Multitude AG (MULT.DE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to Multitude's H1 2025 Earnings Call. My name is Adam Hansson-Tönning. I'm the Head of Investor Relations and Treasury at Multitude since May this year. Prior to that, I've been with Multitude for 15 years this year, most recently as Head of FP&A, and I will be your host today. Joining us to present the H1 results today is Antti Kumpulainen, CEO of Multitude; and Bernd Egger, CFO of Multitude. [Operator Instructions] With that, I'll leave the word over to the CEO of Multitude, Antti Kumpulainen.

Thank you, Adam. Good morning, everyone. My name is Antti Kumpulainen, and I'm the CEO of Multitude Group. During this call, I will walk you through Multitude's earnings call and results for the first half of 2025 with our CFO, Mr. Bernd Egger. The first half of year 2025 has been amazing as we continued on a really good path into the second quarter. To remind you all, we did adjust our net profit guidance after the great first quarter, and we are keeping that guidance. Today, we want to share with you some key takeaways from the first half of the year. First, our revenue continued to grow by 3.5% to EUR 133.4 million. Second, we delivered again a strong net profit, which increased by 93.6% to EUR 14 million. Third, impairment losses on loans decreased by over 18.6% year-on-year. And fourth, we increased our stake in Lea Bank to a total stake of 24.99%. And fifth, we are further streamlining and simplifying our structures, and we are reducing the number of legal entities by 1/3 during the year 2025. Okay. We can go to the next page. I would like to recap briefly who we are, where we come from and more importantly, where we are going on our way. We were founded in Finland in 2005, our registered cities in Switzerland. We operate with a full EU-wide banking license, and we are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the prime standard. During our 20-year journey, we have built a solid track record as a profitable global fintech company, delivering an outstanding and fully digital customer experience focused on serving customers often overlooked by traditional banks. Next page. Since the beginning of our company, we have always strived to build and offer services to customers who are overlooked by traditional banks. Our vision is to build the most valuable financial platform for them. We believe this can be achieved by offering an amazing customer experience that's digital, fast, easy and a green choice. We have built our fintech growth platform to serve as the core with scalable components hosting these business units. The platform currently serves our 3 business units: Consumer Banking with Ferratum brand; Business Banking CapitalBox, which focuses on digital SME banking; and our newest business unit, Wholesale Banking with Multitude Bank brand. Our focus on the platform is to enhance scalability and constantly seek and be ready for new opportunities. Our company has, from the very beginning, aimed to grow profitably and follow ESG principles. We are confident in our business model, which we have proved by delivering our profit targets consistently year after year and also recently increased our profit guidance for year 2025. We are committed to our high dividend payout ratio, a target of between 25% to 50% of annual net profit. From last year's profit, we paid out a total dividend of EUR 0.44 per share being more than 46% of the net profit. Out of this, EUR 0.20 was a base dividend and EUR 0.24 an extraordinary dividend. We are continuing to follow our dream in building a company valued at EUR 1 billion by end of year 2028. Okay. Then we are ready to take a closer look into the performance of Multitude in the first half of 2025, which showed again strong net profit growth and further improved asset quality. We have been able to continue our growth in the market and our work of simplifying and streamlining the operations and company is starting to bear fruit. Revenue grew by 3.5% to EUR 133.4 million, and our net profit increased by an impressive 95.2% to EUR 14.2 million. A major driver was our continued good control of impairment losses, which decreased by 18.6% or almost by EUR 10 million year-on-year. This is thanks to our robust business model and high-performing teams, and we have seen this trend already for a long time. We are still in the process of restructuring and streamlining the company and organization, which might have an impact on some financial metrics going forward. We, for instance, are planning to reduce the number of legal entities in the Multitude Group by 1/3 during this year. Each of our business units are in different life cycle and each one is contributing to these results. Our investment in Lea Bank shares has continued, and our stake has increased to 24.99%, and we are the largest shareholder in Lea Bank. We continue to explore and prepare the strategic cooperation between the companies. Going forward, we have a really clear focus. We are focusing on growing our business through our 3 pillars: organic growth, partnerships and through M&A, further to digitalize and automate our operations with extensive use of AI and data. Maintain high asset quality. We are also focusing on achieving our net profit guidance, which is between EUR 24 million to EUR 26 million in 2025 and EUR 30 million in 2026. Okay. Let's go more deeply now into our business units, and we will start with Consumer Banking, Ferratum. Profitability increased in the first half significantly by 16.5%. Asset quality is still improving, which was a big contributor to the increase in EBT. Revenue was kept roughly at the same level year-on-year. Portfolio in size of net AR kept on growing with more than 9% year-on-year. Mentionable from the product side is the successful rollout of credit cards in the German market. Target for this year 2025 is an EBT growth of 5%, and we are in a good pace for that, as you can see. Focus for Ferratum is on high profit markets, growth through partnerships and M&A opportunities, streamlining of operations, scalability and continuing the increase of automation and extensive usage of data and rolling out AI are, of course, in the core of our activities. Let's turn to our business banking unit, CapitalBox. Revenue growth continued with high single digit and portfolio growth in double-digit numbers in H1. The achievement I want to specifically highlight is the massive improvement in EBT that the team has been able to deliver. Even though CapitalBox was still loss-making in H1, the losses were reduced by whopping 77% or almost EUR 5 million compared to first half of last year. Our target for 2025 is being profitable on a quarterly basis in the second half of the year. Asset quality continued improving, and it led to a decrease in impairments by 38.6% compared to first half of last year. Factoring product was launched both in Finland and the Netherlands with AI-driven solutions running in the core of the processes. Also a big milestone was the successful launch of the secure lending offering for our customers in the Danish market. Focus for CapitalBox going forward is to continue improving profitability without sacrificing growth. Increased use of AI, automation and utilizing data even more than today are the cornerstones of scaling the business and in a profitable way. Target for the full year, like I said, is to deliver double-digit growth and to be profitable on a quarterly basis in the second half. Then finally, our newest business unit, Wholesale Banking, which is growing fast. Growth has been really strong and asset quality remains strong, thanks to carefully selected customers. Revenue growth was almost 86% and net AR grew by over 90% in the first half of the year. We do also see a positive EBT in H1. Payment services are growing the fee-based through revenue side of the business, and we expect more payment institutions to be added as clients during the second half of the year. The team is now focusing on closing the secured debt pipeline, which is really strong. Same goes for the payment services. Focus is also in improving the scalability through further usage of data, AI and automating the processes further whilst keeping the risks in really good control. Target of reaching EBT of EUR 4 million to EUR 5 million for 2025 is intact. Now I'm ready to hand over to Bernd, who will tell you about the financial performance for the first half of the year. All yours, Bernd.

