Bechtle Aktie

Thank you, and welcome to our Bechtle Analyst Conference on the first quarter 2026. I am delighted by your interest. Ladies and gentlemen, today, we are reporting on a strong start to the year for Bechtle AG. We are showing top line and bottom line double-digit growth rates. This is all the more remarkable given that the operating environment remains challenging. Well, with regard to the IT market, I've often said, size matters, and we are seeing this again very clearly now. Bechtle is one of the largest and most important VARs in Europe. Vendors work closely and trustingly with us. And this is paying off, especially in times like these when the IT market is characterized by the so-called memory shortage and the supply chain bottlenecks and clear price increases.

As usual, today's presentation is divided into three main sections. As usual, we start with the essential key financial highlights of the first quarter of the 2026 financial year, which Christian Jehle, our CFO, will present for the first time in the context of the Q1 presentations. Then latest news that is important strategic and developments beyond the figures, and I'm going to present those to you. And also the third part of the presentation, the outlook for 2026, our objectives and the overall economic development, which we expect for the next 3 quarters. But first, let's look at business performance. Mr. Jehle, please.

Thank you, Dr. Olemotz. The first quarter was characterized by difficult geopolitical framework conditions, amongst them, the war in the Middle East and the memory shortage that Dr. Olemotz already mentioned. On the other hand, we also saw high demand from customer groups in all segments. In many talks with our customers and vendors, we were able to find solutions in this respect. A company like Bechtle that stands for customer proximity and cooperation with vendors can benefit from such a situation. And as I said, we started out into the year 2026 excellently.

Let's, first of all, take a look at order intake and the order book. In Q1, order intake went up by 17%, which meant that our order book grew further. This means that Bechtle was able to benefit from the high level of demand. High order intake numbers also give us certainty for the development of Q2, and we see in April already that the development continues. Let's now take a look at the top line. Business volume grew by over 13%. In organic terms, we're at a very good level, 11%, which means that our core business is healthy and intact. And our acquisitions are, of course, an important contribution.

We are managing framework conditions well. Revenue and revenue growth is below the business volume as usual due to IFRS 15 and also the growing software business. Let's now take a look at our segments. All segments made a contribution to our growth, either in the double-digit or high single-digit range. The development in France is remarkable. We're back on a growth path having managed the turnaround. In the rest of Europe, we're growing at 17%, almost 30% when we include our acquisitions. And the good news is that growth is based on a very broad foundation and all customer segments. So this seems to be a sustainable trend.

Let's now take a look at our earnings situation. EBT is growing in double-digit terms. In Q1, we see growth in the top line, a stable profit margin, which makes us feel very confident. Investment into our own IT infrastructure continues, and our measures in cost management are showing the first success. So we still have a very positive message. So our gross margin and our profit margin are healthy in Q1.

Let's now take a look at the segments. Again, the trend is broad-based. All segments make a contribution to our development. We still see a higher share in the classic product business, which you can also see reflected in the margin. In Germany, we have the widest portfolio, established processes, professional management teams and decentralized services. Our specialists also work from a broad basis, and that also is mirrored in profitability. But of course, we're also working towards getting the international segment at the same level of margins.

So to conclude this part, let's take a look at operating cash flow. Operating cash flow in Q1 developed well after a decline the year before. We're now back in the green despite the positive and the important growth we've seen. Inventory has seen a buildup, but it's based on customer demand, and we see that our performance has increased. Also in terms of DSO after the last quarter of 2026 (sic) [ 2025 ], we were at 28 days, and this number used to be 39.

Now let's now take a look at our staff. The staff expansion we saw in Q1 is due to acquisitions only. In organic terms, we see a decline by 1.7%. Here as well, we take very conscious decisions, and we are exercising a moderate approach. By the end of March, 729 young people received training or went through dual study training courses at Bechtle.

