Brockhaus Technologies (Xetra:BKHT) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Brockhaus Technologies AG Investor Update Call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen only mode. The floor will be open for questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to Marco Brockhaus.

0:16 Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Brockhaus Technologies earnings call for the first quarter of the fiscal year twenty twenty six. Before we begin, I would like to point out that the slides we are presenting will be published afterwards in the Investors Relations section of our website, brockhaustechnologies.com. After our presentation, we will open the call to questions from your side. To be fair to everyone, please limit yourself to one question plus one follow-up. Thank you very much in advance. Before we present our results, I encourage all listeners to review the legal notice on Page two of our presentation, which explains the understanding of forward looking statements.

1:02 Additionally, please refer to Note six and seven of BEKHT's consolidated financial statements for 2025 on Page 84 onwards of our Annual Report 2025 or Page 14 of Brockhaus Technologies quarterly statement Q1 twenty twenty six for a discussion on alternative performance measures as well as the reconciliation of non GAAP figures. For information on risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward looking statements, we kindly refer to the section on risks and opportunities in the management report 2025, starting on Page 57 of our annual report 2025.

1:49 Let's to Page three. Let me give you an update on the sale of our stake in bike leasing. The closing of the sale of the bike leasing stake remains subject to the required owner control procedure by Decathlon Pulse and is expected to take place in the first half of twenty twenty six. The German and Austrian antitrust authorities have already granted merger control approval for the transaction in January and February 2026, respectively. On 02/26/2026, Broadcast Technologies Extraordinary General Meeting approved the transaction with a clear majority of more than 98% of the votes cast.

2:39 Based on an illustrative calculation as of 09/30/2025, the pro rata purchase price attributable to Brockhaus Technologies for the shares sold would amount approximately to €240,000,000 after preliminary transaction cost and taxes. The final purchase price will be determined at closing using a customary closing accounts mechanism, taking into account the cash, financial liabilities and net working capital of the bike leasing group at that time. The management board in close coordination with the supervisory board is currently reviewing a combination of measures to return a substantial portion of the expected net proceeds from the sale to shareholders.

3:32 By definition, this would mean more than 50% of the net proceeds would be distributed to our shareholders, subject to applicable legal requirements. As all strategic options require careful assessment from both a legal and strategic perspective, we expect to present our initial considerations to our shareholders at our Annual General Meeting on 08/19/2026 at the latest.

4:02 On the next slide, we provide an overview of the key performance indicators by segment, highlighting what we accomplished in the first quarter of twenty twenty six. On the right hand side, you can see the group KPIs in total. That means including discontinued and continuing operations, continued to show resilient growth even in a challenging economic environment. In sum, Brockhaus Technologies generated total revenue of €47,900,000 in the first quarter of fiscal year twenty twenty six, corresponding to organic growth of 13% to the prior year period. The gross profit margin of 60% was above the comparative period levels of 56%.

4:54 Adjusted EBITDA amounted to €7,600,000 in the reporting period corresponding to an adjusted EBITDA margin of around 16%. As mentioned before, for comparability purposes, the revenue and adjusted EBITDA figures presented here for the first quarter of fiscal year twenty twenty six are reported on a consolidated basis and include both the group's continuing and discontinuing operations. The continuing operations comprise the security technology segment, which is IHSE and the central functions. Due to the disposal on 12/23/2025, the revenue as well as other income and expenses of the former HR benefit and mobility platform segment by Gleizing are presented separately as discontinued operations in Brockhaus Technologies consolidated statement of profit or loss for the first quarter of fiscal year twenty twenty six.

6:03 Accordingly, they are no longer included in the revenue and earnings figures of the consolidated statement of profit or loss in the Q1 twenty twenty six quarterly statement, but presented separately in one line as income from discontinued operations. On the left hand side, you can see the KPIs for the continuing operations. In the Security Technologies segment, IHSE revenue in the reporting period amounted to 5,600,000 down 14% compared to the prior year period. This was primarily due to generally cautious market and environment, which compared to Q1 twenty twenty five resulted in significantly reduced investment activity, particularly in the Americas region driven by the prolonged government shutdown, U. S. Tariff policy and the war in The Middle East.

