Good morning, everyone, and thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the hGears nine months results 2025 conference call. I am Moira de Caro, Scale Operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be listening on remote, and the conference has been 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 and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Christian Weiz, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for hGears nine monthss 2025 results conference wall and Webcast. My name is Christian Weiz. I'm the Head of Investor Relations. Joining me on the call today are Sven Arend, our CEO, and Daniel Basok, our CFO. They will take you through our nine monthss Results, and we'll be happy to answer your questions during the Q&A session afterwards. The earnings materials are available on the Investor Relations section of our website should you not have received them yet. Before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to the disclaimer on slide two, which outlines the legal framework under which this presentation must be considered, and which I will assume you have read. I am pleased to hand over the call to Sven Arend, our CEO.
Thanks, Christian. Good morning, everyone, and welcome also from my side to our nine monthss 2025 earnings call. As expected, the economic environment and the overall trends in our industries have not improved, and we continue to operate in a difficult market. Despite this, we managed to improve our profitability. Due to the fact that we brought forward production in the first half of the year, we recorded the weakest performance in the company's history in the third quarter of 2025. Thanks to this tactical shift in production, we were able to increase efficiencies, and together with additional cost measures, this had a positive impact on our nine monthss profitability. Even though eTools recorded a decline in the quarter, the overall recovery and stabilization of the business area continues.
E-mobility is benefiting from renewed demand for conventional engine technologies, and we continue to benefit from the resilience of the luxury and sports car segment. As anticipated, eBike was very weak, mainly because revenues had been pulled forward into the first half of the year, while destocking is still ongoing. Our efforts to streamline structures and reduce costs increasingly bear fruit. In fact, they more than offset the effects of the missing operational leverage and the weaker mix. As a result, we were able to raise our 2025 guidance in October. We now expect revenues to come in at the upper end of the previously given range and a better EBITDA landing in a EUR -1 million to EUR +1 million range. Consequently, we also anticipate a better free cash flow between EUR -1 million and EUR 0.
This positive development also supported our efforts to preserve cash and liquidity, which is and remains our highest priority. Daniel will explain in more detail what we have achieved here. Let's turn to slide four to take a look at hGears' business area sales performance in the first nine months of this year. On slide four, you can see the sales performance of the different business areas since 2023. eBike, as anticipated, was very weak, mainly because of revenues that we had pulled forward into the first half of the year and that were therefore missing in the third quarter. At the same time, demand in the third quarter remained low, as expected, since the destocking is still ongoing. We continue to see mixed signals from the end market, which seem to indicate that the stock depletion has progressed in recent months, and it may be close to an end.
Our observations suggest that we have likely seen the trough and may, and I repeat, may, experience some acceleration during 2026. Meanwhile, e-mobility is benefiting from renewed demand for smaller diesel and petrol engines, as a kind of reality check has set in among consumers regarding the challenges in the transition to electric mobility, especially in the small car segment. As a result, parts for conventional engines, which in the past were a significant part of our e-mobility business area and which we thought would gradually phase out, are once again in high demand. As in previous quarters, we continue to benefit from the resilience of the luxury and sports car segment. Even though eTools recorded a decline in the quarter, the overall recovery and stabilization of the business area continues.
The lower sales in the third quarter are also partly due to anticipated volumes that were shifted to the second quarter, as several customers increased their safety stock levels to mitigate uncertainties related to the ongoing trade tensions between China and the U.S. We've covered the key highlights, and now it's time for the numbers, and for that, I will hand over to Daniel for some additional color on the nine months results and the main reasons behind our upgraded guidance for 2025.
Thanks, Sven, and good morning, everyone. As you've just heard, the numbers are quite encouraging this time, so let's take a closer look and start with slide six. Sales for the first nine months of 2025 totaled to EUR 69.6 million, a decrease of 3.8% compared with EUR 72.1 million in the prior year. Third quarter sales declined by 8.4% year on year and by 17% sequentially. Following the pull forward of sales into the first half of the year, it came as no surprise to us that the eBike business had to digest an anticipated drop of 81.2% in the third quarter year-over-year, while the decline for the first nine months of 2025 was 42.7%. As we repeatedly said, this reflects the ongoing stock depletion. However, we are seeing signs that the trough has been reached.
