Of 2025. Therefore, I'm delighted to welcome CFO Tom Teichler. He will speak in a moment and guide us through the presentation and the results. Afterwards, we will move over to our Q&A session. Having said that, Mr. Teichler, I hand over to you.
Yeah, thank you very much. My name is Tom Teichler. I'm the CFO of MBB. A warm welcome to you. I will take you through the Q3 results today. Before I do that, let me, as always, start with a very quick recap of what makes MBB special. MBB offers, as most of you know, long-term succession solutions to sustainable Mittelstand companies. The way we do that is, I think, unique because in many ways, we share the same DNA with the companies we acquire and with the entrepreneurs we typically buy our companies from. That is because we are a family business ourselves with two founders who are still the major shareholders and active in the company. I think that's a very strong differentiating factor, which is helping us in a lot of conversations with entrepreneurs and companies we would like to acquire.
Secondly, we are fans of the capital market. That is why we are here today as a stock-listed company, obviously. As you know, we have three of our subsidiaries who are also stock-listed: Friedrich Vorwerk, Aumann, and Delignit. Having brought all of these companies to the stock markets ourselves in order to finance their growth and development is, in my view, a special differentiating factor for us. Thirdly, we have a long-term focus. That means we buy to develop and hold our companies for the long term and grow them and hence remain the anchor shareholders in these businesses. Lastly, we focus on sustainable businesses. That does not necessarily is not necessarily meant in an environmentalist sense, but we like structural trends like the energy transition, IT security, for example, which offer enormous business opportunities, as you will see later in the presentation.
Today, we are a group of six companies with more than EUR 1.1 billion in revenue and double-digit EBITDA margins. With that introduction, let's move into the nine-month results. Yeah, overall, we had a really strong nine-month performance with revenues growing by 13% to EUR 862 million. Once more, an extraordinary EBITDA increase of more than 50% year- on- year to EUR 144 million. That, by the way, is almost as much as the entire full-year EBITDA, which we had last year, which was EUR 149 million. Our EBITDA margin really increased substantially by 4.5 percentage points to 16.7%, which is an all-time high and is, of course, something we're very excited and proud about. Looking at the quarters, it was especially the Q3, which brought us this significant EBITDA ramp-up, as you will see here on the following slide.
Yeah, Q3 EBITDA grew by a phenomenal 80% to EUR 67 million, which boosted the EBITDA margin of the quarter to 21%, while revenue grew by a good 6% to EUR 317 million. Where is all of that coming from? I think the easiest way to explain it is by looking at our segments. As in the previous two quarters, the key driver was once more our service and infrastructure segment. Here, especially Friedrich Vorwerk, which has really had a tremendous development in the third quarter, delivering excellent results and a more than 100% increase in EBITDA. Also, DTS continued its strong revenue and profitability growth trajectory, which eventually allowed this segment, service and infrastructure, to grow by an additional EUR 64 million in revenue and EUR 28 million in additional EBITDA.
Hence, the segment or these two companies more than compensated for the lackluster development of the two other segments. Let's dive into some details now on the following slides. Looking at Friedrich Vorwerk here on the left, the company kept up its really exceptional growth momentum, boosting revenue by 39% to EUR 202 million in the quarter, while the EBITDA margin reached an impressive 25% or EUR 51 million in absolute numbers. This quarter, things really went smoothly from fairly good weather conditions and sound execution to solid personnel and capacity ramp-up this year, but also no major hiccups in projects. That not only in terms of the larger projects, which you remember, ANOTH, Balvin, or HDD Baltrum, but also with view on a whole range of small and medium-sized projects, which are also very interesting also from a commercial perspective.
Yeah, looking ahead on Q4 and beyond, the order book of EUR 1.1 billion obviously provides us with confidence on the outlook and recent order wins from the electricity, gas, and hydrogen, but also adjacent opportunities underscore, I think, the positive dynamic of Friedrich Vorwerk, but also the energy and infrastructure market in Germany in general. Recent projects in the gas sector, for example, were not only ETL 182, which is the mid-triple-digit million euro project, which we already talked about last time and is relevant for LNG distribution, but also an adjacent project, which was just mentioned in the earnings call of Friedrich Vorwerk, ETL 179.2. That's a low triple-digit million euro project for an 80 km long high-pressure gas pipeline, which is an important piece in expanding the LNG grid from the LNG terminal north of Stade in northwest Germany.
