Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Drägerwerk Q1 2025 results conference call. I am Yusuf, the course call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode and that this conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star followed by zero. This conference will not be recorded for publication or for broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to CEO, Stefan Dräger. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining our conference call on our financial results for the first three months of 2025. I have with me today Gert-Hartwig Lescow, CFO, as well as Tom Fischler and Nikolaus Hammerschmidt, both Investor Relations. We would like to take you through the results with the presentation that we made available on our web page this morning. Following the presentation, we will open the floor to your questions. Let's get started on page five with the business highlights. The first quarter is usually the weakest in our fiscal year. Against this background, we delivered robust net sales, slightly positive earnings, and higher operating cash flow. In terms of demand, we delivered the best Q1 since the first quarter of our record-breaking year 2020, when we achieved an order intake of nearly EUR 1.4 billion due to the high demand for ventilators and FFP masks.
At around EUR 861 million, our order intake in Q1 2025 clearly surpassed the high level of the prior- year period. Net sales at EUR 730 million almost reached the prior- year figure. As in the last couple of quarters, the safety division developed better than the medical division. Despite the seasonal weakness, we achieved a slightly positive EBIT. On the other hand, the EBIT of EUR 0.4 million did not reach the much higher prior- year figure of EUR 15.1 million. In addition to the lower net sales volume, this was due to higher expenses. Regarding the warning letter from the FDA, there has been no relevant change since our last conference call at the end of March. The FDA carried out an inspection of our plant in Andover in the fourth quarter of last year and concluded with zero complaints in the form of 483s.
This was a key prerequisite for the warning letter to be lifted. We continue to be in close contact with the authority, but it is currently not possible to predict when the FDA will finally lift the warning letter. Due to restructuring within the FDA, the process appears to be delayed. As communicated two weeks ago, we confirm our annual guidance. I will come back to this in our outlook at the end of the presentation. With that, I turn over to Gert-Hartwig for a review of the financials. Gert-Hartwig, please.
Thank you, Stefan. I would also like to welcome everybody in this conference call with our results for the first three months of 2025. Please turn to page seven for a view out of the Dräger Group. As usual, I will be stating currency-adjusted figures whenever referring to growth rates. As Stefan said, we continue to see good demand for our technology for life. Overall, orders increased in Q1 by more than 6% to around EUR 861 million, driven particularly by strong growth in EMEA and positive development in the Americas and in APAC. In Germany, orders were below the prior year, which is mainly a base effect on the safety division. Net sales in Q1 almost reached the prior- year figure of around EUR 730 million, with both divisions seeing a slight decline.
Due to the good margin of the safety division, our group's gross margin increased by 0.5% points to 45.8% at the end of the first three months. Our expenses increased by 4.7% in Q1. The main reason for this was the increase in personnel expenses, partly as a result of a one-off payment for employees in Germany due to a collective wage agreement. Due to the lower net sales volume and the increase in expenses, our EBIT of EUR 0.4 million did not reach the significantly higher prior year figure of EUR 15.1 million. Hence, the EBIT margin amounted to 0.1% after 2.0% in the prior year quarter. The rolling 12-month DBA, which takes into account the development from March 2024 to March 2025, improved significantly to around EUR 39 million. A word on the current FX environment.
In light of recent discussions about U.S. tariffs, the exchange rate environment has undergone a significant transformation since the end of March. Initially, the U.S. dollar was at parity with the euro during the early days of the new U.S. administration. As of mid-April 2025, the euro/U.S. dollar exchange rate is around EUR 1.50 and $1.15 per euro, reflecting a 5% weaker U.S. dollar compared to last year's average rate. A weaker U.S. dollar is generally favorable for you traders since we are U.S. dollar short. On the other hand, a weak U.S. dollar has a negative impact on our U.S. sales revenue converted into euros, but on the other hand, the exchange rate relieves us on the cost side. However, this fundamentally favorable development of the U.S. dollar for us is accompanied by a profound shake-up of the global currency markets.
