Simcorp has a fully functioning management team and, with Georg Hetrodt, for the first time a non-Dane as the boss, who has known the company inside and out for 27 years. On 1 April I will take over as chairman of the supervisory board at Simcorp, so business will continue as normal.

We will be looking for a new CEO sooner or later, but we do not have a fixed timetable for this as of now.

No, quite the opposite. After Simcorp had digested the changes, we all realised very quickly that the takeover was a good thing. Underpinned by the positive customer feedback, there was a very positive mood from the beginning, which continues to this day. The rapid and successful integration of Axioma has also helped us to concentrate fully on our business. The number of doors that the integration into the Deutsche Börse Group has opened for us has even exceeded my expectations. In this business, size does matter – and our direct competitors are very, very large.

We typically compare ourselves with State Street and Blackrock, as they have applications via Charles River and Aladdin respectively, that are comparable to what we map via Simcorp One. We have more competitors, but those two are the largest. At the same time, State Street and Blackrock are also partners.

For example, State Street handles fund accounting through Simcorp. Blackrock is a very close partner of the Deutsche Börse Group. The collaboration extends over several levels.

Axioma, together with the Stoxx index business, formed the „Qontigo“ unit, in which General Atlantic had a stake of around 19%. When Deutsche Börse took over Simcorp, Quontigo was split into a software unit (Simcorp and Axioma) and a data unit (ISS Stoxx). General Atlantic went into the data unit with the index business, so that Simcorp including Axioma is now 100% owned by Deutsche Börse.

Yes.

Yes.

That is General Atlantic's decision.

We have already communicated that we are examining all options. No decision has been made yet. This also depends on our partner and the market environment. I would like to emphasize again that we are only talking about the ISS Stoxx index and data business, not about Simcorp and Axioma.

We are in the process.

To do this, you first have to understand both customer groups. Let's start with Simcorp. Without Axioma that is around 300 customers – all large institutional asset managers, i.e. asset owners, sovereign wealth funds and central banks.

We address between 1,800 and 1,900 such customers worldwide. Around 750 of them are in the USA, another 750 in Europe, and the rest are in the Asia-Pacific region. Simcorp currently has 75 customers in America, and most of our customers come from Europe. In Germany, these include large asset managers such as Meag, but also Sparkassen-IT, through which 400 savings banks use Simcorp.

Axioma also targets large institutional asset managers with its risk software but also addresses hedge funds and asset managers. Axioma currently has around 500 customers, mostly in the USA. The up-and-cross-selling is almost self-explanatory: You take Simcorp's heavily European customer list, which has hardly any overlap with Axioma, and address the around 250 customers. Conversely, we can use Axioma's US customers as an entry point for Simcorp – although this is admittedly the harder pitch.

Yes, definitely. For example, we are currently investigating interesting interfaces between Simcorp and Clearstream and also in the area of ​​trading and clearing. The currency trading platform 360T is already integrated into Simcorp. This is a first step towards a real platform solution.

One issue that is currently very important to our customers is the growth in alternative asset classes, where the fees are significantly higher than with liquid capital market products. Around 70 of the 300 Simcorp customers are currently already invested in alternative asset classes such as private equity or private credit. Whether our growth in the area of ​​alternatives is organic or inorganic is not important at this point. Around ten years ago there was also a major M&A opportunity in the area of ​​alternatives, but Simcorp ultimately decided against it.

We decided to build up the business organically and are also relying heavily on partnerships in the area of ​​alternatives. In this way, we were able to build up our offering in this area independently and offer a full IBOR (Investment Book of Records). We have done a lot at Simcorp over the past five years to build an ecosystem with around 130 technology providers – many of them in the alternatives sector.

Private equity investments entail a lot of manual work. So we found a partner in Alkymi that can automatically read term sheets using artificial intelligence.

As I said, we work very successfully with our partners here, inorganic growth is less important, but of course, we monitor the market very carefully. With the Deutsche Börse Group behind us, however, we always have the financial strength to develop such product solutions ourselves.

Unfortunately, we cannot name all of our customers publicly, but last year, for example, we won important large customers in the key North American market, such as PSP in Canada and TRS in the USA.

We have two goals: Of course, we want to win new customers, especially in the USA. But it is even more important to increase the share of wallet, i.e. the share of spending with our existing customers. Ultimately, the largest part of our financial results comes from existing customers. This is primarily about converting existing customers to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, which so far only a third of all Simcorp customers use.

IMS is a growth segment, so we look at current and long-term market trends. Within the wealth industry, for example, there are some very interesting trends that we need to keep a close eye on. However, we do not yet have any active plans for this.

For example. What distinguishes wealth management from institutional asset management is that it works differently all over the world. In the USA, it is very advisor-driven. In Europe, it is still heavily dependent on traditional banks, and in Asia, things work very differently again.

Alternatives data is indeed becoming more and more important. I can say that as a platform we have to remain neutral and open to always give our customers access to all data providers. Under no circumstances should we force a provider on them.

At Simcorp, we had a three-year plan until 2025. Then we were taken over by Deutsche Börse, whose strategy goes until 2026 and of which we are an important part. What we have to do this year is very simple: we have to deliver. We have to grow in North America, implement the SaaS transformation and roll out what we call business services. Asset managers can not only outsource their IT but also certain back-office activities, such as accounting issues.

I was on the seller's side, not the buyer, at the time. So I am happy to pass the pressure on to whoever made the purchase decision at the time. (laughs) As an analyst, I would say that Simcorp is a long-term industry bet by Deutsche Börse. We see it primarily as a good response to industry trends and customer needs. However, the development of our share price shows that diversification into growth areas is increasingly being rewarded. But: We have to deliver now and ensure that we grow and gain market share. This task is very exciting for me.