Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Nemetschek SE earnings call Q1 financial statement. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Stefanie Zimmermann.
Thank you, Operator, and hello, everyone, and a big welcome. Thanks for joining our earnings call today to discuss the results for the first quarter 2025 with us. With me today are our CEO, Yves Padrines, and our CFO, Louise Öfverström. Today's conference call is being recorded. A replay of the call will be available on our website after the call. Additionally, you will find the quarterly report, the presentation, and the press release on our investor relations website as well, but now, let's get started, so I would like to turn over to our CEO, Yves. Go ahead, Yves.
Thank you, Stefanie. A warm welcome from me as well to our first earnings call of the financial year 2025. Last month, as part of our 2024 full-year results, we shared a substantial amount of details about our subscription strategy and strategic priorities. Today, we are taking a more streamlined approach and have returned to our standard, concise, and focused slide deck. Louise Öfverström, our Chief Financial Officer, and I will take you through the key highlights from the first quarter of 2025. We will keep our presentation brief so that we have plenty of time to answer your questions during the Q&A session. To begin with, on page number three, please allow me to shortly highlight the most important points of the first quarter of 2025. I will summarize our start to the year as very successful,
with a high double-digit revenue growth and a continued attractive underlying profitability. Main growth driver was once again the recurring part of our business, in particular, the very strong increase in our subscription and SaaS revenue, which is also reflected in all our major subscription KPIs, where we reached new record levels. The reported group EBITDA margin reflects an extraordinary non-operating effect in the mid-single-digit million EUR range. This resulted from the insolvency of a payment and service provider, which impacted our design and media segments during the first quarter. It has, therefore, nothing to do with our underlying operational development. More details on the Q1 impact shortly. We expect that, due to the special event, additional revenue in the media segment will also be missing in the second quarter, which will subsequently flow through to the profitability.
That said, the magnitude of the impact is expected to be smaller than in Q1 and remains limited to only the media segment. Importantly, when adjusting for the special effects, our underlying operating profitability remained strong, with an EBITDA margin reaching 31.4% in the first quarter, in line with our expectation and exceeding our full-year target level, even as we continue to transition toward a subscription and SaaS-based business model. We had already anticipated an extraordinary impact when we issued our full-year 2025 guidance last month. We remain confident in our ability to offset these effects over the coming quarters. It is clear that our profitability target for this year remains strong and ambitious, as we are transitioning to subscription and investing also in our future growth.
Alongside our strong financial performance, we also made important progress across several of our key strategic focus areas. I would like to highlight a few areas in particular. Our transition to subscription and SaaS model is proceeding as planned. We saw a strong momentum in the design segment, in particular, driven by the successful rollout of the subscription transition at Graphisoft and Allplan. The integration of GoCanvas, the largest acquisition in the Nemetschek Group history, is proceeding according to plan, and we continue to be very pleased with the operational development to date. In addition, we made several smaller bolt-on technology acquisitions in the first quarter. For example, the acquisition of the startup Manufacton strengthens the portfolio in the design segment in the area of AI and data-driven solutions in order to increase the efficiency of offsite construction and prefabrication processes.
Lastly, while our EMEA business remains impacted by the ongoing softness in the German construction market, our ongoing internationalization efforts continue to pay off, with a very strong double-digit growth in Asia-Pacific and the Americas regions. Therefore, thanks to our very successful start to the year, we are well on track to achieve all our financial targets for the financial year 2025. In addition, the continued progress in our defined strategic focus areas, combined with our already very resilient business model today, provide us a strong foundation to achieve an above-market growth and shareholder return in the mid to long term by capitalizing on our leading positions in our structurally growing markets. So, in short, we are again well underway to deliver on all our goals.
On page number four, you see how this translates into the development of our most important key financial indicators. We continue to carry momentum from Q4 2024 into the first quarter of this year. As a result, and in line with our key strategic priority, transition to a subscription and SaaS-centric business model, our reported annual recurring revenue, which includes the contribution from our GoCanvas acquisition, recorded an increase of 39.6%+. Even if we stripped out the M&A contribution, the ARR growth remained at a high level at 30.8%+. Continued strong increase in ARR is an important indicator for the group's revenue and cash flow growth potential in the coming 12 months. The main growth driver was once again the revenue from our subscription and SaaS models in the design and build segment, which grew organically by 68.2%+.
The build segment continued to enjoy the lasting tailwind from the successful completion of the Bluebeam subscription transition. Including the additional revenue contribution of GoCanvas, which already has a fully SaaS-based business model, the growth even reached an impressive 83.6%+. Thanks to the strong growth in our recurring revenue base, we were able to substantially increase our revenue in Q1 by 26.3%+ on a reported basis. Even if we adjust for the slight FX tailwind mainly stemming from the still very strong US dollar in the first quarter, our revenue increased by 25%+. Our organic revenue in Q1 grew by 18.6%+ and 17.4% +on an FX-adjusted basis. Despite the increase in global uncertainty, as well as our ongoing subscription and SaaS transition in the design segment and its associated short-term accounting burden on our financial results,
the development of our profitability was affected by the impact of our extraordinary non-operating effect. As a result, the increase in EBITDA was below the revenue growth, with 18.2%+. The corresponding reported EBITDA margin reached 28.5%. Let me emphasize here again that when we adjust for this effect, the underlying profitability would have remained at an attractive high level of 31.4%. This reinforces our confidence in the resilience of our business model and our ability to deliver on our ambitious full-year profitability target. Last but not least, our earnings per share for the quarter increased by 5.5%+, reflecting the effect from the GoCanvas acquisition, as well as the negative effect due to the insolvency of a payment and service provider. And with that, I will now hand over to Louise, who will provide a deeper dive into our first quarter financial results.
