LBBW and Börse Stuttgart digitize the Schuldschein Process: Blockchain is followed by a Digital Marketplace
- New platform DEBTVISION connects companies and investors
- Financing for customers with the same quality, more efficient and significantly lower in price
- BayWa AG is the first customer to market a Schuldschein exclusively via the platform
- DEBTVISION founded as a joint venture of LBBW and Börse Stuttgart Rainer Neske, CEO of LBBW: „As the market leader in the Schuldschein business, we meet all the requirements to operate this marketplace successfully in the long term: a strong customer base, a large investor network, product expertise and technical know-how.“
- Alexander Höptner, Spokesman of the Management Board of the Börse Stuttgart: „Thanks to our expertise in reliable and transparent trading platforms, we are able to optimally map customer needs.“
- Andreas Helber, CFO of BayWa AG: „As an experienced Schuldschein issuer, we are delighted to set a new milestone with digitally based capital market financing. We are thus underpinning our willingness to innovate digitally not only in our core business but also in our corporate functions“.
LBBW and the Börse Stuttgart have founded a digital marketplace for Schuldschein deals under the DEBTVISION brand. Following the successful processing of Schuldschein using blockchain technology, LBBW is now taking a further step toward the complete digitization of the Schuldschein process. In the coming months, the blockchain is to be integrated into the platform and the entire value chain transferred to this innovative technology. The first transaction via the new platform was recently launched: the international trading and services group BayWa AG markets a Schuldschein exclusively via DEBTVISION.
DEBTVISION is a digital marketplace for Schuldschein loans, which brings together capital-seeking companies with top credit ratings directly with institutional investors. In this way, experienced companies can carry out transactions from preparation through marketing to completion themselves, i.e. without a bank as intermediary. Complex, paper-based processes are eliminated.
„We make financing more efficient and less expensive for our customers through digitization,“ says Rainer Neske, CEO of LBBW. The platform passes on the cost advantages to its customers. LBBW as number one in the Schuldschein market and Börse Stuttgart as an experienced platform operator ensure the quality of DEBTVISION. „As the market leader, we meet all the requirements to operate this marketplace successfully in the long term: a strong customer base, a large investor network, product expertise and technical know-how,“ says Rainer Neske. „Digital solutions for Schuldscheine bring companies and investors directly together. Thanks to our expertise in reliable and transparent trading platforms, we are able to optimally map customer needs,“ adds Alexander Höptner, CEO of Börse Stuttgart.
The issuer can manage the complete marketing itself via the intuitive user interface of the web-based platform. At the same time, the issuer always retains full transparency. Once the marketing process is complete, the platform automatically transfers the complete transaction data to LBBW, which is the first lender and paying agent to ensure smooth processing after the transaction is concluded. Via the marketplace, investors have direct access to high-quality Schuldschein transactions, can subscribe electronically and communicate directly with the issuer.
The international trading and services group BayWa, an established market player, is the first customer to use DEBTVISION to market a Schuldschein. Numerous institutional investors – i.e. savings banks, banks, insurance companies and pension funds – are initially connected to the platform. Andreas Helber, CFO of BayWa AG, says: „After numerous classic issues on the capital market, we are now choosing a digital solution for the first time in order to benefit from the efficiency gain. We expect to gain access to a new and innovative financing option“.
Further transactions with well-known Schuldschein companies and the connection of further investors are in preparation for the coming months. Based on the experience gained, the platform will be continuously expanded with additional functionalities. In addition, the integration of blockchain is being prepared. It is planned that DEBTVISION will be open to interested companies and investors throughout the market from late summer. In the future, the marketplace will also enable pure trading in Schuldschein notes, thus creating a transparent and efficient secondary market.
„We are convinced that platform solutions will prevail over traditional business models for many standardizable products in the long term,“ says Rainer Neske, CEO of LBBW. „We want to actively shape this disruptive development with a lean and agile subsidiary.“ LBBW and the Börse Stuttgart have therefore set up their own joint venture DEBTVISION to operate. It is planned that DEBTVISION will launch further marketplaces for financing instruments after entering the market with Schuldschein loans. „We want to develop DEBTVISION into a leading European marketplace for corporate financing,“ says Neske.
About DEBTVISION
DEBTVISION is a joint subsidiary of LBBW and Börse Stuttgart. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Stuttgart, the company operates the digital marketplace of the same name for Schuldschein loans. The Managing Director of DEBTVISION is Christoph Steinbrich, an experienced and in the market acknowledged Schuldschein expert.
About LBBW
Landesbank Baden-Württemberg is a medium-sized universal bank and the central institution of the savings banks in Baden-Württemberg, Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate. With total assets of EUR 238 billion and over 10,000 employees (as of December 31, 2017), LBBW is one of the largest banks in Germany. Its core activities are corporate customer business, especially with medium-sized companies, and business with private customers and savings banks. Another focus is on real estate and project financing in selected markets as well as customer-oriented capital market business with banks, savings banks, and institutional investors.
About the Börse Stuttgart
The Börse Stuttgart is the private investor exchange and the leading floor trading centre in Germany. Private investors can trade shares, securitised derivatives, bonds, ETFs, funds and profit participation certificates in Stuttgart – with the highest execution quality and at best prices. Stuttgart is the market leader in Germany for corporate bonds traded on the stock exchange and the market leader in Europe for securitised derivatives. For investor protection and transparency, all regulatory and control mechanisms of a public stock exchange apply. With a trading volume of around EUR 81 billion in all asset classes in 2017, the Börse Stuttgart ranks tenth in Europe.
About BayWa AG
With around 17.400 employees, BayWa (Munich headquartered) is a globally active group with core competencies in trading, logistics and supplementary services in the three operating segments Agriculture, Energy and Building Materials and the development segment Innovation & Digitalization. Group sales of EUR 16.1 billion were achieved in 2017. In addition to Europe, international activities focus on the USA and New Zealand.
