MLPKF (MLPKF) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the MLP SE conference call regarding the publication of the results for the First Quarter 2026. [Operator Instructions] Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Pascal Locher.

Thank you very much, and welcome to MLP's conference call to our results for the first quarter of 2026. With me today is our CFO, Reinhard Loose. He will guide you through the presentation. And of course, we are happy to take your questions after the presentation. So please go ahead, Reinhard.

Thank you, Pascal, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Firstly, the key takeaway for the first 3 months of the financial year 2026. MLP has once again made a strong start to the year. We've continued our midterm growth path while achieving new all-time highs in revenue and earnings at the same time. This positive development was driven in particular by the strong revenue growth in the Property & Casualty competence field, whilst figures in the Wealth and Life & Health competence fields remained stable. Thanks to our broad and strategically integrated positioning, we were able to successfully withstand the adverse external factors resulting from the military conflicts in the Persian Gulf. This was achieved despite a significant increase in uncertainty for the German economy and heightened volatility in capital markets in recent years. MLP also demonstrated strength in the key figures that are important for future revenue development. Assets under management remained stable despite a temporary downturn in stock markets, while the non-life insurance premium volume once again increased to a new all-time high. In terms of earnings before interest and taxes, in short, EBIT, the MLP Group at EUR 41.3 million is well on track to achieve its full year forecast of EUR 100 million to EUR 110 million. Naturally, we are not immune to all uncertainties in our markets, but we have built up a high degree of resilience. We also reaffirm our planning to reach EBIT of EUR 140 million to EUR 155 million by the end of 2028. Our highly stable business model offers significant growth potential, which we are increasingly unlocking. We support and consult private and institutional as well as corporate clients across all financial matters. We deploy artificial intelligence primarily where it clearly benefits clients and client consultants, always acting in a highly targeted and responsible manner. The rapidly increasing use of artificial intelligence across the entire MLP Group, combined with our high-quality personal consulting, which forms the core of our service offering, represents a clear competitive advantage for us. On Slide 4 of the presentation, you will find the overview of revenue development. We were able to increase total revenue by 5% in the opening quarter, reaching a new all-time high of around EUR 315 million. At this point, I would also like to draw your attention to the share of recurring revenue. As at the end of 2025, this stood at around 70%, a clear indication of the high stability of our business model. We generate recurring revenue through the continuous high-quality support of our existing clients across the entire MLP Group, primarily the Property & Casualty and Wealth competence fields. The remaining portion of revenue is derived from our new business, particularly in the Life & Health competence field. In the first quarter of 2026, the group recorded its strongest revenue growth of 12% in the Property & Casualty competence field, reflecting the typically strong seasonal business performance. MLP Group achieved stable revenue levels in the Wealth and Life & Health competence fields, which is by no means a given in light of the prevailing market conditions. Within the Wealth competence field, the strong performance in wealth management more than offset weaker developments in real estate brokerage and loans and mortgages. The latter was affected by rising long-term interest rates, which are highly relevant for property financing conditions. Within the Life & Health competence field, the old-age provision business was slightly weaker, while the broker of health insurance policies performed slightly more strongly. In the Others competence field, revenue also remained stable. The continued strong trust that our clients place in our consulting services is also reflected in the key figures. These are of great importance for future revenue development. It is also encouraging that we were able to keep assets under management stable at EUR 65.2 billion despite the temporary downturn in capital markets. At the same time, we recorded net inflows in the first quarter despite the challenging conditions in capital markets. Naturally, we must report the assets under management to you today as at 31st of March. However, as is well known, the stock indices have since risen significantly again and accordingly so should have the client portfolios managed by us. Let me also briefly turn to our other key figures. We increased the non-life insurance premium volume to a new all-time high of EUR 859 million. The multiyear perspective also shows how consistently we have been growing in this area. We have long since established a significant position in the non-life insurance market. This provides our business with both stability and growth. You can find the current income statement on Slide 7. In the first 3 months of 2026, our group increased EBIT to a new all-time high of EUR 41.3 million, reflecting the positive development in total revenue alongside consistently disciplined cost management. Despite the almost complete absence of performance-based compensations in asset management following the downturn in capital markets, we were able to grow EBIT. This once again underlines the resilience of our strategically developed business model. At the same time, there remains significant growth potentials, which I will address shortly when discussing our forecast and planning. If you now take a brief look at the right-hand side of the slide, you will see the key figures underpinning our strong balance sheet. Compared with the '25 reporting date, equity increased from EUR 585 million to EUR 615 million. The regulatory capital ratio stood at 17.8% as of 31st of March. The liquidity coverage ratio or LCR, which measures short-term liquidity, including under stress scenarios and thus overall resilience stands at 781%, well above regulatory requirements, which stipulate only a ratio of 100%. For the financial year 2026, MLP expects the continuation of its midterm growth path and confirms its EBIT forecast of EUR 100 million to EUR 110 million. The projected increase in earnings in 2026 is to be supported by rising revenue across all 3 competence fields, Wealth, Life & Health and Property & Casualty. Accordingly, we also confirm our revenue forecast for these 3 competence fields today. Performance-based compensation, which we generate in the Wealth competence field is traditionally forecasted conservatively and is therefore only included to a limited extent. Our midterm planning for the end of 2028 also remains unchanged and is reaffirmed today. We continue to plan for EBIT of EUR 140 million to EUR 155 million with total revenue of EUR 1.3 billion to EUR 1.4 billion. The same applies here. Performance-based compensation, which, as mentioned, is also heavily influenced by external factors, has been incorporated conservatively and therefore, only to a limited extent. By contrast, the MLP Group has firmly factored a significant increase in key figures into the planning, namely in assets under management and the non-life insurance premium volume. The strategic realization of potential in consulting for family clients, the targeted expansion of the corporate client business as well as a multi-asset approach for institutional and high net worth clients are set to drive continuing growth across all competence fields. The planned substantial increase in earnings will also be supported by the digitalization strategy and in particular, by artificial intelligence applications, which are expected to lead to continuous efficiency gains and improvements in client support as well for our consultants. This is complemented by continued disciplined and rigorous cost management. Ladies and gentlemen, I will now move to the summary. First, high-quality financial consulting complemented by the targeted and responsible use of artificial intelligence remains the key success factor in serving private and corporate clients and thus for our further business development. Secondly, in the first quarter, we have already achieved a significant portion of our forecasted full year earnings and have continued our successful midterm path without compromise. Thirdly, we are very well positioned to systematically realize the identified growth potentials in the coming years and to achieve our midterm planning through to the end of 2028. And finally, we remain ambitious. Thank you for your attention and your interest. I would now [Audio Gap].

