JDC Group is represented by the CEO Dr. Sebastian Grabmaier and the CFO Ralph Konrad, so the gentlemen will guide us through the presentation and the results shortly. After the presentation, we will move over to our Q&A session in which you will be allowed to place your questions directly to them. Having said this, I hand over to you, Dr. Grabmaier.
Yes. Thank you, Sarah, for the charming introduction. Yes, my name's Sebastian, and together with Ralph, we founded the company more than 22 years ago. I'm responsible for strategy and the Rs. That's HR, IR, PR, and also products. And yeah, Ralph is my economic husband, basically. Yeah. Here you go.
Yeah. Hi, Ralph Konrad. Still responsible for IT operations, finance, and our legal and compliance department, and happy to be here today to present our figures.
Yeah. As you know, as JDC, we are a typical platform business by now. So, taking the data of more than 500 product providers, we standardize the data, process it, and then we make it visible in visualizing systems, either our own or we use the systems of our clients via an API structure. So we load up the data to the systems of our clients. And now we have more than 5 million contracts on the platform, with a very nice growth, as we will show you a little bit later. And also, yeah, keep on developing our tech stack, of which we think it's one of the leading in the market.
So our clients typically are not only individual agent and brokers, but more and more the banks, the insurance companies, exclusive sales organizations, and via our smartphone application, also about 200,000 direct clients. So to jump into some overview of figures, in Q1, you could see, we're back to a very nice growth rate. Turnover grew more than 22% or almost 22%, to EUR 53.3 million. And that's really, a very good, mark, now because for the first time, we could jump over the EUR 50 million threshold in the quarter. We had a very, very good, Q4 in 2023, as you might have known, with EUR 48 million. And now for the first time, the platform generates EUR 53 million, more than EUR 50 million in turnover. And also, you can see that this is a very nice effect on EBITDA, also in the Q in the first quarter.
That's normally not as profitable. So, we have a plus of 28% EBITDA and are right on track of where we're gonna go in the year 2024. And this, the nice fact is that it comes from all sides of the business. It comes from IFAs, the major clients, also some banking business, and also from advisory that's back on a growth trajectory. So, yeah, if you look at the figures in a whole, you could see that revenues are up 21.6%, from EUR 40.8 million in the first quarter of 2023 to EUR 53.3 million. And you can see that also advisory is growing, next to Advisortech with a very stable growth of 22.6%. Advisory could grow almost 7%. Then gross-profit grew nicely, more than 20% from EUR 13 million to EUR 15.6 million. And EBITDA is thus up from EUR 3.2 million to EUR 4.1 million, almost 28%.
Also, you can see down the line, EBIT is now almost 40% up from 1.8%-2.5%. So what we think is a very good start into the year 2024, which comes from all kinds of business. On the next slide, you see the development as to product classes. You could see that insurance, that's the backbone of our business, more than 60% of our business, is strong as usual, as we can say. It's up plus another 18%. You might remember last year, in the entire year, it was same growth figures, +19% over the entire year. Now it's another 18%+ up, which is quite a nice figure as we have a lot of contracts already sitting in the platform. So that's EUR 5.1 million more on top of the last year's quarter.
But also, investment and financing is up with another EUR 4.4 million. That's a plus of 34%. And this is due to two facts. One is the inclusion of Top Ten as a new platform, in the JDC family. And the other is that, obviously, capital markets, treat us all nicely, and, markets are up. And with the markets, also, the investment volume and with the investment volume, the commission that's trailing, from this in, investment volumes. So, on the next page, you see, then the distribution over our, sales segments. You can see that, you have, okay. Do we have it? It stopped, Ralph. Can you put it one more?
Hey, yeah, yes. I switched the slide. I don't know why it doesn't work. Again, back. To slide seven again. Can you see it? Can you see it at Montega?
I just see slide six still.
Yeah. For me, it is, composition of turnover growth and turnover split is page seven by now.
