Aumann AG ($AAG)

Welcome to the earnings call of Aumann AG regarding the full year figures for 2025. The company's CEO, Sebastian Roll; and CFO, Jan-Henrik Pollitt, will guide you through the presentation and the figures shortly, followed by a Q&A session via audio line and chat box. Having said this, I'm handing over to you, Sebastian.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for the kind introduction. I'm pleased to have you with us today. And for those I haven't met yet, my name is Sebastian Roll, and I'm the CEO of Aumann. So joining me in the call today is our CFO, Jan-Henrik Pollitt. So we really appreciate your time and your interest in Aumann. In the next few minutes, we will guide you through a brief overview of Aumann, the latest developments in our E-mobility and Next Automation business and of course, our financial performance in 2025, where we delivered strong results in a challenging market environment. So let's start with a quick look at our business model. So we design and build high-end fully automated production lines tailored precisely to the needs of our international customers. With decades of experience in automation, industry leaders around the world trust Aumann to deliver innovative solutions. One of our competitive advantages is staying ahead, especially in fast-growing markets, enabling us to quickly provide customized solutions. This is why the automotive market, especially the E-mobility sector remains so attractive to Aumann. In addition, the robotics and automation market is growing rapidly, driven by demographic change, labor shortages and cost pressure. These trends also drive our Next Automation segment, allowing us to use our automation expertise in many industries beyond automotive. So let's take a quick look at Aumann's solutions. So our portfolio ranges from modular solutions and complex process solutions to fully integrated large-scale production solutions. At the modular end, we provide standardized cell systems. They enable our customers to adapt quickly and cost efficiently to changing market demands. Building on this, Aumann designs production lines for more complex processes, including technologies such as winding, coating and testing. The aim is to implement special process steps in the most efficient way. Moreover, Aumann offers fully customized large-scale solutions built to maximum output while ensuring high quality. Thanks to Aumann's wide range of solutions, we can fully support different production strategies of our customers. So this slide here shows how Aumann became a technology leader in E-mobility. Starting from the traditional automotive business, E-mobility was identified as a growth market. Through targeted M&A, Aumann took the first step into E-motor technologies. Building on our know-how, we developed different solutions for the rotor, quickly followed by solutions for the stator and finally, full E-motor assembly. After the E-motor, we leveraged our expertise to develop large-scale production solutions for battery modules and packs. In addition, we introduced our own modular systems, for example, in inverter assembly, but also very useful in the field of Next Automation. Furthermore, we have expanded into converting technology, enabling us to offer, in addition, production solutions for electrode manufacturing. Aumann is a leading provider of turnkey solutions in E-mobility. This illustration here shows the drivetrain of a fully electric car and most of these components can be produced on Aumann production lines. From the outset, we have focused strongly on the E-drive unit. Even today, our customers still use different approaches to stator and rotor design. As a turnkey provider, we offer the latest production solutions for both. Beyond that, we have expanded our portfolio with modular production systems, for example, for electronic components such as sensors or, for example, such as inverters. This enables us to offer flexible and scalable solutions perfectly tailored to each customer's needs. Let me now turn to our battery portfolio. Here, Aumann benefits from its strong position in energy storage. We cover the full range from battery modules and packs to cell-to-X solutions. This expertise allows us to meet customer needs and develop new solutions for next-generation battery technologies. Let's look at the E-mobility market today and in the future. BEV, or battery electric vehicle sales continues to gain traction. In 2025, more than 13.7 million were sold worldwide. So this means a plus of 30% in comparison to 2024. China stays in the lead with 9 million units, but Europe follows with strong growth, reaching more than 2.2 million units with 26% increase compared to 2024, including Germany with an impressive 43% growth. The U.S. market, which currently shows the lowest volume in comparison, remains at least stable at 1.2 million units. By 2030, BEVs are expected to make up 40% of sales by 2035, even 2/3. So overall, rising BEV sales and a more stable geopolitical situation are expected to drive new investments in the near future. So let us now turn to our key commercial focus in 2025. As mentioned earlier, we are expanding beyond the automotive sector and focusing more on industries that need greater efficiency, higher productivity and less manual work. At the same time, rising labor costs and the shortage of skilled workers are accelerating the shift towards automation. In this context, we have moved, as you know, our Next Automation segment from an opportunistic to a strategic approach. This segment focuses on growth industries beyond automotive, such as defense, aerospace and life science. So let's take a closer look. In our Next Automation segment, we have defined 3 strategic growth areas. Aerospace, as you know, is gaining momentum. Demand in civil aviation is rising. Boeing and Airbus are forecasting more than 40,000 new aircraft over the next 20 years. Against this backdrop, Aumann is preparing its reentry into aviation, offering solutions to support production ramp-ups with initial orders already secured in early 2026. At the same time, defense budgets are boosting. Drones combines exactly what we do best: electric motor, battery packs and full system integration, including end-of-line testing just like in e-mobility, same technology, new applications. Therefore, we easily developed integrated drone assembly lines and secured our first orders in 2024. Besides aerospace and defense, clean tech is also good. Here, Aumann has acquired a double-digit million order in energy infrastructure, delivering flexible assembly and test lines for medium voltage circuit breakers. Finally, Life Science. So this sector benefits from long-term trends such as an aging population, strong investment levels and attractive margins. In 2025, Aumann entered the pharma market with solutions for producing skin delivered patches and oral thin films. Now I would like to hand over to Jan.

