My name is Claudia Nickolaus, and I'm Head of Investor and Public Relations and ESG at Medios. As a reminder, this conference will be recorded, and all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If you are logged in via the webcast tool, you can also submit questions at any time using the Q&A icon below the presentation slide at the bottom of the screen. If you have any technical difficulties during this session, please use this Q&A button as well. As always, all relevant documents can be downloaded from our investor relations website. Additionally, this presentation can be followed in parallel via the internet link provided to you in the invitation. Today, with me is our CEO, Thomas Meier, and our CFO, Falk Neukirch.
Thomas will start with an executive summary, followed by Falk, who will then provide details on the financials of the fiscal year 2025 and the guidance for 2026. Finally, Thomas will comment on Medios' focus activities in 2026, and after the presentation, we will begin the Q&A session. I would now like to hand over to Thomas.
Very much, Claudia. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the conference call for the financial year 2025. I started as the CEO of Medios in February. Over the past few weeks, I got to know our teams and operations and our partners more closely. I'm very impressed by the strong organization and the opportunities ahead of us. On this slide, I highlighted some past experiences and summarized my first 54 days in office. I'm fully in the listen-and-learn mode. As I mentioned, I meet people, and I'm trying to understand the organization and work together with my colleagues. As I said, 54 days, it's kind of a little bit more than halfway through the first 100 days, and I can tell you one thing, Medios is a great place to work. Above all, Medios has all the ingredients for success in the specialty pharma business.
Let me present the highlights of 2025 on the next slide. We had a very solid financial year, 2025, with a significant improvement in profitability, and we continue to see good growth. In more concrete figures, revenue grew by 10.4% to, for the first time, over EUR 2 billion to EUR 2.1 billion. EBITDA pre rose disproportionally by 17.8% to EUR 93.1 million. Consequently, EBITDA pre-margin rose from 4.2% to 4.5%. It is especially rewarding to realize that all earning figures, EBITDA pre, earnings per share, earnings per share as adjusted, grew disproportionally compared to the revenue. Revenue of EUR 2.1 billion euros and EBITDA pre of EUR 93.1 million were broadly in line with the 2025 guidance.
In 2025, Medios prepared to enter the reimbursed medical cannabis market. We announced that, and we did that in Germany with an exclusive partnership with Bedrocan. This business is up and running, and we are happy with the start we see. Outlook for financial year 2026, we expect revenue to reach EUR 2 billion-EUR 2.12 billion, reflecting a growth of up to 2%. EBITDA pre is expected to be in the range of EUR 94 million-EUR 102 million. Again, a disproportionate rise in the profitability with up to 9.6%, reflecting a margin of 4.8%. If you're looking at the quarters development over the last three years, we always see that, the fourth quarter is a little bit weaker than the other quarters, especially, looking at the profitability.
We have seen a similar fluctuation this year. However, back in the fall, we had expected a slightly stronger Q4 result. The question is out there, what happened? Unfortunately, we indeed experienced an unexpected one-off effect. Nevertheless, I think that's very obvious, the overall trend remains unchanged. We see disproportionate earnings growth going forward. Furthermore, the key point, the earnings of Medios, they translate in a very strong cash flow. I think that's a really strong statement for the company and the capabilities we have. On slide nine now, we talk about our ESG highlights. For everybody at Medios, when I talk to them and for myself personally, it is important that we deliver for pharmacies, for patients, and we strongly feel that we are an important element of the strategic infrastructure for supply security of pharmaceuticals.
We work every day to make sure that patients get their medicine they need. In addition, of course, we have ESG targets that we achieve, and we highlighted some on this slide. Let me also tell you that for the first time, we completed Scope 3 analysis of all relevant categories. With that, I conclude the initial part and hand it over for more details on our financials to Falk. Falk, please.
Thank you, Thomas. Good morning and welcome also from my side. I will now give you a more detailed overview on the financials for FY 2025. As always, you can find the full financial statement on our website. Let's go to slide eight. All in all, we had a very solid fiscal year. Our revenue showed double-digit growth and came slightly above our forecast for 2025 of EUR 2 billion. Also, the EBITDA pre increased significantly, and the EBITDA pre margin even improved to 4.5%. However, due to one-off effects in Q4, as already mentioned by Thomas, and also due to a somehow too optimistic expectation on the timing of the ramp-up of business opportunities, especially in segment international 2025. In 2025, the EBITDA was just below forecast of EUR 96 million.
The new business opportunities began to materialize at the end of 2025, but are expected to fully unfold in 2026. Medios fiscal year figures for 2025 were driven by first-time full-year consolidation of the Ceban group acquired in June 2024. As you know, in the previous year, Ceban only contributed to the group's result on a pro rata basis for seven months. Consequently, the operational segment international business still contributed in 2025 significantly by inorganic growth. Besides this, pharmaceutical supply contributed with a solid organic growth in revenue and EBITDA pre. Overall revenue rose to EUR 2.08 billion from EUR 1.88 billion, which is an increase of 10.4%.
Of this increase, EUR 63.2 million, that is 3.4%, were attributable to inorganic growth from segment IB, mainly to the just mentioned 12 versus seven months effect. The rest, an amount of EUR 132.4 million corresponding to 7%, is attributable to organic growth, mainly from PS segment. The revenue increased. The revenue increase of PST segment is mainly caused by the discontinuation of performance-based payments for increased compounding volumes in 2025 versus 2024. Gross profit of Medios Group improved significantly by EUR 49.1 million to EUR 203.7 million, an increase of 31.6%.
This improvement is mainly due to the IB segment, which contributed EUR 77.4 million in gross profit, an increase of EUR 37 million, sale of EUR 31.7 million inorganically, resulting from the just mentioned 12 versus 7 months effect and the income from divestments of smaller Ceban entities, mainly pharmacies in the amount of EUR 2.7 million. Gross profit of PST segment rose by EUR 8.3 million to EUR 55.6 million, representing a gross profit margin of 23.8% in the margin increase of 3.1 percentage points. This is mainly due to the positive business development and the elimination of performance-based payments for compounding orders in the amount of EUR 6.2 million.
