DGAP-News: wallstreet:online doubles securities accounts and assets under custody in 2021 - Smartbroker grows by 140% to 200,000 accounts

wallstreet:online doubles securities accounts and assets under custody in 2021 - Smartbroker grows by 140% to 200,000 accounts
 

- More than 120,000 new securities accounts opened during 2021 - an increase of more than 100% versus prior year

- As of year-end 2021, the Group manages 240,000 securities accounts; 200,000 thereof through its multiple award-winning neo broker Smartbroker^[1]

- Assets under custody doubled to 8.8 billion

- The Company has become the largest neo broker operator in Germany by assets under custody

Berlin, 18 January 2022

wallstreet:online AG (ISIN DE000A2GS609, FSE:WSO1, the "Group", the "Company"), a leading neo broker operator and by far the largest publisher-independent financial portal operator in German-speaking countries, has recorded another year of extraordinarily strong growth.

Smartbroker leads growth and increases the number of securities accounts by 140%

The Group was able to more than double the number of securities accounts as well as assets under custody during the past year. As of 31 December 2021, the subsidiary wallstreet:online capital AG managed around 240,000 securities accounts, of which 200,000 through Smartbroker, the Group's multiple full-service neo broker. This amounts to an additional 120,000 accounts secured within twelve months. Smartbroker won several awards during the year and, amongst others, ranked first in the "Brokerage" category of the review of retail finance providers carried out by trade magazine "Euro".

Assets under custody expanded by 105% to 8.8 billion in 2021

wallstreet:online capital AG is by now the largest neo broker operator in Germany measured by assets under custody. AUCs amounted to 8.8 billion by the end of the year. This corresponds to a growth of 105% versus 2020 and a volume of around 37,000 per securities account - which is significantly more than the average of conventional neo brokers. Based on its comprehensive product offering many investors and savers use Smartbroker's digital full-service offering as their primary - and often their only - provider for securities trading.

Savings plans as additional driver for long-term growth

Savings plans are likewise very popular: the number of active savings plans increased by 170% to 105,000 at the end of 2021. The savings amount exceeds 200 per recurring payment.

Continuously strong financial media business

The financial portal business of wallstreet:online AG also developed in line with the Company's ambitious goals. The number of annual page impressions increased again across the Group's outlets and grew by around 15% to almost 4 billion in 2021 - making the Company once more the largest publisher-independent financial portal operator in German-speaking Europe. Furthermore, the number of registered users in the Group's discussion forums expanded to more than 836,000 users.

Preliminary financials 2021 and the outlook for the full year 2022 will be published at the beginning of March

The Company plans to publish preliminary financial figures for the full year 2021 at the beginning of March 2022, followed by the audited consolidated financial statements by the end of April. Based on the dynamic growth, it is apparent that wallstreet:online AG achieved record revenues in 2021. In its guidance for 2021 the Company issued a revenue target of 45-50 million - a plus of at least 60% compared to 2020.

Matthias Hach, CEO of wallstreet:online AG and wallstreet:online capital AG on the outlook for 2022: "We are very proud that we have been able to already convince so many investors of our Smartbroker offering within a short period of time. We are on schedule and very confident to be able to deliver continued growth in all business areas in 2022 and develop the Smartbroker rapidly into one of the leading neo brokers in Germany. As already announced, we will manage many processes regarding our brokerage products in house going forward. This will enable us to respond more rapidly and comprehensively to customer wishes or changing market conditions. Our entire business model will altogether become more efficient and be positioned more effectively. The application for the extension of the existing licence has been submitted to the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and we continue to expect a positive decision during the first half-year.

But we have more in store: we are working on further extending the reach of our financial media portals, among others, by launching a paid-content model for certain areas and producing specific trading-related content."

About the wallstreet:online Group

The wallstreet:online Group operates the Smartbroker - a multiple award-winning online broker, which is the only provider in Germany to combine the extensive product range of traditional brokers with the extremely favourable conditions of neo brokers. At the same time, the Group operates four high-reach stock market portals (wallstreet-online.de, boersenNews.de, FinanzNachrichten.de and ARIVA.de). With several hundred million monthly page impressions, the Group is by far the largest publisher-independent financial portal operator in German-speaking countries and the largest finance community.

Press contact

Felix Rentzsch
Head of Communications
Mobile: +49 176 4165 0721
Email: f.rentzsch@wallstreet-online.de

Investor Relations contact

Sabrina Kassmannhuber
Investor Relations Manager
Phone: +49 (0)30 20 456 500
Email: ir@wallstreet-online.de
^[1] e.g., ranked first in the "Brokerage" category of the review of retail finance providers by "Euro" magazine, issue 5/21, page 108ff.; most favorable provider in all model portfolios in the comparison of "Finanztest", issue 12/2021, page 24ff.