q.beyond AG

Welcome to the Q1 Earnings Call 2026 of QBeyond AG. I would like to welcome the company CEO Thies Rixen and CFO Nora Wolters, who will guide us through the presentation in a moment, followed by a Q&A session via audio line and chat. And with that, I hand over to you, Mr. Rixen.

Yeah, thank you, Mara. Hello, everybody. Nora and myself, we'd like to present you the Q1 figures. And before I hand over to Nora, I'd like to give you a little update about the surgery we announced in March where we are. A little recap. We built this strategy on the foundation of what we already have. So this is very important to say. So we will keep our current model, consult to operate with consulting and managed service. and build on that let's say three elements on top one is industry focus so we like to have more vertical expertise in several industry we play two macro trends one is in healthcare there we We will look at the 2000 hospitals in the region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland and the energy sector, the 700 local energy providers, Stadtwerk in Germany. So healthcare, we're all getting older. So we have to transform our healthcare system and in energy, the macro trend is everything gets electrified and we need more energy for that and also on top of that for the AI system which is building up and where we like to have a where we have to like a step in the door let's say or foot in the door on the step And we will keep our other big industries like logistic or retail. So this is number one. So we will put on top of technology, we will put industry expertise. Therefore, we will have more business and more margin. um on top of that is ai ai is like like internet like cloud the next or mobile the next big tech revolution it's already there it's building up and our job will be as we do it right now with with other technologies like sap we will build agents and we will run agents for our customers and manage service. And we see it right now. It's getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And therefore, this for us is a new portfolio. And internationalization is we will roll out our business model in the countries we have already, like the Baltics and Spain and maybe some others. Let's see what happens. So this is our strategy where we drive further what we have already achieved in the last three years. So where we are right now. We tried to put some flesh on the bone, as you see here. For industry focus, we prolonged a lot of contracts. One was a major contract with Röhlich for five years with over 100 million in TCV in the two major industries we have right now. And we are in serious talks that I can say in the healthcare sector. to form a joint venture in that space. So this is developing and we see it in both, let's say, not segments, but in both areas. So we have a track record in the already existing industries and we are close to do the first, at least for us, major step in the healthcare sector. AR orchestration, as I said, we are going to build agent for our clients and run the agents. There we have in Q4 and Q1, we have acquired plus 10 customers for that. Our wins in the first quarter was up to 7%, also with the help of the 10 new clients. And we launched by ourselves right now, 38 major agents for QBeyond to drive internal efficiency. It's not only a game for us that we do it for our clients, it's also important that we, let's say, be more efficient every year in using AI. So the internationalization that we already discussed with you, so we are rolling out go-to-market activities in the vortex in Spain. And we decided in Q4 to start a third near-shore center in Cluj, Romania, because of SAP expertise, huge SAP expertise in this area or in this country. And also, we will transfer our, let's say, service desk activities to Romania combined with AI to be better in that space. So this is it for the third year. We are quite, I would say, quite on track, sorry, from our point of view in the first quarter. I'd like to speed it up for the upcoming, for the rest of the year. So with that, I hand over to you, Nora.

Thank you, Thies. Welcome from my side too. Q1 started as expected. Let me share a fitting metaphor. QB1's direction is like flying in an airplane with a clear flight plan and a permanent check of navigation data. and we adjust accordingly. This is our strategy 2028, which follows on from our very successful strategy 2025. For Q1, this means a strong focus on portfolio investment in AI expertise. 2025 was a year of quality adjustment. But our resilient and structural stabilized business model with nearly 70% recurring revenue is the basis for a successful strategy 2028. An impressive sales funnel of more than 200 million euro will lead to rising revenues in the next quarters, especially in H2. Additionally, we gained more than 7% order entry than in QEMP. We report traditionally two segments, consulting and managed services. Starting with consulting, it's growing against the market trends. We earned more than 30% gross profit plus 3% margin and plus 3% revenue. This is a result of a clear improvement utilization and a higher demand for AI consulting and S4HANA transition. The margin shows clearly that the focus on portfolio and capacity control is working. The second segment, managed services, earns an attractive margin, but it's due to lower investment. There are two effects. The first, the cyclical new business 2025, and second, the investment in our AI expertise. We are not focused on cost-cutting at any cost, but rather on ramping up our pipelines. Let's have a short look at our P&L. The revenue for Q1 was €42.8 million, EBITDA €1.5 million, a temporarily negative consolidated net income, which is expected for a year to become positive. As expected, all results are impacted by a pangsyth related to AI expertise and internationalization. as Thies said before. In other words, we made upfront investment for scaling. We are talking about investment cycle visibility here, not structural margin erosion. Our net liquidity is rising, plus €0.6 million in Q1 and a net liquidity of €42.6 million. Gaining liquidity is good, but we want more profitability. We invest a lot of time in new possible acquisition targets. Unfortunately, one failed in Q1 and at the moment we have promise and talks. So maybe there will be more information in the next months. Our company is debt-free and the net liquidity that corresponds to 1.71 each share shows a high potential. 2026 brought and brings several milestones for QBeyond. The EGM and the capital reduction finally cleaned up our balance sheet, especially the accumulated deficit. As the aimed results, QBeyond would be able to share, sorry, QBeyond would be able to have share buybacks or pay dividends without endangering the financial stability. So we are well prepared to implement the strategy 2028. Our most important message today, we confirm the guidance for 2026 based on our strategy 2028. It's a very clear signal that the execution of our strategy and pipeline compensates the microeconomical pressure we suffer at the moment. We expect revenues between 182 to 190 million euros and EBITDA between 10 and 16 million euros and a positive free cash flow. Additionally, a positive consolidated net income. We combine investments for growth and the expectation that the pipeline and financial results by the foundation for shareholders will be very successful if it's finally decided legally. So this is the end for the financials for today in this presentation. And I hand over again to Thies.