Thank you, Antti. Good morning to you all. Thank you very much for your interest in Multitude's earnings call covering H1 results. I think the first 6 months can be characterized as really convincing as regards to performance, especially when it comes to profitability metrics. These continue to be great. Driving forces behind this excellent development were solid growth dynamics, and we will look into the specifics on a tribe level a little bit later, continued improvement in credit risk management, super important to us. And thirdly, the scalability of the organization. Let's start with P&L and go into more detail. Key message number one that I would like to bring across. We still have robust overall growth dynamics. And we will look into the drivers on a segment level. What I like really a lot about the H1 result in terms of monetization is that for the first time, we have incurred quite meaningful fee income. So EUR 5.4 million H1 this year compared to a little bit more than EUR 20,000 last year. So from a strategic perspective, from a monetization perspective and hopefully, at some point also from a valuation perspective, this is really a very important key message I would like to bring across. Secondly, the actions taken to improve credit risk performance over the last couple of quarters are yielding very strong results. This means that a very positive trend that we have initiated some 1.5 years is being continued. We will also here analyze on a consolidated and on a business unit level, but this is definitely a key message that deserves a lot of attention, minus -- almost minus 20% in credit losses in absolute terms. Message number three, the organization is scalable, and at the same time, we want to invest in growth. So these 2 factors, efficiency on the one hand side and growth on the other determine cost development going forward. Now let's go into more detail on the financial performance metrics and start with revenue. Interest income essentially on the same level as last year, EUR 128 million. And at the same time, as pointed out, a very significant increase in fee income. Fee income plus interest income taken together, EUR 133 million, to be precise, EUR 133.4 million, so an increase by 3.5% compared to last year. The key drivers behind this increase in fee income is twofold. On the one hand side, that's partner business in Consumer Banking and on the other hand side, that's payment business in Wholesale Banking. We'll come to the specific numbers. Both monetization models are 100% in line with our platform approach and with the partnership strategy that we had communicated. Interest expense and net interest income. Interest expense increased compared to H1 level by around about EUR 3 million. This is essentially driven by 2 factors. One, volume has increased quite significantly. And secondly, we have successfully, I would like to add, placed for the first time a meaningful regulatory capital instrument on the level of the bank, Multitude Bank, a EUR 25 million Tier 2 instrument in H1, specifically in Q1. At the same time, we see that we -- gradually, interest expenses are decreasing and weighted average cost of debt funding is going down a little bit, which is offsetting the volume increase. Naturally, we want to push down interest expense also going forward. Compared to H2 '24, we see around about EUR 0.5 million lower interest expenses already. Taking those factors together, it gets us to net interest income of EUR 106.3 million, which compares to EUR 110 million last year, a slight drop. However, if we factor in the pro rata profit share that we now are incurring from our associates, EUR 1 million, around about in H1, we get to net operating income of EUR 110.6 million, a slight increase by EUR 1.4 million compared to last year. This EUR 1 million to establish the bridge to what Antti has just said is mainly driven by Lea Bank. Let me move on to the second key message, credit loss performance, which is and has been one of the top priorities for the full year '24 and for H1 2025. Obviously, this is a very decisive factor behind our profitability boost and credit risk performance has improved very significantly. Credit loss is down in H1 '25 from EUR 52 million to EUR 42 million, EUR 42.4 million, which is a drop by almost EUR 10 million, EUR 9.7 million, or 19% compared to last year. We will go into a little bit more detail on credit losses on a segment level when we discuss segment performance. The third key message that I've put at the beginning is scalability of the organization. We want to balance growth and efficiency. Personnel expenses increasing slightly by 5% to EUR 19.8 million, 2 key drivers. Essentially, we are teaming up. We are adding some resources when it comes to our ability to foster and accelerate growth in the new businesses. And secondly, as performance is really good, a slight increase in accruals for variable compensation. Operational expenses. General and admin expenses for H1 at EUR 19 million, which is EUR 2.5 million above last year. Key drivers are strategic projects, quite a number of initiatives, increasing audit expenses, whether we like it or not, that is just something regulatory complexity, some of them of one-off nature related to relocation to Switzerland. And finally, the key driver behind general and admin expense by a little bit more than 45% is driven by depositor compensation scheme. So this is a function of growth in the end. Depreciation expenses, marketing, other expenses, de facto flat, in fact, slightly below last year's level, some minus EUR 100,000. And overall, as pointed out, our ambition remains to accelerate our efficiency programs and at the same time, invest in future growth. If we move on and take a look at the financial performance in terms of profitability, I'm still on the P&L slide. Taking into consideration all those 3 factors, revenue development, credit loss performance, cost development, this gets us to profit before tax of more than EUR 16 million, EUR 16.3 million, almost doubling compared to last year. H1 '24, EUR 7.9 million, an increase by 94%. With an effective tax rate that remained constant at 13%, this gets us to a net profit of EUR 14.2 million. And again, this is almost doubling compared to last year, plus 95%. So really great, especially as this performance in Q2 confirms and repeats the strong performance and the very high net profit levels that we have seen in Q4 '24, in Q1 '25 and now also in Q2 2025. Let's now move on to balance sheet. I think there are 2 or 3 key messages I want to bring across Cash that is all good, plus EUR 28 million, which has to do with deposit increase and also with the successful placement of the financial instrument on -- regulatory instrument on the level of the bank, plus, of course, cash