Gross profit of PS segment increased organically by EUR 4.3 million, reaching a gross profit margin of 3.8%, which is unchanged compared to previous year. All of that together contributed to a higher Medios Group gross profit margin, which rose by 1.6 percentage points to 9.8%. Personnel cost rose by EUR 17.2 million to EUR 69.4 million. This rise was mainly attributable to the first time full-year consolidation of the Ceban Group, as well as one-off expenses related to the change in the executive board in financial year 2025, and a higher average number of employees compared with the previous year. Non-cash expenses for stock option decreased from EUR 1.7 million to EUR 1.2 million.
Other operating expenses rose from EUR 39.5 million to EUR 50.2 million, an increase of EUR 10.7 million. They have EUR 6.5 million attributable to the IB segment. In addition, other operating expenses increased year-on-year, mainly because of higher IT costs, EUR 4.3 million, thereof EUR 2.4 million increase for one-off cost for the implementation of an ERP system, which we adjust under EBITDA pre. The EBITDA pre increased by 17.8% to EUR 93.1 million. The EBITDA pre margins thus improved to 4.5% compared to 4.2% in the previous period.
This was supported by two factors, the EBITDA contribution of the IB segment with higher EBITDA pre margins and the strong organic growth of PS segment focusing on higher margin products. EBITDA pre was adjusted by extraordinary expenses in the amount of around EUR 9 million compared to EUR 16 million last year. These adjustments consist of EUR 5.1 million for ERP system implementation. EUR 1.5 million one-offs related to changes in the executive board. EUR 1.2 million other M&A expenses. EUR 1.2 million for expenses for stock options. The decline in overall adjustment is mainly attributable to the discontinuation of performance-based payments for increased compounding volumes and lower M&A expenses compared to previous year. Depreciation and amortization increased by EUR 6.6 million to EUR 37.9 million.
A significant portion of this increase, EUR 6.9 million, is attributed to the IB segment and mainly results from the full year consolidation of the Ceban Group in 2025. The financial result decreased by EUR 8.5 million to -EUR 18.3 million, mainly driven by extraordinary financial expenses of EUR 9.2 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025, which are related to the revaluation of the NCI liabilities for the acquisition of minority shares in connection with the acquisition of the Ceban Group. Interest expenses for liabilities to banks declined due to the scheduled repayment of the term loan facility and the replacement of the bridge financing facility for acquisition of Ceban Group against the syndicated loan facility in November 2024.
The tax expenses rose from EUR 9.3 million to EUR 12.5 million due to higher earnings before tax. The tax rate remains due to non-tax deductible financial expenses from the revaluation of NCI liabilities still high as in the previous year, where non-tax deductible financing costs and M&A costs increased the tax ratio as well. Especially the one-off financial expenses due to the revaluation of NCI liabilities reduced the growth of the net result. Nevertheless, the net profit was up 22.4% to EUR 15.4 million in 2025. Accordingly, earnings per share rose from EUR 0.51 to EUR 0.61, an increase of 19.6%. Adjusted EPS increased to EUR 1.94, sorry, compared to EUR 1.661 last year.
Earnings per share adjusted are based on the net result after tax adjusted for extraordinary expenses, PPA depreciation and amortization, revaluation of non-controlling interest liabilities, as well as corresponding tax expense adjustments. Operating cash flow was within the expected range and amounted to EUR 52.3 million versus EUR 73.7 million for fiscal year 2024. This increase was despite a higher operating result, mainly attributable to the net working capital increase due to higher trade receivables in DPS segment at the balance sheet date and higher tax payments in 2025. Free cash flow reached EUR 44 million and was thus largely within the estimated free cash flow range, as communicated in the past of EUR 40 million-EUR 50 million.
The investing cash flow of -EUR 4.0 million mainly reflects CapEx of -EUR 8.3 million, subsequent accrued purchase price payment for the acquisition of Ceban in the amount of EUR 2.3 million, as well as cash inflows of EUR 5.9 million from the disposal of fixed assets in the sale of pharmacies in the IB segment. Financing cash flow of -EUR 72.6 million mainly reflect the scheduled repayment of the term loan in the amount of EUR 25 million, net repayment of the RCF loan of EUR 20 million in 2025, and cash outflows from interest payments, EUR 10 million and EUR 12.6 million for the acquisition of treasury shares. You will find a summary of the share buyback program in the appendix of the presentation.
Cash and cash equivalents amounted to EUR 81.8 million at the end of the reporting period. The equity ratio of 56.9% increased again slightly as of the end of December 2025 compared to the previous year with 54.6%. On slide nine and 10, we have provided again a breakdown of organic and inorganic growth. Slide nine shows the inorganic revenue growth amounted to EUR 63.2 million or 3.4%, fully dedicated to the IB segment. Organically, revenue increased by EUR 132.4 million or 7%, resulting from all operational segments, but mainly from segment pharmaceutical supply. Slide 10 shows the organic and inorganic EBITDA pre breakdown by segment. EBITDA pre increased inorganically by EUR 12 million or 15.1%, fully dedicated to the IB segment.
Organically, EBITDA pre increased by EUR 2.1 million or 2.7%, resulting from the segment Pharmaceutical Supply and to a smaller extent from International Business. The decline of the organic EBITDA pre growth of the segment PST is mainly a result of 1x higher personnel costs, e.g., due to severance pay and 1x higher other operating expenses, mainly due to maintenance and repair. EBITDA pre for the Internal Services segment fell to -EUR 10.8 million from -EUR 10.5 million in the same period last year, primarily due to moderate increases in staff costs which are relevant to EBITDA pre. Let's go to slide 11, providing the 12 months overview of all segments compared to the previous year.
As mentioned before, the 10.4% increase in group revenue is mainly driven by the strong organic growth in the pharmaceutical supply segment, inorganic and organic growth in the IB segment, and to a lower extent by PST. The external revenue of the PS segment strongly increased by 6.9% to EUR 1.69 billion. PST segment contributed EUR 220.1 million, an increase of EUR 6.5 million, +3%, of which EUR 6.2 million are attributable to the elimination of performance-related expenses for the acquisition of compounding volumes. The IB segment contributed EUR 169.2 million external revenue in 2025, which is an increase of EUR 80.4 million thereof EUR 63.2 million inorganically.