You see really a lot of dynamic around new LNG connections. Obviously, these two projects are a very good reference for what is going on and that Vorwerk is obviously able to win such projects and participate in them. A further milestone, I think, is the mid-double-digit euro order for hydrogen gas pressure regulating and metering station, which forms part of the hydrogen backbone and which is gradually taking shape. Also a very interesting development. Lastly, Vorwerk just won an additional double-digit million euro district heating project in Hamburg, which shows you that also apart from the super large projects, there are a multitude of smaller and mid-sized opportunities, which can be commercially very attractive and which Friedrich Vorwerk is also eager to win and participate in.
Also, there are interesting perspectives in terms of the expansion of the NATO grid and also a CO2 storage grid, which are at least politically taking shape now. I think there will be lots of works and projects to cover in the next couple of years. Looking at 2025 as a whole, I think the outlook is strong and management has recently, for the second time already, increased its guidance to EUR 650 million-EUR 680 million of revenues with a new EBITDA margin range of 20%-22%. That obviously bodes well for the fourth quarter and maybe already provides some flavor also for next year.
Yeah, turning to DTS here on the right, the second star, so to say, in our portfolio, the company continued on its growth trajectory with very strong Q3 revenue growth of 35% to EUR 32 million and a good EBITDA margin of around 15%. Demand here really continued to remain sound in Q3 with good momentum across many customers, which is driven by hardware and services, while the company obviously continued to promote its proprietary software offering. The overall performance remains well, and especially in contrast to the fairly weak second half of 2024, I think this is very encouraging and also with a view on the full year overall. Last time, we already discussed that DTS had won a major IT security solutions contract, really a milestone in the low to mid-double digits with a duration of five years from a public sector client.
That project has gotten off to a good start and is now progressively worked through over the next couple of years. Looking ahead, we are optimistic on future dynamic growth for DTS this year and generally expect the company's focus on IT security, but also the fiscal spending plans for the German government to provide tailwind for DTS and that German government part, especially looking also at 2026. If you look at the segment, service and infrastructure overall, Friedrich Vorwerk and DTS have once more been the two growth engines this quarter, and we expect this strong dynamic to continue also in the quarters to come. Yeah, turning to the technological application segment, the lackluster automotive environment has unfortunately continued to weigh on both Aumann and Delignit. At Aumann here on the left, revenue came down as expected by 46% year on year to EUR 49 million.
Thanks to really proactive cost measures and good management of the projects, EBITDA remains strong at a 14% EBITDA margin, which I think really speaks for the company and how well they've adapted to the current environment. Nevertheless, order entry has remained quite weak in Q3 overall, reflecting the temporarily weaker automotive environment. Given that Q4 is an important quarter, also with a number of orders still out there in the market, management has remained cautious and reiterated its initial guidance of EUR 210 million-EUR 230 million of revenues with an EBITDA margin of 8%-10%. Yeah, looking ahead, and especially with view on 2026, we hope that rising EV registrations and a more stable macro environment will eventually improve the overall investment sentiment again.
Aumann will obviously continue its successful diversification drive into other end markets such as clean tech, defense, aviation, but also general automation with the next automation segment, which has delivered really an encouraging order intake development with growth of 35% in the first nine months. I think that underscores that Aumann's diversification push is gaining traction. You remember maybe in the first half of the year, they gained 20% in order intake in that segment. Q3 has really propelled this forward and brought some of the sales effort to fruition. It is encouraging to see that there is room for Aumann to gain a stronger footprint also in other industries. Thanks to the company's very strong net cash position of EUR 160 million, management is able to continue to expand into these new end markets, and that not only organically, but potentially also through acquisitions.
