Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Dermapharm Holding SE Q1 2026 results conference call. I would like to remind you that all participants will be listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by Q and A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Britta Hamberger . Please go ahead. Ms. Hamberger, you may start.
Thank you, operator, for the kind introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Dermapharm's Q1 2026 webcast, and thank you for joining us today. With me is our Chief Financial Officer, Christof Dreibholz . Christof will guide you through today's presentation, and after which we will open the floor for Q and A. Christof, over to you.
Thank you very much, Britta. Good afternoon also from me. My name is Christof Dreibholz . I will guide you through the numbers starting on slide four, please. We're looking at the Q1 figures as a group with again a positive development. While revenue growth was 1.1% over Q1 2025, Adjusted EBITDA increased by remarkable 7.5%, leading to an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 28.6% of revenues, 1.7 percentage points above the corresponding quarter in 2025. All segments contribute to this growth. Main drivers are the German core business organically across all entities in the branded product segment, with a strong performance of our focus products, i.e., products that are marketed by our sales force. Inorganic growth stemming from the initial consolidation of Mucos, that is the Wobenzym product range, and Trenka.
Furthermore, Euromed and Arkopharma i n the other healthcare products segment. Arkopharma's refocus as a business model is on a very good track with full sales force team on board and pharmacy measures, i.e., displays, trainings, and challenges executed plus launches of new products. Euromed is negatively impacted by U.S. tariffs, with U.S. sales declining but able to more than compensate through increased sales to the EU and Asia. Lower sales to the U.S. mean less tariffs than budgeted, with a favorable impact on results. Parallel import business significantly improving its results, EUR 1.6 million compared to prior year following the execution of the gross margin optimization program. At earnings after tax level, the higher EBITDA results were accompanied by lower interest cost, while tax expenses are at prior year level. Interest expenses were positively impacted by a step down in the margin following our continued deleveraging.
Slide five, please. Here we bridge key elements of Q1 2026 performance leading to a growth of approximately EUR 12 million at earnings after tax level. Again, all segments contribute to EBITDA growth as explained before. Let me make a few additional remarks regarding the vaccine business and M&A. BioNTech revenues continue to be nearly exclusively from the Pandemic Preparedness Model or Program and are hence unchanged. As you know, the contract will expire mid of 2027. The integration of Mucos is starting well. After initial investments of time and money in sourcing, production, and logistics, sales are developing as planned. Q1 result is still subject to finalization of the purchase price calculation and also the allocation of the purchase price.
Preliminary numbers with the purchase price allocation still ongoing show a goodwill of EUR 4.2 million, which was released to income and adjusted at EBITDA level. Trenka is showing a positive EBITDA. Deliveries to some Middle Eastern countries have initially been delayed by the Iran war and are now partly rerouted through the Red Sea to and via Saudi Arabia. The interest rate hedging terminated end of 2025. Impacts from the comparison to Q1 2025 are hence minor. Interest cost mainly for the syndicated loan improved following the planned reduction of debt and the related covenant improvement, leading to a lower margin on top of the Euribor compared to last year, - 25 basis points. Tax expenses and depreciation charges are approximately at prior year level. Next slide, please. EBITDA normalizations mainly comprise the reversal of the income from the release of the goodwill as mentioned before.
Other adjustments are half a million resulting from costs in connection with the acquisition of Montavit and Trenka and are in total minor. Slide seven, please. This slide shows net debt and the equity ratio development mirroring our value creation through continuous debt reduction and at the same time the deployment of significant cash amounts for acquisition growth, especially in 2025. Net debt has been continuously reduced over the past over the last quarters following the amortization payments regarding the loan tranche B with EUR 25 million per semester and the scheduled repayment of the promissory note loan. Net debt decline as of March 26 was mainly driven by a favorable net cash flow trend of plus EUR 27 million compared to Q1 2025, with a EUR 22 million increase in cash since December 2025.
The leverage ratio is comfortably below 3 times at 2.6 times, and even slightly below Q4 2025, with 2.7 times EBITDA. The interest cover ratio, that is interest expenses compared to EBITDA, has again improved to 9.5 times from roughly 7 times in Q4 2025. Equity ratio steadily increases to now 32.3% due to positive results. The dip as of June 2024 and 2025 that you see on this slide is driven by the reclassification of the dividend liabilities settled beginning of July each year. Slide eight, please. Our net assets and liabilities increased to EUR 2.3 billion over December 2025, driven by increased current assets, mainly higher inventories from the Mucos acquisition, slightly higher trade receivables, and cash as explained before.
This has been financed through increased trade payables and other current financial liabilities, including the preliminary purchase price settlement amount from Mucos. The equity number increased from retained earnings. Next slide, please. Net working capital is at the level seen as of March 25, a reflection of the underlying seasonality in the business. The increase in inventories and trade receivables is offset by higher trade payables. The respective days mirror the trend of the absolute numbers, i.e., the underlying drivers, including growth in revenues, inflationary production cost increases, both in terms of labor cost and cost of materials, and the necessity to hold certain buffer stock. These impacts remain unchanged. DPO increases cut-off driven by 11 days to 83 days, December 25, 72 days, with a favorable impact on the underlying cash cycle. Slide 10, please.
Q1 2026 shows a remarkable increase in the cash flow from operating activities compared to prior year. Main contributors are the underlying EBITDA improvements across segments, sustainably lower tax payments, and cut-off driven higher trade payables. Recurring CapEx was approximately EUR 9 million in Q1 2026 and hence at approximately prior year level. The resulting free cash flow is EUR 51 million and EUR 46 million above prior year. The cash conversion rate is 68% and approximately at the level of 2025, with 72%. Details of the improving operating cash flow are shown on the next slide 11.
Whilst cash EBITDA improves in line with the earnings before tax result, the favorable trend of operating cash flow is mainly impacted by the slower increase of broad working capital, as discussed before, and lower tax payments, as only a small portion of tax payments still relate to historical financial years 2022 and 2023. Finally, slide 13, the outlook for 2026. Based on the Q1 results and a comparison to plan, we confirm the outlook for FY 2026. Thank you.
Now we would like to hand over back to you to open the Q and A.
We will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. Our first question comes from Gerhard Orgonas with Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon. Thanks. Can you just update us on the situation of your share buyback program when you plan to cancel the shares and, the current free float?
Yes. The share buyback program was effective beginning of April, and hence is obviously not reflected in our Q1 numbers. We acquired roughly 4.3 million shares, and we have taken all necessary steps to redeem the shares. The only outstanding step to my knowledge is the registration of this reduction in the commercial register, which is only for declaration purposes. Hence, from April onwards, our share capital is reduced by these 4.3 million. Hence the free float, since we acquired approximately 8%, the free float is reduced accordingly, so should be slightly above 10%.
Okay. Thank you.
As a reminder if you wish to ask a question several press star and one. Looks like we have no more questions so far.
Okay. Thank you for joining us today. If you have any follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to contact me after the webcast. Thank you.
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