Chronicle

The Baader story began on 1 July 1983 when Mr Uto Baader obtained his stock broker licence to manage the order books of only three North American shares; American Telephone & Telegraph, Communications Satellite Corp. and Westinghouse Electric.

The company quickly prospered driven by Uto Baader who, at the time, was a successful pioneer in a niche that was still underdeveloped in the German stock exchanges: the foreign share market. This original approach of tracking potential growth fields in good time and ensuring they develop into a veritable market was to ultimately become the company's guiding principle.

The Baader story began on 1 July 1983 when Mr Uto Baader obtained his stock broker licence to manage the order books of only three North American shares; American Telephone & Telegraph, Communications Satellite Corp. and Westinghouse Electric.

The company quickly prospered driven by Uto Baader who, at the time, was a successful pioneer in a niche that was still underdeveloped in the German stock exchanges: the foreign share market. This original approach of tracking potential growth fields in good time and ensuring they develop into a veritable market was to ultimately become the company's guiding principle.

By providing DB-Soft AG with issuing services, Baader expanded its business activity beyond order-book management for the first time in 1993. As a result, this would later lead to its own area of business specialising in providing support for IPOs, public offerings, placements, capital measures, takeover bids and squeeze outs for medium-sized companies.

The acquisition of the stock-market listed Ballmaier & Schultz Wertpapier AG and the merger that took place two years later resulted in Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank AG. As a result, Baader was not just included on the Frankfurt trading floor, but rose up the ranks to become the leading brokerage companies in Germany. At the same time, 150 million Deutsche Mark of liable equity became the basis for further growth and the Company's current financial strength.

The broad positioning achieved from its increased financial strength did not just benefit the company during the market boom at the turn of the millennium, when Baader achieved its best result to date. In the following years where stocks markets declined, the company was equipped with a capital buffer large enough to be able to take over a whole range of competitors and consequently boost its overall market position.

By purchasing Eckes Effektenhandel AG, Baader entered the institutional brokerage market. Baader gained a foothold in bond trading for the first time after taking over Meyenkoth & Co. Wertpapierhandelsgesellschaft mbH, Berlin.

However, Baader also revised a  decision that turned out to be less fortunate. The investment division that began in 1999 was closed two years later. The existing portfolio will continue to appreciate in value and be realised in the medium-term. Furthermore, a subsidiary purchased in 1996 in Prague was sold six years later to a Czech investor.

Theturning point for Baader Bank. The company that previously had its headquarters in Munich invested 30 million euros  in a new building and state-of-the-art information technology,moving to Unterschleißheim just beyond Munich's city gates. From there, Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank was directly wired to the stock exchanges in Munich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. With its excellent transportation and IT infrastructure, but also the close proximity to the financial centre of Munich, Unterschleißheim offers the best location for Baader Bank.

With its investment in Heins & Seitz Capital Management GmbH, Munich, the Company strengthened its concentration on the core areas of securities trading, brokerage and issuer support.

The acquisition of Spütz Börsenservice GmbH, Frankfurt meant a clear expansion of order-book management for derivatives.

Following the acquisition of Sobota, Maier & Stopp Wertpapierhandels GmbH, bond trading continued to expand on the Munich stock exchange.

By taking over Jörg D. Reuter Wertpapierhandels GmbH, Baader also made progress in order book management for derivative products in order to become a market leader in Frankfurt. In the meantime, four out of five orders were made via the books of Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank (securities trading bank) in the local derivatives exchange, Scoach. It continued to strengthen its order book management in
German shares by means of additional takeovers in Frankfurt.

Baader Service Bank GmbH arose from Vollbank CK Trading Bank GmbH, Frankfurt, which was taken over in 2004. In this area, Baader combines tailor made solutions for global trading in large stock and futures markets for investment managers and institutional clients as well as professional futures traders. In addition, the range of services in management and support includes the conception, planning and structuring of single hedge funds and fund-of-fund hedge funds, public funds, certificates and managed accounts. As part of this range, Baader acts as an execution broker, investment manager and account and custodian bank. Baader Service Bank's role is to provide a highly-specialised service and offer individual solutions in securities trading in the financial sector.