Thank you, Nora. um so a little outlook 36 28 we mentioned already q1 was seven percent up concerning um total contract value or the bookings um so we like to keep this momentum we have a sales funnel um so we have already um 40 millions roughly in the books um end of april or beginning of may and have additionally a sales funnel of 200 million so we are we are um we are assuming that the next quarter will be higher in revenue and we get a book to build over one um this year um which was the case last year and will be the case also next this year so with seven therefore we have an indicator for 27 um Concerning this strategy, we said the aim is concerning revenues 250 million approximately with an M&A margin of 10%. How do we reach that? Three elements. One is organic growth, 5%. Then M&A strategy, roughly 20 million revenue. and the AI cost station should be at least 20 million, end of 28. So that we are, at least when we look at our strategic approach and plan, that we have a high visibility of the numbers. And the funnel will get us, the high funnel will get us to a growth this year. um yeah having said that in summary what we what we like to achieve industry focus will give us business and higher margin orchestration with that we will be relevant for our we are relevant we will be relevant and we'll have a new portfolio and new business and internationalization let's say further further growth opportunities european wide and this is also what the the customer for us from us are expecting

um yeah thank you very much for your time and we're happy to answer your questions and comments and get your comments thank you yes thank you very much also from my side ladies and gentlemen we are opening the q a session if you would like to ask your questions via audio line please click the raise hand button and if you're dialing in by phone please press starkey 9 to raise your hand and starkey 6 to unmute yourself additionally you're also welcome to post your questions in our chat and i will read them out loud for you We have already received Risen Hands by Mr. Sennewald. You may unmute yourself now.

Can you hear me now?

Yes. Now we can hear you.

It's a bit puzzled with this broadcast button. Anyways, hi, guys. Thanks for the presentation. I was just wondering, looking at the guidance, especially on the bottom line, which continues to be 10 to 16 mil, what needs to happen for you to reach the upper end of this range? Because honestly, looking at the Q1 now and also the environment, I had a hard time seeing you at 15 plus million every day this year.

So the range we picked is we'd like to have a range where we are, let's say, prepared for whatever will happen with the German or European economy. And at the lower end, I think we are well we are well defended with our current business model and at the higher end everything must work out so there are especially so for instance when we look at clients which have a where we get, let's say, as an example, where we get kickbacks from the vendors, where we have special deals. So this will help us to get the higher end. So there are certain elements in it. But everything must work out to get the 60 million.

Okay, I understand. Good to hear that you feel well protected on the lower end. In the last calls, you mentioned that you already have like, I think it was around 300 agents in place, which you most of them use internally, but already had some leads, perhaps on monetization. How is this going?

I think the low hanging fruits have been harvest. So all what concerning reporting. So the most of the agents, so low hanging fruits had been harvest. Most of the agents are a managed service and in central for other, let's say in the shared service part for reporting, reporting, patching and process automation. So low-hanging fruits have been identified, have been harvested. Now we tackle, let's say, the more complex, complicated agents. So this is the track right now. But it's evolving all over the company. I think everyone most of the people i must say have at least have at least understand the potential and now it's it's um if we all know that if an agent if we build an agent they have to run the government they have this the agent have to be compliant and so on so on so on so it's getting getting a little bit more complicated but potential is still there okay that's

And maybe you mentioned M&A, also that you had a failed deal you said in the first quarter. How confident can we be that you will add some inorganic growth throughout the year? And can you maybe remind us of maybe the scope of that?

You could be very confident. This is our strategic plan. So we will execute on this. The one who failed, as leaders, you have to say often more no than yes. So for example, the price is not right, then we said no. So therefore, we didn't pick it. Though the add-on, it depends a little bit how big the targets are. In terms of revenue, I would not allow myself to give an answer right now, but there will be an impact. And the most important thing is not, let's say, the number right now, but the potential for the future. So as I'd like to explain, we are targeting for healthcare, we are targeting the 2000 hospitals in germany switzerland and austria because most of them they they're behaving like a mid-sized company, like the German Mittelstand. Yes, they are public-owned in some cases, but they still behave like that. And it's the same as for the 700 Stadtwerke in Germany, at least. So this is the potential we see in the next years. Also, plus the transformation, let's say, pressure they have. And this is much more important than the figures right now. OK.