Now let's now come to the latest news. Dr. Olemotz, please.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Jehle. The latest news, which we've compiled here, highlights a lot of the key future areas of IT in which we are strategically well positioned, thereby underpinning once again Bechtle's readiness for the future. We look at the topic of quantum computing, an important project in the health care sector. And of course, digital sovereignty is an essential topic here, but we're also looking at a further success in our business with public sector clients and the presentation of many future-oriented topics at the Hannover Fair.

Let's start with quantum computing. We are currently implementing a highly forward-looking project at Heilbronn University of Applied Science. This involves the integration of a so-called IQM Spark quantum computer with which we are creating a platform for teaching, research and practical development. The system by the Finnish manufacturer IQM Quantum Computers will go live later this year and will be supported and further developed by Bechtle over a 3-year period. installation at the tech campus will provide direct access to superconducting quantum hardware for students, researchers and partners.

The aim is to embed quantum computing in education and application at an early stage and to integrate it with the traditional IT and AI environments. The project is also an impressive example of Europe's technological sovereignty as European hardware operations and expertise are closely integrated and the regional innovation ecosystem that has emerged in Heilbronn in recent years is being further expanded.

The functioning innovation ecosystem is also at the heart of the following project in the health care sector. As consortium leader, Bechtle is playing a key role in the WebMedX project. This project aims to make care for people with cardiac insufficiency more digital, more connected and easier to use in everyday life. Together with Würzburg University Hospital and other technical and academic partners, a cross-sector telemedicine platform is being developed to better connect all parties involved. The aim is to close gaps in care in the post-hospitalization phase, prevent readmissions and to sustainably improve care. The digital network is intended to serve as a model for other regions and other conditions and is thus truly relevant for us beyond this individual project.

Bechtle brings comprehensive industry experience in the field of digital health care to the consortium through a team specializing in health care solutions. As consortium leader, Bechtle is responsible for the overall implementation of a viable technological framework for the platform, thereby supporting the transformation of a medically highly relevant care concept into a practical digital solution. Aspects of digital sovereignty also play a major role here, an area that Bechtle has also been active in from an early stage.

Since March, we have been actively promoting the Bechtle Index of Sovereignty, BIoS in short, offering a specific implementation model for customers who wish to take a structured approach to digital sovereignty. BIoS is a proprietary software solution designed for the systematic assessment of the level of digital sovereignty within companies and public organizations. We combine the systematic assessment of key business processes with comprehensive consultancy from certified IT business architects. This enables customers to determine their individual maturity level of digital sovereignty based on data and to track developments on an ongoing basis.

The assessment analyzes data sovereignty, technological independence and capabilities across key business and administrative processes. Bechtle is initially piloting the BIoS assessment in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. However, marketing in other European countries will follow in due course.

In terms of sales, too, the topic of digital sovereignty has now become highly relevant as the following example clearly illustrates. A recent report published just yesterday by GovTech Deutschland highlights a significant sales success for Bechtle in the public sector. We are very happy to have been awarded the contract for the multi-cloud broker within the GovTech framework. With a strong partner network comprising international hyperscalers and European providers, we are creating a centralized, standardized platform for cloud and AI services. This enables public authorities to have fast, secure and flexible access to modern infrastructures and it provides a concrete contribution to digital sovereignty as well as to the successful implementation of the MEDI:CUS health care platform and the so-called Deutschlandplattform. The framework contract is worth EUR 250 million over a 2-year term with two options to extend for a further year each.

Further, digitalization using platform-based ecosystem is playing an increasingly significant role, not only in public administration and medicine, but of course, above all in industrial value creation. At the Hannover Fair, Bechtle demonstrated thus how companies can approach the digitalization of their industrial value chain in a consistent and end-to-end manner. The guiding principle behind the exhibition stand was the intelligent integration of various dimensions of modern industrial digitalization. To this end, Bechtle brought together the expertise of various specialized units within the group and together with partners, presented practical application examples and innovations.

This year, Bechtle further expanded its presence at the world's largest industrial trade fair. At the Bechtle Group stand, visitors were able to view an integrated portfolio spanning the fields of engineering, OT security and manufacturing, the industrial Internet of Things and business integration.

