Brockhaus Technologies AG

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Brockhaus Technologies ACO update call. At this time, all have been placed on remote. The floor will be open for questions following the presentation.

Let me now turn the floor over to Marco Brockhaus.

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Brockhaus Technologies earnings call for the fiscal year 2025. 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, brockhaus-technologies.com. After our presentation, we will open the call to questions from your site. To be fair to everyone, please limit yourselves 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. Additionally, please refer to note six, seven, and eight of BKHT's consolidated financial statements for 2025 on page 84 onwards, of our annual report 2025 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 risk and opportunities in the management report 2025 starting on page 57. Turning to page 3, let me give you an update on the sale of our stake in bike leasing. With the resolution passed by the Extraordinary General Meeting on February 26, we have satisfied a key condition for the closing of the transaction. We are pleased with the strong support from our shareholders and are confident that Decathlon Pulse, as an internationally renowned company, will fulfill the remaining regulatory requirements as part of the ownership control procedures in a timely manner. All documents have been submitted and the closing of the transaction is now subject only to BaFin's pending approval. With the expected cash inflow of approximately 240 million euros from the sale of our stake in bike leasing after preliminary transaction cost, we are significantly increasing our financial flexibility. We have not yet made a decision regarding the use of the proceeds from the sale. What is clear, however, is that these proceeds are to be deployed in a targeted manner to further increase shareholder value. Determine how this objective can best be achieved is a key question which we are assessing with due care. In close coordination with the supervisory board, we are carefully and comprehensively evaluating all strategic options to ensure that any measures taken are fully compliant with legal requirements and in the best interest of the company and its shareholders. In particular, we are evaluating measures to enhance the attractiveness of our shares, such as dividend payments or a share buyback program, to enable shareholders to participate more directly in the company's success. Further acquisitions are also conceivable in order to continue fulfilling our corporate purpose of acquiring, holding and managing equity investments, as well as a combination of different measures. Each of these options is subject to specific legal and accounting requirements and entails particular advantages and disadvantages. For example, any distributions to our shareholders require that we first report distributable profits on the basis of which the Annual General Meeting can resolve on dividend payments. 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 June 11th, 2026 at the latest. On the next slide, you will find a summary of what we accomplished in fiscal year 2025. Even in a continued challenging macroeconomic environment, we performed well in 2025 and increased group revenue organically by 10% to 225 million compared to the previous year. The smaller increase in gross profit despite higher revenue was mainly due to a larger share of revenue from the resale of bikes at the end of the leasing term, which involves significantly higher material cost than other revenue components. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to 46 million Euro, corresponding to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 21%. The margin was particularly impacted by a lower gross profit margin as well as higher personal and other operating expenses to support bike leasing's long-term growth. For better comparability with prior years, the key performance indicators mentioned include both the continuing operations, IHSE and holding company, and the discontinued operation, bike leasing. However, in the consolidated income statement for the fiscal year 2025, the revenue as well as the other income and expenses of the former HR benefit and mobility platform segment Bike Leasing are presented separately as a discontinued operation due to its disposal on December 23rd, 2025. Accordingly, Bike Leasing's revenue for the fiscal year 2025 is no longer included in group revenue. Bike leasing's result is only included in the consolidated income statement as a separately disclosed result from discontinued operations within net income. Proceeding to the next slide, let us look at how revenue developed on a quarterly basis. Starting with IHSE, shown at the bottom of the page, while the first quarter came in below last year's level, we saw a strong recovery in the second quarter, with revenue exceeding the previous year by 13%. In the third quarter, revenue declined by 30% compared to Q3 2024, primarily reflecting project-related timing effects and a general reluctance to invest across many industries. In the fourth quarter, however, revenue rebounded and increased by 19% year over year. Turning to bike leasing, shown at the top of the page, we started the year on a positive note, with Q1 revenue up 11% compared to last year. In the second quarter, revenue remained largely stable year over year. Growth accelerated again in the third quarter with revenue increased by 12% compared to Q3 2024. A key driver was the significant increase in revenue from the resale of bikes at the end of the leasing term. In addition, the new paid partner participation model, which went live at the beginning of August, also contributed positively to revenue in the third quarter. This positive momentum continued in the fourth quarter when revenue increased significantly by around 60% year over year, marking the strongest quarterly growth of the year. I will now proceed to the next page for the regional sales split. First to bike leasing. No surprise here, the company does business in Germany and Austria and growth in revenue was 13%. IGC revenue was below the previous year's level compared to full year 2024. In EMEA, revenue declined by 11% year over year due to overall subdued investment activity in the market. The same applies to the APEC region. In contrast, revenue in the Americas exceeded the prior year level by 63%, driven by a growing defense business. Turning to the P&L table. In the first two columns, we see that bike leasing's gross profit margin was below last year's level at around 59%. The main reason for this was the increased revenue share of resale proceeds, which generally has a significantly lower gross profit margin than the segment's other revenue components. EBITDA and EBIT margins were significantly below prior year's level. In addition to the lower gross profit margin, this is due to planned higher personal and other operating expenses related to the long-term growth strategy of bike leasing aimed to transforming the business from a single product company bike leasing provider into a multi-benefit platform. Proceeding to the next two columns to the right, at IHSE, the gross profit margin of 75% was above the comparative periods level of 72%, mainly driven by an improved product and customer mix resulting from higher defense-related revenue. The adjusted EBITDA amounted to 3 million euro with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 11%. This was primarily due to the higher gross profit margin as well as lower fixed cost and personal expenses. In the third quarter of 2025, management initiated comprehensive measures to reduce fixed costs, which are expected to be reflected in key financial figures, particularly in fiscal year 2026. Moving two further columns to the right, in the central functions, expenses were higher compared to the full year of 2024, primarily due to increased consulting services. In conclusion and at the consolidated group level, revenue was 225 million euro and gross profit margin was at 61%. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 20%, bringing our group to an adjusted EBITDA of 46 million euro. The group's adjusted EBIT of 38 million euro corresponds to a margin of 17%. Free cash flow before taxes was 31 million euro, and below the prior year level due to higher expenditures related to investments to enable the expected long-term growth of bike leasing. On the next page, I would like to run you briefly through our financial leverage structure. At the end of December, debt from loans amounted to €66 million. When subtracting cash of €39 million, we are left with a net debt from loans to 27 million. Adding 18 million from other financial liabilities and 3 million of net debt from lease refinancing brings us to 48 million euro in total net debt. If you compare that to adjusted EBITDA of the last 12 months, this corresponds to a leverage ratio of around one times EBITDA. As our limit for this KPI is some two and a half times, we consider our current financial position as more than conservative. This concludes the first part of our presentation, and I now hand over to Paul Goering, who's in charge of our acquisitions team. Paul?