Vontobel Holding AG (0QKE) Q2 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and a very warm welcome from Georg, Thomas and myself. Today, Georg and I will focus on the highlights and share some more details on how we are executing on our strategy. Thomas will then take you through the numbers in detail, after which we look forward to opening the line and taking your questions. Let me start with the environment in which we delivered our half-year results. Equities delivered a choppy yet positive performance. After a shaky start driven by tariff headlines, indices recovered strongly as trade tensions eased. Investors rotated towards Europe and Asia. Bonds generated modest gains. Credit spreads tightened after the April sell-off, while safe-haven demand kept high-quality issues well supported. Government yields moved lower across maturities, most visibly in Switzerland after the S&B cut rates to zero. In the US, rate cut expectations were pushed back, yet yields still drifted down on rising growth concerns. FX markets saw a pronounced shift. The dollar declined sharply against most majors as fiscal worries grew, whereas the Swiss franc appreciated further, cementing its role as a safe haven. For Funtobo, this backdrop had a mixed impact. Lower Swiss rates and the weaker dollar weighed on net interest and translational income, and the extreme volatility of April temporarily slowed down activity of our structured solutions clients, as well as partly of institutional clients. On the other hand, and durably so, the volatility and structural shifts are leading both private and institutional clients to seek firms with a solid balance sheet with high-quality investment capabilities offering diversification potential. And indeed, we could successfully capture these flows. Let me turn to our financial and strategic highlights for the first ...