Delignit on the right side. Yeah, also here, the environment has remained challenging with LCV demands still mixed and OEM customers having volatile call-offs. As a result, revenues came in at EUR 14 million in the quarter, up 5%. That's already a good sign, although on a lower base, while profitability has held up quite well thanks to management's very proactive cost management. The company has definitely done a good job in navigating this environment. Outside the automotive industry, there are positively some opportunities, such as in the railfare business, which the company is focusing on, as well as a number of M&A opportunities, which Delignit continues to look at. Nonetheless, the guidance for 2025 remains cautious at this stage with EUR 68 million in revenues and an EBITDA margin of 6%-7%.
Yeah, and last but not least, the consumer goods segment here, the consumer environment in general has remained muted as in the first half of the year, which you see at both Hanke and CT Formpolster. At Hanke, you remember that we have a temporarily lower productivity due to the installation of a new converting machinery. We expect this now to be finalized in Q4, which will finally increase our converting capacity for next year to around 100% from currently around 80%. That looks set to provide Hanke with additional revenue and also profitability potential as we move forward. Yeah, at CT Formpolster, demand really remained seasonally weak over the summer months, but has modestly improved as we moved into autumn. We might have seen the bottom and hope that as we move into the fourth quarter now and then 2026, the market will gradually improve again.
All in all, while the automotive as well as consumer goods businesses are currently facing some temporary challenges, our two growth engines, Friedrich Vorwerk and DTS, continue to perform strongly with good visibility as we're moving into Q4. On the back of this, we recently decided to increase our guidance to EUR 1.1 million-EUR 1.2 million in revenues and an EBITDA margin of 15%-17%. I think if you look at our nine-month figures, they back this up quite nicely so far. We are quite confident on, yeah, on the last quarter. Turning to our balance sheet, of course, it remains rock solid as always with EUR 527 million of net cash at group level, of which EUR 380 million are attributable to the holding and the MBB SE.
Yeah, one key driver of this was clearly the strong operating cash flow in the quarter of almost EUR 60 million, which I think is very encouraging because it shows you that the EBITDA is also translating into cash flow. Looking at the balance sheet overall, I think our companies continue to have ample room to maneuver the current environment and to pursue M&A and focus on capital allocation in general. Finally, that brings me to our share price and our sum of the parts valuation. MBB is clearly undervalued from my point of view if you look at the value of our current portfolio. We have tried to illustrate that here in that speed meter graphic. I think the charming thing is that the value of a large part of our portfolio is actually quite transparent.
What you see here on the left side of that speed meter is, first of all, the net cash at holding level, which alone already accounts for around EUR 60 per MBB share. Together with our shareholding in Friedrich Vorwerk, that implies a value of almost EUR 220 per MBB share. If you add the rest of the listed portfolio, you arrive at a value of around EUR 234 per MBB share, which compared to our share price of EUR 188 today implies a discount of almost 20% on our liquid portfolio alone. That obviously does not reflect the value of our private portfolio, first and foremost DTS, but also Hanke, which together, in my point of view, are worth several hundred million euros and basically come on top for free. I think this makes the MBB stock very attractive right now.
While the market has started to narrow, the discount is tiny a little bit lately. I'm quite optimistic that our share price has the potential to pick up further with our underlying value. I hope I was able to give you a brief walk through our Q3 figures and our portfolio, and I'm happy to take your questions now.
Thank you so much for the presentation, Mr. Teichler. Dear participants, we're now happy to take your questions if you might have. If you would like to speak directly to Mr. Teichler, just raise your virtual hand. If you're dialed in via phone, you can raise your virtual hand and enter the queue by pressing the star key nine. You're more than welcome, as always, to pose your questions in our chat box
If you're not able to speak freely, then I will read your questions out for you. Let's take a look. The chat seems to be empty by now, and the queue is also empty so far. Mr. Teichler, it seems by now you explained everything so well. Having said that, we received the first virtual hand from Mr. Bayer. Mr. Bayer, we are happy to take your questions. Mr. Bayer, I can see that your microphone is turned on, but unfortunately, we cannot hear you.
