Welcome to the earnings call of Friedrich Vorwerk Group SE regarding the Q1 figures of 2026. The company Chief Executive Officer, Torben Kleinfeldt, and Chief Financial Officer, Tim Hameister, will guide you through the figures in a moment, followed by a Q&A session via audio line and chat. With that, I hand over to you, Torben.
Yeah. Thank you very much for the introduction and also a very warm welcome from my side. Welcome to the Q1 earnings call 2026 of Vorwerk Group SE. As always, I would like to start up with a short summary of what is happening within our company's group and also with a short market update. I would hand over to Tim for the financial figures and would then give you at the end an overview of running projects which we are executing at the moment. First of all, Friedrich Vorwerk is active since 60 years in the business of energy infrastructure.
Our main markets focused here on the top right of this slide is natural gas market, electricity market, clean hydrogen market, and adjacent opportunities, whereas the adjacent opportunities is mainly our activities in heating, district heating grids and stations, but also biomethane treatment and CO₂ separation and transport. Today I would still like to show you the slide, although probably most of you know it or have seen it for a couple of times. There is some change in the composition of our 15 locations. As you have heard, we have sold our property in Lüchow-Dannenberg, where the activities have mostly been taken over from our headquarters in Tostedt, and we have opened up a new facility in the Netherlands, and called Houten, which is the main office for 5C-Tech GmbH, our company for our welding technologies.
From Houten we will guide our international activities in terms of delivering welding services to our customers. Besides that, still most of our customers are from the TSOs and DSOs, so main customers are on the natural gas and hydrogen side, Open Grid Europe, Gasunie, ONTRAS Gas Transport. On the electricity side of the business, it's TenneT, Amprion, 50Hertz, which are among our major clients. Growth of the company group has still been driven by the energy transition going on here in Europe. Looking back on the year 2025, we did a great job acquiring more projects. Total project volume acquired in 2025 was almost EUR 1 billion, to be exact, EUR 991 million, which is a rise of almost 1/3 compared to 2024 figures.
As you know, the total project volume acquired also takes into account our share in the joint ventures we are operating on many projects. Yeah, that's for the status update. Now I would like to change over to the market update. Besides all political discussions going on at the moment, many countries in the EU are still planning massive projects in terms of the energy transition. The European Commission has just published in late April, their new list of PCI, PMI projects, which also focuses on infrastructure projects which cross borders between European countries.
From the map that is highlighted from the European Commission, you can see more than 230 cross-border projects, for example, in smart grids, electricity transition lines, but also hydrogen projects and also projects for the transport of CO₂. Projects are shown there are in various statuses. For example, you will find a Hyperlink project which is operating by Gasunie, where we are already active in, or H2ercules, which is the core grid projects of Open Grid Europe, where we have also received the first projects to execute in the next years. Other projects like AquaDuctus or HyPipe Bavaria are still in tender phase, permitting phase is ongoing and execution will be in the next five years to 10 years.
Also other projects are highlighted in this map, for example, export routes of CO₂ to Norway. These projects are still under investigation or they've published the first project ideas. Whoever is interested in what is going on in the next 20 years here in Europe, I think the map of the PCI, PMI projects of the European Commission is a good source to look at. Not only in terms of transport grids, there's a huge upgrade in demand, also there's a huge step in investments in the distribution grids. The ACER has conducted a survey among the DSOs, among the distribution system operators in Europe, to find out how the investments in the electrical distribution grids are developing in all of Europe.
As you can see from this graph, there's a huge step up over the last, over the last 5 years of almost 80% in investments in the distribution grids. Of course, also Germany is leading here, because Germany is really focusing on new, I'm sorry. Sorry. Am I back again?
Yes.
Okay. Yeah, sorry, there was a call coming in. Especially Germany is focusing on developing the distribution grid to get more charging infrastructure and new heat pumps to the households. Besides the investment in the distribution infrastructure, there's of course still a discussion going on in Germany about transport infrastructure, especially in electricity. As you've probably been knowing that since 2016, Germany has passed a law to move all transport electricity infrastructure underground, so not using overhead power lines, but underground cable systems to transport the energy. Now this year, the new government has drafted out new law that will change the Cable Law which has passed in 2016, and they want to move more power lines above ground again due to cost issues.
