My name is Sarah, and I'm delighted to be your host today. With me is Aumann's CEO, Sebastian Roll, and CFO, Jan-Henrik Pollitt, so the gentlemen will speak shortly and guide us through the presentation and the results. As always, afterwards, you have the opportunity to ask your questions directly to them. Having said this, Sebastian, I already hand over to you.
Yeah, thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for the kind introduction and a warm welcome from both of us. Let me quickly introduce myself. My name is Sebastian Roll, and I'm the CEO of Aumann. Joining me today is my colleague, Jan-Henrik Pollitt, our CFO, and I really appreciate your interest in Aumann and this earnings call. Over the next few minutes, we will take you through a brief overview of Aumann, our view on the current market trends, especially in E-mobility and automation, and of course, a look at our key financials, including our strong financial performance in 2024. Let's start with our business model. We build high-end, fully automated production lines tailored to the needs of our global customers. With decades of experience, industry leaders rely on Aumann's solutions to set new production standards.
One of our competitive advantages is staying ahead in fast-growing markets, enabling us to quickly provide customized solutions. This is why the automotive market, especially the E-mobility sector, remains so attractive for us. The transition to E-mobility and the shift in products continues to create strong momentum. In addition, there is a fast-growing robotics and automation market. Trends like demographic change, labor shortages, and cost pressure are driving demand. We plan to expand our focus on these opportunities going forward. Let's take a quick look at Aumann's solutions. Our portfolio ranges from modular solutions and complex process solutions to large-scale production solutions. In modular solutions, Aumann offers standardized cell systems. They enable our customers to react flexibly and cost-optimized on market demands. In addition, Aumann develops production lines for complex processes such as winding, coating, and testing. The aim is to implement special process steps in the most efficient way.
Moreover, Aumann offers customized large-scale production solutions built for maximum output while ensuring high quality. Thanks to Aumann's wide range of solutions, we can fully support different production goals of our customers. This slide shows how Aumann became a technology leader in e-mobility. Starting from the traditional automotive market, E-mobility was identified as a target market. Through strategic M&A, Aumann took the first step into the e-motor. Building on our know-how, we developed different solutions for the rotor, quickly followed by solutions for the stator, and finally the full e-motor assembly. After the e-motor, we continued our journey using our skills to sell large-scale production solutions for battery modules and packs. In addition, we introduced our own modular systems, for example, for inverter assembly. Furthermore, with our latest acquisition, we entered into a new field, converting technologies. This enables us to provide production solutions for electrode manufacturing.
This illustration shows the result of our journey. It presents the drivetrain of a fully electric car, and with the exception of the tires, every single component can be produced on Aumann production lines. Of course, this requires a colorful mix of competencies. This means alongside our key competencies such as assembly, automation, and joining, we also offer specialized processes like converting, winding, and testing. Right from the start, Aumann placed a clear focus on the eDrive unit. Currently, each customer follows very different approaches in development. As a turnkey provider, Aumann offers all the latest production solutions for both stators and rotors. In addition to its existing operations, Aumann has ventured into the inverter business over the past two years. Now, let's shift our focus to our battery portfolio. Our growth over the last years is mainly driven by our strong position in the field of battery systems.
From our perspective, we benefit for two reasons. Firstly, as a pioneer in technology, we cover the full range from battery modules and packs to cell-to-X solutions. Secondly, new designs like cell-to-X set high demands and we delivered the production technology to match. Additionally, with our converting technology, we are able to provide production solutions for electrode manufacturing. Last but not least, we round out our E-mobility portfolio with over 15 years of experience in fuel cell technology. Aumann delivers cutting-edge production solutions from coating and stacking to final assembly. The result: tailor-made solutions across the entire value chain. Let's take a look at the E-mobility market. BEV sales are growing fast. Triple-digit growth is expected worldwide over the next five years. China stays in the lead, but the U.S. market, which currently shows the lowest volume in comparison, is growing by more than 360%.
Europe also grows over 300%, reaching 7.6 million units. By 2030, BEVs are expected to make up 40% of sales; by 2035, even two-thirds. The future seems bright, and our global customers are fully committed. Nevertheless, as you know, the industry has faced a slowdown in 2024. As a result, investments were put on hold and timelines were shifted. The E.U. is now likely to adjust emission targets, giving our customers more time. The transformation is still underway, and much of the traditional capacity still needs to be converted. Let us return to the beginning of the presentation. As mentioned, beside the automotive industry, we are shifting our focus on other industries that need more efficient operations, higher productivity, and fewer manual steps and errors. At the same time, rising labor costs and the lack of skilled workers are driving companies to automate.
