Welcome to OHB's analyst conference for Q1 2024. Sorry for the little hiccup. I'll walk you through the slides. I hope you have been able to retain the documents and you have seen our Q1 numbers. We do it as we always. I will quickly walk you through, and then obviously we have time for a Q&A session. The business segment overview has not changed, so the consolidation is the same as it was at last year's end, 2023. Also the strategy has not changed, so this is still the strategy OHB 2025 shaping the future that we are pursuing, and we believe we're on a good way of achieving that. Of course, many things are going on at OHB at this current time, so it's just important to recall what our goals are.
I'd like to start with a quick overview on the status of the takeover offer, the public takeover offer that was done by KKR, and it's still underway. I don't want to walk through all these points again. You see lots of green dots or green approvals. What is really the status is what is in the blue box below, so approvals for foreign direct investment in two out of 10 countries are still pending, so we still have two countries, including Germany, where the process has not been completed. We don't see this as a concern. We believe we're on track. We feel that this will be completed in the next weeks, and we feel that everything should be finalized before our annual meeting at the end of June.
Yes, KKR will seek to complete the regulatory approvals quickly, and there is still the information on the status under OrbitalOffer.com, but there's nothing new compared to what I just said. So the agreements that we are doing between KKR, Federal Republic of Germany, and OHB are on a very good way. Moving on to the next slide, quick overview what happened in the 1st quarter. We have fundamentally changed our—I mean, fundamentally, we have significantly changed our governance model in OHB. We have reestablished the executive committee. What has changed, obviously, is that at the forefront level, at the end of last year, Lutz Bertling left, and now the forefront in the dark blue is Markus Moeller for sales and strategy, is Kurt for financial, it's Daniela for legal and integrity, and it's Klaus for human resources and myself as the CEO, as before.
We have established in the Executive Committee leadership in the 3 domains. Space Systems is officially still myself, but Chiara Pedersoli as the CEO of OHB System since January also takes part in the executive committee. Aerospace is headed by Uli Scheib. Digital by Arne Gausepohl, and those both are new appointees. Uli Scheib took over April 1st as a successor of Hans Steininger, and Arne Gausepohl starting from January 1st for the digital business he took over from Lutz. Also we're very happy to welcome Kristina Wagner as our new CTO and Chief Digital Officer. And Sabine von der Recke is Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer. And Oliver Salisch still is the Chief M&A and Investments Officer, so this team is now here you see, here you see Chiara, Uli, and Arne. I already announced their respective roles.
Chiara took over from me because I was doing both CEO of OHB Group, OHB SE, and for a long time also CEO of OHB System. Chiara now leads OHB System, and I joined the OHB System Supervisory Board. Very similar at MT. I said Uli Scheib has succeeded Hans, and Hans is now a member of the supervisory board of MT Aerospace. And Arne, I already explained. Here are the other three persons. Kristina Wagner joined us from KUKA, but she had various management positions. She was very much involved in the innovation work there, and we believe this is a very good background to help OHB for the next phase. Oliver and Sabine, you're already familiar with. Just a few highlights that we had in the first quarter. You see here an image of PLATO payload. Integration of PLATO cameras is going on.
It's very exciting, you know, you remember PLATO is the mission that is chasing exoplanetary, I mean, potentially habitable planets in other solar systems. Big progress also at OHB Italy, additional 12 satellites from the IRIDE program have been ordered. That's a big success. Yeah, again, another big success I see is the whole development we had with Arctic Weather Satellites, also small satellites. And, you know, historically we have always been, let's say, known for larger, large institutional programs, but now with those two programs, IRIDE and the Arctic weather, we're building full, full constellations for small satellites, and that's a big success in Italy and in Sweden, and obviously this is an integral part of our strategy to serve the satellite market from very small to very large satellites.
