Thank you very much and a very good afternoon, everyone. My name is Torben Teichler.

I'm the CFO of MBB, and I will take you through our Q4 results today. Before we do that, let me, as always, give you a quick recap of what makes MBB special.

MBB offers long-term succession solutions to sustainable Mittelstand companies. The way we do this is quite unique, because we're a family business ourselves.

Our two founders, who founded the business 30 years ago, are still the major shareholders and, operationally, still very much involved. That means that in many ways, we share the same DNA with the businesses that we want to acquire.

Secondly, we're fans of the capital market, and that's why we're here today as a listed company doing a conference call with you, but that's also why three of our subsidiaries are stock-listed: Friedrich Vorwerk, Aumann, and Delignit. Having brought all of these companies to the stock market in order to finance their growth and development is, in my view, a special differentiating factor for us.

Moreover, we have a long-term focus, when we buy, we don't have any intention to sell, but seek to develop and grow our companies, and hence remain the anchor shareholders in all of our businesses. Lastly, we focus on sustainable businesses, and that doesn't mean that we have a particular environmentalist agenda or something like that, but we believe in structural trends like the energy transition or IT security, which simply offer enormous business potential, and we try to develop our companies in that manner.

Today, we're a group of six companies with almost €1.2 billion in revenue and double-digit EBITDA margins. With that, let's move to our 2025 results.

Overall, we really had a fantastic year with record revenue of almost €1.2 billion and thus an increase of almost 10% year on year. Much more importantly, a record adjusted EBITDA of €217 million.

We hence were able to grow our EBITDA by a phenomenal 46% year on year, and increased our EBITDA margin by more than 4.5 percentage points to 18.6%. So 2025 was really an extraordinary year, which was in large part driven by the excellent performance of Friedrich Vorwerk and DTS, but also Aumann and Delignit bolstered these very high profitability levels with impressive margins despite the headwinds they face in their respective industries.

With these results, we significantly overachieved our original guidance from the start of last year of originally €1 to €1.1 billion in revenue and 11 to 14% EBITDA, which we had subsequently increased several times as we gained more clarity throughout the year. Particularly on the earnings side, the year has been a real success, and yeah, went actually much better than we had originally anticipated, in part also due to a very strong Q4 with good margins across most companies.

Q4 itself was broadly flat on revenue, but provided for a very healthy EBITDA margin of almost 24%, which was largely due to very good project execution at Friedrich Vorwerk and Aumann, good cost management across the group, as well as successful project completions at the end of the year. Let's dive into some of the details now on the following slides.

Looking at Friedrich Vorwerk here on the left, the company kept up its exceptional growth momentum, boosting revenues by 25% to €199 million in the quarter, while the EBITDA margin reached an impressive 29%, or €58 million in absolute numbers. Overall conditions in Q4 were very good, from good weather conditions to sound execution, but also solid personnel and capacity ramp-up last year.

Also good claim management played a role. That not only in terms of the larger projects, such as A-Nord or HGÜ BalTrum, which we all know about, but also with view on a whole range of small and mid-sized projects.

Zooming out and looking at where the company came from only a few years back, in 2021 at the time of the IPO for instance, Vorwerk has really moved from a roughly €280 million business to a more than €700 million revenue company, all while maintaining a very high level of EBITDA margin above 20%, and I think that is very impressive and shows you how strong the fundamental drivers of the business and of the industry are, and how well the Friedrich Vorwerk management has done over the last 5 years. Looking ahead on 2026, the order book of €1 billion provides confidence on the outlook, and recent new order wins from the electricity, gas, hydrogen, as well as adjacent opportunities field underscore the positive dynamic of Friedrich Vorwerk, as well as the energy infrastructure market in general.

New projects becoming relevant this year are, for example, in the gas sector, the ETL 182, which is a mid-triple-digit million-euro project, which we already talked about last time and which is relevant for LNG distribution in Germany. Also, for example, SEL3, a triple-digit million-euro project for a 61-kilometer long high-pressure gas pipeline, which is vital to strengthen and connect the south of Germany to the European hydrogen backbone.

