Brockhaus Technologies AG: Publication of Annual Report 2021; medium-term growth targets from the IPO already achieved two years ahead of schedule

Brockhaus Technologies AG: Publication of Annual Report 2021; medium-term growth targets from the IPO already achieved two years ahead of schedule

– As-is and pro forma forecast respectively achieved and exceeded

– Pro forma revenue increased by +145.3% to € 126.5 million

– Adjusted pro forma EBITDA increased by +292.7% to € 48.2 million at a margin of 38.1% (previous year: 23.8%)

– Forecast 2022 with revenue between € 140 – 150 million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 35%

Frankfurt am Main, May 2, 2022. Brockhaus Technologies AG (BKHT, ISIN: DE000A2GSU42), a technology group focused on acquiring high-margin and high-growth technology and innovation champions within the German Mittelstand, today announced its results for fiscal year 2021.

Fiscal year 2021 was a transformative year for Brockhaus Technologies. Two acquisitions were successfully completed in 2021 with the proceeds from the IPO in 2020 – Bikeleasing and kvm-tec. More than ever, Brockhaus Technologies is combining high-margin and high-growth technology and innovation leaders under one roof.

Brockhaus Technologies achieved revenue of € 66.5 million and adjusted EBITDA of € 21.8 million in the fiscal year 2021. This corresponds to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 32.8% and thereby exceeds the revenue forecast of € 62 million and the expected EBITDA margin of over 23.8% significantly.

On a pro forma basis, as if the acquisitions of Bikeleasing and kvm-tec had already taken place on January 1, 2021, Brockhaus Technologies generated revenue of € 126.5 million (+145.3% year-on-year), adjusted EBITDA of € 48.2 million (+292.7% year-on-year) and a corresponding adjusted EBITDA margin of 38.1% (previous year: 23.8%). This means that the Group not only more than doubled its revenue and almost quadrupled its EBITDA, but also met its pro forma revenue forecast of between € 125 – 135 million and clearly exceeded its expected adjusted EBITDA of between € 42 – 46 million.

“We achieved our medium-term growth targets only 18 months after going public in July 2020, which was actually twice as fast as projected during the IPO, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” said Marco Brockhaus, CEO and founder of Brockhaus Technologies.

Bikeleasing: Integration successfully completed

Bikeleasing is now fully integrated into the technology group. The new Financial Technologies segment, consisting of Bikeleasing, achieved pro forma revenue of € 72.6 million in the reporting period with an adjusted pro forma EBITDA margin of 54.8%. This corresponds to continued strong revenue growth of +101.9% year-on-year and underlines the scalability of the platform business model. Bikeleasing develops and operates a digital B2B finance platform for the facilitation, financing, and management of employee benefits through the employer. In fiscal year 2021, Bikeleasing grew the number of connected corporate customers on its platform to over 32,000, whose employees ordered and financed more than 80,000 new company bikes over the Bikeleasing platform.

IHSE: Acquisition of kvm-tec as important strategic addition to the technology portfolio

In acquiring kvm-tec, IHSE complemented its already leading proprietary KVM technology portfolio through the addition of a KVM-over-IP solution and can now provide customers around the world with flexible KVM solutions to meet all needs. IHSE is a leading manufacturer of KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) technologies for highly secure, low-latency and loss-free data transmission in mission-critical applications. The acquisition also means that IHSE will be able to tap into a global KVM-over-IP customer base and expects to leverage significant production and sales synergies. Business in the Security Technologies segment, which comprises IHSE and kvm-tec, continued to be impacted in the reporting period by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Renewed lockdowns and continued travel and contact restrictions caused delays in order intake and revenue realization in all regions, particularly with respect to large KVM projects. Together with kvm-tec, IHSE posted pro forma revenue of € 32.7 million, only slightly below the previous year’s figure while order backlog increased significantly. The adjusted pro forma EBITDA margin came to 25.5%.

Palas: Almost five-fold increase in Chinese revenue following successful internationalization

The Environmental Technologies segment, which consists of Palas, continued to perform very well in the reporting period: With revenue rising by +17.5% to € 21.3 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 34.4%, Palas can look back on a record year 2021. Palas develops, manufactures, and sells high-precision devices for measuring, characterizing, and generating particles in air, such as fine dust and nanoparticles. Particularly in the first half of the year, Palas continued to generate significant revenue from the sale of equipment for testing the effectiveness of respiratory masks, sales volumes of which however fell considerably in the second half of the fiscal year already. Additionally, with the measures for containing the COVID-19 pandemic gradually lifted, the core business of Palas for certified fine dust measurement experienced a return. Palas also increased revenue in the Asia-Pacific region by +124.6% to € 4.3 million and by a factor of five in China. This strong performance is due to the establishment of its own sales entity in Shanghai in 2020, Palas’ first internationalization step.

Outlook

Brockhaus Technologies projects revenue of between € 140 – 150 million for the current fiscal year, with a continuously high adjusted EBITDA margin of 35%.

With regard to inorganic growth driven by further acquisitions, CEO Marco Brockhaus is confident: “We want to continue growing selectively. We are working on this with vigor, a clear head and strong principles by remaining true to our strategy and our high expectations of these companies. After one-and-a-half years as a publicly listed company, we are very solidly positioned with three subsidiaries. Our long-term objective is to finance new acquisitions from our subsidiaries’ organic cash flow. In that way we would avoid capital increases and the dilution effect they entail. Our interests in that respect are aligned with those of our shareholders, because we, the Brockhaus Technologies Team, are still the largest group of shareholders.”

EBITDA is calculated as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, adjusted for the cost of acquisition of subsidiaries, costs of equity transactions to be recognized in profit or loss and costs of share-based payments. Both revenue and EBITDA are also adjusted for effects from purchase price allocations (PPA). Further information on our key performance indicators can be found in Note 7 to the 2021 Consolidated Financial Statements (page 86 of the 2021 Annual Report).

The Annual Report 2021 is now available at https://ir.bcm-ag.com/websites/brockhaus/English/3000/publications.html.

The earnings call for investors and analysts in English will take place at 4:00 pm (CET) on May 3. If you would like to participate, please register here: https://webcast.meetyoo.de/reg/hBlQY504LXRm

Financial calendar

May 16, 2022 Quarterly Report Q1 2022

June 22, 2022 Annual General Meeting 2022

August 15, 2022 Publication of Half-Yearly Report

November 14, 2022 Quarterly Report Q3 2022

About Brockhaus Technologies AG

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 details

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

For media:
Jeanette Kehrein
Phone: +49 69 20 43 40 978
Fax: +49 69 20 43 40 971
Email: presse@brockhaus-technologies.com