OVB enjoys successful first half of 2016

• Sales growth of 4.4%
• Operating income up 32.8%
• Annual forecast raised

Cologne, 10 August 2016 – The European financial advisory group OVB enjoyed a successful first half of 2016, with total sales commission increasing by 4.4 percent to €115.8 million. The Group recorded a substantial improvement in operating income of 32.8 percent, from €6.1 million in the previous year to €8.0 million.

Strong business performance on many national markets

The majority of the 14 OVB national companies recorded good or extremely good business performance. Business was adversely affected by unfavourable conditions in some countries. "Although the environment remains challenging, we enjoyed positive development in all segments in the first half of 2016. We are focusing on our core competence of providing customers with comprehensive, personal, trust-based consulting in line with our allfinanz approach. The services provided by our financial advisors are becoming increasingly valuable," noted OVB CEO Mario Freis.

In the Southern and Western Europe segment, total sales commission increased by 18.3 percent, from €25.7 million to €30.4 million. This meant that OVB continued to generate dynamic growth in this region. Sales growth in Germany amounted to 1.8 percent. Total sales commission in the Central and Eastern Europe segment declined slightly year-on-year by 0.6 percent to €54.8 million (previous year: €55.1 million).

Sustained earnings growth

Operating income rose sharply from €6.1 million to €8.0 million.  All of the segments contributed to this earnings growth. OVB has succeeded in further increasing its earnings strength thanks to sales growth and cost discipline. In the first half of 2016, the Group’s EBIT margin based on total sales commission improved to 6.9% after 5.5% in the same period of the previous year. Accordingly, earnings per share rose from €0.29 to €0.43.

Business outlook remains positive

"Although the current market environment is presenting us with some challenges, we believe that our stable business model with its focus on long-term success means we are well equipped for the future," commented Freis. CFO Oskar Heitz added: "We are also launching initiatives that will open up additional growth potential in future."

Although growth momentum is unlikely to remain at the same high level in the second half of the year, OVB is anticipating positive development for the year as a whole based on its strong performance in the first six months of 2016. OVB is now forecasting a slight increase in total sales commission for the 2016 financial year as a whole (previously: close to the prior-year level) and a substantial (previously: slight) year-on-year increase in operating income.

About OVB Group

The OVB Group, with its holding company headquartered in Cologne, is one of Europe’s leading financial advisory groups. Since being founded in 1970, OVB’s business activities have focused on long-term, comprehensive and above all cus-tomer-oriented allfinanz consulting for private households. OVB works with more than 100 high-performance providers and uses competitive products to serve its clients’ individual needs for subsistence and pensions, asset building, asset protec-tion and increasing assets. OVB currently operates in a total of 14 countries.

Over 5,100 full-time financial advisors currently advise approximately 3.26 million clients. In 2015, OVB Holding AG and its subsidiaries generated total sales commission of €224.7 million and EBIT of €14.0 million. OVB Holding AG has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Prime Standard, ISIN DE0006286560) since July 2006.

Key figures of the OVB Group H1 2016

Key figures by region H1 2016