One of the team of founders of Leonteq in 2007 and CEO for the past five years, Lukas Ruflin is to stand down. He is going as the business has swung back from the red a year ago to chalk up a profit.

Zurich-listed Leonteq, a structured products and insurance products firm, said this week that Lukas Ruflin, one of its founders, and its CEO, has decided to step down once a successor has been named. 

Ruflin’s announcement came on the same day that the business swung back into a net profit of SFr15.7 million ($17.8 million) in the first half of 2024, versus a loss of SFr8.2 million.

Leonteq’s board of directors proposes to elect Ruflin to the board at the firm’s AGM in 2025. The board’s chair will decide on how to search for a new CEO, it said.

Ruflin was one of the co-founders of Leonteq in 2007 and remains the company’s second largest shareholder. He served on Leonteq’s board of directors from 2009 and was vice-chairman from 2015 to 2018. In 2018, he agreed to the board of directors’ request to take on the CEO role for about five years.

Recent figures have been challenging, although Leonteq numbers are improving. 

Net fee income rose 32 cent year-on-year, to SFr117.9 million; it said net trading continued to “normalise,” at SFr11.2 million, but was still below SFr18.8 million a year earlier.

The business said it logged a record number of 23,946 products issued (+30 per cent on a year ago), and a record number of 146,409 client transactions processed on the platform (+48 per cent).

Cost control measures are bearing fruit, it said. 

As stated in its 2023 results, Leonteq has made its cost structure more flexible to respond to market conditions changing, tightening up on new hires and replacements and using “natural fluctuation” to cut the payroll to 573 full-time employees (FTEs) at end-June 2024 (versus 591 FTEs at end-2023). 

The firm said it has cut the scope of other initiatives, which it expects will reduce the number of FTEs and contractors. Leonteq said its total operating costs are expected to have a run rate basis of around SFr110 million for the first half of 2025, down from SFr120.5 million reported for the first half of 2024.

Leonteq has pushed forward its retail flow business initiative – its single biggest investment in recent years. The firm took a 10 per cent stake in BX Swiss from Boerse Stuttgart Group in December 2023. It has moved gradually to assume the role of exclusive market maker for equity securities and ETFs on BX Swiss from April 2024. 

“Turnover recorded on the exchange in the second quarter of 2024 has almost doubled compared to the prior-year quarter. As part of its retail flow business initiative, Leonteq also expects to launch leverage products in Switzerland during the second half of 2024,” it said.

Positioned
“Despite recent challenges and disappointing share price performance, Leonteq is very well positioned as the interest outlook improves and markets for structured products are set to recover,” Christopher Chambers, chairman of Leonteq, said. “We welcome that Lukas is willing to continue to support Leonteq as a fellow board member in the future.”

“Since Leonteq’s foundation Lukas has been instrumental in its strategic development, and we are grateful for his operational leadership and what he has achieved. During his tenure, shareholders’ equity has grown to over SFr800 million, and supported by new business initiatives, cumulative profits of over SFr500 million have been generated,” he said. 

Separately, the Swiss firm said that Jasmin Koelbl-Vogt has been made general counsel and member of the executive committee as of 1 October 2024, subject to regulatory approval. She will succeed Ingrid Silveri who will be stepping down from her role by end-September 2024. Koelbl-Vogt started her career working for Clifford Chance and Linklaters in Germany before joining Citigroup Global Markets Europe as GC for Germany, Austria and Northern Europe in 2008. 

The company has offices and subsidiaries in 13 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.