BAUER AG presents new medium-term goals during Capital Market Day

Schrobenhausen, Germany – BAUER AG held its Capital Market Day for analysts and institutional investors today. In multiple presentations, the team from the Management Board reported on the driving forces behind business, the quarterly figures that were also published today, digitalization and innovations in the BAUER Group as well as the potential of the Resources segment. New medium-term goals for the Group were also presented.

The CEO of BAUER AG, Michael Stomberg, started off the day reporting on the major trends of infrastructure, urbanization, climate change and environmental awareness. “These major trends will drive our business in the long term and are therefore the focus of our strategic orientation. We already benefit from these major trends today, and would like to harness the developing opportunities even more intensively to strengthen our global competitive position and profitability,” says Michael Stomberg.

Michael Stomberg also reported that the Management Board of BAUER AG will continue to comprise three members for the medium term. At the end of the year, CFO Hartmut Beutler is retiring after more than 37 years with Bauer. His successor as CFO will be Peter Hingott, who has been a member of the Management Board since 2016 and whose responsibilities currently include the accounting function. Peter Hingott is also currently principally responsible for the execution of the capital increase.

In the next presentation, CFO Hartmut Beutler reported on the significant key figures from the first quarter of 2021, which remained in line with the expectations for the year as a whole. Details concerning the business performance in the first three months of 2021 were also published today in a separate press release.

Florian Bauer, whose responsibilities on the Management Board of BAUER AG include the topics of digitalization and development coordination, reported on the ongoing innovations within the Group. These include digital solutions that make it possible to network the planning models and visualizations from construction with data from the machines. In the Equipment segment, the electrification of machines is one of the central components of Bauer’s development road map.

After successful restructuring, the Resources segment is focused on innovative products and services in the areas of drilling services and water wells, environmental services, constructed wetlands, mining and rehabilitation. Dr. Roman Breuer, Managing Director of BAUER Resources GmbH, reported on the strategic realignment and the numerous potentials resulting from increasing environmental awareness and the scarcity of water as well as resources.

To conclude the series of presentations, Management Board member Peter Hingott presented the Group’s new and updated medium-term goals. “Our focus is not primarily on growth, but rather on sustainably improving our profitability. We want to use the capital increase that lies ahead of us to reinforce our balance sheet for the future, to gain greater independence from financing partners and to further reduce our interest expenses and debt,” says Peter Hingott.

In the medium term, the target is an average annual growth in total Group revenues of between 3 and 5% (previously: yearly growth of 3 to 8%). In the medium term, the target ranges for the EBIT margin of the Group (7 to 9%), the Construction segment (4 to 6%), the Equipment segment (10 to 12%) and the Resources segment (6 to 8%) – with regard to sales revenue – remain the same as before, but they will be given greater focus than has been possible in the last few years. Furthermore, the equity ratio, supported by the capital increase and sustainable positive earnings, should be increased to greater than 30% (December 31, 2020: 23.7%), the liabilities to banks should be reduced to under EUR 300 million, and a ratio of net debt to EBITDA of less than 2.5 should be achieved. In addition, 25 to 30% of the Groups’ earnings after taxes should distributed to the shareholders as was previously the case.

The presentations for Capital Market Day can be found on the company’s website at www.bauer.de in the Investor Relations area.