In the first half of 2024/2025, Bertrandt's business performance was characterized by demanding macroeconomic conditions and, in particular, industry-specific challenges in the automotive industry. In addition to trade disputes, geopolitical tensions and the structural weakness of growth in Germany, the product and project shifts observed in the market for research and development in the Group's relevant customer groups since the spring of 2024 continued. As expected, the lower capacity call-offs in the difficult automotive environment led to lower capacity utilization at Bertrandt in Germany.
At EUR 516.403 million, total revenues in the first half of 2024/2025 therefore fell short of the previous year's figure of EUR 626.890 million. This development reflects the market conditions and the countermeasures introduced, such as short-time work and staff reductions. EBIT of EUR -14.379 million (previous year: EUR 21.959 million) was mainly impacted by the year-on-year decline in capacity utilization. As part of this program, the headcount was reduced by 1,345 to 13,181 employees as at 31 March 2025 (previous year: 14,526).
Due to the reduced predictability for the further course of the financial year, the extent and timing of the market recovery and improvement in capacity utilization in the second half of 2024/2025 anticipated in the previous forecast can be estimated less reliably than before. On May 13, 2025, the Executive Board therefore reviewed the forecast for the 2024/2025 financial year and adjusted it to the changed conditions. In summary, the new forecast is as follows: after previously forecasting a moderate decline in total operating performance of up to 10% (previous year: EUR 1,186.884 million), a significant year-on-year decline of more than 10% is now expected. The previous forecast of a significant increase in EBIT (previous year: EUR -98.046 million) is confirmed. However, there is increasing uncertainty regarding the previous expectation of a positive earnings level.
In the current market environment, the "Fit for Future" earnings optimization program initiated in the previous financial year 2023/2024 continued to be systematically implemented. As expected, key measures were completed by the end of the second quarter of 2024/2025. The expected significant savings of around EUR 70 to 90 million per year are already taking effect in part and should be fully effective from fiscal 2025/2026 onwards, with the upper end of the cost savings range likely to be realized from today's perspective. Bertrandt is responding to the prevailing market conditions not only by systematically implementing the earnings optimization program, but also by accelerating the implementation of the strategic initiatives "internationalization" and "diversification of the service portfolio" into areas such as aerospace and defence or the rail sector.
"In view of the announcement by some of our customers that they will be investing more in research and development in the short term, and on the basis of a high volume of inquiries and offers, we expect capacity call-offs to normalize and project awards to gradually increase in the further course of 2025, although there is still uncertainty regarding the timing of implementation", says Markus Ruf, Member of the Management Board Finance.
The most important key figures at a glance:
| IFRS-based figures for the Bertrandt Group | 01/10/2024 until 31/03/2025 | 01/10/2023 until 31/03/2024 |
Total revenues (EUR million) | 516.403 | 626.890 |
EBIT (EUR million) | -14.379 | 21.959 |
Free cash flow (EUR million) | 27.612 | 42.862 |
Equity (in EUR million) | 347.197 | 453.969 |
Equity ratio (in per cent) | 42.6 | 48.7 |
Employees worldwide | 13,181 | 14,526 |
About Bertrandt
Through our development performance, we accelerate technological progress and make a relevant contribution to a sustainable future. We are an independent and international development service provider with many years of automotive expertise. With cross-industry know-how and a holistic understanding of systems and products, we create technological solutions along the entire value chain. We deal with a focus on trend topics such as digitalization, e-mobility and autonomous systems, mainly for the automotive, aerospace and mechanical engineering sectors, and consistently facilitate the development of tailored solutions in these areas. We work on this every day – with around 13,000 employees at over 50 sites worldwide.