Thank you, Yves, and a warm welcome to our first quarter 2025 earnings call, also from my side. Yves has already touched on some of our key financial indicators, so I would now, therefore, like to look a little bit more in detail at the most important financial aspects of our results of the first quarter, as well as also at the underlying drivers hereof. Let us start on slide six with the developments of our four segments during the first three months of 2025. Let's take it from the left and start with our largest segment, design, which continued its full growth trajectory, with revenue increasing by 11.6% on a reported basis and 11.4% FX-adjusted to EUR 128.9 million.
The growth in the segment was particularly driven by subscription and SaaS revenues, which recorded an exceptional growth of 111% following the very successful launch of the subscription transition at our Graphisoft brand. Due to the accelerated shift towards subscription and SaaS models and associated short-term accounting-related dampening effects on profitability, as well as the extraordinary non-operating effect, EBITDA in the first quarter for the segment declined by 13.5% year-over-year to EUR 30.7 million , and the corresponding EBITDA margin for design stood at 23.8%. However, when adjusting for this extraordinary effect, the underlying EBITDA margin would have been approximately 300 basis points higher. So let's take it to the next segment, and as guided, our build segment continued its very strong momentum at the beginning of the year.
Growth was supported by consistently strong customer demand and lasting tailwinds from the successful completion of the Bluebeam subscription transition at the end of fiscal year 2024. And on an organic basis, revenues in the first quarter for build therefore grew by 41%. And when including the contribution from GoCanvas, which slightly exceeded our expectations in the quarter and a lower than anticipated revenue haircut effect for the quarter and as expected out of the acquisition, the overall growth reached an impressive 66.4% in the first quarter. The reported EBITDA margin came in at further 5.1%, reflecting both our strong underlying performance and also the dilutive effect from the GoCanvas acquisition and our continued investments to support the future growth of this highly dynamic segment. Excluding the GoCanvas impact, the organic EBITDA margin reached 38% in the first quarter for build.
Continuing on to Manage, which is our smallest segment and accounts for less than 5% of the group's revenue, that segment saw a slight increase of 2.6% in revenues in the first quarter of 2025. However, Manage growth continued to be partially negatively impacted by the discontinuation of the low-margin advisory service unit in Q2 last year. Despite the ongoing investments into the segment's product portfolio, as well as future growth opportunities, the margin expanded markedly in the first quarter to 10.9% from 6.6% last year. And finally, moving on to the Media segment, which was the most affected by the unexpected insolvency of a payment and service provider.
While the market environment for media remained stable and our Maxon brand delivered a good underlying performance, the segment's reported revenue, therefore, was only flat at EUR 29.4 million, a slight decline of 0.2% on a reported basis and -1.6% FX-adjusted. The extraordinary non-operating effect also weighed on profitability and reduced the reported EBITDA margin to 31% for the segment. However, adjusting for this special effect, revenue growth would have been in the higher single-digit percentage range and with an EBITDA margin slightly above prior year's level. This again confirms that Maxon continued to outperform the broader market on an underlying basis also in the first quarter of 2025.
As Yves mentioned earlier, we expect that due to the special effect, additional revenue in the media segment will also be affected in the second quarter, which will also subsequently flow through to the segment's profitability, but the overall impact on the group level of this effect would be lower compared to Q1. Moving on to slide seven, comprehensively summarizing the financial results as one and also as one of our key strategic priorities, our transition to a subscription and SaaS-centric business model. Yves has already alluded to the fact that our recurring revenues were once again the main growth driver in the first quarter of 2025. On the right-hand side of the slide, you can see why we are so pleased with the development of this revenue category.
In line with prior quarters, our annual recurring revenues, or short ARR, which combines all recurring revenue streams, once again clearly outpaced our total revenue growth with an increase of 39.6% on a reported basis and 30.8% organically. The strong development in ARR underlines the continued healthy growth potential for our business over the next 12 months. But when breaking down our recurring growth into its individual components, you can see that our subscription and SaaS revenue and our maintenance revenue developed in opposite directions, which was in line with our plans. As targeted, maintenance revenue declined by -19% on a reported basis in the first quarter, and this reflects the end of license sales and the dissociated maintenance contracts across most of our design brands, as well as the ongoing migration of existing maintenance contract customers to subscription contracts, for example, at our Graphisoft brand.
Therefore, and as a result of our strategic execution, subscription and SaaS revenue was the main driver behind the strong increase in our recurring revenue base, growing by an impressive 83.6% reported and 68.2% organic. Lastly, and as a very logical consequence of our transition, the more volatile perpetual license part of our business continued to decline strongly, in line with our plans by 50.2% in the first quarter of the year. Going to the left-hand side of the slide, and this provides a longer-term view on the development of our recurring revenues. While we started with a recurring revenue base of just EUR 96 million in 2021, we nearly tripled these more resilient and better plannable revenues within the last four years. Our subscription and SaaS revenue recorded an impressive CAGR of more than 60% during the same period.