 With the investment in Conservative Concept Portfolio Management AG (CCPM), Bad Homburg, a highly-specialised provider of absolute return products was added to the Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank Group. The core skills of CCPM lie in the management of client funds in option strategies that offer the client an additional benefit with regard to diversification and independence in addition to an absolute return in almost every market environment.

Deutschen Börsenmakler GmbH (DBM), Frankfurt, was taken over at the start of 2008. With this strategic step, the company expanded its portfolio in traded securities classes by the addition of the exchange traded funds growth market and, at the same time, rising to become the largest order book manager in this area.

31 July 2008 became a new milestone for the Bank. On this day, Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank AG became Vollbank Baader Bank AG. Both the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and the compensation scheme of German banks granted the corresponding requests from Baader. For founder Uto Baader, obtaining a full banking licence was “compelling proof of trust in the capabilities of the establishment”. In October, the establishment finally acceded the Federal Association of German Banks (BdB) and at the same time became a member of the BdB's deposit protection fund. Baader Bank was previously accepted as a member of the Bavarian Banking Association.

With the merger of the full-service bank subsidiary Baader Service Bank GmbH into the parent company, the Group accelerated the expansion of the banking business.

This strategy can personally be seen with the appointment of Nico Baader to the Board of Directors. The son of the company's founder assumed responsibility for all trading-related bank services. These services include commission business in securities and other financial products such as futures and options, deposits/lending business, custody business and financial portfolio management. This is in addition to the business area of “capital market services” where Baader Bank acts as a guide for initial public offerings (IPOs), capital increases, flotations and other capital market transactions.

As of 31 March 2010, the price of Baader shares was no longer fixed on the regulated market but in the m:access market segment within the over-the-counter market of the Munich Stock Exchange. In addition to Munich, the shares also continued to be traded over-the-counter in all German stock exchanges.

Due to its publicity and transparency requirements, the Executive Board is convinced that the market segment m:access is a fully functioning, attractive market whose protective mechanisms come extremely close to those of a regulated market and that ensure the marketability of the shares. The trading focus on m:access leads to liquidity pooling and to an improvement of the appreciation of Baader shares at reduced, reasonable costs.

Baader Bank began its activities in off-market securities trading, which gradually expanded. As a result, as a market maker the establishment provides the clients of maxblue, the online broker of Deutsche Bank, the S broker, the central online broker with the cooperation of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, DAB Bank (only for funds) and Targobank (since 2011) with the buying and selling rates of German, European, US and Asian shares. Later on, the range of tradable securities was expanded by investment funds, ETFs and bonds.

With the takeover of Joachim Grützner Börsenmakler GmbH, who specialised in foreign shares, Baader Bank continues to build on its leading position in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Due to increasing demand from institutional clients such as pension funds, asset managers and insurance companies, Baader Bank accelerated its role as market maker for index funds (exchange traded funds/ETFs). The establishment therefore obtains ETF shares from issuers in exchange for the provision of index securities and is an independent, neutral broker that can pursue market making across the entire product range. Baader Bank quickly found itself in the position of providing tradable bid and ask prices (“quotes”) for all off-market ETFs permitted for distribution in Germany.

In 2010, Baader Bank was one of the award winners of the “Bavaria’s Best 50” competition. With this prize, the Bavarian economics ministry awarded the most dynamic medium-sized companies in the Free State of Bavaria for the ninth time. Baader Bank’s special growth potential and its above average increase of the number of employees in the past five years were in particular valued.