On top come other projects, for example, a mid-double-digit million-euro hydrogen gas pressure regulating and metering station, which also forms part of that hydrogen backbone. Also, lastly, for example, in the district heating segment, there are attractive projects such as the district heating project in Hamburg, a double-digit million-euro project, just to name but a few projects which are going to be relevant in 2026.

Looking at 2026, management of Friedrich Vorwerk has issued a sound guidance of €730 to €780 million of revenues with an EBITDA range of €160 to €180 million, which implies an EBITDA margin range of 21 to 25%. Judging by the start into the year, albeit there has been a relatively cold start into the year, I think the company looks well on track for a good year 2026.

Turning to DTS here on the right, the company had a solid finish to the year with a good EBITDA margin of around 18% in Q4. While overall demand remained solid, especially some hardware projects were pushed out into H1 2026.

Profitability thus benefited from some seasonal project completions, as well as slightly higher service and software share. Overall, DTS has gotten off to a solid start into 2026.

Nevertheless, the current shortage in memory chips and the volatile macro environment could have an impact on the overall IT spend in 2026, and weigh on the top-line growth this year. Positively, however, the urgency for IT security investments remains high, and DTS has worked hard to better address upcoming public sector demand, but also invested in expanding its suit of European security software and service alternatives, which I think address an important trend towards more European security solutions.

We expect 2026 to be a good year for DTS overall, but are a bit more cautious than we have been at the end of last year. Turning to Aumann here on the left, revenue came down as expected by 42% to €46 million in Q4.

Thanks to proactive cost measures, good management of projects, as well as the completion of several larger e-mobility orders, the EBITDA margin came in at a very strong 19%, which really speaks for the company and how well they've handled the current environment and executed on recent orders. Nevertheless, the automotive environment has remained challenging, and weighed on Q4 order intake of €35 million, or €148 million in the full year.

Positively, however, orders in the Next Automation segment are up 54% year on year to €57 million in the full year, which underscores the success of Aumann's diversification drive into new end markets and that there's room for Aumann to gain a stronger footprint also in other industries. Thanks to the company's very strong net cash position of €148 million, management is able to continue to expand into these new end markets, not only organically, but also through acquisitions.

I hope we will be able to deliver some results here in the course of this year. For 2026, management expects revenue of €160 million with a still very solid 6 to 8% EBITDA margin, and we hope that rising EV registrations and a hopefully soon more stable macro environment will eventually improve the overall investment sentiment again.

Looking at Delignit, the environment has remained challenging overall, with LCV demand still mixed and OEM customer call-offs still volatile. Nevertheless, Q4 came in strongly at €17 million in revenue, and hence up 12% year on year, while profitability reached an EBITDA margin of 13% thanks to management's proactive cost management, some price adjustments, as well as a positive mix.

Although the LCV and caravan business in particular remain challenging, there are interesting opportunities outside the automotive industry, such as, for example, in the rail floor business where the company has been active for a long time, which the company continues to pursue and capitalize on organically, as well as, for example, through the recent transaction in Italy, which could provide a very interesting hub for growing this business, and generally the business outside the automotive industry. For 2026, management of Delignit expects a slight increase in revenues to €66 million with a very solid 7 to 8% EBITDA margin.

Lastly, Hanke and CT Formpolster continued to be affected by weak consumer demand also in Q4. Positively, however, Hanke finished the installation of its new converting capacity, which looks set to regularly ramp up going forward, and both companies have significantly optimized their cost bases in 2025 in general.

Nonetheless, we expect the macroeconomic backdrop, as well as volatile raw material prices, to be a challenge for both companies as we move into 2026. Looking at 2026 as a whole and taking the varying dynamics in our portfolio into account, we expect broadly stable revenues in the range of €1.1 to €1.2 billion with an adjusted EBITDA margin range of 15 to 18%.

