Leonteq has announced in its half-year results a cooperation agreement for the origination and distribution of structured investment products with Deutsche Bank, which will allow the Zurich-based technology and service provider to expand by offering investors access to products on its automated platform.

The first offerings from Deutsche on Leonteq's platform are expected in the second half of 2015, while implementation of the full cooperation set-up is expected to take around 15 months. "We will place a strong focus on both prudent and swift integration of new platform partners, so clients will be able to benefit from our broadened offering," said Jan Schoch (pictured), chief executive of Leonteq, in a statement.

Leonteq also plans to initiate cooperation with other banks, including: JP Morgan, leveraging the US investment bank's risk management capabilities "in order to increase the scalability of its platform"; Bank of Montreal (BMO), with the aim of capitalising on the Canadian bank's expertise in institutional solutions, while offering BMO access to Leonteq's client relationships in Europe and Asia; and Raiffeisen Switzerland, which under the existing cooperation agreement (Raiffeisen Switzerland acts as guarantor, Notenstein Private Bank as issuer and Leonteq as services provider) will also be able to issue its own investment products.

"The first offering of Raiffeisen products is planned to be available on Leonteq's platform in the course of the first half of 2016," said Leonteq in a statement. "The number three in the Swiss banking market, the Raiffeisen group of banks has combined total assets of CHF189bn (€180bn)."

In addition, Leonteq has also announced a partnership agreement with insurance company Swiss Life to explore possibilities for cooperation in the development of investment and pension products.

Leonteq also reported that it has strengthened its regional offices, continued investments into its automated platform and executed various strategic initiatives in the first half of 2015, including the implementation of Avaloq's standalone-adapter Leonteq Direct, which provides automation in the offering and handling of structured investment products; and the launch of the integrated multi-issuer investment products distribution system (IPDS) in partnership with Avaloq, DBS, and Numerix, with an initial focus on the Asia Pacific region, which is based on the buyside and will provide real-time, analytics-based product structuring and pricing.

The cooperation with DBS saw turnover of CHF950m in the first half of 2015, from more than 800 DBS products issued through Leonteq's platform. On the back of this agreement, Leonteq reported that its business in Asia picked up in H1 2015, increasing total operating income by 15% to CHF10.8m, while in Europe posted total operating income of CHF48m (up 22%) in the same period. Total operating income in Switzerland increased 33% to CHF52.8m.

In addition, Leonteq has reported a 14% increase in turnover to CHF10.7bn, and pre-tax profit of 25% to CHF39.2m compared to the first half of 2014 on the back of overall good demand for structured investment products.

Leonteq's platform assets (outstanding product volume on Leonteq's platform) increased to CHF8bn from CHF7.6bn during the first six months of the year; while Leonteq's own products stood at CHF3.3bn at the end of H1 2015 compared to CHF3.7bn at year-end 2014. In addition, Leonteq's platform partners accounted for an outstanding product volume of CHF4.7bn in H1 2015 versus CHF3.9bn at year-end 2014, reflecting an increased share of partner products volume from 51% to 59%.

The group's net profit for the first half of 2015 was CHF38.9m, representing a 45% increase compared to the same period last year. Total operating income at Leonteq's Banking Platform Partners segment was up 54%, to CHF50m, and pre-tax profit was also up 71%, to CHF28.7m. Total operating income from the Insurance Platform Partners increased 19%, to CHF12.4m, and pre-tax profit rose 27%, to CHF8.1m. Leonteq Product Production also increased total operating income by 8%, to CHF49.2m, and pre-tax profit by 13%, to CHF20.2m.