In this context, we had moved the classic segment from an opportunistic to a strategic approach. Now called Next Automation, this segment focuses on growth industries beyond automotive, such as clean tech, aerospace, and life science. Let's take a closer look. In our segment, Next Automation, we have defined three strategic pillars. This positioning is now supported by recent market and political developments. Aerospace is booming. Demand is rising in civil aviation and defense budgets all over Europe are boosting. We are putting real focus here. For example, drones are a perfect fit for us, from electric motors, battery packs, full system integration, to the end-of-line testing. It's the same core technology as E-mobility, just new applications. Besides aerospace, clean tech is gaining momentum. The German government is putting EUR 500 billion into infrastructure and climate. This is driving more investments into renewables, hydrogen, and energy grids.
Our third key growth area is life science. With an aging population, rising investments, and solid margins, it's a highly promising industry and one we are keen to expand in. Now, I would like to hand over to Jan.
Yeah, thank you, Sebastian, and also a warm welcome from my side. I would now like to share with you the financial figures of the financial year 2024. Let me start with a quick overview. In the profit and loss statement, we are looking at a very successful financial year with new record values in revenue and earnings. Our revenue increased by 7.9% year- over- year to EUR 312.3 million, and EBITDA jumped by 73.4% to EUR 35.8 million. After the strong past years, this year's order intake is influenced by a challenging market environment. With EUR 200 million order intake in 2024, we are 41% below the strong previous year's figure. This led also to a reduction in order backlog by 39% to EUR 184 million, while profitability in the order backlog remained high thanks to a good price realization.
Furthermore, our balance sheet remains strong with EUR 145 million net cash and EUR 138 million cash. Let us now jump into a few details. Based on the strong order backlog at the end of 2023, we forecasted significant revenue growth in 2024. Due to the softer order intake in 2024, we ended the financial year slightly below our guidance, achieving a revenue of EUR 312.3 million, which represents an increase of 8%. In our E-mobility segment, we increased revenue by 13% to EUR 258.5 million. Our profitability shows an even more significant development. EBITDA jumped from EUR 20.6 million to EUR 35.8 million, and the EBITDA margin from 7.1% to 11.5%. Also here, the e-mobility segment is the main driver of the development. EBITDA doubled to EUR 33.8 million, which means a margin increase of 5.6 percentage points to 13.1% EBITDA margin.
Not shown on this slide, but worth mentioning is that 13.1% EBITDA margin overall means 10.2% EBIT margin and therefore almost EUR 32 million earnings before taxes. The achieved historical highs in revenue and earnings underscore the strong market position and demonstrate the company's performance and profitability. In contrast, order intake and order backlog have fallen significantly below the previous year's level due to the challenging market environment. Across segments, we see a decline in order intake of 41% year -over -year to EUR 200.1 million. We saw a reluctance to invest in the automotive sector for several reasons. The end customer demand for electric vehicles was lower than expected. OEMs were partly faced with technical or software problems and high costs. Vehicle models and platforms were under review, and the regulatory framework had been uncertain.
This results in a decreased total order backlog of EUR 184 million, which means a total reduction of 39% year -over -year. After the record high order backlog up to and including Q1 of this year, the current level decreased but is very solid in terms of profitability thanks to a good price realization. However, the lower order backlog level will lead to a decline in revenue in 2025. Let us jump into the segments in detail. Starting with the E-mobility segment. Order intake of EUR 163.5 million in 2024 is 40% under the previous year due to the mentioned market conditions. As a result, order backlog decreased by 38% to EUR 189.7 million.
At the same time, revenue increased significantly with 30% to EUR 258.5 million, resulting in an increased EBITDA of plus 98% to EUR 33.8 million, which means a 5.6 percentage point improvement of the EBITDA margin to 13.1%. Let's continue with the Next Automation segment. Important to know is that the figures are not really affected by the new positioning of the segment yet. Order intake decreased notably year -over -year to EUR 36.6 million as 2023 included a large-scale order. Order backlog came down to EUR 34.5 million, and revenue is with EUR 53.8 million, 11% below previous year's level. The EBITDA margin increased slightly to EUR 5.8 million, which means an EBITDA margin of 10.8%. Before we come to our balance sheet, I would like to give you a short idea of our group cash flow in 2024.