While this guidance takes some of the geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges into account, I think it underscores that 2026 really has the potential to become yet another very good year for MBB. Our balance sheet, at any rate, provides us with ample financial strength as we move into 2026, with a record net cash position of €764 million at group level, of which €374 million are attributable to the holding.

Our companies thus continue to have ample room to maneuver the current environment, to pursue M&A, but also to focus on capital allocation. Speaking of capital allocation, that brings us to our dividend proposal for a dividend of €1.21 a share, which marks the 16th consecutive increase of our base dividend since 2010.

At the same time, our current share buyback program continues to progress according to plan, with shares worth more than €14 million already bought back in 2026, which is, well, obviously just another way of returning capital to our shareholders. Overall, MBB has returned capital of €150 million in share buybacks and €109 million in dividends, including the 2026 proposal, to its shareholders since its IPO in 2006.

Finally, we believe that the MBB share provides significant upside potential, as you can see here from our sum-of-the-parts valuation. As we've tried to illustrate in this speedometer graphic, our net cash at holding level, as well as our shareholdings in our listed portfolio companies Friedrich Vorwerk, Aumann, and Delignit, together account for a value of €202 per MBB share, and thus significantly exceed MBB's current share price of €173.

That does not even reflect the value of our private portfolio, first and foremost DTS, but also Hanke, which together are worth several hundred million euros and basically come on top for free. Some of you might have also noticed that MBB's shareholding in Friedrich Vorwerk was reduced to slightly below 40% since the end of 2025.

As in the previous quarters, this was mainly due to demand from international investors, which we decided to satisfy, especially in January and February, in order to improve liquidity in the stock. Nevertheless, we remain highly committed to our anchor shareholding in Friedrich Vorwerk and believe the company provides significant value potential as we press ahead into 2026.

You will see this reflected in our net cash position at holding level and our Friedrich Vorwerk share in Q1, but the basic message you see here in our sum of the parts remains intact. We have a strong cushion of cash, Friedrich Vorwerk with significant potential in 2026 and beyond, and Aumann, which trades close to net cash, while Delignit, DTS, and Hanke address important structural trends and are basically not valued at all in our sum of the part.

I think this makes the MBB stock quite attractive, and I'm optimistic that our share price has the potential to pick up further with our underlying value. I hope I was able to give you a brief walkthrough our Q4 results and the outlook on 2026, and I'm happy to take your questions now.

As we do invest parts of our net cash also on the capital market largely in order to get an adequate return while we keep the money dry for M&A. At the end of 2025, we still had our gold investments of almost €10 million.

We had bonds of almost €150 million. These are basically corporate bonds as well as sovereign bonds, very spread out, conservative, largely investment grade, which give us a bit more return than you would get at the bank.

Then we have an equity investment portfolio of around €150 million also, which is largely invested in large, blue-chip companies, fairly diversified, where we, yeah, try to invest in a way that is complementary to our private portfolio. That's the setup we had in 2025.

It has not fundamentally changed, and well, it's just part of our general treasury and cash management.

Yes, hi. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Yes, cool. No, yeah, I think you said you reduced your stake in Friedrich Vorwerk in Q4.

I think you reduced it again in Q1. Would you mind saying what is your current stake and also your intentions on Vorwerk?

As I said, we're slightly below 40% at the moment, while most of the reduction occurred in January and February as I've said. As Vorwerk is our major portfolio company.

It has done us a lot of good. We remain very committed anchor shareholder in the company.

We came from 36% after the IPO. We increased our stake when no one wanted to have the stock at around €10, €15 up to more than 50%, and we've now gone slightly below 40%.

I think that's a level we feel very comfortable with, and well, you can imagine, also in the current environment, we're very happy to have that exposure as MBB. That's how it looks like at the moment.

Also, I think that the share price has come down quite a bit, and I think in case you've heard the conference call of Vorwerk earlier in the day, I think there is quite some potential in the company, and we would obviously like to capture that at least with a significant stake, which I think we hold with around 40%.