EBITDA pre for the PS segment amounted to EUR 52.5 million, a plus of 5.1%. EBITDA of the PST segment reached EUR 22.2 million, a minus of 4.6% due to the already mentioned 1x higher personnel and other operating expenses, as just stated. IB contributed EUR 29.1 million EBITDA pre thereof EUR 12 million inorganically. This translates into a segment EBITDA pre-margin of 17.2%. Slide 12 provides status information on the recent financing structure. In November 2024, the debt financing of Medios was replaced by a syndicated loan facility with two tranches in the total amount of EUR 225 million. There is net debt amounted to around EUR 120 million as of 31st December 2025, leading to an attractive leverage ratio of 1.3.
An estimated annual free cash flow of around EUR 40 million-EUR 50 million will enable Medios to continue repaying the term loan, cover interest payments, and of course, finance further growth. At the end of the reporting period, the total loan amount drawn under the syndicated loan agreement amounted to EUR 155 million, consisting of EUR 100 million under the term facility and EUR 55 million under the RCF. Let's go to slide 14, providing our guidance for the full year 2026 for the Medios Group. Our guidance parameters are again revenue and EBITDA pre. For 2026, we expect revenues to reach the range of EUR 2 billion to up to EUR 2.12 billion , reflecting growth of up to 2%.
EBITDA pre is expected to be in the range of EUR 94 million-EUR 102 million at disproportionate rise up to 9.6%. Taking into consideration the middle of the EBITDA pre-guidance corridor, organic EBITDA pre course should be in the mid-single-digit percentage range. Both parameters reflect an EBITDA pre margin of up to 4.8%. The EBITDA pre-guidance is adjusted for extraordinary expenses like M&A related costs, expenses for stock option programs, implementation costs for an ERP system, and for one-off expenses for efficiency improvements. Thank you for your attention. As I will be stepping down from my role as a CFO at Medios and leaving at the end of April, this marks my final earnings call.
I would like to thank you, our investors and analysts, as well the whole Medios team for your support and trust in the past. I herewith hand over to Thomas. Thank you.
Thank you, Falk. That was a concentrated piece of numbers and, as always, very precise and eloquently delivered. Thank you very much. As I started at Medios, you know, the question is in the room, "What is Medios doing?" People ask me, "What exactly is it that Medios does?" I try to put two slides together where I would like to talk about the market system as I see it, which is based on some consultancy that worked on it, and then internally we added some specifics and flavors. As such, we operate in a market system along a value chain.
I see commercial products from the very start that they're partially going directly into the dispensing channel and then there are individual steps, you see that at the top of this list, that go from wholesale into compounding, into logistics, into the dispensing be it at the hospital, the physicians, pharmacies, clinics, you name it. As this value chain is somewhat fragmented in individual unit operations, one must also understand that this is an abstraction and it's way too simple. It is more complex, and we're trying to figure out our ranges of operation wherever they fit best and wherever it can deliver the most value. At the bottom of the slide, we highlighted, in any case, where we are currently active. What we call pharmaceutical supply is covering the wholesale and compounding aspect.
There is a somewhat vertical integration in such that some of the drug products are compounded for patient-specific needs, or some API is getting delivered out into the compounding area where we use it to make the patient-specific or compounded product that then is going into the logistics and getting dispensed wherever it is needed. Our international business covers, again, wholesale and compounding with a very firm and very, very nicely carved out compounding footprint that also delivers a nice profitability. In the dispensing segment of this value chain, we have currently 20 community pharmacies that were part of the acquisition in the Netherlands. This is the big picture how I see that Medios is operating and the market is working to serve the patients. Now on this slide, we even deliver you numbers. Again, be mindful about those numbers.
I want to talk about numbers, but we also need to see that, for example, I pick a number. If we say the compounding market is EUR 30 billion, that does not mean that our addressable market is close to that number. Because right now, a large part of this market is not addressable for Medios for various reason, be it regulatory reasons that are individually and different from country to country, be it that we are not active in the entire Europe market. We are in a smaller segment of this compounding market, and we make sure that we deliver the most value in the market we are active.
We are firmly nested in this combination of wholesale compounding, and we believe looking at the market CAGR that is here estimated to be between 5%-15% for compounding and a healthy profitability estimated around 10%-20%, that this is an area we would like to continue to grow. We are focusing our operations, our network, that we can do that even better for our partners and customers going forward. The wholesale business, we make sure that we continue to do it successfully on a speciality base, where we believe, and this five is a little bit moved, that we can achieve a profitability, hopefully in the range of 3%-5%. I think that is the picture how we see it right now.
When we continue on the next page, I would like to highlight some of the activities that Medios did in 2025 to achieve a good positioning in this value chain and also experiment and try to gain additional value propositions that help the profitability. One proof of concept is shown here. Simbrinza, a well-established drug for eye drops, of Novartis. We were able to partner with Novartis and are now in [Non-English content] in German, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur. That means our name is on those boxes. Cranach Pharma will be visible in the pharmacies, and we are using our distribution channels in addition to the wholesale for bringing those drugs into the pharmacies. All under the idea, as I mentioned before, that Medios wants to be an important piece of securing that drugs are available for patients.
Here, a well-established brand that Novartis says, "Well, it is better in your hands. You give it more attention, and customers will find the drug they need, they like. Going forward, we trust you, Medios, to do this well." I think we have proven that we are the right partner. We did all the regulatory necessary improvements in Cranach Pharma in Hamburg. We got inspected by the authority, and we got approved to be a pharmazeutischer Unternehmer entrepreneur going forward. Something to watch. Not a massive revenue contribution in 2026 to be expected, but as a proof of concept, something we wanted to try out, and the team really delivered in 2025. We are up and running. We are happy with the results we have seen so far, and we want to continue this avenue for our pharmacy supply PS business.