Of course, this bill has not been passed by the government yet, the next project in electricity, especially the large north, south and west, east corridors, they've already been planned and permissions have already been granted. In some cases of projects, the cables have already been procured, we do not see a change in outlining these projects, at least not for the next five to eight years. What happens after that will be point of political discussions. In the end, just to give you a technical idea also on the advantages of underground power systems, of course, it creates better acceptance with all the stakeholders that are influenced by the projects. The underground power lines are more resistant to weather issues and also for terrorist attacks.
There are also some electrical issues where using cable system is more advanced, especially in transport losses, compared to the above ground power lines. We do not see any changes here for the upcoming projects, at least not for the next five to eight years. Therefore, we are very comfortable that our cable laying services will be required for the upcoming project without any changes. With that, I would like to hand over to Tim for our financial figures.
Yeah. Thanks, Torben. I would also like to welcome you to today's earnings call on the first quarter figures. Let me now take you through our financial results in more detail. As usual, let's start with the top line. As we already flagged, the first quarter was significantly more challenging in terms of weather conditions than in recent years. In January and February, there was a particularly heavy amount of frost and snow in northern Germany, meaning that work at some of our sites and projects had to be paused in February or could not even begin after the scheduled winter break. This makes it all the more pleasing that we still managed to increase revenue by 5% compared to the previous year, bringing it up to EUR 139 million.
Contributing factors here included, in particular, a very strong growth in headcount over the past few quarters, as well as in the current quarter, during which we increased our workforce by almost 4%, and a very strong performance in March, which allowed us to partially offset the downtime from February already. In terms of revenue breakdown, the electricity segment was once again the strongest, accounting for 56% of total revenue, followed by natural gas at 26% and our adjacent opportunities at 16%. Clean hydrogen revenue was still quite weak in the first quarter. However, we continue to expect strong growth in this area, not least due to the orders already received in Q1, but also due to the very attractive project pipeline related to the hydrogen core network, which we outlined in recent calls.
However, our profitability showed particularly strong growth in Q1. EBITDA increased by 75% to EUR 31.8 million, corresponding to a margin of 22.8%. It's already nearly reaching the level achieved in exceptionally strong fiscal year 2025. EBITA nearly doubled to EUR 24.1 million, corresponding to a margin of 17.3%. This strong increase in margins is attributable to several factors. First, we achieved modest revenue growth while simultaneously reducing material expenses by approximately 20%. This is due to a shift in the project mix as Q1 2025 included a high proportion of revenue from material deliveries, such as the cable protection pipes for our major project A-Nord.
Revenue in Q1 2026, on the other hand, was generated with a higher proportion of in-house work, which compared to, let's say, simple material deliveries, naturally leads to a higher margin. Second, earnings contributions from joint ventures increased from EUR 1.5 million in the prior year to EUR 4.1 million in the reporting period, due to the higher order volume handled by the JVs. Third, the earnings figures include a positive one-time effect of EUR 1.7 million from the sale of our former branch office in Lüchow. Let's now turn to the order situation. The top two charts here on the slide show the standard metrics of order intake and order backlog. Order intake in Q1 2026 increased by EUR 110 million- EUR 192 million, even though no major projects were awarded in Q1.
Ultimately, this order intake was achieved exclusively through small and medium-sized projects worth up to EUR 50 million each. We do not typically present these projects in the project pipeline due to their respective sizes, but the total value of these projects can be quite significant and meaningful. Among the larger orders received in Q1, there are two gas pressure regulating metering stations, one of which is already designed for the use of hydrogen, as well as additional hydrogen pipeline projects. The two charts below show the corresponding figures, including the proportion and order volumes of the joint ventures. Total project volume acquired rose by 50% to EUR 196 million, and is only slightly higher than order intake, as no major projects were awarded in Q1. Accordingly, no new joint ventures were formed in Q1.