That we also do, we had just recently, of course, make significant progress also on our MTG big Earth observation geostationary weather satellites. Another successful bit for us was LEO PNT. That's a satellite constellation with four small satellites for Galileo, it's navigation at Galileo, Succession and Galileo technology preparation for future global navigation satellite systems from Europe. So obviously after the defeat in the 2nd round of Galileo, for the 2nd generation of Galileo, this has been a big success to be involved in navigation satellites again. Quick status on our launcher business, Rocket Factory Augsburg. Has completed the tests on the upper stage, is now preparing the tests. They are now preparing, as we speak, the tests on the on the bigger 1st stage in Scotland and SaxaVord on the Shetland Islands, so a lot of work goes on in terms of preparation of the spaceport there.
I was there three weeks ago, and I was really excited to see the spaceport, yeah, growing. And so we're looking forward to, yeah, this is the 1st stage integration being completed and the hot firing test campaign starting hopefully soon. So we are still working under the assumption that we have a launch later in the summer. We call it now not earlier than August 1st, and that is what it really is, not earlier than August 1st. That's what we work for. But, of course, the team is excited and yeah, we'll see. And the Aerospace also makes good progress, and the overall Ariane system makes very good progress, so we're very confident that Ariane 6 will launch within the well-known launch period from mid-June to end of July. I think preparations are going very well.
We're just a supplier in this, but we are congratulating Arianespace, ArianeGroup and the whole Ariane team to really work this now very successfully. We're excited to see a launch and hopefully many then to follow afterwards. So, it's the return or the comeback of Ariane is just a few weeks away. In terms of Digital, we're moving along with our MeerKAT program. You see here the photo of an installation there. Yeah, I don't want to go into more details there, but I think this has become now a program that is installed. Deliveries have started earlier this year. Serial production is going on, so we're quite happy also there. In terms of order backlog, yeah, it's flat. It's not exciting. We're not really excited with the level of order backlog of EUR 1.7 billion.
You see, compared to the last years, the last 15 years, it's like we're somewhere in the middle, but we're obviously working very hard. And I saw that also Markus joined the call, so we are also ready to answer questions. He's traveling today, but he's ready to ask, to answer questions about the status of income. Markus, do you start out or?
Yeah, even up.
Yeah, now turning to Q1 numbers, backlog, I said already, same level as it was, basically, last year. Total revenue slightly above, total revenues at EUR 206.7 million. I saw that on our press release. We called it the record, historic record Q1 number. I'm sure Marcel checked this. It was not, it didn't feel very exciting, this number, so we're not enormously proud of this number, but if it's the historic, all-time high, that's good to know. We're happy about that. EBITDA, that profit, are not historic all-time highs for Q1 because they are lower than last year, so this is something we might talk about a little bit later. It's not exciting. In Q1, in terms of these numbers, not a surprise, but it's also not an excitement.
I don't know what we're not exceptionally in one or the other direction. Yeah, earnings per share is EUR 0.25 instead of EUR 0.41. It has also to do with that, since late December last year, we have 10% more shares outstanding, so this is now 19.2 million shares. And this all translates into this chart here, that basically profitability compared to where we were in the previous years is, yeah, rather weak. It's pretty much on the level of 2020. So. Yeah, whatever.
If you look at the overall development over the last years, this is the outlook you see here. This is the outlook we presented at our capital market day in January. That's obviously still the outlook. We're not guiding in the same specific way than we did in previous years because our, let's say, our philosophy has changed there.
We are, we are basically giving an outlook of growth, and that's what makes us pretty optimistic about the future. Here you see also the EBITDA and EBIT numbers previous years. And going forward, we have to say that the 2023 numbers are exceptionally good, because of one of effects of last year, but that has been explained at our recent conference call we had when we presented 2023 numbers. So this basically concludes the quick overview. The next big event coming up is at, in on June 26th, our annual general meeting, and then we go on for the remainder of the years as scheduled in August and in November with six-month and nine-month report. So now I turn it back to Marcel and open, I think we're opening the floor for questions. Thank you for the time being.
Yes, thank you. So if you have any questions, feel free to either write them in the chat or just raise your hands and I will add you as a panelist. I see Henry Rendish raised his hand, so Henry, you should be able to talk now.
Yeah, hi, good morning, everybody. I hope you can hear me fine.
Yeah, yeah.