Ladies and gentlemen, so much on the strategically relevant news in the past months of the financial year. Let us now turn to the outlook. We have started the year with a good first quarter. This is very encouraging and makes us confident as regards to the remainder of the year. As I've mentioned at the start, this is all the more remarkable given that, unfortunately, the economic conditions have not improved significantly. The fact that we are coping well with these difficult conditions is a very positive sign.

Against this backdrop, we are confident regarding the developments in the second quarter above all in view of the tremendous order intake. And according to the first preliminary figures, April is showing as positive a picture as the previous months. On the other hand, uncertainties remain in connection with the geopolitical situation and also regarding the IT-specific situation. Our vendor partners have already announced further price increases. Visibility as regards the second half of the year remains limited. Customers -- being close to customers and vendors are particularly relevant here, and that is the strength of Bechtle.

Well, in concrete terms, this means for our outlook, we confirm our guidance from March 2026. In the first quarter, we demonstrated that we can grow profitably even under difficult conditions, and we expect this to hold true for the full year as well. We will continue to closely monitor the dynamic developments, particularly in the IT market and regularly review whether our guidance still accurately reflects the situation. Nevertheless, I would like to remind you, as does Christian Jehle, that we have planned significant investment in our own IT for this year, which will be reflected in the bottom line, of course.

However, this does not change the fact that we remain convinced of the positive development of the Bechtle Group even at difficult times as these. That, ladies and gentlemen, concludes our review of the first quarter of 2026 and the outlook for the rest of the 2026 financial year. Thank you so much. And we are now ready to take your questions.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

Thank you. Welcome to our analyst conference on Bechtle AG's third quarter of 2025. Thank you for your interest. Ladies and gentlemen, as you all know, we have had some very turbulent quarter, quarters in which Bechtle's business volume growth was unusually low quarters in which our earnings were below those of the same period last year.

Although the reasons were understandable, the situation was nevertheless unfamiliar and unsatisfactory for all of us. Today, however, we can look back on a quarter in which the signs are finally pointing in the right direction. Business volume, revenue and earnings are up and have improved year-on-year. Is this the long-awaited lasting turnaround? I don't want to dampen the excitement right at the start. But unfortunately, we won't be able to answer that question definitively today. However, we will take a closer look at where the improvement in the third quarter came from and why we're optimistic about Q4.

As usual, today's presentation is divided into 3 main sections. As usual, we start with a more detailed look at our key economic indicators for the third quarter and the first 9 months of the 2025 financial year, both at group level and at segment level. This will be followed by some important strategic events beyond the figures that are important for the future of the company before we end up with the outlook for 2025 and the end of the year, so the next few weeks, in fact.

But first of all, let's take a look at business development. Ladies and gentlemen, the third quarter saw encouraging developments. You will no doubt have seen the figures in our press release earlier today. However, this does not mean that the all clear can be given across the board. We still see regions and areas where we face major challenges. Unfortunately, the overall economic conditions have not yet improved significantly and in all regions. But with growth in all relevant KPIs, we have taken an important and significant step in the right direction. Our top line has grown, and we have repeatedly emphasized that stronger growth is also an important prerequisite for improving our earnings. In addition, we have also been able to rein in cost growth, resulting in EBT growth in Q3 for the first time in 5 quarters.

Let us now take a look at the aforementioned top line development, that is business volume. At 8.4%, business volume growth is once again in the high single-digit range and thus within our long-term target range. In purely organic terms, growth amounted to 6.2%. This chart clearly shows the positive development over the course of the year. We have grown from quarter-to-quarter. And allow me to make a small side note. For the first time ever, we exceeded the EUR 2 billion mark in business volume in the third quarter. It is this positive trend, in particular, that makes us confident about the fourth quarter.