The EUR 100 million question, of course, remains is when and to what extent we will see the recovery of the eBike industry in 2026. While there are still initial indications that the market may have bottomed out, it is still too early to assess the pace and the trajectory of this recovery. E-mobility recorded in the first nine months of 2025 4.1% higher sales in the year-over-year comparison, as the business area added 22.9% in the third quarter compared with the previous year. As Sven said earlier, e-mobility benefits from a revival in demand for smaller cars with conventional combustion engines. Besides that, the business area benefits from stable demand from the luxury and sports car segments. We are quite confident with regards to the medium to long-term prospects here, as we continue to get nominations for a lot of projects in this business area.
eTools continued to stabilize in the period under review, although the business had to digest an 8.5% drop in the third quarter. Still, over the first nine months, this business area grew nicely by 9%. Growth was again driven by gardening tools, while power tools showed some weakness, which is not surprising considering that manufacturing and construction markets in the Western world, apart from renovation and refurbishment, remain soft. Meanwhile, existing and potential U.S. trade tariffs remain a threat and could slow the expansion of the business area. Now, turning to the middle chart, you can see our gross profit and gross profit margin. The adjusted gross profit amounted to EUR 31.8 million, down 5.7% or EUR 1.9 million year on year.
This decline mainly reflects 3.8% or EUR 2.8 million decline in revenues, and the noticeably softer sales mix with eTools, the business area with lowest gross profit margins, accounting for 37.4% of sales compared to 33% in the prior year. The adjusted gross profit margin declined by 90 basis points year on year to 45.6% for the first nine months, remaining exactly at the margin level of the first half of the year. This stability through the year came, despite a softer sales mix, which could be cautioned by a few one-off effects such as tooling contribution and price adjustments. Last but not least, the chart on the right highlights Adjusted EBITDA and margin development.
Despite a decline in revenues of EUR 2.5 million with softer mix, which resulted in a decline in gross profit of EUR 1.9 million, the Adjusted EBITDA improved to EUR 0.9 million in the first nine months of 2025, more than double last year's figure. This tangible improvement underlines the effectiveness of our cost-saving measures and confirms that the structural actions we implemented are delivering evident results. This improvement was primarily driven by savings of around EUR 1.9 million in adjusted personnel expenses and an additional EUR 0.5 million reduction in OPEX. While current volumes continue to limit operational leverage, our results clearly demonstrate the positive effect of our structural improvements and disciplined cost-saving measures. Most of the major savings have already been implemented, and we are proud of this progress. Nonetheless, we are far from declaring victory just yet, and we continue to identify opportunities for further efficiency gains.
The next slide covers free cash flow and working capital, so please let's flip to slide seven. This slide shows the key elements that drove our free cash flow in the first nine months of 2025 compared to the same period a year ago. Let's start talking about the free cash flow. Cash flow from operating activities improved in the first nine months, mainly driven by a stronger non-Adjusted EBITDA, up EUR 1.5 million year on year, and by lower inventories. These positive effects were partly offset by a temporary increase in receivables, reflecting timing effects such as increased sales towards the quarter end. CapEx in the nine months of 2025 was EUR 1 million lower year on year, reflecting the one-off effect from a successful selling eBike transaction, but also our disciplined investment approach.
After cleaning the one-off effects, net cash flow for investment activities this year is higher than a year ago, but still below the 3% of sales CapEx threshold. Free cash flow ultimately came in at EUR -0.6 million, a significant improvement compared to EUR -2.5 million last year. This represents a solid achievement given the current trading conditions and challenging market environment. The chart below illustrates the development of our working capital, which decreased from EUR 9 million in the previous year to EUR 8.1 million at the end of the third quarter of 2025. The almost 10% decline in the net working capital once again outpaced the 3.9% decline in revenues. Therefore, working capital declined to 8.7% of LTM revenues compared with 8.9% a year earlier.
The reduction in working capital primarily reflects our continued efforts to lower inventories and thereby ease the pressure on operating cash flow and to further optimize the balance sheet. Speaking about the balance sheet, let's turn to slide eight, where I would like to give some highlights and a few more details. The net debt increased by EUR 2.5 million compared to the half year 2025, mainly due to the sale and leaseback transaction that resulted in an increase of long-term lease liabilities. As a result, the leverage ratio went up slightly but remained below the peak seen in earlier quarters. We expect this ratio to improve significantly as soon as volumes recover and higher activity level will lead to operational leverage and directly support profitability and Adjusted EBITDA.
Cash and cash equivalents stood at EUR 8.7 million at the end of September, and when adding the EUR 2 million of undrawn credit lines represents EUR 10.7 million in a like-for-like comparison. The current level of liquidity remains adequate and aligned with our focus on disciplined and efficient liquidity management. The equity ratio stood at 45.1% at the end of the nine months of 2025 compared to 49.4% at year-end. This capital base provides us with the flexibility to manage the current challenges and be ready to accelerate once market conditions improve. Now, over to Sven, who has the pleasure of guiding you through the outlook and the closing remarks before we open the line for your questions.