generated by the business. Loans and investment portfolio in its entirety up EUR 90 million. Other financial assets, may be something that I would like to highlight briefly from EUR 27 million to EUR 50 million. That has to do with strategic partnerships, receivables from portfolio sales and effect of businesses sold as pointed out by Antti. Overall, the ambition is -- has been for this year and will also be for the remainder of the year that we reduce the number of legal entities by 1/3 this year. Finally, talking about the assets, around EUR 20 million investment in associates. This is also a considerably higher level than last year. Key driver here behind this investment number is the investment in Lea Bank, 24.99%. On the next slide, equity and liability, equity up to close to EUR 196 million. In terms of liability, nothing beyond what I've said already. Deposits, main source of funding increased to EUR 927 million, the 2 transactions I've highlighted this already. Let's take a look on the next slide on segment performance. I will start, as always, with Consumer Banking and Ferratum makes it quite easy for me to take a deeper look at their performance. In short, Ferratum has again performed exceptionally well, especially in terms of profitability. Revenue is de facto on the same level as last year, down by EUR 1 million, EUR 1.1 million, that's 1% roughly. But the positive aspect is really that we are generating very meaningful fee income, EUR 4.3 million in the Ferratum business. So really an excellent development and 100% confirmation of, I would say, the appropriateness of the strategy of the Ferratum team. In terms of credit losses, again, and we have a summary slide on the next page, but let's stick on this one for a second. Now for a number of quarters in a row, really strong performance. I've updated you in Q1 that we had an exceptionally low credit loss level of EUR 19.1 million in Q1, which is actually -- or was actually below the already strong Q2 to Q4 performance last year. Now we are even lower by another EUR 2 million, EUR 17 million credit losses in the Ferratum business in Q2, and this gets us for the combined view on H1, minus 18% compared to last year. OpEx very well under control. Profit before tax from already extremely strong EUR 15 million to EUR 17.4 million, so plus another EUR 2.5 million or 16.5% from an already extremely strong level in H1 2024. So in short, very impressive performance. Focus on lean organization, focus on pushing products that incur recurring revenues. These are the -- that's the way forward for the consumer business. Now CapitalBox as the second one, we are quite satisfied with top line development. So revenue increasing by around about 8% to EUR 17.3 million, which is an all-time high on a semiannual basis. Credit losses also deserves, I think, quite positive recognition. As a recap, credit losses were a little bit elevated in 2024, now down by 39% compared to last year. So H1, we are now at EUR 4.9 million credit losses. Last year, we were at EUR 8 million, so almost 40% drop despite the fact that the portfolio now is around about EUR 20 million larger than last year. So this is a great success. Naturally, credit losses will remain a focus area. Cost, the team -- CapitalBox team has done a lot to streamline the organization following the integration of the acquired Danish Omniveta, the factoring business. And following also a number of efficiency initiatives, OpEx is on a lower level than last year despite the fact that the business is growing minus 10% to EUR 9.7 million. So that's really good. And as a consequence of higher revenues, strongly reduced credit losses and lower cost levels, we see still a slight negative, but only EUR 1.5 million negative profit before tax contribution and as pointed out, 77% reduction in losses. The ambition still is for Q2 -- sorry, for Q3 or Q4 to see profit contribution, positive profit contribution on a quarterly level from the CapitalBox business. Wholesale Banking also makes it pretty easy to find quite attractive and positive words. I would say, revenue up to almost EUR 10 million, an increase by EUR 4.5 million, so 2/3, 66%, 65% increase, plus and again, this monetization element is something like a lot, incremental fee income, EUR 1.1 million from newly established payment business. So that's the addition to the EUR 4.3 million fee income incurred by the Ferratum business. Credit loss performance, we have now started building up some reserves. This is why we see some EUR 1.3 million, EUR 1.4 million in H1, but that is more a conservative approach. The businesses are performing well. So that is all very well on track. Cost structure, naturally, as an early-stage business, still personnel expenses and operational expenses are increasing by slightly above 1/3, but at a aggressive rate, and that makes us quite optimistic that the very ambitious target of achieving EUR 4 million -- a little bit more than EUR 4 million profit before tax on a full year basis is something that we can achieve. Let's now take a look at the next 2 slides on credit losses and asset quality. Here, I will not go into too much detail. Maybe you want to focus on the black bars that reflects the continued reduction of credit losses on a tribe level. Going forward, we will also present the Wholesale Banking business here. But the key message is we are continuing to reduce credit losses in all businesses. On the next slide, a slide that you are very familiar with, again, more relevant than a specific number of 2.5% is basically, on the one hand side, the trend. So a clear downward trend, which means credit losses of portfolio size are really decreasing significantly. That, in turn, means that asset quality is improving. And the second statement I would like to make that during this period from 2019, 2020 until '25, we have -- the business has managed to remain extremely resilient throughout a number of external shocks that we had to deal with. Finally, let me take a quick look at funding structure on the next page. As pointed out, the strategy doesn't change. We have 2 principles. One is we want to be quite independent of any single source of funding. This means we will remain on the capital markets. And again, I think it's a great performance by the bank team to be able to issue a Tier 2 instrument independently. That's one. Secondly, main focus in terms of funding the business is also going forward to be deposit. Deposit costs are reducing a little bit. Naturally, this is our main focus also going forward to push costs down. In terms of liquidity risk and funding risk, there is no upcoming repayment over the next year. So from that perspective, we are set to scale the business going forward. With that, back to you, Antti, and to you, Adam, for Q&A.

