The IT service provider Bechtle sees a reconciliation of demand after a longer doldrum.
The business volume attracted significantly in the second quarter, and sales could also increase. Compared to the weak of the year, the operational profit was also more gratifying. Impulse also came from abroad. But the prospects for public customers also improve in Germany, and there should be a stronger increase in the house in the second half of the year. The stock rose strongly on Friday after a strong previous day.
The tone of Bechtle management has become much more optimistic, wrote analyst Martin Comtesse from the US investment bank Jefferies-especially compared to the competitor Cancom. For the first time, there was talk of a recovery again in connection with the public sector in Germany. With the growth of the business volume and the improvement of margins compared to the previous quarter, Bechtle is at a turning point, according to the specialist. According to Baader-Bank expert Knut Woller, profitability in the quarter was unexpectedly good.
The business volume rose by 5.1 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, as the group announced on Friday in Neckarsulm. The business in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and Great Britain still developed well. With the important public customers in Germany, demand is slowly attracting again. The positive trend in demand continued in July.
“Although we are still removed from the growth values, which we set ourselves and trust ourselves, we are back on the growth path with the development in the second quarter,” said CEO Thomas Olemotz according to the announcement. With public customers in Germany, Bechtle was able to expand the business volume by five percent in the second quarter. The growth should continue to grow here, especially from late summer.
The mood in the middle class is still bad. Hardly any growth impulses were assumed in Germany, said Olemotz in a conference call. The uncertainties regarding further economic development slowed down, even if German medium -sized companies now led the first discussions with the group for projects that were on hold in the past twelve months. The situation also remains difficult in France.
In the three months of April to June, sales climbed 0.8 percent to 1.49 billion euros as expected. In contrast to the business volume, which is a good distance above the turnover, Bechtle cannot creditor sales of software with the full sales price as proceeds.
The input tax gain the result of a fifth by a one -up effect in the previous year to 66.8 million euros, but it was somewhat better than expected from experts. The situation was improved compared to the previous quarter, it said from the group. The bottom line was that the net profit also decreased by a fifth to 47.7 million euros.
Olemotz confirmed the annual forecast. In 2025, the overall business volume should grow slightly, sales are expected to be a little weaker because the software business is going well. Olemotz sees the input tax result in a range from minus to plus five percent at the previous year’s value of 345 million euros. He wants to close the gap in the result from the first half of the year: “This is ambitious, but possible.”
Olemotz itself will leave the company at the end of next year. He decided not to strive for an extension of his contract, said the manager, who will be 64 in the coming year. He has been with Bechtle for many years now. “At some point it is time to make room for the following generation,” he added. Olemotz has been on the group’s board since 2007.
Additional survey: Bechtle numbers are very well received
The Bechtle share rose by 11.01 percent to 40.94 euros by Xetra until the end of the trade.
Signs of long-awaited business survey gave the IT service providers Bechtle’s shares on Friday. The papers last cost more in March.
Bechtle boss Thomas Olemotz sees a reconciliation of demand after a longer doldrum. “We are still removed from the growth values that we set ourselves and trust ourselves, but we are back on the growth path with the development in the second quarter,” he said at the closing of the week in the course of the publication of current business.
In the second quarter, most growth impulses came from the Benelux room and Great Britain, as before, but also in Germany the important demand from public customers. The latter in particular is likely to be well received by investors, because Bechtle is seen as a profiteer of the planned billion -dollar government investments in infrastructure and modernization.
This had driven a course recovery from Bechtle early in the year – as the corresponding expenditure project. Previously, the course had fallen up to 29 euros in January and thus a low since the beginning of Corona pandemic in spring 2020. In the past few months, however, the recovery has regularly expired in the area of just over 40 euros, here and there there were doubts as to when the group’s business would now attract again.
Until the record high of almost 70 euros from November 2021, however, the current recovery is still missing a good distance. At that time, many companies and the state also put plenty of money in laptops and other IT equipment, as many employees worked in the home office during the corona pandemic. The boom was not permanent.
Analyst Andreas Wolf von Warburg Research raised the recreation signals that are visible in the current quarterly figures. The economic environment remains difficult, especially in Germany and France, but in particular the growth of business with the public sector in Germany is positive.
Christopher Tong from Swiss Bank from Swiss Bank from Swiss Bank UBS wrote that Bechtle commented positively on the development of demand after competitors had recently complained about IT.
For example, IT service provider Cancom had only become more careful a week ago. The company lowered the goals for 2025 after a disappointing first half of the year. The Cancom share price then collapsed and also pulled the Bechtle shares down.
While Bechtle has now more than clamped the course dial, the shares of Cancom have so far only show an attempt at stabilization despite a course plan of around three percent.
/Men/MIS
Neckarsulm (dpa-Afx)