7:01 Adjusted EBITDA amounted to €189,000 in the reporting period, corresponding to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 3%. Despite significantly lower revenue and gross profit, EBITDA was only slightly below the prior year period. This was mainly attributed to substantially lower fixed cost in personnel expenses and other operating expenses. In this regard, management had already initiated comprehensive measures to reduce fixed cost in Q3 twenty twenty five. Moving two further columns to the right, expenses in central functions were in line compared to the first quarter of twenty twenty five.

7:50 In the discontinued operation, the former HR benefit mobility platform segment by glycogen revenue increased by 18% to EUR42.3 euros in Q1 twenty twenty six. This was primarily driven by improved results from the resale business as previously leased bicycles and e bikes through the subsidiary Bike2Future, which was specially established for this purpose, as well as the dealer commissioned introduced in August 2025. These factors also had significantly positive impact on the gross profit margin, which amounted to 58% in Q1 twenty twenty six.

8:38 The number of new bikes brokered via the digital bike leasing platform in the first quarter of twenty twenty six totaled to 21,500, largely in line with the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA of the segment amounted to €8,700,000 in the reporting period corresponding to an adjusted EBITA margin of almost 21%. The main drivers of the higher EBITA margin were increased revenue and the significantly higher gross margin. Personnel expenses and other operating expense, by contrast, increased to a much lesser extent. Turning to the next slide, let us look at IHSE revenue development by region.

9:25 As mentioned before, overall, IHS revenue was below the previous year's level compared to the first quarter of twenty twenty five. In EMEA, revenue increased slightly by 4% year over year, driven by a growing defense business. APAC also showed growth momentum. In contrast, revenue in Americas declined by 66% year over year, primarily due to the prolonged government shutdown, U. S. Tariff policy and the war in The Middle East. On the next page, I would like to run you briefly through our financial leverage structure. At the end of March, debt from loans amounted to €66,000,000 When subtracting cash of €27,000,000 we are left with net debt from loans of €39,000,000 Adding €18,000,000 from our financial liabilities and deducting aid of net debt from lease refinancing,

10:21 this brings us to EUR49 million in total net debt. If you compare that to the adjusted EBITDA for the last twelve months, this corresponds to a leverage ratio below one, underlying the high balance sheet quality and resilience of our business. As our limit for this KBS is somewhat 2.5 times EBITDA, we consider our current financial position as more than conservative. This concludes the first part of our presentation. I now hand over to Paul, who's in charge of our acquisition team. Paul? Thank you, Marco, and also hi, everyone, from my side. Let me start with an update on IHSE's cost program. The program was initiated in the third quarter of last year and completed by year end.

11:10 As expected, the related one off costs still weighed on full year figures last year. However, we are now starting to see the first structural savings coming through in Q1 of twenty twenty six. As you can see on the right hand side, personnel expenses were down 16% year over year, and other operating expenses declined by 13% year over year. So the measures taken in the second half of last year are clearly beginning to show in the cost base now. At the same time, IHSE has further increased its focus on the core product suite and reduced exposure to noncore activities. Overall, this is an important step towards higher efficiency and the goal of bringing IHSE back to past profitability levels.

11:59 On the next slide, let me now turn the topic to the management transformation at IJSE. The new two headed management team is now fully in place, providing continuity for the next phase of the company's development.

12:14 Frank Breitenfelde, who you can see here on the right hand side, who already joined as Managing Director and CFO in April last year, is responsible for, let's say, everything internally, so finance, purchasing, legal and risk management or compliance. And joining on May first of this year, doctor Thomas Niesen, the guy you can see on the left hand side, has now completed the management team as managing director and CEO, overseeing sales, research and development, product management and project management.

12:47 Thomas Niesen is an experienced manager and expert in industrial automation and network technology, who previously held global roles at Belden Inc, also a publicly listed company, including VP of R and D as well as VP Change Management and VP Product Management in their Automation Solutions department.

