EQS-News: ProCredit Holding AG: Annual General Meeting approves dividend payout of EUR 0.64 per share after the most successful year in the group’s history

ProCredit Holding AG: Annual General Meeting approves dividend payout of EUR 0.64 per share after the most successful year in the group’s history

Frankfurt am Main, 06 June 2024 - ProCredit Holding AG, the parent company of the impact-oriented ProCredit group, held its Annual General Meeting for 2024 on Tuesday in Frankfurt am Main. As in the previous year, this year’s Annual General Meeting was held as an in-person event.

A total of 77.45% of the share capital was represented. The General Meeting voted in favour of all of the proposals that were put to the vote.

The Management Board first reported on the very positive operating and financial performance of the ProCredit group in the 2023 financial year. The group result was EUR 113.4 million, which corresponds to a return on equity of 12.2% and represents the best result in the group’s history. In his speech, Hubert Spechtenhauser, Chair of the Management Board of ProCredit Holding AG, emphasised that the ProCredit group had become more stable and resilient in 2023 on the one hand and significantly more profitable on the other. “The group’s capital position, financial performance and liquidity situation as a whole have never been as strong and solid as today,” said Spechtenhauser. A return on equity of 10-12% is expected for the current financial year 2024. The cost-income ratio is expected to be around 63%. In the medium term, the return on equity should rise to a level of around 13%-14%. This is based on cost of risk of around 30-35 basis points and a cost-income ratio of around 57% (excluding one-off effects). The medium-term guidance and an update of the group’s business strategy were presented at ProCredit’s second Capital Markets Day on 21 March 2024. With a result of EUR 33.5 million in the first quarter of 2024 and a return on equity of 13.4%, ProCredit had a good start to the new financial year, underlining the group’s medium-term goals.

The General Meeting ratified the acts of the General Partner of ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA, and of the members of the Management Board of ProCredit General Partner AG, and of the members of the Management Board of ProCredit Holding AG, in each case for the 2023 financial year. Likewise, the General Meeting ratified the acts of the members of the Supervisory Board of ProCredit General Partner AG, and of the members of the Supervisory Board of ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA, and of the members of the Supervisory Board of ProCredit Holding AG, in each case for the 2023 financial year.

Against the background of the positive business development and the comfortable level of capital, the General Meeting also resolved to pay out a dividend of EUR 0.64 per share. In accordance with the group’s dividend policy, according to which one third of the consolidated result should be paid out as a dividend, a total of EUR 37.7 million from the result for the 2023 financial year will therefore be distributed as a dividend. At the beginning of the General Meeting, Rainer Ottenstein, Chair of the Supervisory Board of ProCredit Holding AG, emphasised that “despite the company’s encouragingly ambitious growth targets, there is sufficient capital available for our shareholders to partake in the company’s success, and the Management Board will continue to attach great importance to a balanced relationship between dividends and financing growth.”

Hubert Spechtenhauser, Chair of the Management Board of ProCredit Holding AG, commented: “The ProCredit group can look back on an extremely successful 2023 with the best result in the group’s history. We would especially like our shareholders to share in this positive development. We are therefore delighted that the General Meeting voted in favour of our proposal to pay out a dividend of EUR 0.64 per share, in line with our dividend policy. With our updated business strategy, we aim to build on the successes of the past financial year in the future. In the coming years, we plan to significantly expand our loan and deposit portfolio as well as the number of our customers in the medium term in order to achieve economies of scale and extend the positive impact of our business activities on the societies and economies of our countries of operation.”

As part of the Supervisory Board elections, Ms Karin Katerbau and Ms Berna Ülman were elected to the Supervisory Board following the end of their regular term of office, after having been appointed as members of the Supervisory Board by the District Court of Frankfurt am Main. The term of office of the two Supervisory Board members runs until the Annual General Meeting of the company in 2028. Ms Katerbau is Senior Financial Adviser and Chair of Board of Management of the OLB Foundation in Oldenburg. Ms Ülman is a Senior Adviser in Emerging Markets and Retail Banking.

The General Meeting also approved an adjustment to the remuneration system for members of the Supervisory Board of the company and the corresponding amendment to the Articles of Association of ProCredit Holding AG. Having conducted a careful review, the Management Board and the Supervisory Board had come to the conclusion that the existing remuneration arrangements for the members of the Supervisory Board were no longer commensurate with the increased demands placed upon them, nor with the complexity and risk profile of a stock corporation.

BDO AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, Hamburg, was again appointed as the company’s and the group’s statutory auditor for the 2024 financial year.

The results of the voting on the individual agenda items as well as further information on the Annual General Meeting will be published on the company’s website at https://procredit-holding.com/investor-relations/general-meetings/.

Contact:

ProCredit Holding, Investor Relations, ProCredit Holding, Tel.: +49 69 95 14 37 0, E-mail: pch.ir@procredit-group.com

Andrea Kaufmann, Group Communications, ProCredit Holding, Tel.: +49 69 951 437 138,

E-mail: Andrea.Kaufmann@procredit-group.com

About ProCredit Holding AG

ProCredit Holding AG, based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, is the parent company of the development-oriented ProCredit group, which consists of commercial banks for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In addition to its operational focus on South Eastern and Eastern Europe, the ProCredit group is also active in South America and Germany. The company’s shares are traded on the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The main shareholders of ProCredit Holding AG include the strategic investors Zeitinger Invest GmbH and ProCredit Staff Invest GmbH & Co KG (the investment vehicle for ProCredit staff), KfW, the Dutch DOEN Participaties BV and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). As the group’s superordinated company according to the German Banking Act and as the parent financial holding company of the ProCredit financial holding group, ProCredit Holding AG is supervised on a consolidated level by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, BaFin) and the German Bundesbank. For additional information, please visit: https://www.procredit-holding.com/