Adjustment of the earnings forecast for the 2024 financial year

Hamburg, 08/07/2025 – As part of a detailed internal analysis commissioned by the new Management Board of Varengold Bank AG, the bank has dealt extensively with receivables and liabilities to customers for whom blocked accounts have been maintained since 2016 and against which the Danish tax agency SKAT has issued seizures in whole or in part. In the 2023 financial year, the first securities positions were released and handed over to SKAT for the customers concerned. It is to be assumed that further asset and account positions will gradually be distributed by the Danish tax authorities once the seizures and payment demands have been released. The removal of the corresponding customer assets recognised as liabilities on the balance sheet generally has no impact on the Bank's net assets.

However, the bank has identified outstanding receivables and negative account balances in the affected portfolios whose recoverability is currently uncertain. In the annual financial statements since 2016, assumptions were made that provided a sufficient basis for the recoverability of the receivables.

The detailed internal analysis of the portfolios has shown that the assumptions regarding the recoverability of receivables amounting to around EUR 2 million are questionable. Notwithstanding ongoing internal investigations, the bank has taken a conservative and precautionary approach and written down the receivables in question from customers in full.

This has resulted in a further adjustment to the earnings forecast for the 2024 financial year: after taking the impairment charges into account, the forecast earnings before taxes for the 2024 financial year amount to approximately TEUR 130.

At the same time, the bank received the report from the special auditor conducted in accordance with Section 44 of the German Banking Act (KWG) focusing on taxes/CumEx. The bank has thoroughly reviewed the material conclusions of the experts and consistently reflected these in the risk provisioning requirements in the annual financial statements for 2024. The bank has thus ensured that the risks arising from these matters that are currently identifiable have been fully reflected in Varengold Bank's balance sheet on the basis of the special auditor's findings. The resulting effects have already been taken into account in the above-mentioned earnings forecast.
 

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Note

This announcement does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Varengold Bank AG in the United States of America, Germany or any other jurisdiction. This announcement does not constitute a recommendation regarding the placement of the securities described in this announcement.

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