Vontobel Holding AG (0QKE) Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Today, Georg, Thomas and I will report on our financial results and share highlights on our strategic progress from the first six months of the year. First, let's briefly review the market context of this first half year and how it played into our results. Equity markets witnessed sustained strong performance fuelled by easing inflationary pressures, continued resilient global growth and the end of the tightening cycle for the major central banks. First cuts were delivered by the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank. These cuts, combined with the market expecting the Fed to start its own easing cycle in the second half of this year, allowed for a consolidation in fixed-income markets. Within currency markets, the dollar emerged as the strongest performer among major currencies, driven by robust economic data and a delayed easing cycle. The Swiss franc, despite an initial decline in the first quarter following a surprise rate cut by the S&B, recovered after the European Parliament elections in June. Against this backdrop, investors' willingness to engage improved from low levels. We saw higher client activity and increased demand for riskier asset classes as well as fixed income. Our strong results reflect our ability to fully capture these positive trends. Turning to our key messages for the first half of 2024. We had a strong start to the year with profit before tax increasing 12% to 173 million. Net inflows were 2.3 billion, driven by strong inflows from private clients and a hold in institutional client outflows, a good result amidst an ongoing challenging environment for this client segment. Our assets under management with private clients surpassed the 100 billion mark for the first time, a very fitting result for our 100-year anniversary. Our balan...