Cash flow from operating activities is at EUR 19.2 million. This includes, on the one hand, the excellent results of the financial year, but it also includes, on the other hand, an increase in working capital compared to the very low level at the end of 2023, which benefited from high prepayments. In total, cash is again at a very high level of EUR 139 million, and including our securities of EUR 6 million, our total cash lands at EUR 145 million. By the end of 2024, our balance sheet continues to be in excellent shape, with an equity ratio of 62% and EUR 145 million cash, of which EUR 138 million are net cash. This solid financial foundation allows us to respond flexibly to market opportunities and continue investing in technologies that enhance our competitiveness and innovation.
Following the very successful year 2024, we will propose a dividend payment at the AGM and have already initiated a public share buyback offer. After doubling our dividend to EUR 0.20 last year, we have decided this year to combine a modest dividend increase to EUR 0.22 per share with a public share buyback offer of 10% of Aumann shares at EUR 12.37 per share. Before I explain the guidance for 2025, let us look again at the development of the last three years. From 2022 to 2024, we increased our revenue by almost 50% and EBITDA by more than 300%. Unfortunately, we cannot continue this trend in 2025. The market environment and the noticeable reluctance to invest in 2024 will lead to a decline in revenue to between EUR 210 million and EUR 230 million.
However, on the profitability side, we can benefit from our high-quality order backlog and the flexible structure of our company. We will therefore also achieve a strong EBITDA margin of 8-10% in 2025. We also expect initial signs of recovery in the industry and are simultaneously accelerating our activities in the Next Automation segment. Let me now hand over to Sebastian again.
Thanks, Jan. In summary, 2024 was a strong year for Aumann. We increased our EBITDA by over 70% to EUR 36 million, achieving an EBITDA margin of 11.5%, a clear sign of strong profitability even in challenging market environments. Thanks to these results, we are giving back to our shareholders with a dividend increase of 10% and a share buyback at the premium. For 2025, we are facing a decline in revenues. Nevertheless, we are targeting a continued strong EBITDA margin of 8-10%, and we expect to see, as Jan mentioned before, the first signs of recovery in our industry. At the same time, we are pushing Next Automation, unlocking growth beyond automotive. To sum up, fueled by solid liquidity and the clear strategic focus, Aumann is ready to shape what's next. Thank you very much for your attention, and we will now answer your questions.
Thank you so much for the presentation. As already mentioned, we will now move over to our Q&A session. To keep this conversation engaging, we appreciate it if you would ask your questions in person by our audio line. To do so, just raise up your virtual hand. If you have dialed in by phone, you can do this by pressing the star key nine to enter the queue, followed by pressing the star key six to unmute yourself. For sure, you are able to submit your questions in our chat box as well. We will read them out for you. We already received the first hand from Amit. Please go ahead and ask your question.
Hi. Can you hear me?
Yeah.
Okay. My first question was regarding the annual recurring revenue that we would get from maintenance and services. What percentage of sales is this kind of revenue?
Yeah, I mean, maintenance and service is roughly 10% of our revenue. The margin, as you can imagine, is much higher than the margin in our normal business.
Right. And the margins also, since you supply, for example, robots, et cetera, are you also including that in your sales, which are third-party products?
It's depending. Yeah. I mean, in many cases, the customer is ordering, for example, the robotics itself, and we just integrate them.
Okay. Can I have one more question?
Sure, sure.
Okay. My next question is, when you give this automation, which is through PLCs and robots, et cetera, you do programming, you do put some kind of an IP to make that production the way it is. Does the IP lie with you or the code is transferred, which customer is free to use? I am just trying to understand our stickiness there.
Yeah. Normally, the IP of the end product for sure is with our customer, but the IP of the production line is with us. Honestly speaking, in the past, we had a lot of these discussions, especially with companies coming out of Silicon Valley, because in their understanding, they normally also are grabbing the IP, which for us is not possible because for sure we want to sell these kinds of IP rights indirectly in our production lines also to other customers. That means in general, the IP is with us.
All right. I'll go back in the queue. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your questions. We will now move on with the questions from Carlos. Please go ahead.
Hello. Can you hear me?
Yeah.
