Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Torben Teichler. I'm the CFO of MBB, and I will take you through our Q1 results today. Before we do that, let me, as always, start with a very quick recap of what makes MBB special. MBB offers long-term succession solutions to sustainable family-owned companies. The way we do this is quite unique because we are a family business ourselves. Our two founders, who founded the business 30 years ago, are still the major shareholders today and operationally very much involved. That means that in many ways we actually share the same DNA with the businesses that we actually want to acquire. Secondly, we're fans of the capital market, and that's why we're here today as a stock-listed company. That's also why we have IPOed three of our subsidiaries, Friedrich Vorwerk, Aumann, and Delignit.
Having brought all of these companies to the stock market in order to finance their growth and development is, in my view, a special differentiating factor for us. Moreover, we have a long-term focus, so when we buy, we don't have any intention to sell, but seek to develop and grow our companies, and hence, we remain the anchor shareholders in all of our businesses. Lastly, we focus on sustainable businesses, and with that we don't mean that we have a particularly environmentalist agenda. We believe that trends like the energy transition or IT security offer enormous business potential. Today, we're a group of six companies with almost EUR 1.2 billion in revenue and double-digit EBITDA margins. With that, let's now move to our Q1 results.
Yeah, Q1 was actually quite special for us because we not only managed to significantly grow our EBITDA by 40% year-over-year to EUR 42 million, and hence almost 18% EBITDA margin despite softer revenues, but also because we exceeded EUR 1 billion in equity for the first time in MBB's history. Just in time, actually, for our 20th year anniversary of our IPO, which was on ninth of May 2006, and hence just three days ago. We're really happy about that, and we'll see that later in the balance sheet again. Despite some expected headwinds to the top line, pretty much all of our companies showed very decent improvements in profitability.
First and foremost, Friedrich Vorwerk, of course, which significantly drove our EBITDA in relative and also in absolute terms, but also DTS, Aumann and Delignit, which held or even improved their margins in Q1. Let's dive now into some of the details on the following slide. Looking at Friedrich Vorwerk here on the left, the company had a really strong start into the year, especially when considering the very cold weather conditions in January and February. Revenues grew by 5% year-over-year to EUR 139 million, while the EBITDA margin reached an impressive 23%, or EUR 32 million in absolute numbers. Although the margin picked up to levels we had already seen in previous quarters, it is nevertheless quite remarkable at this level, given that Q1 is the seasonally weakest quarter, and we had a fairly cold start into the year.
Key drivers for this profitability growth were a qualitative shift in the project mix, thanks to a number of attractive small and medium-sized projects, as well as a higher in-house service share at A-Nord, solid JV contributions and a good utilization from mid-February onwards. Q1 was actually also strong on the order intake front, with total project volume won up more than 50% year on year to almost 200 million, as well as a very solid order backlog, including JVs of more than EUR 1.4 billion. Looking ahead on 2026, we see a strong pipeline of new and attractive projects, most of which are right at Friedrich Vorwerk's doorstep across all verticals.
From just to name a few project, the Etzel-Wardenburg Link, which is a 117 kilometer natural gas pipeline to be commissioned by 2028, to a 100 kilometer electricity project, NordOstLink Section two, or the 400 kilometer Windader West , just to name a few projects the company is currently looking at. We also see a growing number of clean hydrogen projects, from hydrogen pipelines to hydrogen gas pressure regulating and metering stations, as well as projects in adjacent opportunities ranging from district heating to water transport to the first CO2 pipelines. The project pipeline is really well filled, and we are confident that Friedrich Vorwerk will be involved in a number of these projects.
For the full year 2026, management of Friedrich Vorwerk has reiterated its guidance of EUR 730 million-EUR 780 million of revenues, with an EBITDA range of EUR 160 million-EUR 180 million, which implies an EBITDA margin range of 21%-25%. Thanks to the strong Q1, I think the company is really well on track to achieve its targets. Turning to DTS now, here on the right. The company saw a decent EBITDA margin uplift of more than two percentage points to 17% in Q1, which was largely driven by a better product mix geared towards services as well as efficiency improvements throughout the organization. Revenues, on the other hand, were down 25% year-on-year and impacted by temporary project delays, primarily related to the memory chip crisis.