Yes. Thank you, Bernd. With that, we open for questions. [Operator Instructions] While we wait for any voice questions, perhaps, Bernd, we would like to start with a question to you. In Q2 2025, the interest -- it's a question from Stefan Hirschhofer. Q2, the interest expense were quite high with EUR 11.4 million due to the significantly lower 3 months Euribor, I expected less costs here. Could you give us a rough split how much interest expense are the bonds, long-term deposits from customers and short-term deposits?

Yes, absolutely. And yes, I mean, overall interest expenses are reducing. They are also in absolute numbers below H2 level of last year. And also in terms of composition of the cost, I would make -- want to make 1 or 2 statements. First of all, composition of the cost structure. Now if you look at H1 in its entirety, this is a little bit more than EUR 21 million. The bulk of that is deposits. So EUR 15.5 million roughly is related to deposits, which is an increase of around about EUR 1.5 million compared to last year. At the same time, the volumes have increased significantly. So we actually see already from a relative price reduction of deposits by around about 38, 39 basis points compared to last year, a positive cost reduction effect of EUR 1.7 million. But again, in absolute terms, EUR 15.5 million roughly out of this EUR 21 million are related to deposits. Secondly, we have around about EUR 4 million related to the senior instrument on holdco level. That's the EUR 80 million instrument that we have issued in order to replace the instrument expiring in '25. And then new, this is also one of the drivers in H1 this year is costs related to the Tier 2 instrument on the level of the bank, a little bit more than EUR 1 million in the first half. But again, this is a prerequisite in order to enable our growth. We're currently at 23% capital ratio on the level of the bank. So this is actually going to support future growth. And yes, if I may continue, what is your expectation for the next quarters regarding the development of interest expenses? Well, I mean, we have these 2 drivers that we need to factor in as deposit is going to remain the main source of growth also going forward. We expect interest rate levels to go down. We have to factor in that those term deposits that we needed to take on board over the last 1.5, 2 years, 24 months, 36 months, is a gradual effect. So we will see a reduction, but it will not be a jump, but rather a gradual effect. This is something that actually I don't know whether it's a good point in time to make reference to that. But just today, we are going to revisit our interest rate deposits and might well result in a reduction for new deposits that we take in. So a gradual reduction and naturally, our ambition is to push as much as we can. And ideally, at some point, also supplement the reduction by taking in products that enable us to take in less price sensitive or interest rate-sensitive clients. Then the next one, if I may continue, Stefan Hirschhofer, an accounting question. The dividend of Lea Bank is not recognized in the P&L. Is this only a cash effect? What is -- why is that so? Can you please explain? Why is that so is a very good question. This is basically the logic of IFRS in that respect. But there is an element of logic. So what is actually happening is that the pro rata profit of an associate is reflected in our P&L. So this will be around about EUR 2 million this year. And this is why the dividend payment is not again reflected in the P&L. Otherwise, it would be double counted. What is actually happening is that the dividend payment economically is to be seen as a cash repayment that reduces the amount invested. In the particular case of Lea Bank, this means that we have invested some EUR 23 million, EUR 24 million, around about, and we get back EUR 4 million cash. This means that the investment -- the carrying amount of the investment is reduced by EUR 4 million. It's obviously fully cash effective. So we have 2 effects. One is pro rata profit from the net profit generated by Lea Bank and the positive cash impact from the dividend.