Can you hear me now?
Yeah.
Perfect. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a quick one on your stakes on the three listed holdings in Q3. You reduced slightly stakes in Vorwerk, Aumann, and Delignit. Can you shed a bit of light on it? What was the reason to reduce the stakes?
Because I think you generated cash inflows in about EUR 50 million, although you already have a very stable amount of cash. Maybe what's the idea behind it? Thank you.
Sure, of course. Maybe let's start with Friedrich Vorwerk. It's true we slightly reduced our shareholding in the third quarter by around 1.5%. Maybe if you look at it holistically, I mean, we're still a 47% shareholder in Friedrich Vorwerk, and we are highly committed to the company because it's simply the fastest horse in our stable. I think at least we have a lot of confidence in the company and also the market as we look into the future. For us, this is clearly a key shareholding, and there's no question that we will change our position fundamentally.
As you know, we've all in the past always sort of fluctuated and were breathing in our shareholding. In the case of Vorwerk, it was simply the case that since the SDAX entry of Vorwerk, the company has received significant investor attention. We've been approached a couple of times now by larger institutional investors also from the U.S. and were asked if we were willing to provide some of the liquidity for that demand. On one or the other occasion, we decided to do so also because we think it's important to develop the stock and have the free float to develop the share price. That's the reason basically for these changes in shareholding. As I said, I mean, for us, this is clearly one of the major growth drivers of the group. Yeah, we remain very happy anchor shareholders of Friedrich Vorwerk.
Looking at Aumann and Delignit. Yeah, these were some slight opportunistic adjustments. Honestly, if you look at it in absolute terms, we're talking about EUR 1.6 million for Aumann and less than EUR 1 million at Delignit. Yeah, it obviously isn't a huge magnitude either and rather an opportunistic adjustment on that level. For us, basically no change in the overall setup. Yeah, that's how we look at it.
All right. Thank you so much. We have a further question in our chat box. The participant would like to know why were some of the holdings sold in the last quarter?
I think I just tried to answer that question. If there's a follow-up, just yeah, let me know. As I said, I mean, for us, this was more opportunistic and not strategic.
Really, also if you look at the dimension of the adjustments. Yeah.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, it is still possible to ask questions if you would like. Maybe there are some open topics you would like to discuss. Otherwise, we would come to the end. Having said that, a reminder is always good. We will come back to Mr. Bayer because he has a follow-up question. Mr. Bayer, just go ahead.
Thank you very much. I would just like to ask a little follow-up about Aumann. We have had the call earlier today. I was thinking the EBITDA margin looks very conservative for me for Q4. Do you expect any major effects in Q4 that will lead you to this low guidance? I think the upper end of 10% seems to be reachable. What is your intention on that? Thank you.
Clearly, I mean, in the nine months, the company had a margin of 11.6%. That obviously is a good figure for now. I think what the management of Aumann is also aware of is the current order intake situation and the current market environment. That is overall fairly weak at the moment. I think also the Q4 is not over yet. It is definitely an important quarter also in terms of order intake. That obviously is necessary to get a good feeling for how we move into next year. There is definitely some caution in this guidance because I think at this stage, there is really no reason to become too euphoric. Yeah, I would agree with you that the guidance is conservative.
Yeah, but clearly in the current environment, I think it's better to remain on the cautious side for now than to, yeah, promise things you can't hold.
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much for your question, Mr. Bayer. We have further questions in the chat box. What are the intentions with the cash mountain? The participant is not a fan of dividends. Is the cash a sign of cautious behavior considering tariffs and high share prices or from lack of investment opportunities?
I mean, I think you can't blame us for not distributing cash to shareholders.
It's correctly noted dividends are not necessarily our major strength, but we've obviously resorted to share buybacks quite often whenever we felt that our share price is significantly undervalued or there's a mismatch between what we believe the stock is worth and where the share price is. That's definitely one topic in capital allocation, which I think we've always used as a tool and will, of course, continue to look at also going forward. The other thing is that we definitely look at M&A targets. Clearly, for our subsidiary companies, but also for MBB itself. As you know us, we are quite cautious and conservative when we look at especially standalone companies. We definitely don't want to overpay and really understand the business. We are not necessarily a serial buyer, but I think the acquisitions we've done in the past, I think, have been overall very good investments.