Okay. Then, it's your connection, Sebastian. Sebastian is at the equity forum and, dependent on, the wireless in the hotel. So I hope it will go better in some minutes.
A very invitation to the equity forum today. It's a hot invitation as, I think here in the conference rooms, it's more than 30 degrees as there's no air conditioning running. Also, internet is weak. So yeah, it's still some challenge. Yeah. Okay. Now we have slide seven. Welcome to this. You see that, also here, the turnover growth and turnover split shows you that we are up in all segments. As I said, IFA business with us, more than 16,000 IFAs here, business up more than 20%. Major customers are up almost 30%, with a very nice growth rate. It's almost EUR 3 million. Also, advisory is up. That's our FiNUM companies where we have direct access to our customers. It's also up again for the second quarter in a row.
Very happy to, yeah, report this as we had quite some challenge there in the crisis times, starting from the Q3 in 2022. So you can see that now, our major customers segment is growing also in the dependence in the importance for the entire group, like from less than 25%. It's for the first time now at more than 25%.
Okay. So you remember the last quarters, we always showed you a quarterly comparison. And we want to go ahead with this. If you look at the development quarter by quarter and focus the first quarter, you can see that after a very weak year, 2023, a weak first quarter in the year 2023, we are back to a very normal development. The first quarter shows a growth of more than 20% compared to the previous year. And as Sebastian mentioned, it's driven by all product sectors. It's insurance and investments. It's IFAs and and major. Currently, we cannot see any or identify any external effects that would contradict the typical trends. So we expect the year to develop very normally. A strong first quarter will be followed by two weaker quarters. And the fourth quarter will close the year with a typical year-end business in the year 2024.
Let's take a look into the individual segments. Advisortech segment posts its best first quarter since we founded the company, more than 20 years ago now, with revenues of almost EUR 50 million and EBITDA of EUR 4.2 million to be achieved. Within these figures, Top Ten has contributed, our new transaction that we bought a year ago, which was first consolidated in December 2023. It's relevant for you to understand the figures. Within these figures, Top Ten has contributed a turnover of EUR 4.5 million, roughly, and an EBITDA of EUR 250,000, which is exactly according to our plan. The development in the cost basis is mainly driven by the consolidation of the Top Ten Group. If you would do a pro forma view, you could only see inflationary effects in the cost basis.
So we are very good in managing our costs at the moment. However, there's a clear pressure on personnel costs. It's, I think, market-wide. New appointments are often made above the level of comparable positions, which puts a cost pressure on the salary level of the existing team. I cannot put a figure on this, but we have to observe this German-wide development. In the advisory segment, we also see a very satisfying development, very satisfying for us. The segment achieved a growth of around 7% to a revenue of EUR 8.7 million in the first quarter, with a disproportionately high increase in gross profits. Gross profit increased by 12.5% and amounted to EUR 3.0 million. Cost structure was remaining the same, except personnel costs, same explanation as some seconds ago. The EBITDA increased by 10% to EUR 0.7 million.
Here we see a typical seasonal development as well. Two weaker summer quarters will follow, and the year will be ended by a strong fourth quarter. So development, in the advisory segment, is on track as well. Let's have a look at the cash flow statements for the first quarter. We started the year with cash and cash equivalents of EUR 26.4 million, which is a plus of almost EUR 10 million compared to the previous year. And the cash flow from operating activities amounted to EUR 4 million, so on the level of the previous quarter. Normally, one would expect, that operating cash flow, would increase with an arising EBITDA. So, you might question yourself, why is the operational cash flow in Q1 not stronger than in the previous Q1? And the explanation is the very good year-end business in the fourth quarter, 2023, sorry.