[Operator Instructions] And the first question comes from Simon Keller from NuWays.

Regarding the Wealth competence to start with this, can you share the actual number of net AUM inflows in Q1? And also what level of performance fees did you recognize?

Yes. Simon, the net inflows in the first quarter was EUR 0.2 billion. And the performance fees in the first quarter were around EUR 500 million -- apologies, [ EUR 0.5 million ]. Of course.

All right. Yes, I hope it's okay that I go through the questions one by one. Thanks for the first part. Secondly, sales outlook remains positive for Life & Health and our momentum has rather been soft over the last, yes, probably 12 months. So I'm wondering what gives you confidence that this picks up rather near term, especially, yes, of course, in light of the recent performance? And maybe you had even an indication that April already did show a pickup. Is that the case?

In Life & Health, we have, let's say, 2 different annual effects. And normally, we are a little bit stronger in Health in the first half of the year and in Life in the second half of the year. That's more or less what we see right now also in the figures. Health is quite okay with the positive deviation. Life & Health is still a little bit to go due to the fact that the effect and the lever in the second half is bigger for Life. This gives us the optimism that we will reach our positive target of positive numbers there in the second half. We also have some, let's say, motivation for our sales guys for the second half. But we're -- we know that we're starting with a minus right now, but we are confident that we will close this gap.

All right. Understood. And my last topic is personnel costs and other OpEx because this quarter did show some growth, although modest. Yes. And I mean, evidently, margins are still up year-over-year. I'm wondering, yes, can you comment a bit on maybe any phasing effects in the cost base and how we should think about costs, especially personnel and other OpEx over the coming quarters?

Difficult questions, by the way. Yes, what we expect is definitely -- let's start the other way around. There, we also see 2 issues. We see coming from the inflation, especially in other costs, we see discussions with market participants who would like to raise their fees, their costs, for example, for IT. There's interesting discussions ongoing. And there, definitely, we are pushing that we can under -- our costs there under control like we also did in the past years. That's an ongoing task and definitely not easy in the environment we are right now. On the personnel side, we are -- and we had increased headcount in some areas, for example, in sales in FERI, for example, also in the banking area. And therefore, you see the deviation to the first quarter 2025 there, and this deviation will be smaller in the next quarters. Therefore, to keep it short, it will be a consistent and ongoing struggle to keep the [ costs ], but we also definitely are positive there that we will continue the track record of the last years.

[Operator Instructions] And we have one more question from Jochen Schmitt from Metzler.

I have 3 questions, please. Firstly, on Deutschland.Immobilien on the goodwill impairment booked in Q1, even though it is minor in size, I can well understand that you adjusted the input parameters in the impairment test such as interest rates, but I had expected you to have higher headroom against any further impairment charge following the significant charge that you booked last year. Could you please comment on that? And then 2 questions on MLP Banking. If I understood correctly from the presentation materials, the CET1 ratio of the MLP Financial Holding increased by 120 basis points during the quarter. What is the reason for that? Because loan volume seems to be largely unchanged? And third question, compared to your medium-term plans, did MLP Banking develop better than you had expected in Q1? These are my questions.

