Bertrandt Aktiengesellschaft (BDT) Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to today's earnings call of the Bertrandt AG following the publication of the Q1 figures of 2025, 2026. I'm delighted to welcome the CFO, Markus Ruf; and Head of Investor Relations, Bjorn Voss, who will guide us through the presentation in a moment. After the presentation, we will move on to a Q&A session in which you will be able to place your questions directly via online chat. With this said, I hand over to you, Mr. Voss. The stage is yours.

Yes. Good afternoon also from my side, ladies and gentlemen. We will now guide you through the Q1 results we have realized for the last quarter. And with this, I will hand over to Markus.

Thank you for the introduction. So first of all, the first quarter developed a little bit better than expected. So we are satisfied with the first quarter. And as you know, the general conditions are unchanged. So there are also some challenges about the market. But we see also initial signs of recovery in Germany towards the end of the quarter. And especially, we are a little bit more optimistic because we see significantly higher order income in the first quarter, and we continue to act all cost items down, as you can see in our profit and loss account, F3 program accomplished and also further adjustments ongoing. So let's have a look on the first quarter. So we achieved EUR 234 million sales. So -- and you can see it is in comparison to the last year, minus 12%. But in comparison to the fourth quarter, it is stable with EUR 234 million. And you can see EBIT a bit positive with EUR 0.2 million in comparison to the previous year, minus EUR 2 million and the EPS from EUR 0.27 and really positive free cash flow from EUR 47 million and a high equity ratio from 46% so reflects a solid balance sheet. So as I mentioned, total sales stabilized quarter-on-quarter. So you can see on the right side, EUR 234 million versus EUR 235 million from the fourth quarter from the last fiscal year, so in comparison to the last fiscal year. And you can also see the effect from our redundancy program on our headcount. So today, roughly 12,000 employees and 4,000 are abroad and 8,000 in Germany. So you can see our redundancy program is successful, and you can also see the impact on our profit and loss account. And you can also see the positive impact from our cost optimization program. So personnel expenses, minus EUR 28 million, also material expenses, but also especially other operating expenses from EUR 2.3 million year-on-year and also D&A, EUR 1.9 million. And there's also a one-off item including in Q1 from EUR 1.5 million in the other operating expenses. And also, I think interesting for you, our foreign subsidiaries with positive results. So we are successful developing in Spain, in China and in Romania, in [ Maruc ] -- so just on a good way. And on the right side, you can see 0.2 million EBIT and in comparison to the previous year, minus EUR 2.2 million. You can see the development. And in comparison to the last quarter, EUR 3 million, but please consider the last quarter had 4 working days more -- 4 working days more. So you can see we are on a good way. So total sales, as I mentioned, EUR 234 million, material expenses from EUR 28.9 million and also personnel expenses, you can see a much better cost ratio from 74.7% and based on headcount development, and other benefits from the cost optimization program, D&A regular declined and other operating income, as I mentioned, including a one-off from EUR 1.5 million and other operating income from EUR 1.25 million. So solid balance sheet with EUR 635 million. And you can see there's a movement in the cash and cash equivalents position and also in the net financial debt. So the loan was due in December, and we repaid it in December. And you can see the effect in the equity ratio from 46.4%. And you see also net financial debt from EUR 157 million in comparison to the previous year, EUR 179 million. So forecast fiscal year, economic and geopolitical environment remain volatile and challenging. But we see ongoing and accelerated transfer of R&D in international locations. And as I mentioned, we see a much higher order income and normalize, we expect the car loss from the new contracts with the beginning of March, April. And so we expect a much better and stronger H2. And especially, we will see the completely cost effects from the cost optimization program in the whole fiscal year. And also positive for Bertrandt, a lot of customers announced a lot of new models and technology, more hybrid solutions, more IC models, also more EV models and this is positive for Bertrandt. Every new technology, new models need engineering and needs especially testing and validation. And we see also diversification and balanced customer base. We are successful on the way with aviation and defense customers was really successful in the first quarter, and we see also much more potential for the whole fiscal year. And additionally, regulatory requirements, competitive and innovation drives R&D budgets. So we confirm our guidance. Total revenues for the whole fiscal year growth moderately up year-on-year. We confirm also positive EBIT for '25, '26 and also significantly up on operating cash flow and also our midterm margin ambition between 6% and 9%. So summary, market environment stabilizing, recovery of order income. Sales still down year-on-year on higher prior year base, but stable quarter-on-quarter, as I mentioned, and we will see the benefits from our cost optimization program in the current fiscal year. And I think we have a really solid balance sheet with 46% equity ratio. And as I mentioned, we see also a normalization of call-offs with the beginning of March, April and a strong H2 and especially a really strong Q4 with a normalized call-off volume and the fully impact of our cost optimization program. So thank you for your attention. Now we are ready for your questions.

Just a quick call to give you some -- give you enough room to raise your questions, if you like. [ Mara ], would you coordinate them, please?

Yes. Thank you so much for the present. [Operator Instructions]. So far, we have not received any questions, not in the chat box or raising hands. So please, ladies and gentlemen, the stage is yours. Feel free to raise your hand and ask any kind of questions you have.

If there are no questions, no worries, I'm available anyways. So if you want to have a one-on-one dialogue, of course.

With this said, we actually just received a question in our chat box from Mr. Salvador. He is asking, it would be great to hear more about cash flow generation in 2 hours or next year.

I think he is referring to the second half H2 maybe.

Yes, maybe. And he said, yes, I guess so.

Yes. So for the whole fiscal year, we are expecting a strong operating cash flow and also positive free cash flow because based on a really tough working capital management and based on low CapEx volume because I think you have seen in the last fiscal year, we had CapEx from around about EUR 9 million, and I expect also a low CapEx volume for this year. And with a normalized margin level, we will see a cash flow generation.

So guidance is significantly up year-over-year. And yes, I think normally, during the year, the first quarter is quite strong in terms of cash flow, also the fourth quarter, so maybe a little weaker in the second and third quarter, but this is the normal development we see every year.

Thank you. And thank you so much for your question, Mr. Salvador. We just received another question by Mr. Salvador again. He says, thank you. Just a follow-up non-auto business initiatives.

So we have aero and defense initiatives, and we are working for aero and defense customers across our Europe, so in Spain, in France and in Germany and also in Italy. And we see there's much more potential for Bertrandt, and we implemented also additional sales capacity because there's a big demand. And today, I think we have around about EUR 80 million revenues, and we see in the next years, there's also potential up to EUR 300 million.

In the defense and aerospace field.

In the defense and aero field business, and we see or we expect also much more growth for the second half year.

Perfect. Thank you so much. We have not received any raised hands nor other questions. So please, ladies and gentlemen, feel free to still ask your questions into the chat or raise your hand. If there are any occurring questions at a later time, you can always contact Investor Relations.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you for your interest. We have seen many of you already in the last weeks, and we are looking forward to see you in person in May 13, when we will have our Capital Markets Day in evening in close by Stuttgart. We will maybe also webcast it online. But of course, we would really appreciate to see you in person. So with this, this call ends, and thank you, Markus. Thank you, [ Mara ].

Thank you. Bye.

Thank you so much for joining and your interest. And a big thank you also to you, Mr. Ruf and Mr. Voss for your presentation and the time you took to answer the questions. I wish you all a lovely remaining week. And I would hand over again to some final remarks.

No, we are fine. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Bye.