This year-end business led to the effect that our commission liabilities to the broker increased by almost EUR 2 million. Means that cash in for new business was in the fourth quarter, 2023, and cash out to the brokers, for this year-end business mainly was in January. So in the first quarter, 2024. And this is an effect on, yeah, on the quarterly cash flow in the first quarter, 2024. Cash flow from investment activities amounted to -EUR 3.4 million, which is EUR 2.4 million more than in 2023, mainly influenced by Summitas investments. The capital calls were significantly higher than in the previous year. And Sebastian will give you some more information, how the things go, at Summitas later on. Cash flow from financing activities amounts to -EUR 1.5 million.
The reason for this increase is our share buyback program, which we give you some more information, also later on. The quarter ended with the cash balance of approximately EUR 26 million. Cash on hand last Friday was EUR 29.2 million. Some more key performance figure that we show you every quarter, they also developed very nicely. The new orders peaked around at around 38,000. That's a plus of an increase of 12% compared to the previous year. The number of initiated contract transfers even reached a level of more than 150,000 in just one quarter, which is an increase of almost 60%. Very impressive number again. Finally, you might remember, one year ago, with the earnings call for the first quarter, 2023, we reported that the annual net premium on the JDC Platform would soon reach EUR 1 billion.
And now, 12 months later again, we have recently reached EUR 1.2 billion, which is a plus of more than 20% in only 12 months, only one year. For me, this is a very impressive number because I have to emphasize this once again, EUR 200 million more in annual net premium, more insurance portfolios, means some 100,000 additional contracts, which will reliably pay recurring portfolio commissions for many years to come, starting now. So, without any bad debt losses, without any collection work from our side, if you look at the annual development of the annual net premium on the JDC Platform, you can look how the future will go. So this is, that's the basis for our future growth. A few more information about share price, and the bonds. The share price is developing very nicely and positively and was.
This morning after our press release, which gave us a smile at the beginning of our investors' conference. The market cap is now EUR 300 million, a little bit above. Three months ago, we had EUR 280 million and gave an outlook that the market capitalization could soon reach EUR 300 million. So we are happy to be there, three months later. We bought back 144,000 shares with our share buyback program and paid an average price of EUR 19.83. A reminder for you, the share buyback program runs until May 15th, which is end of this week, means this Friday. Yeah? And I will give you some more information in our slides. The new bond is valued at EUR 20 million still. It's trading very stable at 104%.
It was close to trading yesterday, and it was the trust of the bondholders in the development of our group. Yeah, many thanks for this trust. The shareholder structure has remained unchanged since Provinzial joined the company. Our own shares now amount to 1% of the share capital. Before I hand over to Sebastian for the strategy, I would like to summarize that all in all, we are very happy with the development of our group. We now have been on a stable growth path for many years now. This growth path can be influenced by the environment at times, but is never broken since years. Yeah? The reason is, at first, that we very diligently collect more contracts day by day onto our platform.
The second is that we combine this with a good cost discipline. In our management meetings, we discuss about every EUR 5,000 tickets. So we have very long management meetings. Yeah? Costs are very important for us. And we are still able to make reasonable M&A transactions. Yeah? With Top Ten, it was the last one. And in the meantime, we are often able to pay these M&A transactions out of our operational cash or our cash on hand. So this, in total, is a very good mix, in my opinion, to provide us with a reliable growth in the coming years. Sebastian.
Yeah. So we have some highlights for you. So we'll give you as a spotlight a small glimpse into the JDC Platform Summit. That's a conference that we hold for C-level of insurance companies.
And you will also see in a little video, also some of our third in the holding board, Marcus Rex. Then we have a slide on efficiency gains by operations improvements within JDC. Then we have a slide on Summitas. We are content with the development of our Summitas, and joint venture company with both Bain Capital and Great-West Lifeco. And then, Ralph gives you some information on the successful share buyback program. Yeah. Let's start with the Platform Summit. So, once a year, we invite 80-100 C-level board members of insurance companies, head of broker business. And this is also always in Wiesbaden, in what's called the Kurhaus. It's a conference hall. And, yeah, Ralph, maybe you start with the video. How that works. Okay. Small glimpse of what we do. If you're not working in the office, main speaker was Mr.