As a result of this, we are proud to report that by the end of the first quarter of 2025, recurring revenues accounted for 92% of total revenue. This is an all-new all-time high for the Nemetschek Group and a 9 percentage point increase year-over-year, and in line with our plans. As usual, and to conclude our review of the results of the first quarter of 2025, we provide a more comprehensive overview of our key P&L and cash flow items on page eight.
And while we have already addressed the impact of our strong underlying performance, the GoCanvas acquisition, as well as the insolvency of a payment and service provider on our most important key figures, such as revenue growth and EBITDA margin, you will see here on this slide that the impact from the non-operating effect, as well as the GoCanvas acquisition, are also reflected in the reported development on the various OPEX categories. Starting with the largest component of our overall cost base, which is the personnel cost category, we saw a reported year-over-year increase of 25.2%. And this growth rate is clearly well above the level we see as a normal quarter for our business.
However, if we exclude the additional cost from the more than 300 GoCanvas employees who joined Nemetschek Group only on July 1st, 2024, the underlying organic increase in personnel cost is already significantly lower and in the mid-teens, and this run rate in personnel cost will also normalize even further in the coming quarters, as Q1 also included a number of smaller one-off personnel-related costs. The extraordinary non-operating effect was also the reason behind the strong increase of 39.1% in the operating expenses. These negative effects, combined with the additional amortization charges, as well as interest expenses related to the GoCanvas acquisition, resulted in an underproportionate increase in earnings per share of 5.5% in the first quarter. Coming to our free cash flow and the free cash flow generation was exceptionally strong in the first quarter.
The free cash flow before M&A reached nearly EUR 139 million, up 69% year-over-year, with a cash conversion of more than 170%, and this is supported by the very strong growth in our recurring revenue base. And lastly, thanks to our strong operational performance, Nemetschek maintains a very solid balance sheet even after the GoCanvas acquisition, and this is reflected in important balance sheet metrics such as the equity ratio of 43.7% or the net debt to EBITDA ratio of now below one time, showing our quick deleveraging after the GoCanvas acquisition enabled by our continued strong cash flow generation, and this leaves us with significant rebuild headroom, and not only for potential future M&A activity, but of course also for continued investment in highly innovative startups.
With that, I conclude the financial overview of a very strong first quarter of the year, yet affected by an extraordinary non-operating effect in the quarter. With that, I hand it back to you, Yves.
Thank you, Louise. A detailed overview of our financial results. To wrap up our presentation, let's turn to page number 10 and take a look at our outlook for the financial year 2025. We see that the pressure to digitalize in the construction industry is steadily increasing, especially in the light of the current uncertain and challenging market environment. With our consistent focus on driving forward our strategic key areas, we position ourselves to make the best possible use of the huge growth opportunities in our markets in the future. However, already today, we can see the results of our strategic initiatives.
The successful expansion of our recurring revenues, particularly through subscription and SaaS models, combined with the high innovative strengths of our software solution and the continued internationalization of our business, have led to a strong operating development at the beginning of the year. Based on these strong fundamentals of our business, as well as a very good start to the year, we fully confirm our guidance for 2025 after the first quarter. In particular, that means that from today's perspective, the executive board expects currency-adjusted revenue growth for the Nemetschek Group, so including GoCanvas, in a range between 17% - 19% for the year 2025. It includes an M&A-related revenue contribution from the acquisition of GoCanvas of around 350 basis points. In addition, the EBITDA margin for the Nemetschek Group, including the dilutive effect of GoCanvas, is expected to be around 31%.
Please keep in mind that these figures do not yet reflect the full potential of the GoCanvas acquisition, as both the revenue and EBITDA contribution in the first half of 2025 will still be reduced due to the IFRS-related purchase price allocation. Based on our very strong fundamentals, we expect to continue our growth path with a very attractive, strong growth at a high profitability in 2025 as well, so even despite this year's higher comparison base, the ongoing subscription SaaS transition of our business model, as well as the continued challenging market conditions and with that said, I would like to say thank you for your attention, and we are now ready to take your questions. So operator, please back to you.
Thank you very much. So ladies and gentlemen, we come now to your questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press nine followed by the star key on your telephone keypad. If you wish to cancel your question, please press three followed by the star key. So we have the first question. The first question comes from Alice Jennings, Barclays. So Alice, please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you very much for taking my questions. Just a couple from me. So the first one, I was wondering if you could comment on the customer behavior in April so far, and if you've seen any changes just kind of in light of the uncertainty that we're seeing. And then based on this, how should we think about Q2? Would you expect it to look similar to Q1, given that some of the headwinds from the payments business insolvency will have dissipated, or is there anything else that we should consider? And then my second question is around the margin. So the adjusted margin in Q1 at 31.4% is just ahead of what you're expecting for the full year.
And so I was just wondering, what should we think about in terms of the cost development this year, and if there's anything to think about in terms of phasing?
Thanks, Alice. So first of all, regarding customer behaviors, if we look at Q1, frankly, we do not see big changes versus the last quarters. And yes, we cannot predict exactly what may happen with the rest of the year with the current ongoing macroeconomic and political situation. Nevertheless, we see that the AEC software business, construction software business, is still growing nicely overall. The market is growing, and we do not see a big change of behaviors, first of all, in Europe, where, yes, potentially in the future, there might be some positive impact due to the new government in Germany investing more in infrastructure and therefore also in construction. But we do not see an impact short-term for that. Maybe next year, maybe towards H2 next year, but definitely not in 2025.
