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Number of members and customer base expanded in first six months

apoBank: Number of members and customer base expanded in first six months

29.08.2013
 
  • Net profit of €24.1 million slightly above previous year’s level
  • Administrative expenses benefit from optimised cost structure
  • Implementation of customer support concept running according to plan
  • Outlook for 2013 confirmed: stable net profit and continuous dividend distribution planned


Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank (apoBank) completed the first six months of 2013 with a net profit of €24.1 million, a slight increase on the level of the same period in the previous year (30 June 2012: €23.5 million). In spite of a challenging environment in the banking sector, the Bank also managed to further increase the number of its members and customers.

The Bank attributes part of this development to the gradual implementation of its VorWERTs future programme, which entails the introduction of a new customer support concept. Specialised advisers provide support to customers based on their respective life phases. "The new concept has been well received by our customers", said Herbert Pfennig, Spokesman of the Board of Directors of apoBank. "We are now placing even more focus on the requirements of health care professionals. This provides very direct benefit to our customers. At the same time, the changes we have introduced are creating the foundations on which sustainable growth for apoBank can be built."

In addition, the VorWERTs programme has also led to optimisation of the Bank’s cost structure. In the first half of the year, this had a positive effect on administrative expenses and thus also on the operating result.

The results of the first six months of 2013 in detail

In the first six months of the year, net interest income, at €358.6 million, was slightly higher than the level of the previous year (30 June 2012: €343.1 million). The Bank’s lending business remained stable. It was able to increase customer deposit volumes, in spite of intense competition. In addition, net interest income benefited from the hedging measures taken for low-interest periods.

apoBank’s net commission income amounted to €53.6 million, also a slight increase on the previous year (30 June 2012: €50.6 million). The institutional securities business as well as private asset management continued to grow. As retail clients remained reticent, there was only moderate new business in the securities and insurance business in this area.

At €221.0 million, administrative expenses were considerably lower than in the same period of the previous year (30 June 2012: €245.6 million). One reason for this is the optimisation of the Bank’s cost structure. On the other hand, the previous year’s period had been impacted by the costs of IT migration. Here, the Bank benefited from the planned effects.

Against the backdrop of the positive trends in net interest income and administrative expenses, the operating result, i.e. profit before risk provisioning, at €181.4 million, was significantly higher than the previous year’s figure (30 June 2012: €132.8 million).

Risk costs and precautionary measures for the lending business, at €15.3 million, were significantly lower than the previous year’s level (30 June 2012: €38.5 million). For financial instruments and participations, they were at €99.8 million (30 June 2012: €59.5 million). The Bank was able to increase the precautionary measures taken in this area compared to the previous year.

The Bank took further pressure off its risk profile by continuing to reduce its structured financial products. Here, volume decreased to €1.4 billion (31 December 2012: €1.8 billion).

This went hand in hand with a further improvement in the Bank’s capital ratios as at 30 June 2013: The equity ratio amounted to 18.3% (31 December 2012: 14.4%) and the core capital ratio was at 13.3% (31 December 2012: 10.4%). Besides the allocations to reserves and the fund for general banking risks from the 2012 annual result, another factor that had a positive effect was the increase in members’ capital contributions. Here, existing members purchased new shares and the Bank was also successful in recruiting new members.

The Bank reduced its balance sheet total to €35.7 billion as at 30 June 2013 (31 December 2012: €37.9 billion). This is mainly due to the deliberate reduction in business volume outside the customer business.

Outlook

The Bank forecasts that conditions for the German banking sector will continue to be challenging in the second half of 2013. Burdens on expenditure will result in particular from the increasing regulatory requirements as well as further strategic investments resulting from the VorWERTs future programme. In addition, the contributions to profit from strategic interest rate risk management are expected to decrease. The Bank intends to offset these burdens with additional revenues from the customer business. Pfennig: "As planned, the changes introduced by the VorWERTs programme will start to take more noticeable effect from 2014 onwards." In addition, the Bank will continue to benefit from the optimisation of its cost structure.

Based on this, the Bank plans a net profit for fiscal 2013 which will enable it to distribute a stable dividend while at the same time making allocations to its provisions and reserves.