“Sufficient scope for growth”

|

Mario Freis, CEO der OVB Holding / Foto: © Marius Becker

At today’s virtual Annual General Meeting, OVB Holding AG shareholders approved all items on the agenda by a large majority. The votes cast represented roughly 97% of the share capital. In addition to a bonus for the company’s 50th anniversary, a personnel change on the Supervisory Board was also resolved, among other matters. The company is very satisfied with the business figures.

A large majority of the OVB shareholders followed the recommendation of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board to pay out a dividend of 75 cents for the past financial year. To mark the company’s 50th anniversary, there will also be a one-off anniversary bonus of 25 cents per share.

The shareholders also elected Julia Wiens, Chief Financial Officer of Basler Versicherungen, as a member of the Supervisory Board. She is the successor to Maximilian Beck, who stepped down from the Supervisory Board as of the end of today’s Annual General Meeting. Wiens will also replace Beck as the insurance company’s Executive Board member for life insurance next year (as reported in finanzwelt).

A large majority also voted to approve the actions of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board, appoint the auditor and make amendments to the Articles of Association. In other votes, the remuneration systems for the Executive Board and Supervisory Board members were approved by the Annual General Meeting.

The management of OVB had reason to be very satisfied not only with its shareholders’ voting choices at the Annual General Meeting, but also with the past financial year. Chief Executive Officer Mario Freis could thus look back on a successful year in 2020 and identified several reasons for this: “OVB is adaptable, flexible and capable of reacting quickly and effectively to challenging situations.” The financial brokerage group thus quickly managed to continue its services in a digital and contactless form. “This was extremely important, as our customers were in urgent need of our consulting services throughout Europe,” said Freis.

Successful start to the new year

The year 2021 has also been very successful for OVB so far, with sales up 17.7% year-on-year in the first quarter while the EBIT margin was 1.6 percentage points higher than in the first three months of 2020. “The pandemic caused people’s need for qualified one-stop financial consulting to soar higher. The fact that more and more people are placing their trust in OVB makes us proud and affirms our approach of broad-based, personal consulting,” explained Freis. “Our strong balance sheet and liquidity give us sufficient scope for operating and strategic growth. In the years ahead, we plan to expand in our existing market and into new markets.”

For the year as a whole, the Group stands by its forecast of a sharp increase in brokerage income and operating income. (ahu)