Perfect. Just, you know, not much from the equity side. That's particularly interesting, but maybe on the takeover side, a question from my side. In a hypothetical scenario that the FDI approval from Belgium and Germany might not go through, is there a plan B that you have in mind? Is KKR would be then a minority shareholder, but would they like completely withdraw from the deal? Do you have any idea just for a hypothetical scenario and would you still delist in that scenario? And the second question is probably for Markus, but we can take the first one, the answer for the first one now.
Yes, hi, good morning, Henry. Yeah, I start as KKR now is a current shareholder with 9.9% after last year's capital increase. So they are already invested, and obviously the takeover is a binding takeover offer. We are very certain that we will get the approvals from Germany and Belgium as well. We feel that we are pretty much on time. Should something happen and it would not be granted, I don't know. I don't think we have a mapped out plan for that because the overall probability is so high that it would happen. We believe that we would probably have to, if there are concerns in those processes in Germany and Belgium, we have to work on these concerns and find an arrangement that fulfills those concerns so that the approval will be granted.
Because we have to remind ourselves at the end what we're doing. I mean, we are not changing control. We are not selling majority. We're not selling a company, but basically having a transaction where current free float will become the ownership position of a financial investor. So it's not changing the scope or the power of, let's say, the Fuchs family in the company, the leadership will remain. So again, we are pretty certain that this will go through. And again, I think it's more a question of exactly when and exactly the details of the arrangement. So I don't know, but if you ask the delisting, I think we are planning to delist. But obviously you can only delist if the shares are within a small number of ownerships.
I mean, you cannot delist when the free float still is at whatever 25%.
All right.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, got it. Just it was this hypothetical scenario. I mean that the capital increase went through, so it's a good sign that the remaining takeover approval will also come. It was just a what if scenario. And maybe there's the 2nd question, more directed to Markus. I've read some news about Germany being unhappy with the IRIS 2 in the current tender process. I read something about a ground system going to France and not to Germany. Is this what it's like, politics causing the delay and the final contract signing?
Hey, good morning, Henry, Markus. Yeah, so look. I can give you my OHB perspective, and it's a technical one. I don't think that politics, you know, is the major delay for this one. It's a very complex project, including, you know, a consortium structure with many partners, so that in itself is a, you know, large transaction and that has always, you know, certain complexities in terms of time, number one. And number two, you know, we're a partner of this consortium, but what we understand is, you know, the consortium is engaged with the customer, which is the Commission, in a large bid. I think it's very natural that if you have to bring the pieces together, that you have some delays. So I would say, yes, there are always politics in the background.
You know, it's a federal program for Europe, but on the other hand, the delays that we see are delays that could be expected in a program of that scale, size, and challenge.
All right. Yeah, got it. Thanks.
Okay, I can't see any further questions in the chat. There are also no raised hands.
Yeah, I mean, when going private is underway, so I would like to thank all of you who are still interested in OHB, still following OHB. Very much for your continued support and your continued interest. And I can say it's exciting. I hope to see you again, hopefully at ILA because early June is ILA in Berlin. We will have a nice big booth. Everybody will be there. So there are a lot of opportunities to talk in person with me, with Markus, with everybody. If you are interested in what's going on in the space industry, I can tell you space is still the place to be. It's very exciting. And running through these quick slides just, I think, gives you a little flavor. For example, what happens in the launcher in Europe, but also on satellites. We recently had another launch.
We didn't even put it on a slide. In late April we launched two Galileo satellites, very successfully. They are now supporting the constellation. We'll have another couple of other launches coming up soon, like the Arctic Weather and also others. So it's an exciting time. It's an exciting industry. And again, let's see you again in Berlin at ILA or in a digital format at our next call in August. We will obviously still be a listed company for the rest of this year. That's for sure. And we will obviously keep on informing the markets, and Marcel and Kurt and myself were always available for questions and but also background exchanges. So this is my time to talk just to give you the chance to ask more questions.
I'm looking for a final time to Marcel if we have other questions. Our hands being raised and he says no. So I'm looking to my watch and it's 9:25 A.M. So I would like to all of you for participating, and for your support of OHB, and I'm closing this call now and wish you all a good day. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.