It will take some time before it has an impact. Therefore, when you look at Q1 2025, Germany is still very weak overall for us, and Europe better than Germany, definitely. But overall, Europe and EMEA definitely weaker than the strong, very strong growth that we had both in Asia-Pacific and also in Americas. Now, question regarding the U.S. market. Do we see any early sign of customer behavior in Q1? But frankly, also I can tell you now already in the beginning of Q2, there are no major changes. There is still a strong demand for our main products who have a strong presence in the U.S., especially GoCanvas and Bluebeam. So we do not see any, for the moment, again, any change of behaviors.
And maybe I take your second question on the margin, and especially if I understood you correctly, you're asking to the cost development throughout the year. So I think what you need to bear in mind, of course, for the development over the year is that we have the revenue impacts, of course, of the subscription transition of the design segment, of course, coming through throughout the year, which, of course, dampens the EBITDA effects a little bit over the year. So that's why if you see that our underlying growth in the underlying margin in Q1 is in line with, to say, with what we have guided for the full year, and the full year guidance is slightly below because it's impacted by that.
And then on the cost side, of course, it's always like that, that you have a little bit of a stronger OPEX in relation to revenues in the first half of the year. And the Q2, which is nothing for this year, the Q2 is structurally, just by the seasonality of revenues and costs, so to say, because we invest early, it's slightly softer in our business model than, of course, the Q3 and Q4. That's what you have seen in the past and what you will see in the future as well. So I think from the cost side, there's nothing extraordinary, so to say, and Q2, as you asked for. So we still expect an effect of the extraordinary item coming from the insolvency of the service provider.
That will be for the Group level, slightly lower on Q2 than on Q1, and we don't expect it in the second half of the year. And as Yves said, we are fully reconfirming our full-year guidance, so we will also, of course, balance that with cost and revenues.
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
So the next question comes from George Webb, Morgan Stanley. So please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, Yves. Louise, good start to 2025. So well done on that. Just coming back on, I guess, the topic of margins. For you, is it business as usual? I mean, we've seen some other companies in the broader space start to think about curtailing investment plans and being a bit more cautious on costs, just given the uncertainty out there, so trying to get a bit ahead of the curve, even if they haven't seen anything yet. Are you doing any of that, or is it just the top line's developing as you plan, so no need to change the cost plans? And I noticed you mentioned the word ambitious with regards to the full-year margin target. So a comment around that would be helpful.
Secondly, just on the payment service provider, I imagine with Maxon, you have a second provider there for redundancy. So kind of curious why you're expecting that to continue to falter and have an impact in Q2. And then just lastly, on media, can you talk around where you are on your roadmap around GenAI functionality and incorporating that across Maxon? Thank you.
Okay. Maybe I start with the first question on the margins and also ask you whether this business as usual or if we are adapting anything on our cost base side due to the current environment. I mean, we don't see a change in the overall environment, as we said as well currently. So no change there. But of course, we also, as everybody else, cautious and mindful of what's happening and looking ahead. We have a very strong business development ahead of us, and we also can see that in our business plans and business confirmations. On the cost side, I would say that we are always very cautious. And that's, of course, you should always be that.
But why are we that as well? As we are also undergoing, we are investing a lot into our business as we are growing and scaling. But we are also, as we have alluded to a few times as well, we are scaling also by harmonizing our cost structures in the group. So we harmonize the functional cost basis in the last one and a half years, and we are also bundling functions, etc., in order to, very much for us, in order to support that strong growth scenario of ours. So we have that a little bit inherent already that we are very, very lean on the cost side, so to say, and cautious on where we spend and how we spend. And of course, we also have some positive effect of those bundlings that you can see.
And that's why you also see such a very strong EBITDA margin despite that we are going through the transition to subscription model, which we would normally see a bigger impact of. So we are expecting that to balance. You have seen that in the last one and a half years, two years as well, and that will continue in 2025. So while yes, we are mindful and we are looking at it, I would say we keep our cautiousness on the cost and also, of course, looking very much also on how much we can increase the cost efficiency and also in by doing so also have positive cost effects that will, of course, come in handy in such a situation as well. And that's why we also are targeting to be able to outbalance the extraordinary effect as well.
And I think the second question you had was on the service provider, why this is expected to continue in Q2. That is, we are expected to continue in Q2 for our Maxon business. And that's if you look at the structure of the Maxon business, which has a very, very high share of the total revenues coming in over the web store. And this is the payment and service provider linked to the web store. And of course, when that happened, it took time that we could reroute this to a new web store, to a new system, etc. And that takes time until we have caught that up as well. That's why you will see the effect on Maxon also back in Q2 until we have been able to catch up on that in Q3 and Q4.
And therefore, excluding these exceptional effects for Maxon, excluding that, the revenue growth of Maxon would have been in the high single-digit revenue growth, which is what we are expecting to be normalized now for the rest of the year, excluding so this issue with this service and payment provider. And when you look at Maxon also on their roadmap, so clearly there are some AI features coming up. So bear with us, but this is part of their product roadmap, yes.