Thanks, Daniel. Let me sum up before we move on to the Q&A. Let's start with the business areas. Yes, we saw a decline in third quarter in eTools, but the overall stabilization trend remains and the business remains intact. e-mobility continues to benefit from our broad product portfolio, serving both conventional and electric vehicle production. In the European bicycle industry, stock depletion appears to be coming to an end, and there are encouraging signs that we may have passed the trough, suggesting that a gradual recovery could start to take shape over the course of 2026. Meanwhile, our nine month results clearly show that the structural adjustments and cost measures implemented in recent quarters are successful and are paying off. The better-than-anticipated development of our numbers even led us to raise our guidance in October 2025 through an ad hoc announcement, which you may have seen.
Our outlook reflects higher profitability and better cash preservation, confirming that our measures are having a lasting impact. To repeat it from the ad hoc we issued on the 23rd of October for 2025, we expect group revenues of EUR 87 million-EUR 90 million, an Adjusted EBITDA of EUR -1 million to EUR +1 million, and a free cash flow of EUR -2 million to zero. This concludes our review of the first nine months of 2025, and I will now hand back to the operator to open the line for your questions.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone 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 use only handsets while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question comes from the line of Martijn den Drijver from ABN AMRO or WHF. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, [den Drijver]. I'm actually speaking from ABN AMRO. I will be taking over from Martijn . My few set of questions at the start, starting from e-mobility driver. The Q3 was very strong on a quarterly basis, around 30% up. Do you think this is sustainable going forward into Q4 and 2026? My second question would be on eTools. Do you, in general, see tariffs as a key factor affecting the segment? Let's start from the first two questions, if I may. Thank you.
Let me start with eTools. I think in the end, obviously, we've been monitoring that very closely, where quite a lot of the business that we produce actually gets shipped versus the United States. What has to be said is that until now, apart from maybe some pulling up and then later on some reductions, we do not see any changes. All discussions with our customers point to a very stable and solid future. We currently, right now, do not see this whole tariff discussion affecting volumes on our side. In fact, we see some opportunities even to hopefully grow the business in the years to come. On the e-mobility side, I think we see overall, on an annual basis, a stable situation. There may be some quarterly changes and adjustments, but I would not factor those in for the future.
I think overall, it's a stable business where we also see the opportunity to grow. The one thing that always has to be said when we talk about e-mobility is that typically the time from nomination to actually seeing that bottom line as an SOP is going to be somewhere between two to four and a half years. Despite all the success we've had there, we do not see a lot of that on the bottom line yet. We do have a stable order book for the remainder of the year, which honestly is also a good sign because we typically, a lot of times throughout the year in Q4, see stock cleanups at the customer end. I would say this is the first time in the three years that I've been here that we've not seen those reductions, at least until now.
Very grateful. Just another question on the eTools part. Do you see some effect on pricing also because of tariffs, or is there also no risk? You indicated there is no risk on volumes, but on pricing also, if I understand, no risk. Would that imply?
No, we've not had any pricing discussions as a result of the tariffs. In fact, again, we have been nominated with some follow-up generations that will secure this business over the years to come without really seeing any changes on price pressure or volume changes.
All right. Very clear. If I may just squeeze in one or two more questions, firstly with regards to the eBike bottoming. You've indicated that the destocking is probably approaching its end. Firstly, what signals do you concretely use? Is it the OEM feedback? Is it the inventory levels? Could you just provide some color there as to which signals are particularly pointing towards more of a trough or a destocking finishing?
If you look at official numbers of companies like Shimano and Giant, you basically see that they see slight signs of recovery. We also, from our customers and from bike manufacturers, hear that the stock that they see at their customers is going down and going down quite significantly. That makes us believe that over the course of the next, I would say, three to nine months, we should, for all these customers, reach a normal stock level that is required to keep flexibility. The one thing that maybe has been missing yet is that we see the bottom line numbers in the call-offs change, but that should be the consequence of that once we reach that point.
Very grateful. It is very clear on that part. Maybe one current last question, and then I will go into the queue. Just with regards to the automotive segment market, the tier one customers, they remain stable. Do you see any risk going forward? You have indicated that the order book remains strong, but the auto sector is going through some headwinds. Do you see that somewhere, or for you, it is not a concern?
Honestly, we have had some slowdowns on some products. I mean, to be fair, we were affected by one manufacturer that is not part of the EU that was hit by a software attack and stopped production. We have seen some slight declines there. I think overall, what we do see is that, especially on the conventional side, I mean, if you look at publications, for example, right now, Volkswagen is doing short time for all the models that are electric, but they are doing overtime on the models that are combustion. As we try to explain, at least for the time being, what we do see is a bit of a revival on the conventional side. I think, obviously, we are also on the luxury end. That has been extremely stable and will continue to be so.