Yes. Thank you, Sebastian, and also a warm welcome from my side. I would now like to share with you the financial figures of the year 2025. Let me start with a brief overview. We entered the year aware that revenue would face a decline primarily due to a softer order intake in 2024. At the same time, we remain fully committed to implementing every possible measure to protect our margins and sustain strong profitability. It is also important to highlight, particularly in the automotive sector that investment behavior continues to be very cautious. This trend is visible across the full spectrum of OEMs and suppliers. Against this backdrop, in 2025, revenue reached EUR 204 million, 35% below the previous year. Profitability remained strong with a double-digit EBITDA margin of 13.8%. Order intake totaled EUR 147 million, down 26% year-over-year. Order backlog decreased from EUR 184 million to EUR 122 million at year-end 2025. And our balance sheet remains robust with a net cash of EUR 148 million. With this foundation, let us now dive into the details. Across segments, we achieved a revenue of EUR 204 million, representing a year-over-year decrease of 35%. The main driver of this decline was the E-mobility segment, where revenue decreased by 37%. Revenue in the Next Automation segment also declined from EUR 53.8 million to EUR 40.2 million, mainly because the prior year included a larger contribution from a major photovoltaic project. For 2025, we had initially expected revenue of approximately EUR 210 million to EUR 230 million. Based on early projections in January, this estimate was refined to EUR 205 million. With the audited figures now available, we ended the year 2025 at EUR 204 million, closely matching this guidance. Looking ahead, we will now turn to the profitability and earnings performance to provide a complete picture of the financial results. Despite the decline in revenue, our profitability remained robust, demonstrating the resilience of our business model. EBITDA came in at EUR 28.2 million, down 21% year-over-year. EBITDA margin increased from 11.5% to 13.8%. This reflects the strong execution, especially in our E-Mobility segment. Key drivers of this solid performance include a high-quality and well-diversified order backlog, strict cost discipline across all projects, capacity adjustments aligned with the subdued market environment, and an above-expectation Q4 with some larger e-mobility orders completed ahead of plan. Based on these dynamics, we raised our initial EBITDA margin guidance of 8% to 10% in January to 14%. With the final margin at 30.8%, we outperformed last year by 2.3 percentage points, underlining the operational strength of our segments. With profitability well established, let's now turn to order intake. As already mentioned, the overall investment climate remains challenging. Our business relies on our customers' CapEx and especially for large-scale projects, long-term forward-looking decisions are essential. Many industries, particularly automotive are currently not making these kinds of commitments, which affect our markets. However, we are not standing still. Internally, we continue to optimize costs and adjust capacities. Externally, we are actively developing new sales opportunities and pursuing M&A leads. We see clear opportunities to grow, and we are confident these initiatives will deliver value. In 2025, total order intake declined 26% year-over-year to EUR 147.5 million. The Next Automation segment is showing strong progress. Order intake increased 54% year-over-year to EUR 56.5 million. Our sales pipeline is also growing, demonstrating the potential of the Next Automation initiatives to drive future revenue. As a result, total order backlog declined from EUR 184 million at year-end 2024 to EUR 122.2 million at year-end 2025. I However, the Next Automation segment continues to gain momentum with its order backlog increasing 39% to EUR 47.9 million. While the overall backlog is below our desired level, both volume and quality of the backlog are solid. And we have, of course, continued to account for this backlog conservatively in our financial statements. Let me now move to the next slide and walk you through the segment figures, starting with the E-mobility segment. In the E-mobility segment, order intake of EUR 91 million is 44% and under the previous year due to dimensioned market conditions. As a result, order backlog decreased by 50% to EUR 74.3 million. At the same time, revenue decreased by 37% to EUR 163.8 million. EBITDA is declining at a slower rate than revenue by minus 21% to EUR 26.6 million, which means a strong margin of 16.2%. In the Next Automation segment, order intake increased year-over-year to EUR 56.5 million as the new positioning is opening new markets. End of 2025, order backlog amounted EUR 47.9 million. Revenue decreased 25% year-over-year to EUR 40.2 million. And the EBITDA margin increased by 2 percentage points to 12.8%, which leads to a total EBITDA of EUR 5.1 million. Before we take a closer look at the balance sheet, let me provide a brief overview of our group cash flow in 2025. Cash flow from operating activities reached EUR 38.4 million. reflecting the strong results for the year and the EUR 50 million reduction in working capital compared to 2024. Importantly, we returned EUR 23.3 million to our shareholders through dividends and the share buyback program, underlining our commitment to delivering value to investors. As a result, cash and cash equivalents, including securities remain at a record high level of EUR 152.8 million. By the end of December 2025, our balance sheet continues to be in a good shape with an equity ratio of 66.7% and EUR 153 million cash, of which EUR 148 million are net cash. Our financial foundation will continue to allow us to respond flexibly to market opportunities to drive the expansion of the Next Automation segment, both organically and through M&A activities and to ensure further shareholder participation through share buybacks and dividends. Following the successful year 2025, we will propose a dividend payment of EUR 0.25 at the AGM, which is a further modest dividend increase compared to the previous years. And of course, we currently have an existing authorization to acquire treasury shares up to 10% of share capital. This provides the company with flexibility to act opportunistically in the market, and at the same time, it ensures that we can continue to anticipate our shareholders in the company's success. To conclude, we would like to provide our guidance for 2026. We expect a mixed, but well balanced development across our segments. And E-Mobility revenue is likely to decline due to a lower starting order backlog. In Next Automation, we see continued positive momentum. Overall, the group enters 2026 with an order backlog of EUR 122.2 million. We expect total revenue of around EUR 160 million with an EBITDA margin of 6% to 8%. Our diversified business model provides stability and supports a resilient and profitable year. Let me now hand over to Sebastian again.

