Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the MLP SE conference call regarding the publication of the results for the First Quarter 2025. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Pascal Löcher.
Thank you very much, and welcome to MLP's conference call to our results for the First Quarter of 2025. With me today is our CFO, Reinhard Loose. He will guide you through the presentation. Of course, we are happy to take your questions after the presentation. Please go ahead, Reinhard.
Thank you, Pascal. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, allow me to present the key facts from the first three months of the Financial Year 2025. MLP has once again made a good start to the year and has continued the successful course of the previous Quarters. We have achieved new all-time highs in revenue and earnings. This positive development is attributable to revenue growth in all three of our group's competence fields: life and health, wealth, and property and casualty. Thanks to our broad and strategically interlinked positioning, we were able to successfully counteract the negative external factors, in particular the macroeconomic downturn, which was exaggerated by the recent U.S. tariff policy. Even in these times of increased uncertainty for the German economy, new burdens for consumers, and increased volatility on the capital markets, we have further strengthened our stable basis for further revenue development.
Our key figures play an important role here. Assets under management remain stable despite temporary stock market slumps, while the managed non-life insurance premium volume rose once again to a new all-time high. With earnings before interest and taxes, even for short, totaling EUR 37.8 million, the MLP Group is well on course to achieve our annual forecast of EUR 100 million-EUR 110 million. We also confirm our midterm planning to generate EBIT of EUR 140 million-EUR 150 million by the end of 2028. The basis of success is, on the one hand, the excellent stability of the MLP Group. On the other hand, we have significant growth potential in our business model, in which we support and advise private, institutional, and corporate clients in all financial matters.
Our clients, our consultants, and not least our shareholders are also increasingly benefiting from our successful digital strategy, in which artificial intelligence already plays a visible role today, will play, and even more, a substantial role in the future. We primarily use AI, which directly benefits our clients, always acting in a targeted and responsible manner. In combination with our high-quality personal consulting, we offer a uniquely comprehensive range of services for our clients. You can find an overview of revenue development on slide five of the presentation. We increased total revenue by 6% in the First Quarter and reached a new high of around EUR 301 million. At this point, I would also like to draw attention to the share of recurring revenues, which amounted to almost 70% at the end of 2024, a sign of excellent and sustainable stability in our business model.
We earn recurring revenue from the continuous high-quality service provided to our existing clients throughout the MLP Group, above all in the property and casualty and wealth competence field. The remaining share of sales revenue is generated from our new business, particularly in the life and health competence field. In the First Quarter of 2025, MLP achieved particularly strong growth in the life and health competence field, with an increase of 10% driven by the health insurance and old-age provision business. We also recorded growth in the wealth competence field with an increase of 8%, while the property and casualty competence field grew by 5%. Within the wealth competence field, real estate brokerage in particular increased very significantly by 157% compared to the prior year Quarter. As expected, revenue from the others competence field decreased due to the proactive reduction of market and business-related risks.
The growing and continuing trust for our clients and our consulting services is also reflected in the key figures. These are of great importance for future revenue development. It is therefore all the more pleasing that we were able to keep assets under management stable at EUR 62.8 billion, despite the temporary slump on the capital markets. We were able to achieve new net cash inflows both in the private client business at MLP and at our multi-asset investment firm FERI. Of course, today we are presenting assets under management as of the 31st of March. However, as you know, share indices have risen significantly since then. A brief look at our key figures. We were able to increase the managed non-life insurance premium volume to another record high of EUR 779 million. Incidentally, this corresponds to the volume of a medium-sized non-life insurer in Germany.
As of the 31st of March, MLP Group's consultants served 591,600 family clients. The gross number of newly acquired family clients was 4,800. We also supported 27,900 corporate and institutional clients in the MLP Group. The number of consultants rose to 2,138, primarily as a result of our successful trainee program. This program, which is very attractive for young professionals, equips junior consultants at MLP with the skills they need to succeed as self-employed consultants. By the end of March 2025, 376 trainees had already joined the program since its launch in mid-2023. You can find the current income statement on slide nine. Our group increased EBIT to EUR 37.8 million in the first three months of 2025, driven by positive revenue development in all competence fields and supported by consistent growth cost management.