Okay. Well, thank you. And if I can just throw one more in. When you think about the shift to subscription, do you think at all about the length of those subscription packages? I mean, the non-current deferred revenue has been ticking up. It's a pretty small number, but it's growing. I don't know if that's GoCanvas or something else. Are you tempted at all to try to lock in customers onto longer-term subscriptions and if there's much appetite for that?
George, sorry, we didn't get your question. Could you repeat it perhaps a little bit louder?
Yeah, of course. I'm just noticing it's a small number, but the non-current deferred revenue has been ticking up. I can't tell if that's GoCanvas or organically. But really, the question is, are you tempted at all now you've kind of shifted so significantly towards subscription to try to tie in or offer to customers longer-term subscription packages, multi-year in that sense?
No. As we have said before, I think the only time where we offer, so to say, longer-term contracts is really in the subscription move now, on the move from SSA to subscription for the design segment, especially for the Graphisoft brand, where we have used that as a campaign, so to say, in the transition. That's the only reason. So that's not something that we are offering actively in other, or as I say, that's not a structural effect in the longer term, if that was your question.
Yeah. I mean, the vast majority is clearly 12-month contract. Also for design and build, is only offering a 12-month contract. There might be some exception here and there for government sector, but even there, I mean, it's mainly 12 months, so.
Cool. Got it. Thank you.
Good. The next question comes from Nicolas David of ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good afternoon, Yves and Louise. I have two questions, actually. The first is maybe a follow-up on the previous one on design growth in Q1, which was solid again. When I look at the drop in licenses, it seems that this time it was not helped by a pull-forward license effect. So should we understand that it's a pickup in volume really on new seats, or it's also an impact from multi-years agreement that brought some upfront revenue? And what do you see in terms of trends for Q2 in that respect? And my second question is regarding build. What drove the acceleration of the growth in Q1 versus Q4 on the build segment? Is it Bluebeam or also maybe Nevaris doing a bit better?
Any detail would be helpful. And what do you see for Q2? Should we expect a slowdown for build in Q2? Thank you.
Thank you, Nicolas. So clearly, on the design side, we had a very, very successful Q1 again on the move to subscription. So really, our campaign to move from SSA to subscription for existing customers worked well, but also we had a good underlying market with new seats. So it's both. Nevertheless, I mean, we do not see, again, a dynamic in terms of the end market, which is really changing versus last year. So the nice performance of Q1, which is to be above now the high single digit, is mainly due to the three-years subscription license package effect from SSA, so maintenance of subscription. And without that, the growth of design would have been in the high single digit revenue growth. So that is probably more the normalized growth of design.
It's more in the high single digit, excluding this special campaign that we are doing with the three years, especially at Graphisoft for existing customers. On the build segment, clearly, the growth in Q1 and the very nice growth is, as we said, coming also from the fact that we have very low comparables versus Q1 last year. We will still have a low comparable in Q2 versus last year, but the comparable will be a little bit slightly higher. So therefore, Q2 for build will not be as strong in terms of growth as Q1. Nevertheless, Q1 was very strong, not only because of that, but also because of the underlying, and we had a lot of new seats, very, very strong performance of all brands, in particular Bluebeam and GoCanvas, but also Nevaris.
But clearly, it's Bluebeam and GoCanvas who are driving by far the nice growth for Q1 for build. So H2, as we already indicated in the past, will be more normalized for build with a revenue growth, which would be more in the mid- to high-teens, with an overall revenue growth for build, which will be around for the full year in the 20% plus.
That's very clear and very helpful. Thank you very much.
Organic, including GoCanvas. All of that, yeah.
Yes. Okay.
And the next question is from Knut Woller, Baader Bank. So please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, and thanks for taking my question. So first one, more a tactical question regarding the second quarter. I hear you that you're saying there's still some headwind to be expected from the one-off in the second quarter. However, looking at last year's Q2, there was also some one-off headwind due to the GoCanvas acquisition, which was in the mid-single digit. So is it fair to assume, Louise, looking at your comments regarding the operating expenses, that should normalize and see not comparable one-off effects in Q2 as in Q1, that the margin should be up again year-over-year in the second quarter?
And then just getting a bit of a feeling regarding the subscription business versus traditional maintenance, if you compare the attrition in the two business lines, so is it fair to assume that maintenance maybe saw something like up to mid-single digit attrition rates? And where are attrition rates in the subscription business? Thank you.
So shall I take the first question? So yes, hi, Knut. Thank you for your question. Yes, you are right. Of course, I mean, we did the acquisition in first of July, last year from GoCanvas, right? So you have the effects out of that from starting from July. But of course, we had some one-offs in the second quarter last year as well. So I think in general, the structural development is comparable, but there is nothing else in the second quarter this year except for the extraordinary effect that we see from this insolvency and payment effect, right? And of course, the full GoCanvas consolidation that we have in the first half year that we didn't have in the second half year. So it's more comparable with last year as well in that direction.
But it's important, I think, to highlight, as I said before, Q2 remains, even if we take out this extraordinary effect, Q2 structurally remains a somewhat softer margin-wise, a softer quarter in our business model, which is very much due to that we are a recurring business and we are an increasing business. So you will have, of course, the effects on the investments, and then the revenue will be a little bit come back, a little bit backloaded in that. So that's why. And you should also not forget that there are effects that lead to profitability impacts, of course, as we had much higher perpetual licenses last year as well, which we don't have this year. And I think the second question is regarding the attrition.