On this side, a very beautiful example from the International Business part. I said we are in the business to keep medicines on the market, and sometimes, as you know, if global supply chains are disrupted, there are shortages in the market. We are on the watch to understand where shortages are happening. Our teams are connecting with the pharmaceutical companies, and pharmaceutical companies typically have a certain visibility into the future. They know, oh, a shortage could come up here, a shortage could be there, and we learn that ourselves. We get our intelligence from the market, but also sometimes in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies, we prepare compounding for drugs we expect to go into shortages. This one is a histamine blocker that helps with bouts of where you might be itchy.
They are necessary medicines, and we are happy that we can deliver those, whereas the shortage is happening in the market and we are selling current volume 65,000 tablets a month. A big thank you to our International Business, to the Medios team, to help people having the medicine they like and not being affected by the shortage. Falk told us that he's gonna leave the company, so it's important for me, and it's very good news that we can announce that with Stefan Bauerreis, we could gain a very experienced hand for our financial team. He will start mid-April, and he brings a very strong background of experience in international leadership in publicly traded companies at this German stock market.
He was the CFO of Stabilus for several years, and before that, he was for decades with Schaeffler Group, as CFO, Europe and Germany at the end of his tenure there. He has a vast experience in corporate accounting, controlling, financing and transformation of management team. We feel privileged and blessed that he will start in a month, even a bit shorter, and help us to continue our way of transformation and increasing profitability at Medios and make sure that we are matching the opportunities that are out there. Lastly, a few words before we go into question and answers. If a new CEO comes in, if a new team is building, of course, we're gonna look at the business.
We're gonna look where we wanna put our focus, and we wanna make sure that we have all the capabilities we need to act swiftly and focused to achieve results. We are doing this exercise as we talk, and we will present tangible targets. We will present a read on where we want to position the vision and mission of Medios at our Capital Markets Day in fall. Until then, we're gonna make sure that we act as one team. We wanna harmonize business and planning processes for compounding and pharmacy supply at first, and we will do that using modern tools, modern processes. The core and centerpiece of that transparency data-driven work is our ERP backbone that will be updated to SAP 4HANA. S/4HANA will be our knowledge backbone of the company going forward. The rollout is in preparation.
We remain committed that Medios Pharma will be up and running very shortly, and this will help us to get better insight and hopefully result in faster decisions and progress. Another thing I would highlight, after 54 days or during my 54th day is, I think it's not a new statement, we're gonna optimize our network, and we wanna do that on a solid plan, a solid plan that covers the entire group, and we're gonna call this capacity master planning. That plan is already worked on, and we're gonna accelerate the formation of the plan and the execution according to this plan. I think there's value in this, and I will put down some of my energy together with the top team that this is a priority for the entire group. Similar is business integration. We talked about the SAP project.
That is of course now the mission-critical project for the entire organization. We're gonna focus our energy on that one, but at the same time, we already know that we need to reassess our digitalization roadmap to make sure again that we have focus and we can execute quickly and swiftly towards that plan. All this done to accelerate organic growth. We see good growth potential in the market, and we want to be sure that we can achieve that growth together and for our partners and customers, and also think that a go-to-market strategy to increase that group of partners and customers will help us achieving that organic growth. Buy and build is a very important and vital element of what we're gonna do going forward. It has always been part of the Medios success story, and we wanna keep it that way.
We want to be very disciplined in what we are doing, but we're going to have value accretive bolt-on acquisition, I believe, going forward. Of course, we can't let you know before this happened for obvious reasons. With that, I think I have one more good news on the next slide, and then we are ready for questions and answers. The good news is we gonna have a Capital Markets Day in Breda, the Netherlands. That's at our Ceban unit. The date shifted slightly. It's gonna be on the 29th. I've informed some of you that it's gonna be the 30th, so please mark your calendar. It moved one day earlier. It's on the 29th. We're gonna have a pre-dinner on the 28th, and I hope you will join us. I look forward to that.
I look forward to interact with you in person, and hopefully you find time in your busy schedule. With that, Claudia, I guess it's time for Q&As, and I'm sure there are already some around.
Yes. Thank you, Thomas. We will now begin our Q&A session, and if you have any question for our speakers, please dial star nine pound sign on your telephone keypad now to enter the queue. Once your name has been announced, you can ask a question. If you are logged in via the webcast tool, you can also submit question at any time using the Q&A icon below the presentation slide at the bottom of the screen. The first question comes from Michael Heider. Sorry, I correct. The first question come from the chat from Nico Lechner. What one-offs do you anticipate in 2026, and what will they amount to?
Okay. I guess I'm not sure I understand the question, but thank you anyway. We don't anticipate one-offs outside of our budget. Right now we are very confident that we are going according to our plan, and we are almost two months in, and I don't see that we have anything that is not communicated that's looming somewhere and then will surprise us. Of course, one-offs are what they are. They are not results according to the planned way forward. Maybe I misunderstand, and I would like to pull in Falk. Would you like to add something here, Falk? Do you have a better answer to that fair question?
Falk?
Very quiet here, I guess.
We come to the next question from the chat. It's from Bartolomeo Pasta, and this is the question: Can you please better explain the weakness in the fourth quarter, especially as it relates to supposedly stronger and more profitable PST segment? PST EBITDA was -37% year-over-year, but revenues were up 3.9%. This is a worrying sign. Falk, please.
Yeah. I was muted, sorry. I, sorry for that. Maybe I can still answer-
Yeah, please.
Add something to your question. Maybe it's answered already. If not, I think the question of Nico maybe goes in the direction of the EBITDA pre-adjustments. Yes, we have EUR 9 million, as just explained, in 2025. We expect, of course, less because one of the big portion in 2025 is the ERP system. As already mentioned, we are planning very shortly a go-live for this software. The adjustment, the implementation cost will be significantly lower. I assume that an amount of EUR 5 million is realistic for 2026 in the EBITDA pre-adjustments.
Second question about Q4 in PST, as already mentioned by Thomas and also by me, it's mainly personnel costs like in one case, severance expense, but also some other one-off personnel costs in the amount of roughly I would say EUR 450,000-500,000 . On top of that, we have maintenance costs, repair costs in the manufacturing entities of the PST, which amount to EUR 600 ,000 . All in all, this is an amount of EUR 1.1 million. Also on top of that, which is not structural from my perspective, is this a snapshot for this fourth quarter that we have, especially in December, a product mix which goes more towards cytostatics than ophthalmologic products.