Meaning that we partly saw late delivery of some hardware components, so we could not commission projects which we already have in the pipeline. At the same time, significantly increased prices for memory chips together with the uncertainty of the Iran war are leading to customers postponing decision-making in general, and we've seen several projects shifted into Q3. I'm nonetheless fairly confident that we can catch up on this over the coming quarters, but I would also expect revenues to be rather flat this year. Actually more importantly, we're working on our earnings quality, and I think we'll see a slight margin improvement this year as we concentrate on our service and software businesses, and obviously are trying to increasingly harness the benefits of AI throughout our organization.
Last but not least, public sector investment remains a joker for the second half of the year. We're actively looking for M&A add-ons to broaden our geographic footprint in Germany. So, 2026 could, despite the moderate start, become another really good year for DTS. Turning to Aumann now. Here on the left side, revenues came down as expected, 38% year-over-year to EUR 37 million, while the EBITDA margin stood at a strong 11% and hence broadly stable year-over-year, which really speaks for the company and how well they have actually handled the current environment.
While the automotive environment remains challenging, with order intake at EUR 34 million in Q1 and an order backlog of EUR 120 million overall, the dynamics in the next automation segment are clearly positive, with order intake up almost 130% year-on-year to almost EUR 20 million and underscores that Aumann's increasingly successful diversification into new end markets are bearing fruits, and particularly the progress here in aviation, which you might have heard in the conference call of Aumann just now, are, I think, particularly mentionable. Well, thanks to the company's strong net cash position of EUR 144 million, management continues to be able to expand into these new end markets, and that not only organically, but potentially also through acquisitions.
For 2026, Aumann expects revenue of EUR 160 million with a very solid 6%-8% EBITDA margin. We hope that, the rising EV registrations which we've seen across most geographies are hopefully a soon more stable macro environment will eventually improve the overall investment sentiment, again, not only in Germany overall, but particularly also in e-mobility. Turning to Delignit, we saw a really solid start to the year, I would say, with Q1 revenue up 4% year-on-year to EUR 18 million, while profitability reached a decent EBITDA margin of 6% thanks to good cost discipline and product mix.
Although the LCV and caravan business remain challenging overall, there are interesting opportunities outside the non-automotive industry, such as in the rail floor business, which a company continues to capitalize on. The recent transaction in Italy could actually provide for an interesting hub for growing these businesses outside of the non-automotive industry and support the internationalization of the segment. For 2026, Delignit expects a slight increase in revenue of EUR 66 million with a very solid 7%-8% EBITDA margin, thus, I would say at the moment, looks quite well on track. Last but not least, Hanke and CT Formpolster have had a solid start to the year, I would say, despite, nonetheless challenging consumer environment.
Hanke's newly installed converting capacity is now gradually ramping up, and that's going to be margins supportive going forward, while both companies have and continue to optimize their cost bases. I would say so far, so good. Nonetheless, we expect the macroeconomic backdrop as well as volatile raw material and energy prices to be a challenge for both companies in 2026. Looking at 2026 as a whole and taking the varying dynamics in our portfolio into account, we expect broadly stable revenues in the range of EUR 1.1 billion-EUR 1.2 billion with an adjusted EBITDA margin range of 15%-18%.
While this guidance obviously takes some of the geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges into account, I think it's fair to say that after this very strong start into the year, particularly on the profitability side, the lower end of our EBITDA margin range looks rather conservative, and 2026 could hence have the potential to become yet another very good year for MBB. Yeah, as already mentioned, our balance sheet holds a special present for us for our twentieth IPO anniversary, which was on 9th of May, with an equity of more than EUR 1 billion for the first time ever. We actually took the occasion to look at some of the old IPO presentations, and it is really nice and interesting to see how much of what has been said and promised back then still holds true today.