Then we have a question -- questions still from Stefan Hirschhofer. I will combine a few one here. There are questions about, are you confident to reach the target for CapitalBox business in whole year 2025 and the both quarters were negative in profits. What will you do to change this in second half? If I take this one, we can see that we have massively decreased the losses, and we are almost at the breakeven level in CapitalBox. There is not like a one magic silver bullet. We are continuing the same work of reducing the impairments while at the same time growing in pretty high numbers. The team is making the processes much more solid at the moment, much more effective. We have started factoring business in a few countries, which you don't see yet in the numbers since it takes time to grow the portfolio. You can see some of it in the numbers. But obviously, the portfolio growth needs to first be there in order to generate the income. So on CapitalBox side, having the second half on quarterly level basis profitable, those are the measurements to go forward. And a bit on the same note, there's a question from Petter Irblad, the same question on the CapitalBox, but then also on the Wholesale Banking positive EBT on how can we go to the -- between EUR 4 million and EUR 5 million in Wholesale Banking that hard time to reconcile that. There are a couple of dynamic things that we believe that we are going to for -- between EUR 4 million and EUR 5 million. First aspect is the payment business. We have now signed customers earlier this year. And before we can really grow up the volumes, you can already see a significant fee income. Before we can grow up the volumes, you have to test, you have to monitor, you have to build up the business. And it takes a bit time before the big volumes come in. And now we already see the fee income and it will continue. The same dynamics goes for the portfolios that we have in Wholesale Banking. You first grow the portfolio, you have to take reservings in the beginning. And after that, the interest starts picking. So now the portfolios and the net AR have been growing quite well this year. So we expect the EUR 4 million to EUR 5 million EBT to be reached. And also, like Bernd already said, we have invested in personnel, especially now in Wholesale Banking unit, growing up the team in the beginning of the year. The team is now in place. We don't expect that we are growing the team there massively. Now it's time to scale up, which the team is ready to do.