This is also a little dip of EBITDA-wise EUR 300,000-EUR 400,000 . This explains the difference, and don't compare to the last year because quarter, it was very good. It had a few positive impacts. Normally, you should have compared it to an EBITDA quarterly of EUR 5.6 million-EUR 5.7 million, and because this was what we expected for the whole year for the PST segment in 2025. I hope I answered this question.
Okay. Thank you, Falk. We just try again. Michael Heider, please, once again.
Can you hear me now?
Yes.
Hello. Yeah, we can. Hi, everybody. Hi, Thomas, Falk, and Claudia. Thanks for taking the questions. Actually, the one on compounding was just answered. I would have another question on the other one-off that was quite significant, the NCI. Maybe here again, the same question. Can you shed a little bit more light on what exactly happened, and was this now cash effective or not? Where was it booked? I presume in the financial results because it was unexpectedly high. The underlying business or the underlying financial expenses for 2025, I presume then were in the normal highs. Also going into 2026, do you expect any special items here, or can we assume a much lower financial result than again? Thanks.
I try to answer that question. Thank you, Michael. Yes, the normal run rate, I would say it's actually declining in the future. The normal interest expenses for the loan, for the syndicated loan, have been around EUR 10 million. With the redemption, of course, this will be lower in the future. We had one of, as he explained, the NCI liability we had to revalue. Just for your explanation and your background information, what is it? It is non-controlling interest. When we acquired Ceban, we had a few companies where we did not acquire 100%, but there were minorities. Because we fully consolidated that entity, we had to value that, the amount of a 100% acquisition of this minority shares.
This is based on an assumption, or agreement, what the amount will be. This is based on contracts normally, and in this case, it was this one company, especially one company, which is dealing in the clinic care service, normally doing the nursing business. Due to regulatory reason, this company had to take over in 2025, at the end of 2025 in November, December, also the iso syringes business, which we are luckily, due to the extensive sales activities of the Ceban group, we won the contract to supply these iso syringes to a very big and important partner in the Netherlands.
This has quite. Luckily, this has a good, and this was one of the reasons why, what I mentioned before, that this business opportunities we expected earlier kicked in at the end, and this was the case here, but we had planned it at a different site, not at the CCS, but we had to switch due to regulatory reasons with this site. This of course will trigger also the revaluation of this minority shares, which we had to do at the end of the year. As it has not been done initially, that is IFRS, you have to show it under financing costs, and this is a one-off effect, and that is the reason why we also adjusted it under the adjusted earnings per share.
Cash flow-wise, we expect a cash outflow not in 2026, but in 2027. It needs to be looked at the actual EBITDA of this company end of 2026 or beginning of 2027. Then it's decided whether it's that amount or lower amount.
Can I follow up, maybe? That was actually a positive outcome for that specific company. It has a higher value than you originally expected. It's not an impairment, so to say, but you found out basically that this company is worth more and hence the minority stake is also higher?
Well, it's good for Medios because we did one and a business opportunity which increases the EBITDA of the Ceban group and also of Medios in 2026, definitely. The pity is that we have to, due to regulatory reason, we have to manufacture and produce that in an entity where we have minority stakes. The contract says these minority stakes we are going to buy based on the EBITDA in 2026. That is the reason if the EBITDA jumps up due to that, we have to pay higher amount to the-
Yeah.
minority shareholders than originally when we acquired Ceban has been planned.
Did you expect that business to come anyhow, but in another entity?
Exactly.
Is it incrementally positive?
It was another entity-
Okay. Yeah.
which we fully owned at a different place, but due to regulatory reasons, this have
Yeah.
This regulatory situation has changed in the mid of 2025, and then we had to decide, do this business at a company where we have minority stakes or not doing this business.
Yeah.
I think the decision is clear. We have to do that.
All right. Many thanks. Very clear. Thanks. Okay, also, sorry, almost missed that, but I want to, of course, also take this opportunity to thank you, Falk, for the very good cooperation, and I wish you all the best for your future.
Thank you.
Thank you, Michael. We come to the next Michael. Michael Kuhn, please go ahead with your questions.
Good morning. Thank you. Thank you for the clarification. I think most clarified now on, let's say, the EBITDA miss. I would still ask, I mean, regarding the severance payments. That would usually, in my understanding, be an item that you would put into the, let's say, non-recurring stuff and then adjust in the EBITDA pre, as you've done with many other things. Why exactly didn't you adjust for those specific effects?
Well, the adjustment is normally something shareholders and also analysts don't like, so we don't do it extensively. Therefore, on top of that, there's a formality of things you do not anticipate in advance in your guidance. You cannot easily adjust over the year. This is a BaFin view, and so we are very cautious in these kind of things.
All right. Understood. On efficiency measures that are mentioned in the release and in the presentation a couple of times, and that those would actually be adjusted for in the EBITDA pre. Obviously something is in the making or something is planned, but my understanding is you can't talk about it yet. Is that right? If that's right, let's say, when will be the time to talk about it? Will it be only at the CMD or might we get some updates on efficiency measures earlier?
Yes, it's right. The timing, I think good timing to talk about is probably the release of the half-year results.
Falk, we gonna update as we move along over the quarterlies and half year results. If there's anything we feel should be communicated, we will certainly let you know before the Capital Markets Day.
Okay.
Let's say we are in identification phase.
If we're talking merger and acquisition, look, there is always something ongoing, whether it's happening or not, you never know until it's signed. I think there's just nothing further I can say to this.
All right. Fair enough. Maybe one more. I mean, looking at your guidance, you anticipate relatively little growth, I would say, and also on EBITDA. I mean, the midpoint guidance is EUR 98 million. You were initially shooting for EUR 96 million last year. Ultimately, it was a little less so. Question is why that cautious?
Well, look, we have a very, very robust planning cycle and we take the numbers as we see them happening. We certainly work every day to do better, but I can't promise you the sky. It just doesn't make any sense. We need to be realistic in what we're seeing. We're looking at the markets. We're looking at what is planned and we are two months into the business and I think there's nothing else we can announce today. Of course, we hope for more, but the guidance is what we see in our planning.