Ischinger was the head of the Munich Security Conference for more than 20 years, speaking about the political environment, which is also important for capital markets. So we jump one slide.
Okay. We know this one. Okay. So let's give you some more spotlight on operations at JDC. You might remember that, in the last earnings call, we showed you the development of our cost-income ratio. So, it's a relation between total cost and our gross margin. And we showed you that the figure declined from 105% in 2018 to 90% in 2023. The key for further improving this indicator is operational excellence. Yeah? And when we look at a typical lifecycle of any new idea, then product or process, we see these typical J curve. After the innovation, the product is introduced into the market.
If sales volume is high enough, then, you have to focus operational excellence. This, this is where we are today. Yeah? It's one of our most important tasks and, the one we work very hard on. You see the figures in the table. Customer datasets on the platform increased by 15% or 400,000. The contract datasets on the platform increased by 20% or 700,000. The documents processed in one quarter was 1.25 million pieces, which is 25% more than the first quarter last year. Nevertheless, the number of our full-time employees, full-time equivalents, grew only by 1.5%. Yeah? This is an impressive development, in my opinion. But I don't want to hide the fact that one reason is also the difficult job environment. We have many open positions.
But nevertheless, we were able to manage this increased volume, and thanks to automation and constant optimization with virtually the same team. So a big thank you to our JDC team for their excellent work.
Yeah. One slide on Summitas. You can see that we are very happy that our new CEO, Lutz Richter, is now on board. He finally started March 15 now and will take over operations. So we're happy about the development because the M&A team was intact for the last six months, and they're quite diligent in going after all these, the full pipeline of transactions. So we could already conclude 10 transactions until end of Q1, so collecting revenues of over EUR 10 million and an EBITDA in Summitas of EUR 2.5 million. And again, Summitas has an exclusive service contract with the JDC Platform.
So these EUR 10 million will go to the platform over time. For this year, we plan with about EUR 3.5 million of this 10 will already be in the platform this year. Then, next year, we'll see all of this EUR 10 million. Then, we have normal, like, customer contracts, and we might be earning EUR 1 million out of these 10 for the JDC Platform. So we have a full pipeline. So there's more than 12 transactions expected for the full year in 2024. And we still hope to do also a bigger one. The first 10 were rather a small one. You see, by the comparison between turnover and transaction size, so it's on average EUR 1 million in turnover. And this corresponds to about EUR 250,000 in earnings each. So we're happy about this development. So the team is complete.
And now, you will can expect one transaction every month and, hopefully, a bigger one also.
Okay. Finally, as mentioned, some information about our share buyback program, which will end this Friday. The program was limited to 350,000 shares and a total purchase price of EUR 5 million. Until Friday, we will probably buy back 155,000-160,000 shares and invest around EUR 3.3 million or EUR 3.4 million, which is a good result for us as a company and for our shareholders as well. Many of you will now ask whether there is a new share buyback program. I can say that a decision on this has not yet been made. Basically, we try to allocate our capital in the most efficient way.
If the cash flows continue to develop positively as they did in the last years, we will continue to invest primarily in two areas. The first is IT. Our platform still has a lot of potentials. We have a lot of ideas, and the realization costs a lot of money. And the second is still M&A. We have a very good experience with our transactions. And if we backtest our transactions, they are all very positive for us. So, we will want to go on there and would like to invest in further direct brokerage companies beside our investment into the Summitas Group. So it's the same area, the same two areas for the last years. It's the same strategy since years.
If additional liquidity is available or left, then this could flow into a new share buyback program, which we have to discuss in the future.
Some words on the guidance. We are very comfortable with respect to what we told you after the full year figures last year. You see, we guided a turnover of EUR 205 million-EUR 220 million with an EBITDA ranging from EUR 14.5 million-EUR 16 million. And with the results of Q1, we see it's very well on track with a turnover of EUR 53.3 million. You see that this is quite comfortable with look on to the end of the year. And also, EBITDA is very comfortable with a very good Q1, the best Q1 we ever had. We are also on track reaching the EBITDA numbers we gave you. Also, our goals in 2024, we want to integrate the Top Ten Group, Austria.