Contrary to expectations, we are currently seeing a broad-based appreciation of the euro. This, in turn, means that our sales base and markets outside the European Union will be impacted by weaker exchange rates. We're carefully monitoring the development of foreign currencies and limiting negative influences with the instruments available, such as hedging transactions and price adjustments. Let's now take a closer look at the development of the two divisions, starting with the medical division on page eight. After a decline in prior- year quarter, order intake rose by more than 8% to around EUR 474 million, thanks to good demand in nearly all product areas and a significant increase in EMEA and APAC. Net sales were just below the prior- year figure at EUR 413 million.
Growth in APAC and Germany was offset by a decline in the EMEA and Americas regions, which was particularly due to lower revenue from refilling machines. Most of the growth in APAC came from China, where almost all product areas delivered a strong performance. While this is a good sign, we continue to expect the market conditions in China to remain challenging, with only slow growth for Dräger during the year. A result of the less profitable product mix and negative currency effects, the gross margin in Q1 decreased by roughly 1%. Expenses increased by roughly 6%, mainly due to higher expenses in the sales regions. Our EBIT amounted to -EUR 28 million, which was therefore significantly below the prior year figure of around -EUR 11 million. The EBIT margin decreased from -2.7% to -6.7%. The rolling 12-month DBA fell slightly by around about EUR 2 million to -EUR 67 million.
I will now turn to our safety division, which delivered another good performance. We are on page nine. Demand for our safety products and services remained high in Q1, as order intake increased by more than 8%. This was mainly driven by our engineered solutions, which doubled its order volume due to high demand in almost all regions. Orders for gas detection devices, respiratory and personal protection products, and alcohol detection devices also increased significantly. As a result of these, order intake in the EMEA and Americas regions also rose significantly. While APAC developed well too, Germany saw a considerable decline. The main reason for this was the drop in demand for occupational health and safety equipment, which had been boosted in the prior year quarter by a major order for NBC protective filters from the German military.
While last quarter, we did not receive a single order of comparable size, low- double-digit million Euro orders are very rare, we received several orders from defense customers. Growth in the business field engineered solutions is fueled by this customer group. We continue to see significant growth potential for our defense solutions in the future. As we said in our last conference call, we believe that our net sales in this area will more than triple by 2028. Net sales in Q1 were roughly on par with the prior year, with a slight decline of around 1%. In the APAC region, net sales increased significantly due to strong growth in the area of respiratory and personal protection products. Germany and Americas regions also recorded higher net sales. However, these gains did not make up for the decline in the EMEA region.
The gross margin went up by 2.2% points in Q1, mainly as a result of the more profitable product mix, improved capacity utilization in production, and reduced scrapping expenses. Functional expenses were around 3% higher than in the prior- year period, particularly due to higher expenses in our sales companies. The EBIT increased by more than 7% to around EUR 28 million, while the EBIT margin improved by 0.6% points to 8.9%. The rolling 12-month DBA improved significantly by around EUR 29 million to around EUR 105 million, coming from EUR 76 million in the prior- year period. All in all, very positive development in our safety business. Let's move on to some key ratios on page ten. In the first three months of 2025, we recorded a significant improvement in operating cash flow despite the lower EBIT.
This was mainly due to effective working capital management, especially better development of trade receivables and provisions made a contribution. Operating cash flow amounted to roughly EUR 56 million, coming from around EUR 34 million in the prior year quarter. At roughly EUR 29 million, total investments were also considerably above the prior- year figure. Pre-cash flow doubled to around EUR 32 million. Net financial debt was further improved during the quarter. So has net financial debt to EBITDA . With 0.4, leverage is on a healthy level. Net working capital was around 4% above the prior- year level, at just below EUR 700 million. The significant improvement in the 12-month rolling EBIT and the slight increase in capital employed, as at the reporting date, also led to an improved 12-month return on capital employed of around 12% compared to 10% in the same period of the prior year.