Fair enough. Very last question. Have you also thought about, let's say, a new set of KPIs already? Would that also be something that you would consider for the CMD?
We gonna have a new CFO starting in a month. I'm here for not even 100 days. Of course, there are talks on how we wanna guide ourselves and also inform the market, but it's premature to speculate what's really happening. I think and I'm very strong on that. The company was managed and is managed very diligently with a strong financial team and we gonna keep it that way. Whether going forward a little adjustment is needed here and there, I would assume yes, but this is really not something that will change everything, but an evolution to match the current size and our ambition going forward.
That's what I feel.
Understood.
We go into discussions with Stefan as quickly as he is on board and we'll inform you quite transparently about what we want to do. Maybe if I may, we wanted to keep the presentation short, but one element in addition to the cash generation that was very strong, I think it's also interesting to look at the EBITDA figures that were showing a quite impressive growth, if I'm not mistaken, of around 33% compared to the previous year. I think we should also recognize that the profitability as the entire business moves is going into the right direction.
I see many initiatives also in that area that we really optimize how we run our business and can then improve our numbers going forward. We want to look at them holistically, and ultimately it's the cash that we generate, and then we see good numbers there and also for the profitability that will be a focus of the team going forward for sure.
Okay.
Thank you.
Okay. We come to the next questions from the chat. It's from Alexander, and it's going to Thomas . Mr. Meier, when are you going to buy shares in the open market with your own money?
Hello, Alexander. I'm impressed that you're interested in my personal finances. I can tell you that I'm 100% committed to Medios for sure, but I will not share my personal finances in public, and I don't think it's very interesting. It's really. I don't really have a lot to move markets or anything like that. My commitment is unwavering for the team here and going forward. I'm a share owner of Medios. I'm not sure if that is known, but not to a small part, and days like today, they're very hurtful. They're very hurtful for many reasons and we want to hope for better days.
Okay. Thank you, Thomas. Now I would like to hand over to Tim Cose, please.
Yes. Thanks. Thanks for taking my question. Sorry, I have to drill down on Michael's question on the growth profile. Looking at the organic growth of 7% in 2025 and then your market growth expectations of 5%-15%, the upper end of 2% does seem a bit low. Are there any sort of effects on the growth from the efficiency measures you are looking at? And is that something you're factoring in? Are there any regulatory effects we should look at, in the current year? And then, maybe my second question would be on the free cash flow outlook. Maybe could you quantify your expectations for the current year? Thank you.
Thank you for the question. I think I agree that the top line growth doesn't look that impressive. The focus of the company has been over the last years to focus on profitability too, and we wanna keep it that way. We are not trying to push the top line revenue growth at any cost, but rather wanna make sure that we operate the businesses where we have a healthy margin going forward. Then there's some consideration there. I think we go as quickly and as determined and forceful as we ever can in our activities where we see a healthy profit. I think it's a fair statement that 2025 for the German market was not an easy year.
We had and still have this situation with the pharmacies that are under somewhat stress. We see protests and so on and so forth. There is a changing process that's kind of happening, and we believe that we can help secure supply, we can help increase quality, we can help being more efficient. We want to continue to educate and talk with as many partners and potential partners and customers that we can bring our value proposition to even more people. I think there's a strong focus, and at the same time there is always different currents in those markets that we play with a very experienced team, I think to the best you can. That's of course also part of the forecast.
There was the third part of your question. I think that was the question around the earnings per share and free cash flow. Maybe Falk, you're more competent and more on point with the numbers there.
Thank you. Thank you, Thomas. Yeah, as always, it's not a guidance, but we expected in the past the EUR 50-EUR 60 operational cash flow for 2025 would be fulfilled at the lower end. The reason for this are clear. We had some very good fourth quarter revenue-wise and also EBITDA-wise in PS segment, Pharmaceutical Supply, which did cost us a little bit in operating cash flow, but the results are always important. The same we expect actually next year. Our expectation wouldn't change. On the operational cash flow, it is a range from my I would guess EUR 50-EUR 60.
We still have a little bit a backlog in terms of tax payments, and if these are gone, we will definitely cross the EUR 60 million, but not in 2026. It would be 2027, operational cash flow-wise. As you have seen, we made CapEx of EUR 8 million. I wouldn't expect a significant higher amount in 2026. Again, it is from my perspective, EUR 40 million-EUR 50 million free cash flow for 2026, mainly due to the good performance we're expecting, but also due to the fact that we have still this tax payment backlog from the past, which will be a cash outflow very, very surely in 2026.
Okay. Thank you very much, and all the best to you, Falk. Thank you.
Okay. We come to the next question from the chat. It's from Sebastian Weituna. It's a question for Falk. Increasing the treasury shares to a share of 10% would cost just EUR 20 million. The net debt to EBITDA ratio would rise by only 0.2 x. Even though the management team is new, this attractive option, buying back shares at this low price level, should now be urgently considered. What are your thoughts on this, Falk?
I would step in and go ahead of Falk and leave Falk the really small details. It's a question about capital allocation, and as I mentioned, I think Medios acted in the last months and years wisely and the share buyback program was a good program that they set up. I think we cannot give firm guidance on how we act on capital allocation, but I can just let you know, and I want to do it, how I feel about it today and what I see, say it's the sentiment in the company. At the current valuation, we see share buyback programs as the most appropriate way to give money back to the shareholders.
If this is something we feel should be done, then the primary idea right now is share buyback. In that sense, I think your thoughts are right and the young management team would agree with that. Maybe, Falk, you give a more professional answer and a little bit of color, also looking at potential acquisition, how we feel about capital allocation right now.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Thomas. Actually, I don't have that much to add, but you did it very well. Of course, the actual market capitalization is not convincing and very much disappointing. Of course, the option is a share buyback makes sense, yeah. This is one of the option, and as Thomas said, we're always looking at the different kind of alternatives to make the most out of it for our shareholders, and share buyback is one. The question is how to clearly communicate when we do this and or up to which market capitalization we would think about this step. It would be, as far as I remember, already noted.