So regarding subscription attrition, so the churn, if you want. So clearly, we do not see a huge big difference between SSA churn and a subscription churn. So clearly, the churn for subscription is also in the mid to maybe sometimes, depending on the brand, higher single digits, but it's still in the same ballpark.
Great. Thank you very much.
The next question is from Joe George J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Yeah, thanks very much for taking my questions. And just two from me, please. So just firstly, a follow-up on one of the earlier questions on multi-year deals. Within the design division, these three-year contracts for migrating existing customers, can you just give us an idea of what proportion of this revenue is typically recognized upfront? And whether you expect this to be a tailwind to growth throughout the entirety of this year or when we can expect that to taper off?
And then my second question is just on the insolvency of the service provider. I'm just wondering if you can help me out in my understanding of this, please, because the commentary in the presentation suggests that this negatively impacted both revenue growth and margins within the media division, but then only margins rather than revenue growth and margins within the design division. So can you just break out exactly where this impact was across each of the divisions in terms of revenue and costs, please?
For sure, on the multi-year deals, Joseph, clearly, these are very exceptional, and we are just doing some small campaign around that, mainly at Graphisoft. Allplan may do it a little bit depending on the region to really push some customers to move from maintenance to subscription, but that's not going to be a normalized, it's not a normalized way going forward. So clearly, you are going to see a big decrease of these three-year deals moving forward. And the share of multi-year contract in Q1 was already much lower than in Q4 last year and will be even lower, as I said, in the coming quarters. And yet, how we recognize revenue in design on subscription, it's depending on the brand, but it's around the range between 40%-50%, but even 35%-50% upfront, really depending on the brand.
And maybe I take your second question. That was to say, why does the insolvency of the service provider impact the design and the media segment differently? So why I alluded to before is that in the media segment, it impacts the revenue because it has a—I mean, the media segment or the Maxon brand has a very high share of their revenues coming through the web store. They are not able to reroute those sales, of course, so quickly. That's why it had some time where it was difficult to really book the license that tried to generate that revenue. On the design side, that is a very, very much lower part going through web store at all. That is also more, you can channel to their unique customers, you can channel those sales, let's say, through other channels.
There might have been a little bit of delay in terms of days, but the revenue is still there. That's why you have an impact on media on the revenue side, but not on design because you're able to rechannel those revenues for the design segment, but we can't reroute as quickly for media as the web store is so important. And then, of course, for profitability on both of them, that both levels down to profitability. And in addition, you also had bad debt reserves that were written off for both.
Great. Thank you. Very, very clear on both. Thanks very much. And then just if I can quickly ask as well, just to be clear, this insolvency impact is baked into the guidance. Yeah.
Absolutely. We anticipated it, so already.
Yeah. Okay. Thanks very much.
So the next question is from Florian Treisch, Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead with your question.
Yes. Good afternoon all . Thanks for taking my question. One left on my end. It's on GoCanvas. So you sounded quite happy and very positive on recent developments of GoCanvas. Can you maybe just add some details to it, like year-to-year growth? Are you seeing first synergies from the integration to really get a better feeling where we stand with GoCanvas? Thank you.
So clearly, with GoCanvas, first of all, we are very happy with the integration. So also, there is a good cultural fit between the teams. As we already disclosed in one of our previous calls, we even promoted some of the leaders of GoCanvas. For example, the head of marketing of GoCanvas has been promoted as the overall head of marketing for the build division, so including GoCanvas, but also Bluebeam, for example. And we had also other moves in the organization of some of the key leaders. Then also regarding integration of the G&A functions, of course, it's a roller coaster. I mean, it's not always go exactly how you want, but in general, we are very pleased. And after now three quarters, it's clearly going the right direction and as planned for the integration of IT and HR and finance functions.
More importantly, obviously, is also on the go-to-market side, the synergies. And here, as we said, it has been very, very successful. We have now more and more also cross-selling of GoCanvas to the Bluebeam customer base. And what is also very strong is that GoCanvas, which used to be a pure direct business, now we have some of the largest Bluebeam resellers, who are also the largest Autodesk resellers, committed to sell GoCanvas. And just in the last few months, it has been exceptionally good. So thanks to that, we had a very good growth of over 80% in Q1 regarding GoCanvas.
Great. Thank you very much.
And the next question is on Christopher Tong, UBS.
Hi, good afternoon. Chris from UBS. Thanks for taking my question. Two from my side. Firstly, on the service provider, there's an increase in bad debt provisions of EUR 8 million at year end. Was that all utilized in Q1, or will there be some in Q2? And secondly, could you just give us a sense of the deferred income write-down in Q1 and your expectations for Q2 and H2? Thank you.
So I didn't get your second question acoustically. Did you just repeat your second question?
Yeah. It was just on the deferred income write-down in Q1. And do you just have that number on hand? And do you have any expectations in Q2 and H2?
Okay. So let me start with the bad debt that we had reserved for already at fiscal 2024. Yes, that was all used in the first quarter. So that is what you saw. That was also for the insolvency that we are now. We didn't at that time foresee to save maybe the full effects of it, but that has been the full reserve that was made then has been used in Q1. And so the other, we cannot, of course, if something else comes in the accounts receivables valuation in Q2, etc., as it comes on top, nothing that we can comment on right now. And on the other hand, I didn't really get your question on the deferred income. I didn't know. Please explain to me the angle of your question.