As at March 31st, the equity ratio remained stable at almost 50% compared to the end of 2024. Due to this healthy level and our increased net profit, we will distribute a higher dividend for the past fiscal year, subject to the approval of annual shareholder meeting. On May 9th, our shareholders will receive a dividend of EUR 1.97 per common share and EUR 2.03 per preferred share. Provided the equity situation remains as positive as it is now, we will continue to distribute at least 30% of net profits in the coming years. Now, I hand back to Stefan Dräger for the outlook on page 12.
Ladies and gentlemen, despite the seasonal weakness of the first quarter, we had the best first quarter in terms of demand since the record year 2020. The high order intake for our technology for life makes us confident that we will make up for the seasonal shortfall in the net sales over the course of the fiscal year. Therefore, we confirm our forecast with net sales growth in the range from 1%- 5% and an EBIT margin between 3.5% and 6.5%. DBA is expected to be in the range of -EUR 30 million-+ EUR 80 million. The potential impact of U.S. customs policy on our business performance is not yet foreseeable and is therefore not included in our forecast. This also applies to the potential impact of exchange rate effects.
With this, I would like to end the presentation and hand over to the operator to open the floor for your questions. Please.
Ladies and gentlemen, 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. Participants are requested to only use handsets while asking a question. Anyone who wants to ask a question may press star and one at this time. The first question comes from Oliver Reinberg from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Oh, yeah, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my questions. If we ever may, I'll probably start with the first question block. In terms of tariffs, is there any kind of color you can provide in terms of more details? One, have you seen any kind of pull-forward effects, and do you actually now pay tariffs since the first of April, or have you stocked up significantly before so that there would be kind of a time delay before the impact is really impacting you? Can you give us any kind of color on the mitigation strategy? That would be first question on tariff space.
Okay, I'll take that right away. For the first question, do we pay tariffs? Obviously, for products that we bring in. To your question, there is, of course, for the business in April, a significant portion of products that have been brought in previously from inventory. That is going in. I would not be able to give you an exact figure at this point, and I do not think it is meaningful to comment on the April per se.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, plus indeed, Mr. Reinberg, we did stock up a little bit on some parts, but it's not really significant because most of our goods are produced on demand, custom-specific made-to-order.
Yeah. The reaction is also different depending on where we produce. The majority of our products obviously come from Europe and from Germany. We have some that come from China, and partly we will address that with surcharges to be borne by our customer. That is also still in development, so it is not good to provide a specific figure on that. Overall, we expect the impact, that there will be an impact, but that we can moderate that impact. As far as we view the situation now, since it is usually a floating situation with many changes over the course of April, it is, of course, possible that also we will see changes over the course of May or June.
Okay, that's helpful. Thanks so much. Two other questions. I think compared with the years, I've seen quite significant order growth in medical in North America, I guess partly due to pull-forward effects, but also because there was a very strong flu season. I just wonder if you can provide any kind of color. I mean, the order intake in America for medical was rather flat. Why you have not seen any kind of benefit from the flu season and also the change in the competitive dynamics? The last question, if you assume that currency remain where they currently are, can you just give us any kind of feeling what would be the kind of overall impact on the gross margin base?
Firstly, for the Americas, we do see a good order entry, but mostly actually, in fact, on the safety side. If we look at North America in particular, we have also seen good growth, perhaps not to the same tune, and I'm not sure the flu season per se would actually be a driver for our product portfolio. Typically, it hasn't. More serious respiratory infections could be like COVID or any other things, but that has so far not been a key driver for that. To your second question on the ethics, again, we've seen a steep decline coinciding with the announcement of the U.S. president. To the degree that currencies stay at that level, we would expect a sizable impact regarding our FX.
On the net sales, based on the spot rates that we saw in mid-April, that could be up to 2% points, and that would translate into an EBIT margin impact potentially of roughly up to 1% point. Again, that was a very unusual reaction. We will also work with the markets to see how we can compensate for that. To your question, if currencies stay at that level and our pass-through would be limited, that would be the impact.
I would like to extend on that. [audio distortion] , the US dollar, as you probably are already aware, per se is not the issue because we have a very fine natural hedging for the US dollar versus the euro. However, there's a lot of third currencies around the globe that have dropped, and the effect that [we have], the quantified, is coming from these third currencies from all over the globe.
