Laiqon : Geschäftsbericht 2023 EN

Annual Report

2023

Hamburg

Berlin

Frankfurt

Munich

	2023	2022	2021	2020
Assets under management	6.1	5.7	2.2	1.7
Group figures
EUR million
Sales (gross)	30.7	21.6	26.1	27.7
EBITDA	-4.7	-9.9	4.6	7.0
Total assets	144.6	139.8	116.9	113.7
Equity	54.7	72.1	48.4	42.7
Equity ratio (%)	37.8	51.5	41.3	37.6
Employees (as of December 31)	195*	185*	80**	69**

Percentages based on figures expressed as EUR thousands.

• Including employees of Bayerische Vermögen Group/growney GmbH (including Management Board, employees on maternity or parental leave, trainees and temporary staff). ** Excluding Management Board, employees on maternity or parental leave, trainees and temporary staff.

Assets managed by the LAIQON Group:

Clients and assets under management continued to grow in 2023. The assets managed by the LAIQON Group widened to EUR 6.1 billion as of December 31, 2023 in the LAIQON Asset Management, LAIQON Wealth Management and LAIQON Digital Wealth business segments (2022: EUR 5.7 billion). LAIQON Asset Management manages assets worth around EUR 4.10 billion, LAIQON Wealth Management around 1.45 billion and LAIQON Digital Wealth around EUR 0.55 billion on behalf of their clients. The assets managed by the LAIQON Group have thus grown by 455% since December 2019. This corresponds to a compound annual growth rate of 53% in this period for assets under management.

AuM in EUR billions

			Further growth in AuM
8		to EUR 6.1 billion in 2023
		5.7		6.1
6
			billion
			5
			EUR
4		+
+455%
	2.2

21.7

1.1

0

Dec 19

Dec 20

Dec 21

Dec 22

Dec 23

AuM in EUR billions

	Year-on-year organic growth in
8	AuM

		+ EUR 400	million	6.1
6	5.7	+7%
	Digital Wealth	0.55
		Wealth Management	1.45
4
2		Asset Management	4.10
0	Dec 22			Dec 23

ABOUT LAIQON AG

About LAIQON AG

LAIQON AG (LQAG) is a fast-growing asset manager specializing in sustainable investments with assets under management valued at around EUR 6.1 billion (as of December 31, 2023). With offices in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin, the company offers institutional and private investors a portfolio of actively managed and AI-driven funds as well as individual asset management. To this end, LAIQON AG has positioned itself in three business segments, namely Asset Management, Wealth Management and Digital Wealth.

Established in 1995, the bank-independent company has been listed on the stock exchange since 2005. LAIQON AG has been included in Deutsche Börse's "Scale" segment (ISIN: DE000A12UP29) since March 2017.

With its AI subsidiary LAIC and its self-developedLAIC-ADVISOR®, LAIQON is one of the pioneers in artificial intelligence for asset management. As a digital fund company, LAIQON also relies

on state-of-the-art platform technology for its processes and data management. Thanks to its fully integrated Digital Asset Platform (DAP 4.0), LAIQON can map and scale its service fully digitally, from onboarding to reporting, and offer its products and services to sales partners both directly and via white-label partnerships.

GROWTH 25 is to act as the main driver of the continued anticipated growth in assets under management and of future earnings. Assets under management in the three operating business segments are expected to increase to between EUR 8 billion and EUR 10 billion by the end of 2025(e). At the same time, LAIQON AG is targeting an EBITDA margin of over 45% on the basis of average performance fees relative to net sales by the end of 2025(e). In addition, the assets managed by the LAIC subgroup are to increase organically to around EUR 5.5 - 6.5 billion by 2028(e).

4.10		1.45		0.55
Assets under		Assets under		Assets under
management		management		management
EUR bn		EUR bn		EUR bn

Group		Asset Management		Wealth Management		Digital Wealth
AG as a technological		IQ specialist in		IQ implementation of		AI-based individualized
and sales enabler		active alpha strategies		individual wealth		investment solutions
				targets		and ETF savings plans
- Strategy including		- More than 1,000		- 2,500 clients		- 15,000 clients
sustainability/finance		client relationships		- 360° individualized		- 100% personalized
- Marketing/sales		- Roughly 25 retail funds		solutions		AI solutions
- Compliance/Legal		- Roughly 50 special
- DAP 4.0		mandates
As of December 31, 2023