Yes. Maybe I will continue with another question raised by Stefan Hirschhofer and maybe then we move on to other participants. There was a question related to balance sheet position. Can you please explain the balance sheet position. Other financial assets with EUR 50.6 million in Q2. What are the main drivers for the increase? Yes, the increase, to put it into perspective, last year, the position was -- or end of year, I should say, was EUR 27 million. Now it's EUR 50 million. So the delta is EUR 23 million. There are basically 3 factors behind that. One is portfolio sales, so receivables from portfolio sales. The second one is a strategic partnership in the consumer banking business. And the third one is related to the reduction of number of legal entities and entities that have been sold. There are 2 components, again, within this total amount of around about EUR 10 million, a little bit less than EUR 10 million related to portfolio -- sorry, entity transactions that is cash receivable that, by the way, meanwhile, has been settled in full. So it's no longer on the balance sheet as per today. And the other one is the capitalized expected cash flow from an earn-out model related to entities. And then maybe one more. Nature of fee and commission income, newly introduced fees and what are the growth plans? Should I continue? Or do you want to?

You can continue if you want to. Yes.

Yes. Okay. In total, it's EUR 5.4 million. And the absolute comparative number from last year is EUR 21,000. So this is really something, game changer is a big word, but it is really strategically meaningful and a reflection of, in my view, at least the appropriateness of the strategy of both businesses. So that's the consumer business on the one hand side and also the wholesale banking business. Now what is it in detail? EUR 1.1 million out of that relates to Wholesale Banking, more specifically payment-related fees. I think Antti has outlined the strategy in one of the previous meetings. The idea was to capitalize on what we have developed, the payment infrastructure, the ability to provide payment services in a number of technical manners, but also a number of currencies to external partners. This is what is happening, and this is generating EUR 1.1 million in the first half. And the second one in the consumer business, that is a strategic partnership with a client in Poland, generating around about EUR 4 million and then there is a residual -- EUR 3.7 million. And then we have a residual element related to platform related to the sold entities. We are still providing services that accounts for EUR 600,000 around about. And yes, all of those 3 revenue sources are meant to stay. So obviously, it's not a guarantee and not a promise, but it's not a one-off.

Good. Then we have one on the -- on Stefan Hirschhofer on the interest expense, if you take that, Bernd, also.