Perfect. That's very helpful. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star followed by one. The next question comes from Virendra Chauhan from AlphaValue. Please go ahead.
Hello, guys.
Hello.
Hello.
Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. Just two questions on my side. First would be, do you have any kind of supply constraints on the safety side? In other words, what is your current utilization rate with respect to the production? The second question is on the medical side. What is the typical lag you would expect for seeing your order intake growth translate into sales growth? Thank you.
Fantastic. Supply constraints in specific to the safety division. At the moment, there are no, say, supply constraints. Supply chains work normal around the globe. We depend on these existing supply chains. There is no reasonable workaround in case they fail. On the medical side, a typical time between order intake and shipment typically, it can be, I would say, typical is maybe two months, but it can be between two days and one year.
It's also discussed at the time of the order with the customer what the situation is.
On average.
Mr.
Go ahead.
Yeah, please go ahead. Go ahead, please.
No, on average, please keep in mind that our business from a net sales point of view is somewhat seasonal. There are some customers that put their orders in for delivery by year-end. Our order entry is typically more homogeneous or more equal throughout the year. If I then take your question and say, how long does it take from order entry? Typically, exactly as Stefan Dräger said, it's about two months, give or take. Sometimes customers put orders in throughout the year with the expectation of having them delivered over the course of the year or even into the next year.
Perfect. I just want to maybe rephrase the first question. My question was specifically around what is your production utilization rate on the safety side?
We do not get that figure for capacity utilization. As we make typically products made-to-order, we have to have some flexibility in the production capacity that we can do reasonably effective and efficient because our production is mainly an assembly, which is not, let's say, very capital-intensive and does not require much investment. With the staff, we have quite flexible agreements, also collective agreements that we can breathe with the demand.
Perfect. Thank you.
The next question comes from Alexander Galitsa, HAIB. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon. Thank you for taking the questions. I have a few, maybe the first one on CapEx. I think for the full year, you outlined a guide of EUR 110 million-EUR 130 million. Q1 came on the lighter side with EUR 14 million. Just if you can provide a color whether it's just seasonally lower CapEx or should we rather expect less CapEx for the full year, some color to that would be helpful. The second question is with regards to the one-off payment you recorded in Q1 for employees in Germany. Just wonder how much was that and whether that was isolated to Q1 or whether any other quarters have a similar effect. Thank you.
For your first question for the CapEx, yes, there is perhaps some seasonality, but overall, most of the investment is replacement. At this point, we do not expect a total lower overall investment for the year. I would just take it as somewhat lower investment in the first quarter, but that is not to be read as lower overall investment. Your second question for the one-off payment, that's in the low to mid- EUR 1 million digit figures, and that's per se restricted to the first quarter. It is, as you may know, part of the collective bargaining agreement. There is, of course, an overall increase in Germany for our workforce that falls under that agreement. The one-off payment, that actually took place in February and also settles that.
It was part of the collective agreement with the IG Metall Union.
Okay, thank you. Maybe another question on the safety division order intake. Could you provide any color with regards to these engineered solutions? What, I guess, verticals do you serve or where do you see increasing demand from? That is the first part of the question. The second part related also to safety order intake. I think EMEA and Americas have seen quite substantial jumps in order entry. Just wondering whether you can provide any context to the backdrop what is driving that strong growth. Thank you.
Generally, the higher order intake on engineered solutions is also supported by higher demand. It's not exclusively that, but supported by higher demand from customers in the defense industry at large, with a variety of products and components. For your question for the order entry, quite right. Our order entry saw very good growth in North Americas and in the EMEA region, but that is not necessarily restricted to any particular product or order. We did see a very good order growth in our gas detection systems business. In the EMEA region, we saw good growth across the portfolio in North America.
As a reminder, for any further questions, please press star followed by one. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Stefan Dräger for any closing remarks.
Thank you very much for all of you being online with us today for your interest and the questions and the discussion. Look forward to hearing from you or seeing you maybe at our annual general meeting of the shareholders. Have a pleasant rest of the afternoon and goodbye.
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