13:07 With this new management team and a strong pipeline of product innovations, IHSE is well positioned for 2026 and beyond in our view. And with that short update, handing back over to Marco for our own outlook. Thank you, Paul. Flipping over to the last page of today's presentation, our group forecast for the fiscal year 2026. The forecast for the group's continuing operation, IHSE and holding for fiscal year twenty twenty six remains unchanged. Revenue of €30,000,000

13:40 to €32,000,000 and adjusted EBITDA of €200,000 Due to the signed sale agreement regarding the stake in bike leasing, this business is no longer included in the forecast. For the continuing operations, preliminary revenue in Q1 twenty twenty six amounted to €5,600,000 and an adjusted EBITDA of minus €1,100,000 That concludes our presentation and we are now happy to answer your questions. For that, I would like to hand over to the operator. Thank

14:19 nine and the pound key on your telephone keypad. If you would like to rerooke your question, press star 3 and the pound key. You can also use the dial in function in the webcast and raise your hand if you would like to ask a question by phone.

14:34 So please press 9 and the pound key on your telephone keypad if you would like to ask a question. And I will repeat again how you can ask a question. Please press star nine and the pound key on your telephone keypad if you would like to ask a question, or you can use the dial in function in the web cards and raise your hand if you would like to ask a question by phone. And we have first question by Lukas Spang from Tigris Capital Gmph. The floor is yours.

15:13 Good afternoon, gentlemen. I would like to start with the closing procedure of bike leasing.

15:22 If we would imagine, for example, the March 31 would have been the closing date, Can you give us an idea what would have been the cash inflow from the transaction just to get a feeling? Can take the question. And the answer is quite short because we have no updated figure calculated. However, systematically, if that's what's what interests you, what you do is, you have a fixed set of items that con consists the net debt. So that's, of course, debt as a subtraction and cash as an addition, but some other items as well.

16:13 And then you have, a, let's say, net working capital mechanism that looks at the net working capital of the company at the given closing date normalizes it to a normal degree. Yeah. Okay. But assuming that now bike leasing, since the closing, has generated positive earnings, the cash inflow should increase versus the preliminary figure?

16:45 Or is it the Yes. Is it the macro Thank you. Sorry to say, but we don't imagine anything. We don't make calculations on March 31. We make calculations on closing, and closing is yet not here. And when closing appears, we will make calculations on that date. Yes, sorry to say, but we don't want to imagine anything, and we don't want to think what would happen if we would have closed on March 31. Yet the deal is not closed. Yes. But just from a mechanism perspective, if bike leasing is generating positive earnings, the cash inflow should increase or the the wrong imprint? Systematically, you are correct. So if there is, if there if there is a, let's say, in cash, then this, of course, also increases the purchase price to be expected if it's not at the expense of working capital optimization.

17:49 Yeah. Yeah. So if you would if you would push down unnaturally working capital, this, of course, is not a way of producing cash flow. Okay. That helps. And then as you have published it and you repeated it today that you want to allocate or distribute the majority of the cash inflow from the bike leasing transaction. Do you also prepare for a sale of IHSE, or how do you handle IHSE as a as the remaining company in the in the holding? We do not comment on that, and we do not have any plans so far.

18:37 As you can imagine, we would then have to ad hoc that, and there is no ad hoc also. We have no plans so far. Thanks. You. So if you would like to ask a question, please press 9 and the pound key on your telephone keypad, or you can also use the dial in function if you're in the webcast. It's below the slide. That you can click on that in and raise your hand if you would like to ask a question by phone. At the moment, we have no further questions. So you can press star nine and the pound key on your telephone keypad.

19:41 There are no further questions. All right. Thank you. As there appear no more further questions, thank you all very much for attending today's earnings call for Brockhaus Technologies. I would like to use this stage and moment to thank our employees for their outstanding work and performance as well as our shareholders for their continued trust and support. Goodbye, and have a great day. Thank you.