Also if you consider that MBB started out with an equity of EUR 35 million in 2006, we're obviously very proud, but also grateful that at least some of you have accompanied us along all this way. Well, our financial strength is not only underscored by this very nice equity position, but also by our net cash position of EUR 766 million at group level. Of that, EUR 460 million are attributable to the holding.
All of our companies continue to have ample room to maneuver in the current environment to pursue M&A and to, of course, also focus on capital allocation. For the upcoming AGM in June, we will propose an increasing base dividend of EUR 1.21 per share, which would mark the 16th consecutive increase in our base dividend since 2010. At the same time, we continue our current share buyback program still until the 22nd of May. And we've already bought back shares worth EUR 21 million in 2026. The share buyback program is going to continue a little bit more, and obviously is a nice way for us to return capital to our shareholders. We'll hence also ask for new authorization at the AGM to be able to execute share buybacks also in the future.
Finally, while we believe that MBB continues to provide attractive value, as you can see here in our sum of the parts valuation, as we've tried to illustrate in this speed meter graphic, our net cash at holding level, as well as our shareholding in our listed portfolio companies, Friedrich Vorwerk, Aumann, and Delignit, together account for a value of EUR 211 per MBB share. While MBB's current share price stands at EUR 204, or actually just now a little bit below that, hence, it stands at a discount to our liquid portfolio. That obviously does not reflect the value of our private portfolio, especially DTS and Hanke, which basically comes on top for free. Well, I hope I was able to give you a brief walk through our Q1 results and the outlook for 2026.
I'd be happy to take your questions now.
Yes. Thank you very much for your presentation, Torben. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now opening our Q&A session. If you would like to ask questions in person via audio line, please click on the raise your hand button. If you're dialing in by phone, please use the key combination star nine followed by star six. Additionally, you can also place your questions in our chat box. We have the first hand up from Victor Beyer. The stage is yours.
Hi, thanks for taking my questions. I have one on DTS. You spoke about some delays in project execution in Q1. Would it be fair to assume that we see already a recovery in Q2? Is it more postponements in the second half of the year? Maybe an add-on question on possible M&A opportunities for DTS. Maybe you can give us a bit more color on what are you looking at. Is it more new technologies or more geographic diversification? Thank you very much.
Sure. Well, I would say, for the projects, basically, we will see this gradually improving as we move along. Q2 will most likely be stronger in absolute terms than Q1. We will see that development, especially for the projects where we were missing some hardware components and that basically hampered, you know, project delivery or commissioning of the projects to the customer. I think we'll see that getting better in Q2. As I said, at the moment, there's a bit of uncertainty in the market. We've seen some, especially newer projects, pushed out towards Q3. The pipeline for Q3 looks fairly good at this stage.
You will see a gradual improvement in Q2, I would say, but I think the 2nd half overall will be relevant for DTS as every year, I mean, seasonally, it's of course an important part of the year. Because also, you have public sector business which tends to be rather year-end loaded. As I said, Q2 will be better. Q3 and Q4 should see more projects, and the pipeline looks good so far.
Secondly, for M&A, well, if you had asked me maybe two years ago, I probably would have said, "Okay, we are looking for software add-ons." I think that has, you know, dropped down the priority list a little bit at the moment. What we look at now is primarily something where we can broaden our geographic footprint, particularly in Germany. Maybe a little bit in Austria or Switzerland, but Germany clearly is the focus. The idea is to, you know, to maybe get a bit of a better exposure into Southern Germany. We are very Northwestern focused at the moment.
Finding a partner in other parts of Germany with a good customer base where we can leverage the breadth of services of DTS into that customer base would be something very attractive for us. Obviously, we'll keep looking out also for technical add-ons if that makes sense. I would say, if we can, let's say, be successful on the bread and butter, you know, buying customer access and, you know, leveraging the breadth of our services into that customer base, that would at the moment be the key priority.
Victor, I hope that answers your questions. You may have some follow-ups.