Yes. Thanks, Jan. So let me briefly summarize. 2025 was a challenging year for Aumann. Revenue dropped to EUR 204 million as investments across the European automotive sector remained weak. So despite these headwinds, we delivered a strong operating performance. We reduced capacity, further increased the flexibility of our cost structure and achieved additional cost savings in project execution. As a result, we reached EUR 28 million EBITDA, achieving an EBITDA margin of 13.8%, a strong indication of improved efficiency and profitability despite lower volumes. Thanks to these, we proposed a dividend of EUR 0.25 per share, continuing to provide an attractive return to our shareholders. Looking ahead to 2026, we are facing a decline in revenues again. Nevertheless, we are targeting a profitable EBITDA margin of 6% to 8%. So also in 2026, as Jan mentioned, our financial position is strong with high liquidity. That clearly sets us apart from most of our competitors and give us the freedom to shape 2026. Last year, Next Automation developed strongly. This confirms that our diversification is working. Our clear goal is to accelerate this growth, both organically and through M&A. So thank you very much for your attention. We are happy now to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] What will be recurring revenue after sales services next year and in year 2025.

Yes. The recurring revenue from after sales and services is approximately 10%. What we see in investment reluctance phases like 2025 and maybe also in '26 that some customers have higher volumes of retrofits of production lines, and this could, as long as the general CapEx is low, give maybe an additional increase on the aftersales side.

How do you view Aumann's competitive position in the European EV ecosystem? And to what extent our increasingly aggressive Chinese entrants reshaping pricing, technology and market share dynamics?

Maybe starting the question with the question of competition out of China. So I mean maybe in comparison to other sectors, so we are dealing with China competition, I would say, the last 10 years. So there's nothing new. I also would add that there are not any changes concerning the competition out of China. Our business model is to be the front runner for the first very important, let's say, 1 or 3 lines, especially start of production of new EV is very important, for example, like it was in the new class for BMW. And I mean, in this area, the customer still is buying, let's say, more or less confidence, and this is our business model. So for the fourth, fifth, sixth line, there might be competition out of China. But then normally in normal market conditions, we are already ahead in new projects.

And could you please give us more details on M&A environment and activities in Americas, which can give us inorganic growth?

Yes. So M&A, as you know, is an important pillar of our strategy, that's for sure. That's not new. So as we said also in other calls before, so we switched a little bit the direction. So we are now looking especially for targets in the area of Next Automation. That's where we would like to expand our portfolio, and that's clear our target for 2026 to acquire a company in this area.