I would assume a market capitalization below 6x EBITDA is still or definitely a situation where you always think about a possible decision about a share buyback if we have no better options like organic growth or inorganic growth. I think that is, I think, the position of the board, and more details I cannot give at the moment.
Thank you, Falk. I would come to the next question from Simon Scholes, please.
And, um-
Simon?
Yes. Good afternoon. Can you hear me?
We hear you well. Hello, Simon.
Okay. Very good. I've just got two questions. The first on working capital. So you had a EUR 16 million cash outflow due to working capital in 2025, and you just indicated that a large chunk of it was due to receivables at PST. I was just wondering how you see working capital behaving this year. I mean, do you expect the outflow to reduce this year or even to have an inflow? The second question, just looking at pharmaceutical supply. You had quite an acceleration in sales growth in pharmaceutical supply in 2025, +6.9% and 15.6% in the fourth quarter. I was just wondering if you could give some background color on why you saw that acceleration.
Presumably you're expecting quite a slowdown this year. I was wondering if you could give some more color on why you're expecting a slowdown again.
Yeah. Maybe I'll start with the question. It's a correct observation that we had good sales, very good sales in December in PS, and that led to the higher working capital that we see in our result. It is again true that we are not focusing PS on making the most of the revenue possible, but rather looking for the right profitability in conjunction with the right top line. The result was welcome. They worked very well in that segment. Again, we see a little bit even more focus going forward on the profitability and not the top line.
That's why the forecast for 2026 is not overly optimistic or bullish on that segment. Falk, you know the intrinsic details of the working capital development in the last quarter. Please give some more color.
Thank you, Thomas. Yeah. Unfortunately, I'm deep in this topic, and it's an ongoing topic. It's a day-to-day topic. Cash is a day-to-day topic. It's not a month topic or an annual topic. You have to deal with, and especially cash flow, also operational cash flow decides on the 31st of December. In this case, we were really lucky that we had the chance to increase the PS, not the PST, you mentioned PST, the PS revenue, and this triggered what Thomas just mentioned, the receivable impact.
What we always try, of course, having this impact at zero, the working capital impact at the PS segment year- over- year at a preferably , of course, in relation to revenue and development, at a stable level, which is not easy in this segment because it has some downsides. We are working on these downsides because we have direct debits from suppliers and all these kind of things, which doesn't make it easier. We try to find mechanisms to deal and get this under control. We were very lucky in the last years, at least from my perspective, to do quite well on that.
We are not in the position to start, for instance, an extensive factoring program where we pay 5%-6% looking at the margins of this segment. This is definitely not an option. We need to use other mechanisms to keep this stable. We were lucky in the last year. Look at 2020, 2024. It was the other way around. This year it was a decision between revenue and EBITDA or working capital. We still ended up in a range of 50-60 at the lower end, which is fair. The challenge keeping that stable will remain, and my successor will take this over and will do it much better than I've done it. What was the other question? I forgot.
No, that was it. Just two.
Thank you, Simon.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question please, Yannick Ziering. Go ahead.
Thanks a lot for taking my question. Just one follow-up on the guidance, actually. Is it fair to assume that EBITDA pre-accelerating to mid-single-digit growth is basically a function of the one-offs that we saw in 2025 not reoccurring in 2026? That's the first question. Then the second one on personnel costs. You mentioned in your annual report that it's supposed to rise by around 9%. We saw a 2% headcount decline in 2025. Maybe you could talk about the building blocks here and what's driving the increase of personnel costs. Is it wage inflation? Is it due to the new employees or, yeah, are you investing in any specific capabilities? Thank you.
Yeah, I can take the question about the personnel costs, definitely. Yeah. I mean, the headcount is also what you look at from the 31st of December 2024, 2025. This is, of course, a snapshot. We have a couple of movements over the year, and personnel costs are, of course, also influenced by one-offs. What we at the end adjusted EBITDA-wise, the EUR 1.5 million coming from or EUR 1.2 million out of the personnel costs actually, because the other one were OpEx. The EUR 1.2 million of effects we had in 2025 because of the change in the executive board. This was a driver.
Of course, as mentioned already, we have a huge inorganic growth effect in personnel costs because of the 12/7 months impact of Ceban. If you neutralize that, you come up with the increase of roughly year-over-year 6%, which is of course still high. The reason for that is that we have some collective labor agreements in place now in at Ceban, which cost at least in 2025 quite a substantial increase in personnel costs of roughly, I think, 8% or 9%. I'm not quite sure on that. Yeah. These are the components.
This is a mix which is causing the increase, and I think what you are worrying about is definitely the percentage-wise year-over-year increase. This is definitely caused by a couple of one-offs you won't see next year. The other question I did unfortunately forget.
It was about the EBITDA pre-guidance and if the midpoint, to reach the midpoint, if for that to occur, we only basically need to see a normalized situation in terms of the one-off. Again, in the direction that we had earlier, if it's a rather conservative guidance.
Yeah, I think this question has been answered by Thomas already, huh?
I mean, it's a fair observation that we should have-
Yeah, partly. I mean, it's about the build.
Less-
The building blocks. Like you mentioned, what needs to happen on the guidance overall, but now specifically, to reach the midpoint and then, if you can answer what needs to happen to reach the upper end, that would also be helpful. Just understanding if only we have to see the one-off effects not to happen in 2026 for the midpoint. That was the question.
I think you're on the right track there. We expect a more similar base on the EBITDA pre to compare with for between 2025 and 2026. That is a part of the improvement that we expect. Overall, we expect business to go forward with what we know and that's in large part similar. There's the German negotiation ongoing. We believe that to be without any influence on our profitability, that needs to be seen. We don't know what the politicians and the insurers gonna decide, but our assumption there is neutral. That's what the experts here expect, and I think that's a fair proposition.
Great. Thanks a lot.
Sure.
Now we come to an additional question from the chat from Orlo Price. Why is 1.95 adjusted EPS not in today's press release? It translate into an adjusted PE of 6 after the current disappointment and 8% drop, right? Falk?