For the segments and the regions, this means the following: our international performance is particularly impressive, in my view. We achieved growth of no less than 17% here. And in organic terms, the figure is still almost 12%. These figures clearly demonstrate that our international M&A strategy was the right one. It has broadened our footprint and significantly reduced our dependence on economic ups and downs in individual countries, especially the markets in Belgium and the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Spain have developed very positively. And it is no coincidence that these are precisely the countries in which we have strengthened our position through acquisitions in recent years. We have thus not only strengthened our existing business activities in these countries, but also used a multichannel approach to tap into new customer groups and support our existing customers with a broader service portfolio.

Let's now take a look at revenue. At first glance, the picture is not surprising. Due to the application of IFRS 15, you're familiar with the context, revenue is lower than business volume. However, we can also see that the discrepancy between business volume and revenue is not quite as pronounced as it was in the past. This is not because our software business has become less successful, but rather because our customers increased their investment in the replacement of their client infrastructure in Q3.

In the end, we don't always know with certainty why a customer chooses to invest in their infrastructure. However, one possible driver in the past quarter may well have been the switch from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Our internal analysis of these developments is still ongoing. The revitalization of our trading business is also an important factor when considering the earnings side. That is EBT. Our EBT grew by 2.4% year-on-year in the third quarter. That is certainly no reason to get overly excited just yet. But ladies and gentlemen, after 5 quarters of declining results, it is indeed very positive news that we are back on the growth path with our earnings.

Even more remarkable, however, is the momentum we saw over the course of the quarter. Compared to Q2, we have improved our earnings by over 20%. The swing amounts to almost 23 percentage points. If we continue to see comparable momentum in the fourth quarter, we will achieve our guidance for the full year 2025. There are 2 main reasons for this positive development. One, due to increased hardware sales, we were more successful than in the first half of the year in obtaining vendor bonuses and kickbacks. And two, the increase in costs was very moderate. Other operating expenses increased at a lower rate than revenue did. And personnel costs in the third quarter were below the level of Q1.

And so to conclude our review of the key figures, the obligatory plants at the operating cash flow. Cash flow, too, developed very positively in the third quarter. It sounds at almost EUR 125 million, reflecting the usual seasonal trend at Bechtle. Not only do we see a clear improvement over the course of the year, we're also within striking distance of the already very strong quarter last year. It is remarkable that we were able to achieve this level despite the upturn in our operating business, especially in September. Normally, such developments are also reflected in cash flow, albeit with higher receivables and inventories on the reporting date, which have a negative impact on this key ratio. This reflects the success of the measures we have implemented in recent years as part of our working capital management, enabling us to better buffer operational cash flow growth, so to speak.

So let us now turn to our workforce. As of the 30th of September 2025, Bechtle had 16,300 employees. That's 692 people or 4.4% more than in the same quarter of the previous year. This increase is exclusively due to acquisitions. The acquisition of Grupo Solutia in Spain alone brought 646 new colleagues to the Bechtle Group. In purely organic terms, the number of employees fell by 1.6%. It remains a deliberate management decision not to expand the workforce further in these challenging times. We are currently relying on natural attrition and are not immediately refilling vacant positions. However, we continue to invest consistently in the training of young people. We are, therefore, very pleased to have welcomed 251 young colleagues at the start of the 2025 training year. As of this 30th of September, a total of 853 young people were in training at Bechtle. And so as is customary at this point, let us turn to what we consider to be the nonfinancial significant events of the third quarter of 2025.

These latest announcements are all forward-looking and underlying Bechtle's future viability. So this time, we look ahead to an important personnel change, 2 acquisitions and perhaps rather surprising announcement on the subject of digital sovereignty and a milestone in our sustainability strategy.

Well, let's start with the personnel change. At the beginning of this week, we published a statement that replaces the question mark behind my succession with an exclamation mark, if you allow me to put it like this. My fellow Board member, Konstantin Ebert, is to take over my position as CEO at Bechtle from January 2027 onwards. Together with the nomination of Chris Jehle as CFO on 1st of January 2026, my succession has thus been settled for the long term and early on. It was important to the Supervisory Board and to me that the transition could take place calmly and according to plan. We have now created the conditions for this. And in doing so, we are once again underlining Bechtle's reliability, both internally as an employer towards our customers but also towards the capital market.