Okay. The buyback on MBB itself, the program is almost finished, right?

Is still live, or?

It's still live, yes. It officially runs until the 14th of April.

We still have 2 weeks to go, and I hope we will catch some of the current share prices now.

Just on M&A, are there some nice targets for '26 on the MBB side?

We're looking at one or two things. I would say it's nothing close to the finish line, but obviously, also if you look at the cash position we have, we would like to buy something.

I think slowly there are maybe some succession topics coming up, which might become more concrete as we move throughout the year. Obviously, getting that cash to productive use is one of our priorities.

As we always try to be conservative, especially on the stand-alone investments we do. You will not see us deviate from our traditional philosophy, but we definitely are keen on expanding our portfolio again.

Thank you.

As I said, we're looking at targets. We keep our conservative approach, but I think we have a couple of deals in the pipeline which could be interesting.

For the buyback program, well, there's a current buyback program in place, and it's still running 2 weeks. Let's see what we do after that, but at the moment we're buying back shares, and I think given the share price today and what you saw in the sum of the parts, I think we're happy to have it.

Sure. That's, let's say, a two-layered system.

When it comes to the stand-alone targets, we're obviously looking for larger targets, I would say at least €5 million EBITDA, so that they have a relevance in our portfolio. Here we are primarily focused, in terms of geography, on the German-speaking regions in Europe, and fairly opportunistic when it comes to industry.

What we like are succession solutions or management buyout situations where we feel that we can provide a significant value to the business, and maybe even with a management or a former owner, develop this business further. I think we have quite some references how this can work very well.

That's definitely the sweet spot. We're looking at these types of businesses, and try to find targets which match that criteria.

It doesn't really matter which industry they come from. Clearly, we've had good experiences with infrastructure and things which are not too exposed to the structural changes we see in Europe.

Overall, I think there are chances everywhere, and so we keep an open mind in terms of the industries and the companies we look at. When you look at add-on acquisitions, it's a somewhat different topic.

Here, obviously, we already have a platform, a company with a management. We know the industry, we know the market, we have people who can manage such an acquisition.

Here it's more about either expanding the core business, gaining market share, but also expanding the regional footprint or expanding into new end markets, depending on the company. Yeah.

The size of businesses we look at obviously has also a wider range. It can be a larger acquisition, but it can be also very small companies, for example, if they provide an interesting technological addition to the portfolio.

That's how you can look at it: stand-alone and add-on acquisitions on a somewhat different track, but yeah.

I can say we are a very happy 80% shareholder in this business, because it addresses a very strong structural trend. It has grown very nicely over the years, last years also with almost 17% year-on-year growth.

We're keen on accompanying the company and the management, which is also a 20% shareholder, in doing that going forward. I think that the topic of IT security is rapidly evolving, that's for sure.

I think that provides quite some chances for DTS to get a foot into the door. This space used to be very US-dominated, and you do see European alternatives emerging.

I think that's a trend we try to capitalize on, and I think it's going to play out over the next couple of years. We're actively looking for partnerships here.

Also, if you think about the investments from the public sector going into this space, which we actively try to address. I do think that there are opportunities in terms of market and growth.

At the same time, we're obviously also trying to improve our product portfolio with a growing share of own software solutions. You remember we had bought a company, ISL, a couple of years ago, which was the entry ticket into our own software development.

That is progressing quite nicely, and we believe that that's going to increase the quality of the business going forward. Obviously, AI offers optimization potential inside the company, but obviously also is a demand driver because the level of threats increases through AI, and I think also in terms of security solutions themselves, AI is going to help us in, for example, the SOC in our Security Operations Center where we monitor customer networks.

These are things we're working on, and I think it's a dynamic environment which we like to be in, and we like to accompany the management in pursuing all these different strategic angles they have.

Thank you very much for your interest in MBB, and I look forward to seeing and hearing from you soon. Take care.

Bye-bye.