Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to today's earnings call of the Bertrandt AG, following the publication of the Q1 figures of 2025, 2026. I'm delighted to welcome the CEO--CFO, Markus Ruf, and Head of Investor Relations, Björn Voss, who will guide us through the presentation in a moment. After the presentation, we will move on to a Q&A session, in which you will be able to place your questions directly via audio line and chat. With this said, I hand over to you, Mr. Voss. The stage is yours.
Yes, good afternoon also from my side, ladies and gentlemen. We will now guide you through the Q1 results we have realized for the last quarter, and with this, I will hand over to Markus.
So thank you for the introduction. So first of all, the Q1 developed a little bit better than expected, so we are satisfied with the Q1. As you know, the general conditions are unchanged, so are there also some challenges about the market? But we see other initial signs of recovery in Germany towards the end of the quarter, and especially, we are a little bit more optimistic because we see significantly higher order income in the Q1, and we continue to add our cost items down, as you can see in our profit and loss account, efficiency program accomplished and other further adjustments ongoing. So let's have a look to, on the Q1.
So we achieved EUR 234 million sales. You can see it is in comparison to the last year -12%, but in comparison to the Q4, it is stable with EUR 234 million. You can see a bit positive is EBIT EUR 2 million in comparison to the previous year -EUR 2 million, and the EPS of EUR 0.27 , and really positive free cash flow of EUR 47 billion and a high equity ratio of 46%, so reflects the solid balance sheet. So as I mentioned, total sales stabilized quarter-on-quarter.
So you can see on the right side, EUR 234 million versus the EUR 235 million from the Q4 from the last fiscal year, so in comparison to the last fiscal years. And you can also see the effects from our redundancy program on our headcount. So today, roughly 12,000 employees, and 4,000 are abroad, and 8,000 in Germany. So you can see our redundancy program is successful, and you can also see the impact on our profit and loss account. And you can also see it, see the positive impact from our cost optimization program, so personnel expenses , minus EUR 28 million, all the material expenses, but also especially other operating expenses from EUR 2.3 million year-on-year, and also D&A, EUR 1.9 million.
There's also one-off item included in Q1 from EUR 1.5 million in the other operating expenses. Also, I think interesting for you, our foreign subsidiaries is positive with that, so we are successfully developing in Spain, in China, and in Romania, in Morocco, so just on a good way. On the right side, you can see our EUR 0.2 million EBIT, and in comparison to the previous year, minus EUR 2.2 million, you can see the development, and in comparison to the last quarter, EUR 3 million, but please consider the last quarter had 4 working days more. Three or four working days-
Three.
More so, you can see we are on a good way. So total sales, as I mentioned, EUR 234 million. Material expenses from EUR 28.9 million, and also personnel expenses. You can see a much better cost ratio from 74.7%, and it's based on headcount development and other benefits from the cost optimization program. D&A regularly declined, and other operating incomes, as I mentioned, including a one-off from EUR 1.5 million and other operating income from EUR 1.25 million. So solid balance sheet with EUR 635 million, and you can see there's a movement in the cash and cash equivalents position and also in the net financial debt.
So the loan was due in December, and we repaid it in December, and you can see the effect in the equity ratio from 46.4%.... And you see also net financial debt from EUR 157 million in comparison to the previous year, EUR 179 million. So forecast fiscal year, you know, economic and geopolitical environment remains volatile and challenging, but we see ongoing and accelerated transfer of R&D into international locations. And as I mentioned, we see a much higher order income, and normalize, we expect the call -offs from the new contracts with the beginning of March, April, and so we expect a much better and stronger H2. And especially, we will see the complete cost effects from the cost optimization program in the whole fiscal year.