Despite the expected decline in the interest rate business following the recent ECB interest rate decisions and the near total absence of performance-based compensation in wealth management as a result of the turmoil on the capital markets, we were nonetheless able to increase EBIT. This once again highlights how resilient our strategically developed business model has become. At the same time, there is significant potential for growth, which I will address in a moment in our forecast and planning. If you now take a brief look at the right-hand section of the slide, you will see key performance indicators that underpin our strong balance sheet. In comparison with the balance sheet date in 2024, shareholders' equity rose from EUR 570 million to EUR 598 million. The regulatory core capital ratio was 18.5% as of the 31st of March.
The liquidity coverage ratio, or LCR for short, serves as a benchmark for short-term liquidity in stress scenarios. It is therefore an indicator of resilience. At 1,169%, it is well above the 100% minimum required by regulatory authorities. For the financial year 2025, MLP expects to continue its sustainable growth path and confirms its EBIT forecast of EUR 100 million-EUR 110 million. Increasing sales revenue in the life and health and property and casualty competence fields, in particular, are expected to contribute to earnings growth in 2025. In the wealth competence field, we continue anticipating revenue to remain at the previous year's high level in 2025, though we remain somewhat cautious in view of the volatility observed on the capital markets. We are therefore also confirming the revenue forecast for these three competence fields today. Our midterm planning for the end of 2028, which we reaffirm today, also remains unchanged.
We are still planning with EBIT in the range of EUR 140 million-EUR 150 million and total revenue between EUR 1.3 billion and EUR 1.4 billion. Performance-based compensation at FERI, which, as already mentioned, is significantly influenced by external factors, is considered only to a limited extent. In contrast, a substantial increase is planned for the key figures, namely assets under management and the managed non-life insurance premium volume. The strategic development of potential and consulting family clients, the targeted expansion of the corporate client business, and the multi-asset approach for institutional clients should lead to growth in all competence fields. The planned significant increase in earnings is also supported by our digitization strategy, with a particular focus on AI applications, which are expected to generate continuous efficiency gains and lead to improvements in client support. [audio distortion] also remains strict.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me now to move on to the summary. Firstly, in the First Quarter, we made considerable progress towards our earnings forecast for the year 2025 as a whole and continued on our successful long-term course without compromises. Secondly, high-quality financial consulting services combined with targeted and client-focused AI support remain the key to our support for both private and corporate clients and therefore central to our further business development. Thirdly, we are in excellent position to tap into our significant potential in the coming years. The midterm planning we have reaffirmed today is appropriately ambitious, but also expresses our well-founded confidence in our own ability to perform. Many thanks for your time and your interest. I'm now happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we come now to your questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press nine followed by the star key on your telephone keypad. If you wish to come to your question, please press three followed by the star key. Please press nine star now to state your question. The first question comes from Jürgen Schmidt Metzler. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I have three questions, please. Firstly, on revenue growth for health insurance brokerage, in your Quarterly report, you mentioned increased insurance premium and new business as reasons for that. Could you provide a figure for the new business component here? Secondly, on Deutschland Immobilien, the segmental EBIT improved but was still negative in Q1. Do you expect to reach break even this year on a financial year basis? And last question on the structure of commission income of MLP banking. Could you give some explanation whether in Q1 asset-based fees were higher than transaction-based fees, i.e., for securities transactions? These are my questions. Thank you.
Mr. Schmidt, thank you for your questions. First question concerning health insurance. Yes, we had a very strong growth in earnings and also in new business. We acquired in the first three months an increase of 90% in new business, which was extremely strong. Also, I think it will not continue in this dimension for the rest of the year, but what we see is, and what we already saw in the last year, we see a growing interest of our customers, especially also younger customers, by the way, to invest in their health and therefore also in health insurance contracts. The second Quarter concerning Deutschland Immobilien, yes, we saw an improvement. The overall target we have yet are positive figures.
It will depend on the development, especially in the area of real estate development, as you read. As I mentioned, the real estate brokerage is going quite well, more than 100% increase in the First Quarter, and we are quite confident that we will see a significant growth rate for the whole year. The real estate development will be the key there. We just started during 2025 with the first, let's say, new project there, but we are still working mainly on two, three older projects, and that's, let's say, the target for the year, as I said, is break even. The third question concerning commission income, the main base for commission income in the banking business is out of the assets we charge there in the banking fee on asset under management, and this is by far the biggest contributor to the commission income. With this, I hope I answered your question, Mr. Schmidt.
