MLP Posts 43% EBIT Jump to €87.1 Million, Reaffirms 2026 Forecast

MLP grew earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT, a core profitability measure) by 43% to €87.1 million in the first nine months of 2026, on revenue up 12% year over year at €863 million. Chief Financial Officer Reinhard Loose delivered the figures on the company's earnings call, and the German financial services group reaffirmed a full-year forecast it had raised just weeks earlier.

Third-quarter EBIT climbed to €26.7 million from €18.3 million a year earlier. That's a 46% jump in a single quarter — and it came almost entirely from businesses MLP already runs, not one-offs.

What drove the earnings acceleration?

The wealth business led. Its revenue rose 16% to €431 million over nine months, the strongest growth among MLP's main units. Loose credited three drivers: higher performance-based compensation, growth in assets under management, and the interest-rate business.

Assets under management hit €70.1 billion at September 30, up from €65.9 billion at the end of 2025. Loose noted that performance-based compensation at FERI, MLP's investment arm, accrues for positive investment performance and is largely recognized in results.

The insurance side held up too:

• Property and casualty revenue rose 11% to €197 million, helped by non-life business with corporate and private clients.
• Non-life insurance premium volume reached €870 million, up from €809 million at end-2025.
• Life and health revenue was roughly flat at €199 million.

Loose said demand for private health insurance ran relatively high and grew somewhat more than expected at the start of the year. A third-quarter revenue decline in industrial lines brokerage looked like a quarterly effect, he said, with MLP still expecting growth in that business for both 2026 and 2027.

In short: wealth and non-life insurance carried the nine months, and management sees the soft spot as temporary.

Why did MLP reaffirm its forecast?

The company confirmed 2026 EBIT guidance of €110 million to €120 million — a range it raised by €10 million in early October. That number doesn't include any additional fourth-quarter performance fees. Asked what those fees could add under current market conditions, Loose said a low single-digit million-euro amount was possible, though market volatility could change the outcome.

The 2028 plan also stands. MLP reaffirmed:

• EBIT of €140 million to €155 million.
• Revenue of €1.3 billion to €1.4 billion.
• Assets under management of €75 billion to €81 billion.
• Non-life premium volume of €1 billion to €1.1 billion.

The plan includes only a limited contribution from performance-based compensation.

One wildcard: the Altersvorsorgedepot, Germany's new private pension product, launches January 1, 2027. Loose said the original 2028 plan, issued in early 2025, didn't account for it. It's too early to adjust, he said, but MLP will revisit the plan in 2027 once it has real experience with the product. He called the potential contribution more positive than negative for the 2028 outlook.

Customer interest is rising, though Loose said fourth-quarter cross-selling effects remain limited so far. The standard banking solution carries a 20-basis-point charge, plus internal costs depending on the exchange-traded fund included. MLP also holds roughly 170,000 Riester contracts representing about €3.6 billion — a figure Loose corrected from an earlier number given on the call.

Who runs the company after 2027?

CEO Uwe Schroeder-Wildberg will leave the role when his contract expires at the end of 2027, after more than two decades in charge. Jan Berg takes over January 1, 2028; he currently holds executive roles at MLP Finanzberatung, MLP SE and MLP Banking.

Schroeder-Wildberg said he would retain full responsibility as CEO through the end of 2027 and will stand for election to the supervisory board in 2028 at the request of several major shareholders.

A record nine months, a raised forecast held firm — and a planned handover rather than a surprise exit.