Hi. I was wondering if you could just provide some color on how you think the new positioning for your Next Automation segment will impact margins specifically for that segment. One of your main competitors, Manz recently went bankrupt in December. It is my understanding that the reason for that was that it expanded too aggressively into multiple niches, which was too capital-intensive. I was just wondering if you have any thoughts on that.
Yeah. I mean, for sure, I cannot speak for Manz. And if it is just because of the niches or if it's more linked to the topic that these kinds of gigafactories were not built up in Europe, which I think is also a topic or was a topic for them. Nevertheless, I mean, Aumann tries to maintain margins. I mean, also in 2024, the margin of the order intake was very, very good because we are not just looking for volume. We are also looking for margins. Nevertheless, I mean, now stepping in Next Automation means also stepping in new areas. There might be a strategic price here or there. All overall, we for sure would like to maintain our margin position.
I think this is also possible because in Next Automation, we see also other customers, which maybe have also this need to speed up production. In fast-growing markets, it's also more a question, is it possible to deliver? Is it possible to set up this new production line for this new product design of the end customer? That's normally a situation where pricing can be very favorable for us as well.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Do you have any idea when you'll start seeing orders for that segment, for the new?
For Next Automation?
Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, as Jan said, it's starting now step by step. I think we see more orders in the second half of the year. Nevertheless, I mean, even in Q4, the EUR 36 million order intake during the whole year in 2024, out of this, EUR 14 million was just in the fourth quarter 2024. You can see that we are really pushing this.
Great. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much, Carlo, for your questions. We have a similar question from Fabian Schultz in the chat box. First of all, he wants to congratulate you and your team to your full-year results. You successfully delivered. Keep pushing. What kind of.
Thank you.
His first question is, 2024 was characterized by a general reluctance to invest on the part of OEMs. Have there been first signs of recovery in the industry from your side? Perhaps you can shed some light on the start into the fiscal year 2025 and how this development materializes into your order intake.
Yeah. I mean, as we said, we think that 2025 cannot get worse in comparison to 2024, honestly speaking. There are the first signs. For example, if you have a look at the BEV sales in the beginning of the year 2025, January and February, for example, in Europe, it's plus 29%. In Germany, it's plus 48%, sure, coming from a previous year, which was really down. Nevertheless, yeah, we really see the first signs. For example, we had in Q1 2025, the first big project again with a project size we didn't have in 2024. There might be a recovery step by step. We also have the feeling that, yeah, I mean, that all our customers are now a little bit more clear in their investments. For example, the SSP platform from Volkswagen, there's now a restart in this platform. You know that this was postponed.
Yeah, there are minor signs here and there. I think we will see the first impacts coming out of this in the second half of the year.
All right. Thank you so much. The last question belongs to Fabian as well. Next to clean tech, aerospace, and life sciences, the renamed classic segment, Next Automation, also addresses the defense sector with its competitive sizes in automation and production solutions. Have there been any material project wins yet? Can you name any major customers? How satisfied are you with the overall performance of Next Automation in 2025?
Yeah. I mean, for example, I mean, we have shown in our presentation that especially defense is very interesting for us. We see that drones might be very interesting, as I said, due to the fact that we have there included in electric motor battery packs, but also we can assemble the whole system. As well, we can do all the end-of-line testing, which is needed. What is the status there? We are in very interesting discussions with really different customers and customers from, I mean, on the one hand, we have customers who just manufacture the whole drone or who are interested in the drone. We also have customers who want or who are delivering key components to the market. Both are interesting for us, as you might imagine. What have we done? Because this is still a market.
There are a lot of startups and all these things. It is now a question who of these players will have a significant volume for us. Therefore, what we did is that we have developed a range of production lines for all these different areas. It is a very modular system. It is designed to scale up very flexible. That means from a few thousand units per month up to 50,000 units per month. I think, and we have offered already this system. I think this might be an interesting system. For sure, I hope that we will get an order as soon as possible.
Thank you so much for answering. In view of the time, we need to come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you, everyone, for your interest in Aumann AG and for the questions. Should further questions arise at a later time, please feel free to contact us. Also, big thank you to you, Sebastian and Jan, for your time today. From my side, I wish you all a lovely remaining week. I hand back for some final remarks, which concludes our call for today.
Yeah. We are pleased with our 2024 performance, both in terms of revenue and profitability. For the automotive industry, 2025 can only get better. At the same time, we are expanding into growing markets beyond automotive. Yeah, thank you very much for your interest.