We had the merger done. It's still waiting to be inscribed in the commercial registry, and also the mergers of both the portfolio management company, which is due next month, and also the investment pool. That's all on track. So, we'll have this done until August at the latest so we can have the full figures consolidated in the year 2024. You will also see that Summitas will provide the first turnovers to the platform. We still hope there might be a bigger transaction. So, this could also be very relevant. Also, we have now, as we stretched out to the bancassurance markets and also the insurance companies themselves, we focus also on smaller IFAs. That means the 16,000 brokers that give us a strong base in the market.
We can leverage the experience from the major customers and roll this to the other clients and intermediate clients in the IFA segment. Yeah, Ralph told us something on our own developments in IT. But we also have more and more insurance companies that want to benefit from our IT developments, especially with our subsidiary, Morgen & Morgen. Yeah, and we also, Ralph showed you what this means for the IT platform. We have the first little project in which we use AI to read our documents with more diligence and have self-systems. And we can replace more and more employees using technology, modern technology, to read out our documents. So, yes, I know AI is a big buzzword out there. But now we found the first very beneficial first projects by stepping up in our operations.
And also, Ralph showed this, the further reductions of cost per contract by growing the company at the same platform cost. We will see economies of scale. And all these goals are very good on track. So, as a management, we're very happy with the development of the company in the first two months. All right. We're happy to take any questions you might have. And Sarah, you tell us how this works.
Thank you so much. And yeah, thank you for your presentation. And congrats on the results. So we'll now move over to our Q&A session. So for a dynamic conversation, we kindly ask you to ask questions in person via audio line. To do so, please click on the "Virtual Raise Your Hand" button.
So if you dial in by phone, you can use the key combination star key nine 10 to the queue, followed by star key six to unmute yourself. If you're not able to speak freely today, you can submit your questions in our chat box. This is, what, Roland already has done. So his question is, "Please tell us whether and where you can gain significant market share in the future. In which area can the next wave of growth come from besides Summitas and onboarding of Sparkassen and R+V?"
Yeah. Maybe I take the rest from Ralph. So, yeah. So obviously, we have quite a nice market share in the broker market. Like, 16,000 of these 30, whatever, 7,000 brokers have a contract with us already. So check the box on the broker market, which is about 25%-30% in life, 25% in P&C.
So we have a strong base there. In the banking area, the banks have, depends what product group, also between 20%-30% of market share. We have these strong strongholds both with the savings banking organizations and also the cooperative banking groups. And then we have to execute on that. But then the big field is still the tied agent networks of the insurance companies themselves. You might have seen we acquired Gothaer as a customer, as a Top 15 insurer. Just merged with Barmenia. So no surprise. Barmenia agencies will most likely use our platform very soon as well. But then there's a number of very big insurers out there that could use a 360-degree view on their client portfolios also with their agencies.
And this is the next big thing out there that also these insurers know that, digitization will not stop, on the door of agencies. But also, a customer that is maybe a banking customer that used to also have an aggregate view of their insurance contracts will then also ask this from the agents. And, this is what we're preparing. So, yeah, we will approach and focus on the full number of private insurance companies, that could become our customers, in the, yeah, in the time to come. And there's a pipeline out there, with some projects. And, I hope that this will also provide some good news.
All right. Thank you so much. Another question is, "Did you lose tenders?"
I think we can combine this question with the next ones.
He asked, "If we lose, lose, if we lose tenders and if we are still bidding for bigger contracts and if there are not many tenders outside, yeah?" So, of course, yeah, you'll you lose a tender time by time. But the important message is that most of the tenders, 90% plus that we are bidding, is where we sign contracts still. So there's competition in the market. But the competition is not as strong as it could be. And the reason is that we invest so many, so much money into our platform and that our technological edge is there, yeah? So we still win most of the tenders, 90% plus. And yes, we are bidding for tenders for contracts with a relevant size. Yeah. Maybe you will learn something about this in the short-term future. And Sebastian already answered.
