Peers
Concerning its peers, we consider Viel & CIE (Tradition’s main shareholder) as Swissquote’s closest peer (in our coverage). Euronext, Deutsche Boerse and the LSEG are also reasonable proxies of the Swiss Fintech as they are more and more tech-focused and remain dependent on trading volumes. Asset managers Amundi and DWS are dependent as well on the financial markets. As Swissquote is in theory a bank, we find it right to compare it to Swiss banks UBS and Julius Baer which are also mainly dependent on fees (wealth management).
We apply a 50% discount on the yield-based valuation as, contrary to all its peers apart from the market venues, Swissquote prefers investing rather than paying out dividends (in line with its DNA as a fintech company).
DCF
The DCF is based on a computed 10-year revenue and EBITDA growth of 3% to factor in the higher growth of fintech banks compared to traditional ones.