Dear ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the analyst call regarding our results for the first nine months of 2021. At our customer's request, this conference will be recorded. As a reminder, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If any participant has difficulty seeing the conference, please press star key followed by zero on your telephone operator system. May I now hand you over to Veronika Endres. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everybody, and a warm welcome to HENSOLDT's nine months 2021 results call. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Veronika Endres, and I'm head of investor relations at HENSOLDT. With me today are our CEO, Thomas Müller, and our CFO, Axel Salzmann, who will guide you through this results call now before we will enter into the Q&A. With that, please, Thomas, go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you, Veronika. Dear ladies and gentlemen, a very warm welcome from my side, too. I'm really happy to have this call this afternoon. You will see in a couple of minutes why. Thank you very much for joining the today's earnings call in which we would like to present our results for the first nine months of the year 2021. After short presentation, we are happy to answer your questions. Before our CFO, Axel Salzmann, is going to guide you through our strong financial performance in this first nine months 2021, I would like to give you an update on our business and talk about current developments. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very pleased and proud to report that the strong growth momentum keeps continuing, as reported and as indicated in our H1 analyst call.
We achieved further strong order intake of around EUR 700 million in the third quarter and increased our order backlog to a new record level of currently EUR 5.4 billion. We never experienced such a big order intake in the third quarter as today. Due to market-leading high-tech platform-independent solutions, we were successful in winning additional high volume projects and further converting our pipeline into firm order intake. Worth mentioning is the order for mobile system for tactical radio reconnaissance to two NATO countries. A corresponding contract worth a high two-digit million EUR amount has been signed in the last quarter. The system is used for monitoring and analyzing enemy radio traffic and is integrated into an armored vehicles or designed to be portable so that troops can be supported directly in the center of operations and detect threats at an early stage.
As already mentioned in our last analyst call, together with ELTA, we will modernize the F-124 frigates as well as the long-range air surveillance system as part of the ballistic missile defense in Germany with modern AESA radars. These contracts have been finally booked in Q3. Our Optronics segment also contributed very nicely to the strong order intake in Q3 by booking a contract for the equipment of the German-Norwegian U-212CD submarines. The design of the boats includes a twin optronic mast, which moves the program into a kind of breakthrough due to digital periscopes. This is something which is brand new and pushes us to the next generation periscopes as one of the key leaders in tactical periscopes globally.
Together with our strong baseline business, order intake in the first nine months amounted to a total of EUR 2.8 billion, significantly up from the same period in 2020. Our state-of-the-art technology portfolio is and will be, in the future, cornerstone of HENSOLDT's business success and an important growth factor. We do not only master the next generation technologies, but this is in our genes. We transform them into sustainable business. Let me mention just only three examples. In September, we launched at the DSEI exhibition in London our new generation compact, lightweight, AESA radar for naval applications called Quadome. This cyber-resilient software-defined and future-proofed air and surface surveillance radar boosts our product portfolio in the sensors segment. It has an outstanding price-performance ratio and has been extremely well received in the markets.
Furthermore, it also further strengthens our South African entity. I'm also very proud to announce today that very recently we have signed a significant contract for passive radar TwInvis with an export customer. This is also a very important milestone and will pave the way for a number of applications of this groundbreaking technology, ranging from air defense to support of air traffic management. You remember what I always said, this radar is the only one which can detect stealth fighters. There's a lot in the pipeline, and the pipeline is maturing on a daily basis, and we see it, the program contracts are coming in. At the same time, ladies and gentlemen, as you all know and unfortunately see, the nature of warfare is changing. We see an increase in asymmetric and hybrid conflicts and the global cyber threat we are all experiencing on a daily basis.
The acquisition of SAIL LABS, even by the way, not big in size, but with exceptional skills and the formation of HENSOLDT Analytics, we have made an important step to complement our sensor portfolio, this open-source intelligence. We see great potential in the new types of intelligence systems that complement our existing sensors of the electromagnetic spectrum with additional digital data sources, and to create intelligence on an entirely new level of quality. Ladies and gentlemen, before I hand over to Axel for a more detailed look at our financials of the first nine months, let me quickly summarize. HENSOLDT is fully on track. We continue to walk the talk and deliver on our guidance. We continue to benefit from the growth momentum in the defense electronic sector. Remember I always said we enter into a large cycle in this sector.