Yeah, GoCanvas and the haircut there.
GoCanvas. Okay. Okay. Now I understand it. Okay. So the Canvas. So the haircut effect there is that it's the same principle as we had foreseen. It's just that when you calibrate the numbers in the final numbers, it came down a little bit lower effect in Q1 than we had originally foreseen. And that's why they had in the first quarter, they were a little bit. You can see that the gap between the organic and non-organic views on revenue growth is stronger than we have guided for the full year. And that's partially also, as we said, partially because GoCanvas is trading slightly better, which we're really happy about, and partially also because Q1 saw a smaller haircut than we had originally allocated to Q1.
Yep. That's perfect. Thank you very much.
And the next question is from Nay Soe Naing, Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. I've got two, please. And if I could start with the question on the design segment, I think it was you who mentioned that excluding the multi-year contracts contribution, design segment would have had high single-digit growth. I was wondering if there was any price increase growth contribution in that high single-digit growth. And then outside of the price growth contribution, in terms of seat growth, is it mostly coming from further penetration in the markets, or are there any market share gains? Please, if that would be great. And then the second question is on the GoCanvas. Obviously, it's doing a lot better than what you would have expected.
I think, at least based on my calculations, I get top-line growth in the mid-20s and then EBITDA margins in the mid-30s if I strip out the deferred revenue haircut impact. Is this the true potential of the acquisition that you spoke about that the business could reach to in the future, or could it easily be more than that? Please, thanks.
Regarding design, yes, excluding the three-year, as we said, the normalized growth would have been a high single-digit. There is no real price increase factored in Q1 if you look at design. There is a price increase going on from April 1st on perpetual license at Graphisoft, excluding Germany and German-speaking countries. Here's a price increase on perpetual license for Graphisoft will be on July 1st. But frankly, even there, I mean, as you may have seen, we didn't have a huge surprise in terms of number of new additional perpetual license seats for existing customers because it's only existing customers who can still buy perpetual license at Graphisoft. All the new one, it's only a subscription. Clearly, everybody is really geared now to move and to buy a subscription.
And if you look at the seat growth, it is as we expected. So it is not more or less or planned. It is similar to what we had also in 2024. If you look at what type of seat growth we have, it's mainly coming from new customers and also existing customers. New customers, these are more small, mid-size architecture firms and engineering firms, not only in Europe now, but as you know, we are internationalizing more and more business. So it's also in the Americas, especially Latin America, where we see a nice momentum, but also in Asia-Pacific, where also Australia and New Zealand have been quite good and strong in Q1 and also Japan. And if you look then at the seat growth for larger customers, yes, this is also going as planned.
So also for existing customers, especially outside Europe, there is still a good demand, etc., for new seats. So all in all, quite positive. Of course, with some mid-size plus larger customers, we had also the opportunity to displace our largest competitor. Sometimes when you have now doing special deals, when you are migrating some SSA customers to subscription, we are also trying to influence them to go fully, for example, with Archicad versus one of our large U.S. competitors. And this has worked in a few occasions, but I would not say that that's the main driver of the growth. The main driver of the growth is really the greenfield and also existing customers adding new seats.
Maybe I should take your second question on GoCanvas. Yes, as we said before, really happy about the acquisition. And as Yves alluded to, also great synergy. So we can start to see there as well. And GoCanvas standalone, which is they are contributing a good 20%, and they are a good Rule of 40 company as indicated. And I think you asked if there's potential for more. Yes, definitely. That's why we also acquire it. And we see the potential also in the combined business between, of course, our other build brands and GoCanvas as well. And that's also how we continue to steer it. But if you were to strip out GoCanvas standalone, it is, as we have also indicated, a good Rule of 40 company.
And of course, if you would have continued GoCanvas standalone with the growth that they have and the strong profitability at the same time, yes, of course, there would have been potential for more. But that's also, of course, you need to invest in that growth as well. But as I said, we see great potential as indicated in the acquisition as well. And we are really happy with the results out of that.
So clear. Thank you very much.
And the next question is from Victor Cheng, Bank of America.
Thanks for taking my questions. Three from my side. First of all, in design segment, how should we think about the margins going forward as you move more people to subscription? I think comps is quite soft as well for Q2. Should we expect the trough to be, when should we expect the trough to be for design segment as the migration continues to happen? And then secondly, in media, impact website, I guess you mentioned you couldn't kind of redirect a lot of the sales to other channels. But once it's backed up, do you expect some of the sales to come back rather than just completely gone? And then thirdly, on the multi-year deals, just a question on that.
Why maybe multi-year deals are not considered a bit more extensively, considering in a way it locks up customers for a longer period of time as well? Is it because the lack of ability to do price increases, or there are some other considerations as well? Thank you.
So maybe let me take your last points on the multi-year deal. So I mean, first of all, there are not so many multi-year deals. First of all, not so many brands are offering it. And now when we offer it, the new ones are including a price increase within the three years, which is indexed. So that's the first thing. On the media side with Maxon, yes, the impact of the web store, hopefully, yes, there are some customers who are coming back. But we are still seeing that including that we should be in the high single-digit growth normalized for media, for Maxon in terms of revenue growth.