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CONTENTS

Contents

Company			Group management report
Management Board	8		1 Basic information on the Group	40
Foreword by the Management Board	10		1.1 Business activities	40
6 questions for Michael van Riesen,			1.2 Organization and governance
Head of Group Sales LAIQON AG,			structure	40
Managing Director
			40
LAIQON Solutions GmbH,			1.3 Legal structure
LAIC Vermögensverwaltung GmbH	12
	1.4 Planning and management process
	14	42
Supervisory Board		systems
Report of the Supervisory Board	16		2 Report on economic position	43
6 questions for Markus Wedel, CEFA,			2.1 Macroeconomic and
Dr. Tobias Spies, CESGA,			sector environment	43
Fund Managers SPSW Capital GmbH	20
	2.2 Business performance
	24	45
Corporate governance		and economic situation
6 questions for Stefan Mayerhofer,			2.3 Target achievement and
Chief Wealth Officer LAIQON AG,			general statement on
Thomas Lange, Managing			economic situation	49
Partner Lange Assets &
26		3 Results of operations,
Consulting GmbH
			net assets and financial condition	51

4 Employee and
remuneration report	55
5 Risk report	56
5.1 Risk management system	56
5.2 Economic and sector risks	56
5.3 Operating and
strategic risks	57
5.4 Organization and
personnel management risks	62
5.5	IT risks	62
5.6	Financial risks	62
5.7	Overall assessment of risk situation 63

5.8 Main characteristics of the accounting-related internal control

and risk management system	64
6 Material events occurring after the

LAIQON share	30
6 questions for Christian Sievers, M. Sc.,
Lasse Linzer, Dipl. economist LAIC
Vermögensverwaltung GmbH	32
6 questions for Dr. Robin Braun, Head of
Group Sustainability LAIQON AG	36

3.1	Results of operations	51
3.2 Net assets	53
3.3	Financial condition	54

reporting date	65
7 Outlook	65
7.1 Macroeconomic and
sector environment	65
7.2 Business performance	66
7.3 Opportunities	68

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CONTENTS

Consolidated financial statements

1 Consolidated income	6 Notes to the consolidated financial
statement	70 statements	75

2 Consolidated
statement of comprehensive income	71
3 Consolidated balance sheet	72
4 Consolidated cash flow statement	73
5 Consolidated
statement of changes in equity	74

6.1 General information	75
6.2 Summary of significant
accounting policies	75
6.3 Financial risk management	84

6.4 Use of estimates and assumptions and changes to estimates and

discretionary decisions	88
6.5 Segment report	89

6.6 Notes on the consolidated income
statement	91
6.7 Notes on the consolidated balance
sheet	95
6.8 Notes on the consolidated
cash flow statement	102
6.9 Other disclosures	102
7 Responsibility
statement	105
8 Independent auditor's
opinion	106
9 Financial calendar	109

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LAIQON AG

Facts / data / fi gures

Michael van Riesen, Head of Group Sales

6.1 billion

EUR

Assets under management

>50

Wealth products

and solutions

Niklas Bentlage, Junior Fund Manager

7

Locations

Office building at "An der Alster 42", LAIQON AG's head office

6

Lars Kammann, Senior Sales Manager

Susanne Stammberger, Financial Controller

Franz Höhn, IT System Administrator

Dip.- Ing. Achim Plate, CEO LAIQON AG

Prestigious interior, Hamburg

7

MANAGEMENT BOARD

Management Board

• Studied at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in

	Hamburg, graduating with a Dipl.-Ing. degree in mechanical
	engineering
	• From 1990 onwards, he established his own
	medium-sized group of companies and was awarded the
	German Job Investor Prize in 2001
	• 2002: Integration of the largest single company of the group
	into D+S europe AG
	• From 2003 to 2009: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of D+S
	europe AG (Prime Standard and listed in the SDAX)
	• Transformation of the D+S europe Group from a call center
	company with 1,500 employees and sales of approximately
	EUR 42 million into a service group for multimedia customer
	contact management with over 7,000 employees and sales
	of around EUR 300 million in 2009
	• 2010: SPS Investments GmbH incorporated
	• 2015: Management of WHC Global Discovery
	commenced and Mr. Markus Wedel added as a further
	partner of SPSW Capital GmbH
	• From September 2014 until June 2023: Member of the Super-
	visory Board of mVise AG, thereof as Chairman until 12/2022
	• From June 2017 until December 2019: Chairman of the
Dipl.-Ing. Achim Plate
Supervisory Board of DEWB AG
Management Board
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)	• From April 2018 until December 2019: Member of the Super-
	visory Board of LAIQON AG, Chairman from August 2018
Nationality: German
Born in 1959, married, 2 children	• Since January 2020: Member of the Management Board and
	Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LAIQON AG