New, however, is the key figure order backlog including joint ventures, which we are reporting for the first time this quarter. This figure rose by 14% to EUR 1.4 billion, and includes not only the conventional order backlog, but also the proportion share of JV orders. In this context, we've also published the so-called production output figure for the first time, which rose by 14% as well in Q1, and also includes proportionate joint venture revenues. This should now provide all relevant key figures to form a complete picture of the company's situation, taking into account the shift in the order structure towards more JVs.
Based on the current quarterly results, we confirm the guidance for fiscal year 2026, which we published in March and which projects revenue in the range of EUR 730 million-EUR 780 million and EBITDA of EUR 160 million-EUR 180 million. Please keep in mind this forecast is based solely on the company's organic growth, and does not include any additional inorganic growth. Given the net cash position of EUR 232 million as of quarter's end, the range of opportunities for further growth remains definitely open. Yeah, let me now hand it back to Torben for some updates on our ongoing projects and upcoming projects before we open the floor for your questions.
Torben, you have to unmute yourself with a click on your microphone.
Okay. I'm sorry. Yes, thanks a lot, Tim, today we have chosen to focus really on our largest projects going on at the moment. The first one would be the Corridor A-Nord, which probably most of you have heard of. Within this IPA project, Bohlen & Doyen is responsible for about 40% of total project volume. Actually, the lots being executed in Lower Saxony, progress, especially over the winter, has been quite good on the project. The first lot within Lower Saxony have already been completed. We are quite happy with the progress also in terms of all closed crossings we have to execute. All resources in terms of horizontal directional drilling have been busy over the winter and this project definitely contributed a lot to the overwhelming Q1 2026.
Next project is not from electricity market, from natural gas market. It is our combination of two ETL pipeline projects which are executed for the customer, Gasunie Germany. The two projects compromises of one pipeline, ETL 182, with a length of 86 km and a diameter of 1.4 meters, and a smaller pipeline called ETL 179-200, with a diameter of 900 millimeters, which will tie into the larger pipeline system at a location called Dieksum. Both projects are executed in a joint venture with PPS and Habau Group. Project has already started last year with preliminary works. We prepared pipe yards. The customer already delivered most of the necessary pipes. You see a picture of 1 of the pipe yards on this slide.
In March this year, the main activities on both projects have been started. We are especially happy that two of the, in total, four very complicated drillings have already been executed successfully, actually a bit ahead of time. We are also here quite satisfied with the progress of these two major gas installation projects. Next project is from hydrogen market. We've received order from ONTRAS Gas Transport to plan and erect a gas metering system and regulating system at the location of Bobbau, which is a major compressor station within the grid of ONTRAS Gas Transport.
Here we will deliver in this year and beginning of next year, mainly engineering services and procurement services for the project, and then we'll start with the actual execution of this mid 2-digit million EUR project beginning of next year. Besides this, adjacent opportunities are also going quite well. The Friedrich Vorwerk Group is active in numerous district heating projects all across Germany. Major project at the moment is again in the city of Hamburg, where we are executing major district heating pipeline connecting the waste to energy plant at Rugenberger Damm to the main grid of Hamburg. Pretty much similar projects are executed at the moment in Leipzig. It's called the so-called REFILL project, connecting industrial facilities to the main district heating grid of the city of Leipzig.
This project will still be going on, this and the next year, and it compromises of roughly 12 km of new built district heating pipe, DN 700 and DN 900. But also a lot of renewing works is going on in terms of district heating grids. Our branch in Berlin is at the moment active at the Berliner Zoologischer Garten to renew a couple of old district heating pipelines, DN 500, DN 400 and DN 600, only over a short distance, but still it's quite an challenging and big project for our branch office in Berlin. That's it for the update on our projects. I'm really happy and excited about the first quarter, and I think we are up for a great year 2026 so far.
When the weather stays good, which at the moment it looks like, I think we will have a great year in front of us. Please stay with us and we are ready for your questions.
Thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now opening the Q&A session. If you would like to ask your questions in person via audio line, please click on the Raise Your Hand button. If you are dialing in by phone, please use the key combination star nine followed by star six. Additionally, you can also use our chat box for your questions. We do have the first two hands up. Lasse Stueben, please.
Hi. Good afternoon. Just to confirm on the Erdverkabelungsgesetz. It feels like this was a bit of a non-event in the short term. Is it fair to say that, I think you said no project's kind of impacted earlier than 2032 or 2035? If you just give some more color on kind of the near term impact of that law should it be passed. The second question would be just around sort of how the business has done so far in the second quarter. It looks like the weather has been much better. Just wondering about the phasing of revenues throughout 2026 and whether there's anything unusual, just given sort of maybe Q1 was a bit weaker than it has been in prior years.
The headcount additions of 4% in the first quarter. Is this roughly the run rate you're targeting for 2026? Just on the M&A front, if you have any extra sort of information you can give on what you're looking for or if you're close to anything on the acquisition front. Thank you.
Maybe I'll take the first part of your question in terms of underground cable systems. For the upcoming projects, say up to 2030 to 2032, for most of the projects, permission procedures are on the way and these permissions are all based on earth cables. For some of these projects like Wind At West and others, at least a part of the cables are already pre-procured, so we do not see in terms of cables already been purchased or ordered and permission process is already ongoing, that there can be a change in these projects because that would mean a total stop to the projects.
The permitting procedure had to be reestablished from hour zero, so to say, so that would be a large fallback in the timeline of these projects. I do think that at least for the next projects, seen in the grid development plan, there will be no change from the cable systems. We have discussed before that for the future projects, so the second wave being executed, in the years 2032 and after, it is feasible that some of the projects could be executed by overhead power lines. Although there are still technical issues which do have a strong advantage on the side of the cable systems, for example, losses in the transitions are much lower than in overhead lines.
That probably needs to be discussed in details with each TSO and the final decision he does make on the technology he uses. For the next years, I do not see any impact if the law is passed. I mean, we've already seen that, for example, Schleswig-Holstein and the Federal Country of Lower Saxony, they've strongly opposed to this idea. We'll see what comes out in the end, and if this bill is in the end passed, we don't know yet.
Thank you.
Well, I will then take over the remaining questions from you, Lasse. To start with the Q2 question, apart from the relatively weak start in terms of weather conditions to the year, we expect to see a regular year in terms of the seasonality of the business. Also April in terms of weather conditions was quite normal compared to recent years.
So we will see increasing revenue in Q2 can see, and then the usual reduction in revenue in the last quarter, depending on the weather conditions in December. If we go to regarding the headcount growth, if we just take the 4% in Q1, as a basis for the next quarters, then we would end up with another 15%-16% headcount growth for the third year in a row, which we definitely don't intend to do. As we communicated before, we would see it more sustainable to reduce the speed of hiring this year so that we will end the year with, like, 6%- 8% headcount growth in total, meaning that the speed of hiring will definitely slow down in the next quarters.
Yeah, regarding M&A, we currently have various targets on the shortlist which we are at different stages. These range from small add-on acquisitions that gives us access to either new regional markets or new technologies to further expand our own value chain or to larger companies that are mainly an interest for us due to their workforce we can integrate into our projects.
Thank you for your questions, Lasse Stubbe. I hope this is answering it, and if you may have some follow-ups, please raise your hand again. With that, we're going on to Luyda Schumacher. You should be able to speak now.
Hi. Good afternoon also from my side. My question is also on the cable law. I mean, you did say it's unlikely to have an impact on you for a long time. I'm interested in the background to the, well, potential change of the law. I mean, my experience is that in Germany, high voltage lines are either underground or they're not going to be built. What is driving the political drive to change the law? It doesn't seem to make any sense other than maybe demonstrating that somebody somewhere is thinking about costs, but I think the reality is still that if you want new high voltage lines, they just have to be underground.