No, very helpful. Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I will hold the room a little longer in case there are some questions left. One more hand up from [Benjamin Büllesbach]. You may unmute yourself now.
It's great. Hi, thank you for the question. I was curious about how the higher hardware costs are impacting the total project costs for the client. If you could quantify that'd be interesting in kind of framing how, you know, clients take their decisions in terms of first funding the projects. Thank you.
I don't know if I understood the question correctly, but basically, if you refer to, if you refer to the increase in memory chip prices, it just means that sometimes you get into the awkward situation where you cannot really tell the client because our supplier cannot tell us when the components will come and at which price. That obviously creates some, let's say, uncertainty for customers, and that has two effects. Some customers are very eager to do projects now because they believe that, you know, this shortage won't be short-lived because it is obviously driven by the significant AI demand, which is absorbing all of these memory chip capacities. Inventories and the memory chip space are empty.
You see that on the one hand, but you obviously, on the other hand, also see customers, who, take a wait and see approach and say, "Okay, I, you know, have this, I don't get a fixed pricing and a fixed timeline on certain projects." At the same time, the world seems to be a bit crazy, with the Iran conflict dragging on. Some customers also postpone decision-making, and try to wait for more stable times.
I think at the end of the day, that is probably an initial reaction now, and I would assume that things and also decision-making normalizes again as we move along in or throughout the year. That's simply what we saw in Q1 and which unfortunately impacted us here on the top line. As I said, on the bottom line, I think the higher service share is good for the margin. Obviously we also try to use the time and use the opportunity to double down on our service business because it is obviously quite attractive.
Can I have a follow up on on that? You know, what percentage of the total cost is memory? You know, if you think like project costs, SoC, you know, what percentage is memory? Then, you know, are memory prices the pass through for you? I mean, does DTS take some margin, does it have some margin impact from the higher memory costs? Another unrelated questions, I thought it was interesting that you said that you're less interested in software acquisitions. Could you maybe explain why?
Sure. Yeah. We're not a hardware trader, we don't really take a margin on this in particular. Obviously, if we, you know, have something on stock which we can pass on at a slightly higher price, we're happy to do that. That is not the focus of the business. I would say the pricing is one aspect. I know memory prices or one memory chip don't count on the exact figure, cost a few hundred dollars at the end of 2025, and now we're rather closer to $1,000 or more. It does have an impact, I would say the impact is larger on availability.
The lead times are getting quite long, and it's difficult to procure these things. Although they actually don't make up a large part of, you know, of the hardware, and actually we're not very keen on hardware deals, but sometimes obviously some of our projects have hardware components. Then, the customer obviously doesn't want to get half a server which doesn't work, but wants to get the entire thing, up and running and ready. Then, our, you know, we can, we can run our, I don't know, firewalls and whatever it is on that hardware.
That is the reason why with this longer lead times, we just had this issue in Q1, and I think we'll see that also a little bit in Q2. I expect it to get a bit better as we move into the second half of the year. It's not a P&L driver for us really. On the M&A question, well, we generally do like software, but as you can imagine through AI, the space is on the one hand quite dynamic and things are changing here and I think it has become a bit harder to judge who's a winner and who's not.
On the other hand, obviously, you still have fairly high price levels, and I think as this uncertainty spreads around AI that might create opportunities again for us to buy better prices. I think what we want to do is we focus on the things where we feel we can create synergies rather quickly. That is, as I said, you know, buying customer access, coming with a much broader DTS service portfolio, and then cross-sell into that customer base. It doesn't mean that we don't look at software deals, but I would say we take a bit more of a cautious approach than maybe two years ago.
Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your questions, Benjamin . Ladies and gentlemen, with no further question, we are coming to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you very much for your interest in MBB SE. A big thank you also to you, Torben, for your presentation and your time. Ladies and gentlemen, should you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to investor relations. With that, I wish you all a successful day and handing back over for some final remarks to Torben.
Yeah. Thank you very much for your interest in MBB. Pleasure to speak to you again. Well, I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing you soon.