Grenke, wallstreet:online, flatexDEGIRO - Multibagger: The incredible development continues!?

GRENKE AG - the second Wirecard?

Since September 2020, there has been a lot of unrest at the SDAX group. While the share price was still around EUR 100 at the beginning of last year, it was only around EUR 60 in late summer. Developments came to a head in the short term in recent days. After volatile trading, the share ended the week at just under EUR 31 and a corresponding market capitalization of EUR 1.5 billion.

In its more than 40-year history, the Group has evolved from a pure leasing provider for IT and office equipment to a provider of comprehensive financing, factoring and banking services for commercial and private customers. The Group operates in 32 countries and has grown rapidly in the past through acquisitions. Concerning the latter aspect, accusations were increasingly voiced in 2020. It was alleged that the Group had paid too high prices for acquisitions and was not transparent enough in general. The Wirecard scandal also led to investors becoming very alert and reacting sensitively in recent months. As a result, Company founder Wolfgang Grenke resigned from his supervisory board position in the late summer. External expert opinions were commissioned.

Then, last week, another blow. On Monday, Group CEO Mark Kindermann resigned with immediate effect. The share price subsequently plunged by over 30% to around EUR 25 on the same day, recovering over the course of the week following an open letter from the Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

Kindermann vacated his post as auditors uncovered far-reaching deficiencies in the area of compliance and BaFin reserved the right to take the step of removing the board itself after a further review. The stock market has digested the shock somewhat, however analysts continue to keep their distance from the Company and the majority have suspended their rating for the share. Only when the auditors' reports are complete can investors breathe a sigh of relief again. The current status of the reports sounds more like weaknesses and errors that will not have any massive or existentially threatening consequences for the Group. But trust has to be earned. If it is lost, it takes a long time to regain it.

WALLSTREET:ONLINE AG - from all-time high to all-time high

The market slowly realizes the potential of the share of the largest independent financial portal operator in the German-speaking world - despite the enormous share price rally. But the dreams of the future and the value enhancement lever for shareholders do not come from the established and profitable core business.

Still, they lie in the transaction business of the 70% subsidiary wallstreet:online Capital. Smartbroker, a so-called neo-broker, was launched in the market at the end of 2019. However, Smartbroker stands out from the Group of neo-brokers, as it offers a broad range of products in addition to low terms and conditions.
The Group announced an important personnel development last Friday. Effective March 1, Matthias Hach will become the Group's new CEO. Hach brings years of experience in online brokerage with several established players. Current CEO Stefan Zmojda will assume the position of Chief Revenue Officer on the then four-member board.

Concerning further growth, the Group was optimistic and expects new customer growth of 30,000 investors in the first two months of the year. Central to this, in addition to customer growth, is the expansion of the Smartbroker's offering, including the launch of an app this year and the leveraging of synergies between the portal and transaction businesses. wallstreet:online is a storybook tale of a successful and dynamically growing listed company. The share continues to have excellent upside potential.

FLATEXDEGIRO AG - Tenbagger. And it goes on...

Those who put the online broker's share into their securities account 10 years ago and were patient, can today proudly look forward to a twenty-fold increase in their invested capital. Last year, flatex acquired its competitor DEGIRO and has since operated under the name flatexDEGIRO while using both the flatex and DEGIRO brands. The Group is one of Europe's leading and fastest-growing online brokerage platforms.

Earlier this month, the Group reported a brilliant start to the new financial year. In January alone, the Company acquired 130,000 new customers, so the Group now expects to record up to 750,000 new customers in 2021, instead of "over 350,000" as previously stated.

By year-end 2021, the Group expects to have a customer base of up to 2 million traders and up to 90 million transactions. In January, the Company already achieved a tripling of trades to 11.4 million. Analysts at Warburg and Jeffries were impressed by the figures and the forecasts and raised the share price to EUR 105 and EUR 118, respectively.