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Cortal in 2000 : strong growth of activity and acceleration of development

Published On 08.03.2001
Net banking income increased 32 % in relation to 1999 to reach 131 million euros. Pre-tax and pre-marketing investment income rose 38 %, reaching 48.6 million euros. After taxes and marketing expenses, the yield on stockholders' equity reached 18 % in 2000.

At 131 million euros, Cortal recorded a 32 % increase in its net banking income in 2000 as compared with + 24 % in 1999. This reflects an advance in activity on Cortal's two lines of products: mutual funds and direct access to stock market investments.
Given a market environment that became less buoyant during the year, net banking income reached 61 million euros during the second half of 2000 as compared with 70 million euros during the first half.
The sensitivity of Cortal's revenues to market activity is tempered, however, by the structure of the activity: the 7.8 billion euros in assets managed at the end of 2000, including 6.1 billion in mutual funds, life insurance and short-term products and the Business-to-Business activity, generated more than half of the revenues in 2000, as in 1999.

At the same time, investments devoted to the acquisition of new customers reached 33.4 million euros, or more than 2.5 times the amount invested for this purpose in 1999 (12.6 million euros). These investments enable Cortal to maintain its leadership in France while at the same time accelerating its development in Belgium (25,000 customers at the end of 2000), in Spain (setting-up of a new banking branch at the end of 2000) and in Italy (acquisition of SIM J.D. Farrods at the end of 2000 and setting-up of a branch in early 2001). The number of customers managed by Cortal came to 607,000 at the end of 2000 (including 393,000 direct customers) as compared with 473,000 at the end of the previous year (including 330,000 direct customers).
IT expenditures linked to operation and to the implementation of new projects (GED-Workflow, European development, increase in processing capacities) rose 37 %, reaching 17.1 million euros in 2000.

Before taxes and marketing investments, consolidated income reached 48.6 million euros in 2000 and showed an increase of 38 % over 1999 (35.3 million euros).
Even after these marketing investments and taxes, Cortal showed a positive net income in 2000: net consolidated income came to 8.1 million euros in 2000 as compared with 12.2 million euros in 1999. This result represents a net yield on stockholders' equity of 18 %.

The mission of Cortal is to help European individuals build and manage their savings. Customers are given access to services covering all mutual funds and main stock markets.