I think then on the new product introduction, yes, we've mentioned that in the past. There have been some delays on model launches and adjustments. I think overall, with regards to what we factor into our planning, we do not see a significant risk.
Very grateful. Maybe last question currently would be CapEx. There is a sale and lease back transaction done this year. I know it's a bit early to ask, but what do you foresee for next year? Do you see more support from CapEx side for the free cash flow, or do you see turning around? Any indication for next year on this? Thank you.
Yeah. Currently, what we expect for next year is that basically in the last few years, we went through a big CapEx cycle, and we built up capacities on our plans. We are currently targeting to maintain the CapEx level to be below 3% of our total sales, which basically represents our maintenance CapEx. That will be also the targets going forward for the next years as long as we will not see a recovery or significant recovery in our top line. That being said, there are a few projects that are always in the pipeline, and when you're basically always missing the one machine that you don't have.
What we are currently trying to do and will continue to do in the future is that for that machine, we are trying to reduce the capacity of the machines that we have that we do not need and partially finance with the disposal of existing equipment the next machine that we need for a new project. The target still remains to be below 3% of total sales and revenues.
Very grateful. I will go back in the queue though. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from Fabio Hölscher from Warburg Research. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I have a couple left. I'll take them one by one. I'll start chronologically with the guidance. Did the guidance change imply that your expectations for 2026 have changed in any way as well?
As we have not provided any guidance for 2026, our expectations, of course, towards 2026 have changed also based on what we see now, especially in terms of profitability. As you can see from the updated guidance that we published in October, the top line has not changed, but we slightly increased the profitability of the business just due to the fact that we see that our cost measures that were planned for this year, we were able to implement them a little bit earlier and with a slightly broader effect than what we have originally anticipated. That is also something that provides us the confidence that we need for 2026 or higher confidence that we have now for 2026 in terms of profitability.
Okay, great. I want to come back to the e-mobility segment or automotive. You mentioned the drivers this year so far and for the future. Do you see any angles for additional on-top growth going forward in e-mobility or even conventional powertrains beyond the business you're currently doing, for example, in China or with Chinese OEMs, for example, given you have a site in the country?
Definitely. As mentioned, even in China, even though the development cycles are shorter, you will talk about one and a half to two and a half years in China and typically around two to four years in Europe before you really see that hit the bottom line. We have secured quite a few projects over the last two years with new customers, new projects. Again, the bad thing about the automotive business is it is relatively slow until it hits the bottom line. I think, as we mentioned in the past, especially in Europe with the consolidation and reassessment of the whole e-mobility strategy, quite a few of these projects were also delayed from their original targets so that they are actually going to hit the bottom line somewhere end 2026, 2027, 2028.
Okay, great. Another more strategic one, perhaps, Sven, when you joined hGears, especially in the early days, you mentioned how you wanted to diversify and grow in adjacent industries. I mean, market conditions have obviously changed in the meantime, but one could argue that the cyclical weakness exposed even more the need to diversify. I remember in the past you mentioning MedTech, although that's perhaps not the easiest market to enter. I mean, we're seeing others going more into robotics. Energy is an option. Any angles you see there to get the top line up beyond the current cyclical recovery that we're all hoping for?
I mean, to be fair, we're addressing these areas. We have had some small successes on things like packaging industry and industrial. We are, in the end, following the whole development on the robotics side, though I would say especially the higher end. Right now, the volumes in the end do not provide significant revenue potential, and it's still a very fragmented market. I think the key thing is that we're trying to get an alignment with companies that we believe could be key players, at least in the professional area of the business going forward, to work on opportunities there. Again, it's not something that I see hitting the bottom line very quickly. I think in the end, we mentioned that also in the past, being a highly established player in the three industries that we're in, it's a lot of times easier to find new business.
Of course, the automotive business still, when you look at overall industries, provides the highest volume potential in there for the quickest way of adding revenue. I would say things are going well. Again, for the short-term things, in some cases, we've also had on automotive short-term prospects. Some of these businesses came in in the last two years, and we will continue to work on that. Yes, the focus is also to take a look at things like industrial. We even had discussions with defense. I have to say that there, again, volumes aren't very high. If you really want to get into it and into defense products that are covered by the confidentiality topics, we would have to significantly invest into infrastructure and certification for these products here. I see that, for example, providing limited scope in the next year or two.
Makes sense. I'll go back into that. Thank you very much.
Thanks.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Once again, to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. There are no more questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Sven Arend for any closing remarks.
Right. Let me thank everybody for joining this call. Some of you we will speak to later in individual calls, and we look forward to updating all of you in our next publication. All the best until then. Thank you and bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Caruscol, and thank you for participating in the.