But health care is clearly crystallizing as the priority there. I'm hearing . Yeah. OK. Yeah. Thanks a lot, guys. That was very helpful. I will go back into the queue. Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you so much also from my side. We have another recent hand by Mr. Kai Kindermann. You may unmute yourself now.

Yeah. Good afternoon, everybody. Two questions. Can you hear me? Is everything okay?

Yeah, we hear you.

I heard a weird sound, but okay. First, what caused the rise in consulting costs? Maybe you can expand a little bit on this further, especially compared to the third quarter last year where you had the same level of revenue. And then my second question would be on what amount of investment and expenses in AI are you expecting in the coming quarters?

We didn't get the first question. Can you repeat it, please?

Yeah. If you could expand further on the rise in consulting profit you had in this quarter, especially in comparison to the third quarter in the last year, where you had the same level of revenue, but lower gross profit.

Yeah, for consulting, it always depends on the mixture, on the revenue mixture we are showing. I don't have the Q3 figures in my head, but I would assume there is revenue in it, which is not so profitable as in Q1. So, for example, if you have license in it or let's say, one-timer, which are not so profitable. And what I can say for Q1, it's real consumption which we have driven. So this leads us, and this is what we like to see, this leads us to the higher margin. So there's a structural effect in it that you compare the Q3 to the Q1 figures. Okay, thanks. And concerning AI investments, we believe the majority is done. What we are now figuring out is which models to use. For example, we have started with Microsoft Co-Pilot. This works out for some part of the company and traffic is now on top of it, so Claude. And now we have both. Maybe we have a third one. And so I think the major part is done. And now it's about optimization of the several systems. And then do we need to provide every employee with an AI tool, or do we provide our employees with agents they can use so we will optimize that so my answer would be majority is done all right thank you very much thank you mr kinderman we have another question by mr frederick nielsen you may unmute yourself now

Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes. Hi. I was just wondering why you choose to add a new Nearshore Hub in Romania rather than expanding in Spain or Latvia, for example?

Two reasons. One is language. at least for the two reasons. One, the first reason is language. We have a lot of clients. And I showed you the prolongation we did in Q4 last year, Q1 this year, so the contract prolongation. And there are several others to come which have a service desk element in it, service desk portfolio. And we got a lot of pressure from our clients also cost-wise. So we were looking for an answer. to reduce the cost. One is for sure human resource, the other one is AI. The mid-sized companies are not ready to use full AI-powered service desk. So we will build up one half-half, one with German-speaking Romanian resources plus AI, and therefore we cover the service desk portfolio. This is reason number one. And reason number two is that we, Nora mentioned it, that we are very successful in the SAP business right now. Our assumption is that this will be at least midterm to long term. So we see that we need to to provide our customers with services, application management services, where we run the applications for them. But we see also the cost pressure, also when the customers are globally, the setup is globally or European wide. And you find in Romania, they have a good SAP skilled workforce. And these were the main two reasons. To be honest, it took us some discussions because of complexity. You mentioned it, the third one, but now we are convinced that this is the right answer for this kind of two portfolios. So service test and SAP application management.

I see. Great. Could you perhaps give us some approximate estimation of the costs related to international expansion and AI, as you mentioned, is holding back the earnings in the quarter?

um it's it's a figure what is it several million per quarter it was in q3 q4 and q1 so let's say between two to three million more or less

Okay, great. And just lastly, you mentioned also discussions about the joint venture in healthcare. I mean, what size are we talking about then? Is it a green field or is it you going into something that's already up and running with quite some revenue?

This will be a company which is up and running, which is very, very well positioned, let's say, in the healthcare segments for hospitals. And therefore, we like to form a joint venture. So we will take over the majority of the shares, let's say 51%. And then we will, as we did for Loginia, I'm not quite sure if you know this case. So we have built a joint venture five years ago and the same setup, 51% is with Coup Beyond and then we drive with the other partner, the business forward. And this we like to do in healthcare and this we like to do in energy. Revenue is always around for the beginning, let's say 10 to 20 million for the targets. And then we like to develop this, we develop this revenue with the joint venture partner further.

Great, I understand. That's all for me. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Nielsen. Well, there are no more risen hands or further questions in our chat box. So with this, I would say we come to the end of today's earnings call. And I would like to thank you very much for your interest in QBeyond AG. A big thank you also to you, Mr. Rickson and Mrs. Wolters for your presentation and your time. Should you have any further questions at a later date, please feel free to contact Investor Relations. I wish you all a successful day. Thank you and bye-bye.

Thank you.

Bye.