Yes. I think I've covered it already. The question is EUR 801 million deposit expenses in Q2 compared to EUR 927 million is 3.5%. Is that correct? Yes, that is essentially correct. We are -- and as pointed out, currently, we are paying for around about 2.5% to 3% for new deposits. That is already 100 to 150 basis points lower for new deposits than last year. And as also pointed out, maybe not something that -- I mean, this is an idea, it's not an announcement at this stage. It's not unlikely that for new deposits, these rates will drop further, but we just need to factor in that this is a gradual process of melting down of interest expenses.

Then we have a question from Jonathan Kogan. Growth seems to be slowing. How do you plan to accelerate momentum while keeping impairments under control? Wholesale is showing nice growth, but also higher impairments. What should we expect going forward? Well, we should expect going forward to deliver the guidance to start with. And what we can see now, for instance, on consumer side, what already Bernd was explaining that we have a meaningful fee income coming compared to last year, and that is a strategic choice we have made. So it takes time to build that business up, but we see a big growth momentum. There are also a few other factors. One is I already mentioned the German credit card business, which is now taking well off. We have to remember that it starts from almost 0 when we have 0 credit cards and you start building that up. The sales is now on a really good level. The previous business we have had there on the microlending side, we don't have that. We have changed completely to credit cards now. So that's also a business line that we expect a growth in the future, just to name a few ones. Wholesale, yes, showing a nice growth. And like I expect the higher impairments, we have to reserve already in advance for possible impairments, which we don't have any at the moment. So we can expect going forward, especially now this guidance and keep the growth going forward.

Good. I believe we have an audio question from Julius at NuWays.

Very silent audio question.

Can you hear us?

Yes, we can.

This is Roni Peuranheimo from Inderes. So maybe about the guidance still, it seems somewhat cautious for H2. So should we expect any additional cost inflations coming in H2? Or what can you tell about the impairment loss trend for the rest of the year?

Bernd, do you want to take this one or...

Yes. Yes, I can. I mean I think the -- what you're probably doing is you're extrapolating EUR 14 million net profit to the full year, which gets you to EUR 28 million compared to EUR 24 million to EUR 26 million already improved guidance. Now I think there are 3 factors. One, what we are interested in is really developing a mid- to long-term clear path of profitable growth. This was the rationale behind the full year of EBIT guidance is the rationale behind this EUR 25 million to meet in the middle guidance for this year and the EUR 30 million next year. I don't think that there is any particular expectation that we have to see a deterioration in credit losses. That is not the message. But at the same time, we don't want to think it's appropriate to adjust guidance metrics each and every earnings call. We might look at that later, but again, it's not a promise. Secondly, growth is an ambition. Investment in growth can come at the cost. So for instance, we want to make sure that even if we were to engage into new initiatives, also acquisitions, for instance, that come at the cost, we wouldn't have to carve that out from a guidance, but really make sure that we have room to move. And this is how we look at the business going forward. And so I still think it's ambitious and realistic, and let's speak in a couple of months on how we look at the full year. But I think the key message is we are definitely comfortable that we will achieve -- comfortably achieve the '25 guidance.

Okay. Maybe next question from Frederik Jarchow at NuWays. Can you elaborate a bit on the Lea Bank stake? So first, do you plan to increase the stake further? And second one, yes, can you reiterate maybe the rationales behind the acquisition and elaborate a bit on current and future cooperations that you see with Lea Bank?

Yes, if I may take this one. We are happy with the stake we are at the moment. Of course, I cannot comment on any further future possible sales or purchases. We are happy where we are at the moment. We see Lea Bank from 2 different angles. First of all, as a financial investment, it's already been really good investment. We are happy with that part. But that's not the only reason we invested in Lea Bank. We see strategic importance in Lea. And we do see that the segments that Multitude is operating in and Lea is operating in are not overlapping. So Lea Bank is giving out more higher ticket in size consumer loans with a bit lower yield. We are not in that business segment than Lea Bank is, and we are really well working on different segments in parallel. And we can see that there are still possibilities on product cooperation, on cross-selling. People have different needs for different loans. Lea is really good in what they are doing in that segment. We are really good in our own segment, and we are trying to find partnership models, synergies on cross-sells referencing, et cetera. There are also other opportunities. But for now, we are really happy with the investment in Lea, really good financial performance. The bank is really well run. We are happy to be the largest shareholder of Lea Bank.