Why is it not in the press release? Good question. Yeah, it should be. Thank you for that hint, and also to you, Claudia, we will take this, and will communicate this because it is a strong number. Yeah. We will communicate this in future definitely with more emphasis. It reflects, in fact, that we are really undervalued at the moment of the current market capitalization. Well, I shouldn't say that. It is a strong number, and it should be communicated heavier in the future, I would say.
Thank you, Falk. We come to another question from the chat from [inaudible] Batek. Can you comment on your market shares in each segment and geography? How is the competitive landscape shaping up? How should we view long-term margins of each segment? Falk.
It's a difficult one. The competitive landscape, I think we see development of competitors with different positioning within the value chain I have shown. I think it's an interesting market. If you look at it globally, you see a lot of attention also in the U.S. for the compounding market, which by definition is slightly different. I think that's also my positioning.
We are in a very interesting market, and we want to prepare ourselves for the future growth and for future adjustments in regulatory framework so that we can help secure the supply for pharmaceuticals and pharmacies, and at the same time increase quality and effectiveness of the entire system. I think our thinking really goes into what we have and how we can profit from the market going forward. Our position is also that we need to have a leading position in the markets we play. We want to focus on where we can make a difference for our customers for the value proposition, and not getting diluted with too many initiatives.
I think the focus and speed is something we gonna focus on. We take on any competition that's playing with similar capabilities, and I think we will prevail. I see very diligent work being done in the entire group. The strength of the team, the knowledge of the markets, and the right positioning will catapult us into something that we all like. That's. I'm very firm on that, and we work on this equation. I think the margins we should always be at the upper end of what's possible in the market because we bring a certain level of scale and that is helpful.
We wanna think about how we strengthen our network, how we can make it more cost-effective. The idea behind that is that the pricing typically has only one way. The regulators will drop it as much as they can possibly do without interrupting the supply security, and we should be the ones who can absorb those unpleasant events the best. That means that we need the best cost structure going forward, so that we are ready when something happens there, and we can help if somebody is in dire straits. That's how I see it. Claudia, you positioned the question towards Falk. Falk, I didn't want to talk over you. I'd please add or correct.
No, I'm done. I think this question belongs to you. Very well answered. Nothing to add from my side.
Thank you, Falk.
Thank you. We come to the next question from the chat. In general, what is your current corporate strategy regarding an integration of appropriate AI tools in the Medios organization?
Yeah, I'll take that one. Thank you for the question. I think, as I said, transparency, data backbone, digitalization is on top of our list. We wanna be very focused and fast and successful in execution. Getting the entire picture here is important to everybody at Medios so that we can really come up with a executable, digestible agenda. We gonna put a lot of effort and emphasis on this because we believe we can drive value in seamless processes over this value chain I've shown, and also in seamless communication between pharmacies, doctors, hospitals, Medios.
Having this kind of order to cash process done in a very professional, optimized, operational excellence type of way is a value proposition we think is very attractive. Some work is here and done and deployed. We also intend to bring more partners, more business onto those platforms because they're elegant and they are unique in the industry. In that respect, maybe not AI, but certainly systems that are self intuitive and helpful to deal with necessary information to execute our work, document the work, and have the best quality of administrative and also work in the lab is currently the focus.
Automation and AI that then corrects itself is probably the next step, but it all depends that we have a unified digitalized data stream, and that is our top priority. Very long answer. AI is interesting. We are working on it. It takes sometimes a little longer than one hopes.
Thank you, Thomas. Now please, all of you guys, please go ahead with your questions. Mr. Max.
Thank you very much for taking my questions. To you Thomas, great to see you on board and great presentation. Glad to see that. Thanks a lot. Personally, can you confirm what Constantijn said in Hamburg at the HIT that, while there has been mixed communication about C-level changes in the past with Medios, with the shareholder meeting as opposed to quarterly calls, that after kind of spending your whole career at Bachem, you are joining Medios completely freely and because you see the limited downside and the upside, as when in Hamburg we spoke, the relation of the cap of Bachem to Medios was 13x. As of today, after this disappointed reaction, which you already commented before, it's rather 16x or very plainly put, Bachem is worth at the stock market EUR 5 billion more than Medios.
Can I assume you do that because you don't see the chance to ruin your good name created in the past, and to achieve something with Medios? Because otherwise why would you change to a so much smaller company?
Those kind words. I had a brilliant time at Bachem. I worked with a very talented team. We achieved a stellar positioning in the market, and I enjoyed every minute, and it was not easy to leave. I don't want to talk too much about the past. I'm really excited about what I see here. As I said, I'm a shareholder and I gave my heart to Medios, and I will work here like I did at Bachem. It was not a walk in the park at Bachem and here we have some work to do. I think I have not regretted my move one day since I'm here. Do I have difficult situations, difficult discussions? You bet. I think we're moving into the right direction.
I'm not a fool, and I'm not afraid of my reputation. I'm gonna give it my best and, look, let's talk in a year. We will see what we achieve in a year. We wanna have a clear way forward. In many ways it's very close to what I did in the past. It's pharma services. I love it. It's great. Today is not a brilliant day. I'm sorry for that. I know it's painful. I keep working, and I've done it on free will. Of course, I hope for good development, and I feel it's strongly. It's within the team's capabilities, and I would like to do that together with this team. Yes.
C-level changes, I didn't fully understand. I think what is my personality is I'm quite easy to approach. I'm open. The door is open to the office. I wanna play transparently. There's no reason for anything else. We talk together what we do. Of course, we have compliance guardrails. We will at any time always play within that field, but we play it straight.
Thank you very much, Thomas. We now come to the last question. It's from the chat for Falk. What one-offs do you anticipate in 2026, and what will they amount to?
This has been answered already.
That's the first question. Yeah.
Sorry for that.
No, that's all right.
Thank you very much for joining us and for this conference call. Of course, we look forward to speaking to you at the latest for our first quarter results on May 12th. If there are any follow-up question, please just drop an email or give us a call. We wish you a nice afternoon and goodbye. Thank you very much.
Thank you all. Thank you, Claudia, Falk. Have a great afternoon.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.