For the first time in its company history, Baader Bank managed and led a new bond issue for S.A.G Solarstrom AG in November 2010. The issue volume of 25 million euros was fully placed on the market with new investors

Baader Bank bases its business model on a broad foundation. Therefore, as a result of the expansion of investment bank to a second, important mainstay, the bank's focus on order book management was therefore reduced. The basis for this was the bolstering of the capital market services and equities & derivatives areas that have been supported for the first time since 2011 by the Bank's own research division. In order to do so, approximately 40 experienced experts were appointed over the second half of 2010. All of these activities are summarised by Nico Baader is the “clients and products” statement from the Executive Board.

In the same year, Baader Bank became one of the award winners of the quickest growing, employment-creating companies in Europe. This prize is awarded every year by Europe's 500, the association of fast-growing owner-managed companies in Europe. Uto Baader accepted the award at the European Parliament in Brussels from the former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Europe’s 500 awarded the prize this year to a total of 200 companies that were selected and considered with help from Dun & Bradstreet, the global market leader of economic information, from over 2,000 companies. Among 36 companies from Germany to receive the award, Baader Bank came in in 118th place across Europe.

With the exception of the Xetra specialist model, Baader Bank acquired the 120 order books and the order-book management companies Bid & Ask Financial Services mbH (Nuremberg), Hordoff GmbH (Frankfurt) and Mercurius Handelsbank GmbH (Frankfurt) on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on 23 May. These acquisitions continued to increase its market share in Frankfurt.

Activities in institutional client transactions in the Austrian market were expanded. In addition, Baader Bank increased its research in Austrian shares with the focus on property companies and industrial stocks. “As a specialist investment bank in the German-speaking region, expanding our provision of support for institutional investors to Austrian shares is an important strategic step,” said Nico Baader who is responsible for investment banking on the Executive Board.

In August 2013, Baader Bank took over the largest independent Swiss stock broker, Helvea. This takeover changed the company and its market position considerably improving the distribution network for institutional clients.. Baader Bank now has access to the most important financial centres in Switzerland, the UK and North America thanks to its new locations in Geneva, Zurich, London, Montreal and New York.
Furthermore, experienced distribution and trading units were brought together both for shares and for derivatives. Baader Helvea is now a broker with a clear focus on the most promising economic countries in Europe, the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). Baader Helvea Equity Research now includes over 200 companies. Thanks to Helvea’s corporate contacts, the bank now also offers corporate finance solutions in Switzerland. The integration was fully concluded in the fourth quarter of 2014.

In July 2015, the founder and owner Uto Baader handed over management of Baader Bank to his son. In addition to his duties, Nico Baader is responsible as Chairman of the committee for the business field of market making.

During its strategy meeting, the Board of Directors decided that the bank will be active in future in six equal areas of business. These are: Capital Markets, Multi Asset Brokerage, Market Making, Asset Management Services, Banking Service and Research. They are continuously developed further with the aim of becoming a much more diversified bank and navigating from trading to more calculable results.

The new Baader Bank is being developed according to the motto "Ready for the Future". With an in-depth strategy review and a fundamental adjustment of the overall bank and business division strategies, Baader Bank is thus preparing for its future. The importance of Baader Bank's account and cooperation business, which it offers primarily to neo-brokers and online asset managers, is steadily increasing. The number of Baader Bank's customers and securities accounts is growing accordingly. The Group structure is being consolidated with the disposal of strategically irrelevant units. For the business segments, the market and sales strategies will be developed from scratch in a potential-oriented manner and the product and service universe will be updated.

At the end of the fiscal year, which was one of Baader Bank's most successful years, the number of securities accounts exceeded the 100,000 mark. The course is also set for growth in the other business areas. Record sales characterize securities trading in 2020, and Baader Bank is considered the leading cooperation partner for market making and securities account services for the newly emerging stock market culture in Germany.

With around 250,000 securities accounts, Baader Bank is looking at further exponential growth in its customer business. The positioning as a platform provider in securities trading with a sustainable, profitable and integrated business model underpins further growth beyond 2020, a very successful year for Baader Bank. Balance sheet total exceeds EUR 1.0 billion for the first time.