DGAP-News: comdirect completes sale of ebase GmbH

comdirect completes sale of ebase GmbH

• Sale of wholly-owned subsidiary ebase to FNZ Group finalised
• comdirect invests in growth of core business
• 260k net new customers in the last 12 months

Quickborn, Germany, 16 July 2019. Today, comdirect finalised the complete sale of ebase (European Bank for Financial Services) GmbH. The sale had been contractually agreed upon in July 2018. Now that the sale has been approved by the banking supervisory and anti-trust authorities, the wholly-owned subsidiary of comdirect bank AG has been acquired by FNZ Group, a London-based financial technology provider. The sale of ebase enables comdirect to stronger focus on the core business.

The purchase price is approximately EUR154m. After consideration of the costs of the transaction, the book value of the transferred assets and liabilities, as well as the current earnings of ebase, the discontinued activities will contribute around EUR110m earnings before tax to comdirect 2019 group financial statements. This figure is thus composed of the current earnings of ebase for 2019, as well as the realisation gain from the sale, which will be booked in the third quarter. In 2009, comdirect acquired ebase from the former Commerz Asset Management Holding for a purchase price of EUR24.9m.

Accelerated growth in core business

"With last year's agreement to sell ebase, we have focussed on our core business and strengthened our investment into development and growth," says Arno Walter, CEO of comdirect bank AG. "The pace of our growth has accelerated significantly since then. In the last twelve months, we added more than 260k customers. This shows: comdirect is a growth company."

ebase GmbH now part of FNZ Group

ebase GmbH is now owned by FNZ Group, a London-based financial technology provider. ebase is based in Aschheim near Munich, and employs around 260 people. The company offers brokerage and banking solutions to financial sales companies, insurers, banks and asset managers to help them accumulate assets and invest. ebase has over one million customers and has assets under control of around EUR34bn.

"We worked together with the management to make ebase one of the leading B2B direct banks," said Walter, who also acted as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ebase GmbH until the sale was completed. "ebase will continue to be successful within FNZ Group. We would like to thank the members of staff and the management of ebase for their hard work and commitment as part of the comdirect group, and we wish them every success for the future as part of FNZ Group."

Contacts for this press release
Ullrike Hamer
Tel. +49 (0)41 06 704 1545
Email: ullrike.hamer@comdirect.de
comdirect bank AG, Pascalkehre 15, 25451 Quickborn, Germany

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