Goodwill, the Deutschland.Immobilien, first question, as you know, we still had a goodwill of EUR 2.5 million for Deutschland.Immobilien. And we would like to use any opportunity we have to reduce the goodwill further. Therefore, the increase in interest rates gave us the possibility to increase -- to decrease -- sorry, to decrease again, the goodwill and therefore, have another goodwill depreciation. As we all know, there always are some room to maneuver, but our interest is to keep the goodwill on a low level or to reduce the goodwill. And therefore, let's say, the interest rate increase gave us the opportunity to do so. Banking, yes, you're right. The banking results are a little bit better than we expected in Q1. Coming especially out of the interest rate, the interest rates, we expected a decrease in interest rate -- in ECB interest rates. That's our idea for the plan, and we all know that hasn't happened. And therefore, the interest result, not the interest income, but the interest result was a little bit better than planned, number one. And number two, and now to the CET ratio, this is a little complicated. If you look backwards to all the quarterly reported figures, you will always find out that our CET ratio at year-end is lower and then jumps in the first quarter of the following year. I try to keep it short, but it is something which is special to the finance holding structure of MLP because at the year-end, our companies who earn money and therefore, increase their book value and this book value is seen at risk in the calculation of the BaFin. And therefore, at year-end, when, for example, Finanzberatung has high results, these higher results reduce our CET ratio, but the profit out of these higher results are at the year-end, not allowed to increase on the other side, our equity. And therefore, this is a typical effect. At year-end, our CET ratio is lower, and then it rises again in the first quarter. I hope this gave you a little hint. This is nothing unnormal.

[Operator Instructions] And we have one follow-up question from Simon Keller from NuWays.

Yes, one follow-up question indeed. And that's on Altersvorsorgedepot, which has been approved. What's your take on the final outcome? Are you satisfied with how things have developed?

Yes, we are happy. I -- let's say, first of all, we are happy as being part of the -- let's say, I think we see it positive for Germany, we see it positive for the Altersvorsorge in total. Obviously, there are some parts which we would have seen differently. But in general, we see as positive. And we also see it positive for MLP. It is something which adds on the strength of MLP consulting. It adds something to the development of MLP in the last years, the increase in assets under management, in wealth management. And therefore, we, like many other market participants are preparing to consult our existing customers, but also new customers in this area, and we see this will give us a positive impact for '27.

So at the moment, there are no further questions.

Okay. So let's wait a few seconds, but if there are no further questions coming in, I would like to thank you for taking part in our conference call. But I see we have a further question now, okay?

Yes, there's one more question from Gerhard Schwarz from Baader Bank.

I wanted to ask about your revenue guidance for the current fiscal year and the mix, in particular, as in the first quarter, wealth management revenues in the consulting field, wealth management was up. You said just slightly, but actually, it's a decent growth and your guidance still is for unchanged development here for the year. And what do you expect here for the further progression in the wealth management consulting field? The second question is about the real estate brokerage and loans and mortgages competence field where you say you expect a slight increase for the year, whereas we saw that the trend in the first quarter was down. And you also mentioned that higher interest rates here at the long end are starting to bite a little bit. So is there any chance that this might see a reversal that you see not good performance here in the interest rate sensitive business during the year?

You're welcome. Thanks, Mr. Schwarz, for your questions. Starting with Wealth, if we take the, let's say, the overall competence field, we had a small increase of 1% in the area of, let's say, wealth management. Altogether, we definitely have a growth of 6%. And it's -- our -- let's say, our forecast for the full year is for the whole competence fields with a slight positive -- with a positive outlook there, which is then a mixture of the wealth management, which we expect more or less with the continuation of what we see right now. And then we come to, let's say, a little bit more the tricky area of real estate and financing. At the beginning of the year, we were a little bit more positive there, even stronger with a double plus. Now we decreased this to a single plus, and we know that this will be challenging. It definitely depends a little bit, let's say, how the overall interest situation continues for the rest of the year. We don't expect -- our expectation at the moment is that the long-term interest rate stays more or less on the level where it is right now. And what you normally see when interest rate goes up, first of all, you see in the moment the interest rate goes up, you see an increase in demand. What we, by the way, saw, for example, in April, and then it should stabilize a little bit more there. Therefore, I would say, yes, we believe that we can increase compared to what we saw in the first quarter, the numbers there, but this definitely is challenging to reach this plus. And this -- therefore, we reduced this from double plus.

At the moment, there is no further questions.

So if there are no further questions, now I would like to thank you for taking part in our conference call. And of course, you can reach us if any further questions arrive later on. Please allow me the following indication. Today, we will also publish the invitation to our Annual General Meeting. You will find all the details regarding our AGM on our website later in the afternoon. Having said this, I wish you a good afternoon. Thank you, and goodbye.