments Deutschland. Assets under custody rose to EUR 19.46bn (year-end 2011: EUR 16.69bn).

Overview