We further expanded our position in German and European, I repeat, especially European key programs. If you allow me a very personal statement, as the CEO of HENSOLDT, I am especially proud that our order backlog is at a record level at EUR 5.4 billion at nine months 2021. Our revenues will grow by around 24% from fiscal year 2020. Our adjusted EBITDA will grow by 14% in absolute terms, and we deleverage our company due to our strong cash generation. We walk the talk, we deliver on our guideline, and I always say the best is still to come. On all this, I want to remind community tomorrow we will run our first Capital Markets Day, which will be held at our site in Ulm, but also virtually. It's not too late to join the event.
If you want to get a more in-depth look at the state of affairs at HENSOLDT, our growth strategy and ESG ambition, please contact our IR department, Veronika Endres, and we will make sure you get an invite. With this, I hand over to Axel Salzmann, our CFO. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Thomas. Also, warm welcome to this results call of HENSOLDT from my side. I'm pleased to provide you with the details on our financials for the first nine months, 2021. Overall, we have again managed a sustainable growth in our top line. After our first half year, with most notable the Pegasus contract and an additional order for the Eurofighter Quadriga program, we were again able to secure a number of big orders in the third quarter. Among others, we have booked contracts for the delivery of long-range radars for the German airspace surveillance, the modernization of F124 frigates, and for the equipment of the German-Norwegian U212 CD submarines with twin optronic masts. As you can see, our pipeline further transform into order intake.
In total, orders summed up to more than EUR 2.8 billion and thereby increased our order intake by 41% compared to the first nine months of 2020. This results in a book-to-bill ratio of 3.3 times. That again strengthen our excellent revenue visibility. Revenues are also growing nicely and increased by 19% to EUR 850 million in the first nine months. This is due to the sustainable growth in both segments, most notably, of course, to the key programs which developed as planned. All this results again in the firm order backlog at record levels. At the end of the nine months of the year 2021. Our order backlog was at EUR 5.4 billion, and thereby nearly EUR 2 billion higher compared to the first nine months of 2020.
This covers more than 3.5x our guided revenues for 2021. Overall, our bottom line follows the top line development and progress well. Adjusted EBITDA increased to EUR 110 million and adjusted EBIT comes up with EUR 67 million. Relative profitability slightly decreased, which is clearly related to the lower project margins for pass-through revenues. In addition, we further invested in research and development and increased bid budget to ensure future growth. For nine months 2021, the adjusted pre-tax unlevered free cash flow is EUR 48 million. This is mainly driven by a planned investment into working capital, especially in inventories, to prepare our strong revenue increase in Q4. To remind you, this reflects the typical course of our business, which is very much weighted to the second half of the year. We are fully on track for 2021 and will deliver all KPIs.
In terms of order backlog, we will see an increase of EUR 1.8 billion in comparison to 2020 and a book-to-bill of 2.2x . This is a further increase in comparison to 2020 and slightly better than guided. Our revenues will be around EUR 1.5 billion. This reflects a 24% increase compared to 2020. Adjusted EBITDA margin, excluding pass-through revenues, will be above 18% and are also slightly better than guided. We confirm our expectation on adjusted pre-tax unlevered free cash flow. Net leverage will be around 2x and also slightly better than guided. We will stick to our guidance of up to 20% of adjusted net income. Further, we confirm short, medium-term guidance. Further details will be presented in our full year 2021 preliminary call in February 2022.
Coming to a conclusion, let me mention the following key financial takeaways. In terms of visibility, we see that soft order backlog matured and a high revenue coverage from firm order backlog. Our strong top-line growth of +24% in revenue terms reflects a step change in growth momentum and a significant development in order intake and revenues. Profitability stays on high level and combined by the gross profit increase, which enables further sustainable investments in bid budgets and R&D. The growth in absolute bottom line margin continues. Liquidity of the company is in a good shape, reflected by a strong operating cash generation, our deleveraging, which developed according to plan. Our outlook is promising since this. Short- and medium-term guidance is confirmed for all KPIs, and we stick to our dividend guidance of up to 20% of Adjusted Net Income.
Now we are happy to take your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question for our speakers, please dial zero and one on your telephone keypad now to enter the queue. Once your name has been announced, you can ask a question. If you find your question is answered before it is your turn to speak, you can dial zero and two to cancel your question. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selection. One moment, please, for the first question. As a short reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press zero and one on your telephone keypad. As we have no questions in the line, I would like to hand back to Mrs. Endres for some closing remarks.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening today, and we are looking very much forward to welcoming you to HENSOLDT's first Capital Markets Day tomorrow. In case you have not registered by now, just reach out, and we will provide you with the respective dial-ins. As usual, should you have any further questions, the investor relations team is happy to follow up via email or via phone. With that, have a great day. Thank you all. Goodbye.
Bye. Ciao.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attendance. This call has been concluded. You may disconnect.