There are still big tenders to come because most of the tied agent networks of the insurance companies have a big need to have a 360-degree view on their customers. And that's exactly what JDC can offer as a technological partner to the insurers. So this will be the next big thing for JDC or for platforms like JDC.
All right. Thank you so much.
There's the saying, right? There's the saying, "We want to be the last, not the first." For example, we lost the cooperative banks to Clark once, I don't know, five, six years ago. But now, obviously, we want the contracts for the next 10 years because, obviously, there was some well, non-performance in between. And then we almost lost the Provinzial deal to Hyperport that was very close. And but in the end, we got the 10-year deal.
So the answer is yes. But in the end, we could turn it around. So in the end, we have not lost a very big client, in the long run yet. I think that's very precise.
All right. Thank you so much. And then we received a question, prior to this call. So, it's concerning the acquisition. So what characteristics should the targets have?
I don't see the targets for Summitas or for us?
For you.
Well, the good thing is, like, as you see with Top Ten or KOMM Invest, like, we like platform targets that are have the same business model like we have, like B2C, B2B2C. That means, platforms that have intermediaries that then tend or service end clients.
There's a number out there still that could be a very good combination, a business combination for us because, we, we still think we have the leading tech stack in insurance. And there's many out there that are, have other focus or, or, or product groups. So this is really interesting. And then also on the on the private line side, where there's not that fierce competition that we see in the commercial broker side, there's interesting brokers out there also for occupational pension, that could be a target for JDC Direct. For the commercial side, we go via Summitas. That's the aim, because and also the bigger targets out there, price range above EUR 50 million-EUR 100 million, then this is a clear target for, for our joint venture company.
All right. Thank you so much for answering. So by now, there are no questions left.
So at this point, just a quick reminder, if there's still open topics, just let us know. And I guess we wait a couple of seconds if maybe further questions show up. And then we have Edwin. He's in the audio line. So you can unmute yourself and ask your questions.
Gentlemen, couple of questions from my side. So if you look at the organic growth levels, so I think it is something around 11%. Is that right if I take out the Top Ten?
Well, yeah.
Yeah. And then so Top Ten contributed EUR 4.5 million turnover.
Yes.
Was there also already growth in the Top Ten revenues?
That's a good question because we don't know exactly how it was last year. Well.
Yes, I think there was a growth in the Top Ten numbers because the markets are good, as Sebastian said. And 90% of the Top Ten's turnover is from trailer fees from mutual funds. So there must be a growth, but I don't have the exact numbers. As I said, it's safe to assume that we are more or less at EUR 18 million as a revenue contribution for Top Ten this year. Should be more.
Should be more. Yeah. Well, additional Edwin to last year's, right? So last year's, there was a little bit more than EUR 3 million already consolidated in December. And then it will be another EUR 18 million+ .
Yeah.
And then, if we look at the margin side, yeah, so, I really expected a little bit lower margins, actually, yeah, because Top Ten growth margins are a little bit lower than your margins, yeah, what you're getting. And, if I look at growth margin, it goes from 28.1 to 27.8. So it's probably the other way around, from 27.8 to 28.1. And it's not that much. Is that 28%? Is that more or less something we can calculate for the rest of the year as well?
Yeah. You have to take it into account, Edwin, that the recurring margins are a little bit higher than the new business margin. So you will see Q4 with a little bit lower margins and then Q1 with a little bit higher margins. But this will even out over the year.
So yeah, I think that's the answer.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And then in terms of seasonality, we should, let's say, expect more or less the same as we saw in the previous year. So, Q1 strong, Q2 and Q3 weaker. And let's say, Q4 again, very strong.
Yes.
