EQS-News: Brockhaus Technologies AG: Brockhaus Technologies remains on record course after nine months – fully year forecast raised

Brockhaus Technologies remains on record course after nine months – fully year forecast raised

• Revenue before PPA grown by +268% in 9M 2022 to € 125.8 million.
• High adjusted EBITDA margin 9M 2022 of 38%
• Free cash flow before taxes of € 27.0 million compared to € 2.0 million in the previous year
• All three business segments with continued profitable growth in the third quarter

 

Frankfurt am Main, November 14, 2022. Brockhaus Technologies AG (BKHT, ISIN: DE000A2GSU42) has fully confirmed the nine-month figures communicated in an ad hoc release on November 10, 2022. Revenue, EBITDA and EBIT as well as Free Cash Flow before taxes reached a new record level in the first nine months of the fiscal year. Based on this strong operational development, management raised its forecast for the full year 2022 significantly.

Brockhaus Technologies today published its quarterly statement 9M 2022. In the first nine months, revenue before PPA increased by +268% to € 125.8 million. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) rose over proportionally by +835% to € 47.6 million. This corresponds to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 37.9% after 14.9% in the same previous year period 9M 2021. At the same time adjusted EBIT increased by +1,115% compared to the previous year to € 44.5 million. With regards to the outstanding shares of Brockhaus Technologies, this corresponds to adjusted earnings per share of € 1.17 as compared to € 0.03 in the previous year. Free cash flow before taxes, which had already risen sharply from € 1.7 million to € 16.0 million in the first half of 2022, continued to develop positively in the third quarter to € 27.0 million.

Based on the strong operational development in combination with a generally high cash conversion, the group's debt was further reduced significantly. Bikeleasing alone, for instance, was able to make a further voluntary early repayment of € 15 million in the third quarter on one of the acquisition loans in connection with its acquisition from November 2021. Against this background and with cash and cash equivalents of € 22.9 million as well as a very solid equity ratio of 42.8% (reporting date: September 30, 2022), Brockhaus Technologies is very well positioned in balance sheet and financial terms for the planned future growth – be it organic or inorganic.

"We were able to continue the strong profitable growth of the first half of the year in the third quarter of fiscal year 2022, underlining the very high resilience of our business model in a difficult geopolitical as well as macroeconomic environment," commented Marco Brockhaus, CEO of Brockhaus Technologies, on the latest results. „Even though the share price development in this current environment does not reflect the outstanding operational development, we are proud of and convinced by the value of our technology group, which is also observable in the analysts‘ estimates.“

Strong, profitable growth of all segments in the third quarter

The Financial Technologies segment, consisting of Bikeleasing, continued to develop strongly. In the first nine months of 2022, Bikeleasing generated revenue before PPA of € 87.5 million, at an adjusted EBITDA of € 41.7 million and an adjusted EBIT of € 40.4 million. This corresponds to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 47.6% and an adjusted EBIT margin of 46.1%.

Comparative disclosures for 9M 2021 are not possible under IFRS, since Bikeleasing only compiled financial information according to German GAAP until Brockhaus Technologies obtained control over the business in the acquisition end of November 2021. The continued strong growth trend however can be clearly illustrated by operating KPIs. The number of bicycles facilitated through the digital Bikeleasing platform in the first nine months of the year increased by +43% to around 99,000. The number of corporate customers on the Bikeleasing platform, an important indicator of future growth potential, also increased further compared to the end of the first half year, from around 40,000 to c. 43,000. Around 2.4 million employees can now access the solution via the companies connected to the Bikeleasing platform. In Austria, Bikeleasing also showed noticeable success from its recently launched internationalization strategy.

Bikeleasing develops and operates a digital B2B finance platform for the facilitation, financing and management of company bicycles.

The Security Technologies segment, comprising IHSE and kvm-tec, seamlessly continued the growth of the first half of the year in the third quarter. Within the first nine months of the year, IHSE and kvm-tec together generated revenue of € 24.1 million (+19.5% vs. 9M 2021) at an adjusted EBITDA of € 5.4 million and an adjusted EBIT of € 4.5 million. This corresponds to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22.4% and an adjusted EBIT margin of 18.9%.

The market recovery following the partial lifting of corona-related travel and contact restrictions of the previous two years continued unabated. The US business in particular continued to develop very positively in the third quarter, while China activities continued to be impacted by lockdowns. On the back of a high order backlog, a further positive development is also expected for the remaining fiscal year.

IHSE is a leading developer of KVM technology (Keyboard, Video and Mouse) for the highly secure, latency reduced and loss free transmission of data in “mission critical” application, both proprietarily as well as via IP.

The Environmental Technologies segment, consisting of Palas, also showed a very positive performance with continuously strong growth. Within the first nine months of the year, Palas generated revenue of € 14.2 million with an adjusted EBITDA of € 4.3 million and an adjusted EBIT of € 3.4 million. This corresponds to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 30.2% and an adjusted EBIT margin of 24.0%.

The third quarter was significantly up on the prior-year quarter, mainly due to strong demand in the core business with certified optical measuring instruments for ambient air measurement. This growth in the core business was able to fully compensate for the already communicated decline in business with test rigs for respiratory masks, which had grown strongly in the previous year due to Corona.

Palas develops, manufactures, and sells high-precision devices for measuring, characterizing, and generating particles in air, such as fine dust and nanoparticles.

Forecast for fiscal year 2022 raised

On the back of the strong operational development within the first nine months of the year, management expects to exceed the previous forecast. Management now expects revenue before PPA of between €150 and 155 million (previous forecast: €140 – 150 million) for fiscal year 2022, which corresponds to growth of between 19% and 23% as compared to the pro forma revenue of 2021 (previous forecast: growth between 11% and 19%). With regards to the adjusted EBITDA margin, Brockhaus Technologies confirms the current forecast of 35%.

Further details can be found in the quarterly statement 9M 2022 at https://ir.brockhaus-technologies.com/websites/brockhaustechnologies/English/3000/publications.html.

The earnings call regarding the quarterly statement 9M 2022 will take place in English on this Monday, November 14, at 04:00pm (CET). Interested parties can register for the call using the following link: https://webcast.meetyoo.de/reg/XzwLxcWQp8ba

 

Financial calendar

November 17 – 18, 2022 M.M. Warburg & CO – Meet The Future Conference

November 28 – 30, 2022 Deutsches Eigenkapitalforum

 

About Brockhaus Technologies

Based in Frankfurt am Main, Brockhaus Technologies AG (BKHT, ISIN: DE000A2GSU42) is a technology group that acquires high-margin, high-growth technology and innovations champions with B2B business models in the German Mittelstand. With a unique platform approach and a long-term horizon, Brockhaus Technologies actively and strategically supports its subsidiaries in achieving profitable long-term growth, both across industries and internationally. At the same time, Brockhaus Technologies offers a gateway into these non-listed German technology champions, which are otherwise inaccessible to capital market investors. For further information, please visit www.brockhaus-technologies.com

 

Contact information

For investors:

Paul Göhring

Phone: +49 69 20 43 40 978

Fax:  +49 69 20 43 40 971

E-Mail:  [email protected]

 

For media:

GFD - Gesellschaft für Finanzkommunikation
Phone:  +49 69 97 12 47 33

Fax:  +49 69 97 12 47 20

E-Mail:  [email protected]