And just to anticipate any questions you might have. My contract runs until the 31st of December 2026. And until then, I will continue to work with the same energy and disciplined, full conviction and enthusiasm for Bechtle.

Let's now take a look at our international acquisitions. With Nuovamacut Automazione, Bechtle has acquired the largest partner for SOLIDWORKS in the Mediterranean region. The company was founded in 1995, is headquartered in Bologna. Has 7 other locations in Italy's most economically powerful regions. The company employs 149 people, and it has to achieved the business volume of over EUR 63 million in the past financial year. The CAD and PLM specialist is the market leader in Italy and counts around 5,000 predominantly midsized companies from the manufacturing industry among its customers. This is an important step for our European positioning in the PLM solution business.

We've also acquired the Dutch IT service provider ITAM Solutions based in Eindhoven. Founded in 2007, the company specializes in IT asset management solutions and offers its customers comprehensive consulting services for cloud cost management. ITAM Solutions employs 38 people and achieved a business volume of EUR 4.4 million in the past financial year. The specialist has already been fully integrated into our subsidiary, PQR.

This brings us to the topic of digital sovereignty, which is currently a subject of intense debate throughout Europe and Germany, in particular. In this field, which is important for the future of all of us, we have broken with our previous strategy of not entering a market as an early adopter by developing a software-based measurement method for assessing digital sovereignty, a measurement method that does not yet exist in this form. The Bechtle Index of Sovereignty is designed to have business and public sector organizations to determine the maturity level of their digital sovereignty in a structured manner and derive concrete measures based on the results. The Bechtle Index of Sovereignty will be rolled out in the first quarter of 2026 and is currently truly unique in the IT market.

The Bechtle Index of Sovereignty focuses on the dimension of data ownership, technological independence and strategic autonomy. The benefits for the customers are, amongst others, that they gain transparency around potential dependencies. They can identify risks that compromise independent decision-making and action and they can take meaningful steps to strengthen their digital sovereignty over the long term.

Finally, let's take a look at our activities in the area, sustainability. We have now received official confirmation from the science-based target initiatives, SBTi insured, that our net 0 targets meet the criteria of the SBTi. Following the validation of our near and midterm climate goals earlier this year, our recently submitted long-term net zero targets for 2050 have now also been assessed and approved in line with scientifically recognized standards. With it sets net zero targets, Bechtle commits to reducing absolute greenhouse gas emissions across Scope 1 and 2 by 90% by 2050. And in the relevant areas of Scope 3, the company aims to cut emissions by 97% per EUR 1,000 of value creation and remaining emissions are to be neutralized. The key levers for decarbonization are the areas of energy, mobility and procurement. The validation of the 2050 targets underlines Bechtle's long-term commitment to climate protection and sustainability along the entire value chain.

This brings us to the outlook, ladies and gentlemen. Well, the overall economic situation remains tense. In our largest national markets, Germany and France, in particular, we are still seeing a certain reluctance among our SMB customers to invest in IT. However, we're also seeing an upturn in business with our public sector customers and higher demand in our traditional e-commerce business. During the third quarter, this upturn was particularly strong in September. And according to the first operating figures available for October, this positive trend is continuing, and this also goes for November. In concrete terms, this means our outlook in terms of business volume and revenue, we are on track with our guidance for the full year of the 9 months. However, we still need to catch up in terms of EBT.

And of course, we know that the required EBT growth of at least 25% in the fourth quarter is ambitious, indeed. But with the momentum like we saw in the third quarter that target is achievable. The swing of around 23 percentage points that we saw in Q3 is exactly the growth that would help us to achieve our guidance in the fourth quarter as well. And we've already proven several times in the past that we can deliver a strong finish. We are, therefore, confident that we will be able to achieve our EBT target within the specified range. And in this respect, we are once again confirming our guidance from March 2025.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is all we have to say about our performance in the third quarter of 2025 and the outlook for the fourth quarter of 2025. Thank you very much for your attention, and I'm looking forward to your questions.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]