Van Lanschot Kempen today released its 2017 annual results. Karl Guha, Chairman, said: “We look back on a successful year. We have made good progress every year since we started our transformation into a specialist wealth manager five years ago, and provide an increasingly enhanced service to our clients.
“In 2017, our underlying net result (i) rose to €112.3 million. The organic growth (17%) of our assets under management (AuM) was strong. The takeover of the wealth management activities of UBS in the Netherlands was our third successful acquisition in as many years. Our focus on wealth management has increased in 2017 as we have managed to wind down our corporate loan portfolio to €0.9 billion and as we have spun-off or outsourced a range of activities not part of our core business. Van Lanschot Participaties, for one, has been spun off and we have completed the outsourcing of our mortgage administration.
“In 2017, we improved our services to clients by actively leveraging key market trends such as sustainability and digitalisation. We launched our sustainable Duurzaam+ investment offering at Private Banking, while Asset Management introduced its Sustainable Value Creation Fund, both examples of how we respond to our clients´ wishes. Digitalisation is becoming increasingly important in all our core activities and is facilitating a data-driven approach, creating opportunities to enhance our wealth management proposition for both private and institutional clients.
“2017 also saw us take an important step in realising our ambition to return at least € 250 million to our shareholders before the end of 2020. In December, we paid out over €41 million in capital, taking the total amount to over €90 million including the 2016 dividend paid in June. We are proposing to raise our dividend for 2017 to €1.45 from €1.20, adding up to a total of around €60 million.
“We are making good progress on achieving our financial objectives by 2020. Our capital position is very solid, with a CET I ratio (ii) of 20.3% (2016: 18.6%), and we realised a return on equity (iii) of 10.4% (2016: 7.3%). Our efficiency ratio (iv) improved to 76.2% (2016: 79.6%).”
Financial report / presentation / webcast
For a detailed discussion of Van Lanschot Kempen’s results and balance sheet, please refer to our financial report and presentation on the 2017 annual results. In a conference call for analysts on 22 February at 11.00 am CET, we will discuss our 2017 annual figures in greater detail. This may be viewed live and played back at any later date. Please see Financial results.
(i) The 2017 underlying net result comprises the net result excluding the one-off charge for the derivatives recovery framework and costs incurred for the Strategy 2020 investment programme.
(ii) Fully loaded, including retained earnings.
(iii) Return on average Common Equity Tier I based on underlying net result attributable to shareholders.
(iv) Operating expenses (and hence the efficiency ratio) in 2017 and 2016 exclude costs incurred for the Strategy 2020 investment programme, a one-off charge for the derivatives recovery framework, and the amortisation of intangible assets arising from acquisitions.
More information
Media Relations: +31 20 354 45 85; mediarelations@vanlanschotkempen.com
Investor Relations: +31 20 354 45 90; investorrelations@vanlanschotkempen.com