Yeah. And let me then take the design margins going forward. And as you know, Victor, we have a staged approach in our transition to subscription for the media. So we have a brand-by-brand approach. And you know that all the three largest authoring brands right now, Vectorworks, Graphisoft, and Allplan, are currently going through the subscription transition in different phases. So that's why we also don't see the stronger impact on the full group as we saw with Bluebeam. But it also takes longer, right? So that's why we have not announced the end of sales of perpetual license for Allplan yet. We have now, as you know, for Graphisoft, where it's the last time you will be able to buy a perpetual license as an existing customer at the end of this year.
While at the end of fiscal 2024, it was the last time you can buy a perpetual license for Graphisoft as a new customer. So you have those effects. So that's why this impact of the transition of subscription will continue throughout 2026 as well for design, right? But of course, it will be lower and lower because you have merged a larger part of it. So that's why the margins where we'll be back to, to say, the 30-ish range. And that's something that you should expect. And of course, also the segment is also growing, as you can see very nicely despite the transition. So of course, there's strong margin quality there. But due to the staged approach, you should, I think, expect the margins to come back to, say, that time around, roughly 30%.
Sorry. Did you say the margins will be back up when?
So you will, so throughout 2026, you will see that continuous effect coming towards that, right?
Got it. Thank you.
And the next question is from Balajee Tirupati, Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Two from my side, if I may. Firstly, could you update us on new AI features that Nemetschek is looking to launch through 2025, including AI assistant that is to be launched in second quarter? Have you started marketing premium packages to your clients and any feedback that you could share at this point? And second question on free cash flow conversion in the quarter, which was quite strong. I want to understand if there is any timing effect, particularly even decline in receivables days as well as almost negligible cash tax in the quarter. Thank you.
Regarding new AI features, as you know, we already announced and demonstrated at BAU in January on new AI assistants, which was presented both on Archicad and also Allplan. But we didn't say that we are going to launch it in Q2. We said we will launch it in the second by mid of this year. We are planning to make some announcements this summer around the launch. And the rollout commercially will be more in H2 2025. And that AI Assistant will be used first for the design brand, but then it will be rolled out all over the product portfolio, including Bluebeam. And as you know, we already have some AI features launched. If you look at the AI Visualizer, for example, in design, but also we have some AI features also at Manage, AI features also at Bluebeam.
How we are planning to monetize it? Well, I'm not going to disclose everything now. But clearly, the main idea is to have most of the AI features present in premium packages. Of course, the basic AI features are only available via subscription, de facto. But then we are also pushing more toward the premium package to increase our average revenue per user.
Okay. And then let me go to the free cash flow that was very strong, as you noted. And of course, we have a very strong free cash flow generation in the subscription transformation, which you have seen before as well. And that's because in recurring revenue models, you have a stronger cash effect out of that. And Q1 is always a little bit stronger in cash flows due to the strong invoicing at the beginning of the year on many contracts. We also have some smaller effects of shifting in tax prepayments, etc. So there were some effects. But in general, very driven about the subscription transition to higher deferred revenues. And that, of course, the cash effect out of that.
And of course, if you look at the cash conversion side of things, you will, of course, see that we have some extraordinary effects on the EBITDA side that lowered the EBITDA, to say, that didn't have a cash effect. So if you look at the conversion, that's why that's a little bit higher for Q1 as well. But on the operating cash flow, you will continue to see very strong free cash flow effects as we transition. But of course, Q1 is always a little bit stronger.
Thank you. And the last question for the moment is from Andreas Wolf, Warburg Research.
Thank you for taking my question and congratulations on the quarter. I have the following question. So what's the current share of revenues that is generated via resellers versus the web store? And linked to that question is also my interest in the Google Cloud integration. So does this mean that Nemetschek will be pushing its product provision via the cloud more strongly going forward? And if yes, would that also increase the revenue share generated via the web store? What could be the margin tailwind associated with the higher share of revenues generated via web stores? Thank you.
Yep. Thanks. Regarding Maxon, yes, as stated, Maxon has a big part of their revenue generated via the web store. In fact, it's over 50% of Maxon revenue via the web store. The rest is via resellers, but also direct. As Maxon is working, yes, with a huge tailwind, sorry, with a huge, really long tail of very small customers, which are artists. But then they are also working with super large customers. With these super large customers like Disney, Netflix, Sony, etc., Meta, Apple, they are working really direct. It's a direct touch and direct business. Then there is a big part of reseller business, which, by the way, the direct and indirect business excluding web store have been quite strong for Maxon in Q1.
Then regarding Google Cloud, yes, we are very pleased with this major partnership, which we announced earlier this week. It is going to help us more on the interoperability front between the different solutions to really have more open workflows and interoperability between our own solution, but also with third-party solutions. And all of that also using more and more AI functionality. That doesn't mean that we are going to massively increase our SaaS and cloud offerings. Yes, we're going to launch. And most of our new features that we are launching for some time now are always cloud-based. We have some products and solutions which are fully SaaS already.
But we are not planning to stop completely perpetual on-prem and desktop solution. If you look at, for example, Archicad, Allplan, and Vectorworks, there will be still for some time hybrid solution, which means combining desktop solution, including cloud and hybrid features. Therefore, we do not see any impact really on the margin due to that.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for your questions. We have no more questions. Back to Nemetschek.
Wonderful. So if there are no more questions, thanks everyone for attending. We are looking forward to catching up with you soon. If you have any follow-up questions, so please do not hesitate to contact us. Then let's conclude our call for today. Thanks again for joining. Have a nice day.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.