Yes, you did. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
We come to the next question. The next question comes from Henry Lendage, Norway. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks, Pascal, and final congrats to the new records. I have also a couple of questions. Some were touched upon earlier, but let's dive back into the banking business. I've seen a huge shift in roughly EUR 1.1 billion from the central bank deposit to receivables at other financial institutions. Could you please give us more color on what's going on there? What's the rationale? Is it just a balance sheet reclassification, or is it an actual shift of money away from the central bank to other banks? And what was the motivation to do this?
Second, I also saw the commission expenses in the banking business came a little bit higher than expected. They were up 20% year on year, and sales were up only 5%. What's behind this? Is this a seasonal sort of upfront effect that we see only in Q1, or will this more likely go through all of 2025? Third question is also regarding Deutschland Immobilien, cost reduced, actually. Also, sales grew 20%, which was nice to see, but it's still negative EBIT. If we apply this sort of run rate for 2025, we would need either further cost reduction or top line. What moving parts are you seeing? You mentioned development earlier, but are there any other stuff that we could think about when we try to project Deutschland Immobilien's profitability for 2025?
For example, in Q1, I also saw the EUR 6.3 million in commission expenses, which is more than double than the Q1 2024, for example. But sort of what kind of, yeah, cost structures can we anticipate for 2025? And then I've seen in non-life, maybe a general question. I see that the premium volume is growing strong, and it's growing very solidly, but the sales are also growing, but not as quickly as the premium volumes are growing. What's the reason behind this discrepancy? Can you give us more color there? And then lastly, my usual question, you might have guessed it. You mentioned before almost no performance fees, but if you have a number for us, it would be nice. And also the inflows and the net liquidity also help to figure out for our model. Thanks.
Hi, Henrik. Thanks for your questions. I tried to answer them in the order of the questions. The banking ECB, yes, on the balance sheet, you see a shift of more than EUR 1 billion, but it's more, let's say, a way of how it's shown in the balance sheet to be more precise. Inside ECB, there are different kinds of accounts, and we shifted it from an account where it's a normal running account to an overnight account. It has more or less the same impact, but in the balance sheets, our auditor asked us to express this to show this in another line, and therefore it's now in a new line. From the interest rate, it has no change to before, and there are also no concerning risks and liquidity. The only thing is, as I've mentioned, technically overnight, during the night, we can't have a grip on the volume.
Second question concerning commission expenses also in the bank. You saw a little growth there, and you will see a little higher commission expenses during the rest of the year also. The main reason is that we started a new incentive program to incentivize our consultants to, let's say, continue and even more grow the volume there. This therefore started with the incentive program and the costs we will see in 2025. Therefore, a little higher commission expenses during the rest of the year also. In Deutschland Immobilien, yeah, as I think mentioned before, our main target, our main lever for positive numbers there is the project business. Nevertheless, there is also another point. We will see a little margin increase, especially in the second half of the year in Deutschland Immobilien for the real estate brokerage.
This is also part of, let's say, our plans that for the rest of the year, for the course of the year, we will see an increase there on improvement in the overall results. Therefore, also a positive contribution, not only volume-wise, but also margin-wise on the real estate brokerage. In non-life, you mentioned that the sales growth was a little lower than the income growth. The reason is that always in the First Quarter, we get some, let's say, additional bonuses there, and therefore there is a little higher impact on income there than on premium. Performance fees now come to the figure.
Performance fees were EUR 0.4 million in the First Quarter. The last question was concerning inflows. We saw EUR 0.9 billion inflows in the first three months, and therefore you can calculate that the performance was negative. No surprise there. The negative performance was EUR 1.1 billion in the first three months. I hope Henrik has answered your question.
Yes, all of them except for the last one, the net liquidity figure.
Oh, the net liquidity. Sorry, I mentioned it earlier. I was going a little bit less than EUR 200 million at the second Quarter.
Okay. Thanks. Maybe one follow-up. Why do you expect the margin increase in brokerage to expand in the second half, and why not now? What is the reason behind this?
When you have, let's say, new contracts with everyone, the new contracts are valid for new business, and the new business, you broker a flat, for example, and then do the process, do the sign-off. The whole sales process lasts around three to six months, and therefore you see the results of your sales three to six months later in the P&L.
Got it. That's very helpful. Thanks.
You're welcome.
We have time for other questions. If you have further questions, please press nine star now to state your question. At the moment, there seems not to be further questions. Back to MLP.
If there are no further questions, I would like to thank you for taking part in our conference call. Of course, you can reach us if any further questions arise later. I wish you a good afternoon. Thank you and goodbye.
Your conference call has come to an end. Thank you for attending. Goodbye.