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MANAGEMENT BOARD

• 1982 - 1984: Trainee bank management assistant at

	Commerzbank AG
	• 1985 - 1986: National service
	• 1986 - 1989: Securities specialist at Commerzbank AG
	• 1990 - 1994: Head of Strategy and Info in the Asset Manage-
	ment Unit at Bayerische Hypotheken und -Wechsel Bank AG
	• 1994 - 1998: Branch Manager Asset Management,
	Munich Northwest at Bayerische Hypotheken und -Wechsel
	Bank AG
	• 1998 - 1999: Manager Wealth Management Munich
	at Bayerische Hypotheken und -Wechsel Bank AG
	• 1999 - 2000: Incorporation and management of
	PEH & Mayerhofer GmbH
	• 2000 - 2011: Member of the Management Board of
	PEH Wertpapier AG
	• 2011 - 2016: Managing Director of Bayerische Vermögen
	Asset Management GmbH
	• 2014 - 2022: Member of the Management Board of
	Bayerische Vermögen AG
	• Since 2020: Managing Director of BV Bayerische Vermögen GmbH
Stefan Mayerhofer
Management Board	• 2021 - 2022: Member of the Management Board of BV
Chief Wealth Officer (CWO)	Holding AG
Nationality: German	• Since 2011: Member of the Supervisory Board of Regio AG
Born in 1965, married, 1 child
	• Since April 2022: Member of the Management Board and
	Chief Wealth Officer (CWO) of LAIQON AG

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FOREWORD BY THE MANAGEMENT BOARD

Foreword

by the Management Board

Dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen,

In a volatile and challenging capital market environment in 2023 characterized by sharp interest rate hikes and record inflation, our assets under management increased organically by a further EUR 400 million across the Group (2022: EUR 5.7 billion). The assets managed by the LAIQON Group have thus grown by 455 % since December 2019. This translates into an annual growth rate of 53 percent, making us one of the fastest growing asset managers in Germany during this period. We were also able to deliver in terms of our strategic milestones.

In 2023, we forged further sales partnerships, in particular with the cooperative banks' fi nancial services network (Genossenschaftliche FinanzGruppe). In our view, the most signifi cant milestone in the LAIQON Group's ongoing development was the establishment of a partnership with renowned fund company Union Investment, Germany's third- largest asset manager, for the use of our WealthTech LAIC's AI. The partnership agreement with Union Investment covers the joint initiation of a new type of fund-based individual asset management (known as "iFVV") for high-net-worth customers of the cooperative banks' fi nancial services network. With this product, we are thus offering sophisticated clients fully AI-driven asset management through LAIC via the affi liated partner banks of Union Investment. This year, it will be important to deliver outstanding performance for Union Investment in the execution of this partnership. This fund-based individual asset management product is to be launched step by step in the fourth quarter of 2024 via Union Investment's existing sales partnerships with the partner banks.

Also based on our platform, but entailing a fundamentally different service, our new asset management company "meine Bayerische Vermögen" (mbV), which went live in November 2023, is another milestone in our Group's development. To this end, we have pooled in a joint venture the expertise of our asset manager BV Bayerische Vermögen GmbH with the eighth largest cooperative bank in Germany, meine Volksbank Raiffeisenbank eG (mVBRB Rosenheim), which has over 350,000 customers. This state-of-the-art asset service is aimed at high-net-worth wealth management clients, addressing all aspects of asset management for liquid and non-liquid investments with a focus on sustainable

investments. It uses our fully labeled cloud-based digital asset platform LAIQON DAP 4.0. As a result, both partnerships will boost the LAIQON Group's growth.

To finance the further growth of the LAIQON Group, we issued two convertible bonds in 2023, generating gross proceeds of around EUR 25 million. Both convertible bonds were placed with existing shareholders as well as with new investors.

At the 2023 annual general meeting on August 23, 2023, we also presented six innovation-driven strategy elements, outlining the progress made in implementing them as drivers for GROWTH 25. Our focus is on sustainable investing and AI in portfolio manage- ment.

Via GROWTH 25, we as a premium quality provider are targeting both private and institutional clients with over 50 wealth products and solutions.

DAP 4.0 is a reflection of our digitalization expertise as well as being the Group-wide enabler of our business model at LAIQON. What makes this platform unique is that it allows us to serve almost all customer needs with our products and solutions and to scale them accordingly. This is bringing us ever closer to our goal of "mass customization" through our established asset management factory. With its data, DAP 4.0 also particularly serves as the basis for the AI used by the LAIC ADVISOR® of the WealthTech company LAIC.

In operational terms, the long-term growth momentum and the associated further expansion of the Group were satisfactory. Gross sales climbed by over 40 % to EUR 30.7 million. The growth initiatives introduced with GROWTH 25 and the associated scaling effects led to a significant improvement in operating earnings despite, for example, increased personnel expenses due to the progress made in the ongoing development of the IT infrastructure. EBITDA improved to EUR -4.7 million, compared with EUR -9.9 million in the previous year.

GROWTH 25 is to continue this year. In our day-to-day activities, we are primarily focusing on our organic sales and partnership

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