And the next question is slightly similar. Could you please elaborate further on the target focus, the size, geography and technology?

Yes. So geographically, it is still, for sure, the United States. So that's something we would like to enter. Therefore, we need a hub which is close to our technology, maybe a little bit maybe similar. Within the European area, we are more searching, as I said, for additional technology and for additional customer relationships within the Next Automation. So looking in, as we said before, aviation defense of, for example, life science as well.

And with our large M&A, your capital structure looks rather inefficient and the share price level low, any further buybacks to be expected?

So there is no current decision on further buybacks. But as we have shown in the presentation, we have authorization for another 10% buyback of our share capital and we will decide necessary on that topic.

What is the potential revenue that can be achieved with the current personnel and corporate structure?

Yes. So we adjusted capacities during 2024 and 2025. We didn't adjust directly on the EUR 160 million revenue guidance, which we have for EUR 26 million. We still have a bit more capacity in-house so that we can hope for the rebound in order intake and scale up fast again. So if we don't see a positive effect, then of course, we will also use 2026 to further adjust capacities. We will also have the 1 or other topic in '26 where we see a few adjustments necessary but not larger ones. And as soon as the market rebounds again, that we are able to do like EUR 160 million to maybe EUR 240 million, EUR 250 million revenues again.

You already answered 1 of the next questions. Have you continued to reduce the number of employees year-to-date?

Yes. Seb. We had some smaller adjustments, not like bigger topics, but small adjustments here and there. So we continue to make some homework, but no big issues.

And there are 2 questions left. Any new strategic industries, markets, or processes that Aumann is looking on? And can you say something about order intake in Q1 and the sales pipeline?

Yes. I think what we tried to show in the presentation in a little bit more detail to give to give some ideas in Next Automation. So Next Automation for us is important. For us, it was important, especially that we had this growing market or that we had really acquired 1 big project, but also some minor projects in the fourth quarter of 2025. So I think you have seen that I think in the middle of the year, we are roughly 20% higher in order intake in Next Automation. After the third quarter, it was roughly 35% higher. And now after the last quarter, all overall, we have 55% higher. So that means that the sales pipeline, especially in Next Automation is rising. This takes a little bit of time, step-by-step. But as I said, for us, really important was to have for example, this big project within the infrastructure area, yes? So really, in our point of view, really nice project in the infrastructure, but also in clean tech and also in aviation. So in all these areas, now we have the first projects in infrastructure, we even have this big project. So this is important for us. And you have to have in mind that, unfortunately, this order intakes in Next Automation take more time than in E-Mobility because, as I said, the industry is new. We have the customers that are new or the products are new. And this will take a little bit of time also in 2026. So we will not see the big recovery in the first quarter, but we will see step-by-step a very increasing Next Automation.

Thank you very much. And with an eye on the time, we have the last questions. There are 3 questions in a row, and I will take them one by one. The first is Aumann reports EUR 12.2 million in securities apparently in the form of bonds. What specific type of bonds are these?

These are government bonds and corporate bonds, but each with good credit ratings.

And can you provide any information regarding order intake in the first quarter of 2026 broken down by segment?

Honestly speaking, not yet.

We expect significant working capital effects in cash flow in 2026?

Yes. We finished the last 2 or 3 years at relatively low working capital levels. So each year, we expected a little bit working capital increases, but managed to hold the working capital at that low level. For 2026, from today's perspective, I would see some working capital increases maybe back to a level of 15% to 20% of revenue.

And the last question, can Next Automation reach similar EBITDA margin levels at the currently higher ones of 16% E-mobility?

Yes, in general, of course. So we had this high EBITDA margins, especially in E-Mobility in 2026. As said, we finished a project better than expected, which boosted the EBITDA margin end of the year, especially in Q4. For 2026, both segments will be a little bit lower in margins due to the decline in revenue. But in general, we are trying to maintain a good and profitable margin level in both segments. And as we said in the other segments like aviation or life sciences, there are also good margins to reach and achieve.

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we have come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you very much for your interest in the Aumann AG. A big thank you also to you Sebastian and Jan Henrik for your presentation and your time. Should you have any further questions, ladies and gentlemen, you are always very welcome to place them to Investor Relations. I wish you all a successful day around the world and handing back over to Sebastian for some final remarks.

Yes, I hope that we have shown that Aumann will stay strong also in 2026, in, unfortunately, another challenging year for our industry, but we are focusing on what we can control. So that means internally, we are continuously optimizing our cost structure, we are building our sales opportunities in Next Automation. And for sure, we have an eye on M&A activities. So thank you very much for your interest.