Brockhaus Technologies achieves record half-year and confirms its guidance for full year 2022

• Preliminary revenue and earnings within first half of the year at record levels
• Order backlog within the group at high level
• Guidance for 2022 confirmed

Frankfurt am Main, August 9, 2022. Brockhaus Technologies AG (BKHT, ISIN: DE000A2GSU42, „Brockhaus Technologies“) increased its revenue, earnings as well as order backlog within the first half of 2022, according to preliminary numbers, to a record level and confirms its guidance for the full year.

Revenue within the first half year increased by +234% to €75.1 million. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) grew over-proportionally by +954% to €26.9 million. This corresponds to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 35.9% after 11.4% in the previous year period H1 2021. Adjusted EBIT increased by +1,467% as compared to the previous year to €25.1 million at a free cash flow pre-tax of €16.0 million (H1 2021: €1.7 million).

Before adjustments, preliminary revenue amounted to €73.2 million (H1 2021: €22.5 million) with EBITDA of €24.7 million (H1 2021: €1.8 million) and EBIT of €15.0 million (H1 2021: €-2.6 million). EBIT is affected especially by PPA amortizations.

Guidance for fiscal year 2022 confirmed

Brockhaus Technologies continues to expect revenue for the full year 2022 of between €140 – 150 million at an adjusted EBITDA margin of 35%.

„The very positive operational development within the first half year of 2022 with record levels of revenue and earnings makes us optimistic for the full year as well as years to come thereafter. Our optimism is especially based on the resilience of our business model”, says Marco Brockhaus, founder and CEO of Brockhaus Technologies. “Despite the generally difficult market environment and recessive tendencies of the German economy, we remain confident to continue growing both organically and inorganically. The operational development within the first half year underlines that clearly. We are on track.”

Compared to the first half of 2021, growth is predominantly driven by the inclusion of Bikeleasing’s revenue and earnings, which in the previous year period was not part of Brockhaus Technologies yet. Not accounting for the acquisition of Bikeleasing, growth related to the segments that were already part of the group in the previous year period H1 2021 would have amounted to +2%, however, with a record-high order backlog which in total stands +46% above the previous year period.

Bikeleasing: Strong growth in revenue, earnings and new customers in the seasonally stronger second quarter

The segment Financial Technologies, consisting of Bikeleasing, generated revenue of €52.1 million with an adjusted EBITDA of €24.6 million as well as an adjusted EBIT of €23.9 million in the first half of 2022. This corresponds to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 47.3% and adjusted EBIT margin of 45.9%.

Comparative disclosures for H1 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 Bikeleasing platform in the first half of the year increased by +40% to around 61,000 as compared to the previous year period.

By now, more than 40,000 corporate customers with more than 2.1 million employees are using the platform of Bikeleasing. The internationalization that started in Austria is also progressing very well.

Due to the strong operational development, Bikeleasing was also able to repay parts of the loans taken up last year for the acquisition early, out of its organic cash flow.

In addition to a seasonality-related lower business volume, Bikeleasing’s first quarter was characterized by a high degree of refinancing through a green bond. Accounting-wise this resulted in financial liabilities as well as a deferral of income resulting from the leasing contracts over the lease term of 36 months. In the second quarter, most new leasing contracts were refinanced conventionally through the sale of receivables (forfaiting). This does not result in the recognition of financial liabilities on the balance sheet and the essential income realization occurs immediately. With the aim of a leaner balance sheet, Bikeleasing plans to focus mostly on those kinds of refinancing options to the extent feasible.

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

IHSE: Strong rebound and record order backlog despite supply chain challenges

After two years of pandemic with wide-ranging travel and contact restrictions, the segment Security Technologies, consisting of IHSE and kvm-tec, was able to deliver a strong rebound with revenue growth of +17% in the first half year. IHSE generated revenue of €14.9 million at an adjusted EBITDA of €3.0 million. The adjusted EBITDA margin at 20.1% is slightly above the previous year’s level (H1 2021: 16.8%), however still significantly below the target value of 35%, which is mainly due to increased trade show activity post-COVID, the inclusion of the so far lower-margin kvm-tec as well as ramp-up costs of the Chinese subsidiary. Adjusted EBIT grew by +39% as compared to the previous year period to €2.4 million.

Decisive for the positive development was predominantly the increasing order intake after the end of many travel and contact restrictions globally, although the realization of revenue was delayed as supply chains for semiconductors remain challenging. Consequently, and on the back of a strong order intake of €19.1 million in H1 2022, the order backlog of IHSE reached a record high of €12.1 million in July.

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.

Palas: Core business continues to grow double-digit, although below H1 2021 due to a reduction of the previous year’s strong business with mask test rigs

Within the first six months of the year the segment Environmental Technologies, consisting of Palas, generated revenue of €8.1 million at an adjusted EBITDA of €1.8 million as well as an adjusted EBIT of €1.3 million. This corresponds to an EBITDA margin of 22.8% and an EBIT margin of 15.8%

The reason for the lower revenue and earnings numbers as compared to the previous year period lies in the high sales volume with test rigs for the quality control of respiratory masks in the first half year of 2021 related to the COVID pandemic. The demand for those test rigs was already reduced significantly by the second half of 2021, however could not be fully compensated by the growth of Palas’ conventional core business in H1 2022. In addition, lockdowns in China impacted the delivery of products to customers so that revenue could not be realized as planned. Despite that, revenue within the core business of Palas with certified optical instruments for ambient air measurement increased by +11% in the first half of the year. On the back of order intake of €8.8 million, the order backlog of Palas also reached a very high level of €5.7 million as per June 30.

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

Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, adjusted for the cost of acquisition of subsidiaries, cost of equity transactions and share-based payments. Adjusted EBIT is defined as earnings before interest and tax, also adjusted for the cost of acquisition of subsidiaries, cost of equity transactions and share-based payments. Revenue, EBITDA and EBIT are additionally adjusted for effects resulting from purchase price allocations (PPA). Further information on alternative performance measures can be found from page 86 onwards in our annual report 2021.

The half-year financial report H1 2022 of Brockhaus Technologies will be published on Monday,
August 15, 2022.

The earnings call for investors and analysts in English will also take place at 04:00pm (CET) on August 15. If you would like to participate, please register using the following link: https://webcast.meetyoo.de/reg/urYhk5YGKRPV

Financial calendar

August 15, 2022 Publication of Half-Year Report H1 2022

November 14, 2022 Publication of Quarterly Report 9M 2022

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

Paul Göhring
Phone:  +49 69 20 43 40 978
Fax:  +49 69 20 43 40 971
E-Mail:  ir@brockhaus-technologies.com