Okay. Not like in 2023, but compared to the years 2020, 2021, 2022, that's the normal move, flow. And yeah. Okay.
And then we should see the more or less the same growth rates year- on- year in the coming quarters. Okay.
Yeah. That's the correct way to look at it. So we expect the same growth rates, quarter-over-quarter. So yes, the quarter in absolute terms will be a little bit lower, Q2, Q3.
But the growth rate, well, we don't know it yet. But we think it could be quite similar to what we see now.
And the last one, I'll stop on the major clients. Is there any news around Provinzial, VKB , Albatros, R+V? Or maybe can you give a little bit of explanation how they are doing?
Well, we see that all of them are growing. We could wish for some more speed in the growth, obviously. But then, we already have now the 175,000th contract for the Provinzial savings bank. So this is, like, slowly but surely picking up speed. We could wish for more speed with VKB and SV, savings banks and also the cooperative banks. But overall, we're as slow as we planned. Let's put it like this, Ralph, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
In this major clients business, no news is good news. That means that everybody is more or less happy with the platform and is working day by day with it. And that's where we are, yeah? And again, we are working on bigger tenders. And we think we can give some news in the short-term future.
Okay. Okay. Very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, Edwin, for your questions. We have two more, I think, Sarah, right, in the chat?
Absolutely. In the meantime, receive two further questions in our chat box. So the first one is, "You wrote that you see a positive trend in the real estate business. Compared to 2021 approximately, where was the low and where is it now?"
Okay. So I think the low quite exactly was December 2022, right?
So that was where the energy prices went through the roof, the interest rates went through the roof, and nobody in retail bought real estate. There was almost no market in 2023. There was, you saw the prices did not go back much. But in the end, there was no transactions with people. Sellers would hold to the real estate if they would not have to be forced into a fire sale. So and in retail, we just see now in Q2, there are the figures are back on to, like, beginning 2022, 2021 numbers, as there is a lot of liquidity piling up with retail clients. And, and this has to go somewhere. It did go already in capital markets a little bit. But then, yeah, real estate is, it's a good choice. Actually, the entire renewable business, alternative investment schemes are sold out more or less.
So money goes into real estate.
All right. Thank you so much. And the last question by now, "What will you do with the acquired shares of the share buyback? Is a cancellation a possibility, or could they be sold to Provinzial again?"
Yeah. Maybe I can answer this question. It's the answer is, we have all possibilities. We are allowed to cancel the shares or to sell the shares as we decide with the approval of our supervisory board. I don't think that it makes sense to sell the shares again to Provinzial, because they have now a threshold of 6%, like VKB. That's where they feel comfortable. That's where we feel comfortable. We don't want to have the insurers to have too much influence. So we don't need the money right now. So a cancellation is possible.
We could also use the shares to pay some M&A bills. So no, no, not decided yet.
Okay. Thank you so much. So by now, there are no questions left. No? So there we come to the end of today's earnings call. So thank you, everyone, for joining. You've shown interest and for all your questions. So should further questions arise at a later time, please feel free to contact investor relations. And a big thank you also to you, Sebastian and Ralph, for your presentation and the time you took today. So, from my side, I wish you all a lovely remaining and happy week. And hand over again to Sebastian for some final remarks.
Yeah. Thank you very much for your trust. You know, we saw some bad times, when there was outward crises. Now, we are back to normal.
We are back to the growth rates we promised. So we want to grow 20% in the quarters to come. Also, we said we do what we say. We say what we do. And now, we see, yeah, we can harvest whatever we sowed the last years. Yeah, so bear with us. We're very happy about these results. And there's nice results to come. We're very confident for this year, 2024, and also what we told you about 2025. You know, this EUR 250 million figure for 2025 is very much in reach, very visible, also with, like, a EUR 20 million EBITDA range that we gave you already in 2022. So overall, we're very happy with this development. So bear with us. And thank you for your trust and your attention. Thank you very much.
Bye-bye.