Also positive for Bertrandt, a lot of customers announced a lot of new models and technology, more hybrid solutions, more IC models, also more EV models, and this is positive for Bertrandt. Every new technology, new models need engineering and needs, especially testing and validation. And we see also diversification in balanced customer base. We are successful on the way with aviation and defense customers, was really successful in the Q1, and we see also much more potential for the whole fiscal year. And especially, regulatory requirements, competitive and innovation drives R&D budgets. So we confirm our guidance. Total revenues for the whole fiscal year grows moderately up year-on-year. We confirm also positive EBIT for 2025, 2026, and also a significantly, significantly up on operating cash flow and also our midterm margin ambition between 6%-9%. So summary, market environment, stabilizing recovery of order income.
Sales still down year-over-year on higher prior year base, but stable quarter-over-quarter, as I mentioned, and we will see the benefits from our cost optimization program in the current fiscal year. I think we have a really solid balance sheet with 46 equity ratio, and as I mentioned, we see also a normalization of call-offs with the beginning of March, April, and a strong H2, and especially a really strong Q4 with a normalized call-off volume and the full impact of our cost optimization program. Thank you for your attention. Now we are ready for your questions.
Yeah, just a quick call, to give you some, you know, give you enough room to raise your questions, if you like. Mara, would you coordinate them, please?
Yes. Thank you so much for the presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, now it's your turn, and we are opening the Q&A session. For a dynamic conversation, please click on the Raise Hand button to ask your question via audio line. If you cannot speak freely today, you're very welcome to place your questions in our chat box, and I will read them out loud for you. A quick reminder to all participants who have dialed in via phone, it's not possible to ask questions by telephone line, and we apologize for any inconvenience here. So far, we have not received any questions, not in the chat box or raised hands. So please, ladies and gentlemen, the stage is yours. Feel free to raise your hand and ask any kind of questions you have.
If there are no questions, no worries. I'm available anyways, so if you want to have a one-on-one dialogue, of course.
With this said, we actually just received a question in our chat box from Mr. Salvador. He is asking: It would be great to hear more about cash flow generation in 2H or next year.
I think he is referring to the second half, H2, maybe.
Yeah, maybe. And he said yeah, I guess so.
So, for the whole fiscal year, we are expecting a strong operating cash flow and also positive free cash flow, because based on a really tough working capital management and based on low CapEx volume, because I think you have seen in the last fiscal year, we had CapEx from around about EUR 9 million, and I expect all the low CapEx volume for this year. And with a normalized margin level, we will see a cash flow generation.
So guidance is significantly up year-over-year. And, yeah, I think normally during the year, the Q1 is quite strong in terms of cash flow, also the Q4, so maybe a little weaker in the second and Q3, but this is the normal development we see every year.
Thank you. Thank you so much for your question, Mr. Salvador. We just received another question by Mr. Salvador again. He says, "Thank you. Just to follow up, non-auto business initiatives?
S o we have aero and defense initiatives, and we are working for aero and defense customers across our Europe. So in Spain, in France, and in Germany, and also in Italy. And we see there's much more potential for Bertrandt, and we implemented all the additional sales capacity because there's a big demand. And today, I think we have around about EUR 80 million revenues, and we see in the next years there's also potential up to EUR 300 million.
In the defense and aerospace field.
Exactly. In the Defense and Aero fields business, and we see or we expect although much more growth for the second half year.
Perfect. Thank you so much. We have not received any raised hands nor other questions. So please, ladies and gentlemen, feel free to still ask your questions into the chat or raise your hand. If there are any occurring questions at a later time, you can always contact investor relations.
Yeah. Okay, thank you very much-
Thank you for your-
For your interest. We have seen many of you already in the last weeks, and we're looking forward to see you in person, in May thirteenth, when we will have our capital markets day in and close by Stuttgart, where we'll maybe also webcast it online. But of course, we would really appreciate to see you in person. So with this, this call ends, and thank you, Markus. Thank you, Mara.
Thank you. Bye.
Thank you so much for joining and your interest. A big thank you also to you, Mr. Ruf and Mr. Voss, for your presentation and the time you took to answer the questions. I wish you all a lovely remaining week, and I would hand over again to some final remarks.
Nope, we're fine. Thank you. Bye-bye.
Perfect.
Bye.
Bye.