A large part of that is buying these companies at attractive prices and then developing them further. That is what we continue. I think one of the charming things of being largely family-owned is that we do not have to do a deal just to do a deal, but we can carefully look at M&A targets and, yeah, continue to keep that approach, which has been, yeah, one of the backbones of the success of MBB over the past 30 years.
Thank you so much. Another question in the chat. What are the main sectors you are looking at, complementary with Vorwerk, Aumann, Future of Energy, or a completely different sector to offset the risks?
I think overall, we look at a whole range of things. In a sense, we are opportunistic in what we look at. Maybe it is easier to say what we do not look at.
That is clearly things we do not really understand or where you really have to be a specialist to fully judge what you are doing and be good at that business. We would not move into biotech or whatever, things like that. Otherwise, we look at a whole range of industries. I think what we do not do is restructuring cases, at least not as a standalone for MBB. I think we, more than in the past, prefer capital-light business models. Yeah, clearly, if you look at our portfolio today, we definitely have an inclination not to add another automotive business to it since we already have quite a significant exposure in that area. Clearly, things in the infrastructure market, in maybe the aviation market, but potentially also things in maybe the DAF region in general could move into focus.
Yeah, we keep the scope quite open in order to see as much as possible and then decide what we want to focus on.
Thank you so much. We have a quite popular question. Can you give us an update on current M&A opportunities for MBB?
M&A opportunities, yeah?
M&A.
Okay. As I said, we have two tracks of M&A. One is add-on for our portfolio companies. There we are looking at quite a lot of things at Vorwerk to expand the regional scope, also to add maybe one or two technical expertise in certain areas which are complementary to the existing business. At Aumann, we are looking at the aviation sector, for example, which I think is an interesting market to address via M&A. It is also a regional topic for Aumann where we also look at the US.
Obviously, the market there is also under some pressure right now, but who knows? That might also create opportunities for us. At DTS, it's mostly smaller competitors or companies in the software business. As you remember, we've done an acquisition of a software company a couple of years ago, and that has really propelled the proprietary software development of DTS. This has been a really good experience, which we'd like to replicate. In Delignit, it's probably more in terms of vertical integration, either or maybe end markets, which we address at the moment, such as the rail market, where we look at ways to increase our footprint in those end markets. There are quite a lot of things out there in terms of add-on M&A. For MBB itself, we clearly have a pipeline of deals we're looking at.
There was one thing we looked at in the infrastructure market. There are one or two other opportunities we look at. Yeah, and try to move these processes along. There is nothing which is going to be signed in the next two weeks, but we do have a pipeline. I have the feeling, actually, that the quality of leads and also the pricing in the market has definitely become better than what we have seen a couple of years ago. I think the change in interest rates has overall improved our position as a potential buyer. That is, I think, a good sign so far. Yeah, we are fairly optimistic that we will have interesting targets to look at as we move forward and hopefully push one of them across the finish line sooner or later.
Thank you. Let's cover quickly the final and last question.
Is there a risk or even a plan to consolidate Aumann after the sale of few shares Q3 as we are now below 50%?
No. It's the simple answer because we still control the AGM. Yeah, as I said, I mean, we're committed to the company. We've actually been below 50% already for quite some time now. It's actually not really a new situation. For us, it remains part of the group. There are no plans to deconsolidate Aumann, no.
Thank you so much. This answer concludes our call for today. Dear participants, thank you so much for joining the MBB call. Thank you for your shown interest. Should further questions arise, please, yeah, feel invited to get in touch with Mr. Teichler. Also, big thank you to you for your time today and for answering the questions.
From my side, it was a pleasure to be your host today. Wish you all a lovely evening. We say thank you and goodbye. See you the next time.
Thank you very much. Take care. Bye-bye.