What is the motivation behind it, and is there a chance that maybe, we're going to get a sensible outcome where they're saying, "Well, you know what? We thought about it, and it's just not practical to seek a change in the law." What is the timeline there? When are we going to find out, if the law will pass, or not?
Well, first of all, good point. I mean, we still need to distinguish between transport grids and distribution grids. I think for the distribution grids, we do not have a discussion within Germany. We'll not go back and tie the electrical lines in front of our houses. That will undoubtedly be underground systems. If we look at also the volume which goes into the distribution grids, it's just still sheer project volume in underground cable for the distribution grid. Of course, cost is an issue for transport power lines. It is estimated that an underground system is 5x-8x more expensive than an above ground power line. That, of course, also triggers politicians to look into it.
In the end, I think before that bill really passes, it has to pass the Bundestag and then also the Bundesrat. If you look at the Bundesrat, Schleswig-Holstein, so all the northern federal countries have already strongly opposed to changing this law. Even if it passes the Bundestag, it is not 100% sure that it will also pass the Bundesrat. I'm not sure about the political timeline to pass that law. Probably we'll see more before summer. In the end, it is then to each individual TSO to decide what technical system is the best and if it gets approved by the grid development plan, so by the Bundesnetzagentur.
Since all or most of the next projects have already been approved by Bundesnetzagentur and are also confirmed in the grid development plan, we do think even if the law changes, no change for upcoming projects.
What is your best guess as to the political motivation behind it?
Re- reducing-
clearly nothing to do with grid security or security.
reducing costs for the energy consumers.
Sorry?
Reducing costs for the energy consumers because they have to pay for the grid extensions.
Okay. If infrastructure just doesn't get built, we can all celebrate savings.
Yeah.
We don't worry about the consequences. Is that right?
Yeah.
Okay. Makes sense. Thank you.
Thank you, Lyuda, for your questions. We are moving on to the questions in our chat box. Was the strong order intake in Q1 more of a one-off effect, or do you currently see a general acceleration and contracting activity?
Well, as Tim already elaborated, we didn't have an order intake of major large scale projects. It was a lot of district heating, small and medium-sized projects, not only from district heating, but in the end from all markets. I think it does show a tendency that both from in distribution and also in transport grids, there are a lot of activities, not only in major projects, but also in smaller to medium-sized project that need to be executed. I think in the end it does show the huge demand which is really driven by the energy transition.
Thank you. The last question for now, ladies and gentlemen, let me kindly remind you that this is your place to post your questions. There is much excitement in the U.S. for Enhanced Geothermal Systems, EGS. Over time, can your drilling technology and value add value to this industry?
In the end, our drilling technology is horizontal directional drilling. If you are looking for geothermal power also in Germany, you need to execute deep drillings. If you look at the different landscapes here in Germany, the bores need to be at least in the northern Germany, between 5,000 meters and 6,000 meters deep to get the real warm water out of the ground and use it for heating purposes.
These very deep drillings are very cost-intensive, and that's. We've looked a couple of years, I think 10 years or 15 years ago we looked into these projects, but the risks of finding the right horizon where you can extract heat from the ground has a very high risk, and the investments are just huge. At the moment, I do think our horizontal directional drilling technology will be core for boring infrastructure in a no dig way, so in a non-open cut way, and that is the main focus of our technology. I think this technology will not be used for geothermal power plants.
Thank you very much. This is it for now. With no further questions, we have come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you very much for your interest in Friedrich Vorwerk Group SE. A big thank you also to you, Torben and Tim, for your presentation and your time. Should you have any further questions later on, please feel free to contact investor relations. With that, I wish you all a successful day around the world. Handing back over to Torben for some final remarks.
Thank you very much for listening today. To be honest, I'm very happy with the Q1 we had so far. I think we haven't had a stronger Q1 so far in company's history as, at least as I can recall it. Hopefully this year goes on like this and, if weather is with us, I think we'll come out with a very strong year 2026 and, I'm really delighted to join this with you. Have a good week.