EQS-News: q.beyond increases EBITDA by 84% to € 10.5 million and exceeds expectations

q.beyond increases EBITDA by 84% to € 10.5 million and exceeds expectations

• Preliminary results for 2024: revenues rise to € 192.6 million, free cash flow improves to € 3.2 million
• 2025 forecast: EBITDA of € 12 million to € 15 million and positive consolidated net income planned
• “2025plus Strategy” to boost earnings strength and create growth opportunities

Cologne, 5 March 2025. In what was a very challenging economic climate, q.beyond managed to improve its earnings strength in 2024 even more significantly than expected. Based on preliminary calculations EBITDA grew by 84% to € 10.5 million in the past financial year. The company most recently expected EBITDA to rise by significantly more than 40% to between € 8 million and € 10 million, with revenues closer to € 192 million than € 198 million and positive free cash flow. Based on preliminary calculations, revenues grew by € 3.3 million to € 192.6 million in 2024, while free cash flow rose by € 1.5 million to € 3.2 million.

Thies Rixen, q.beyond’s CEO, posted a positive verdict on the 2024 financial year: “We again met and, in the case of EBITDA, even exceeded our ambitious targets despite Germany’s ongoing recession. That shows how strongly our company is now positioned thanks to the ‘2025 Strategy’.” The focused business model and lean organisational structure had sustainably enhanced the company’s efficiency and resilience, while the two-tier sales structure had boosted the effectiveness of its go-to-market approach.

Significantly higher operating earnings strength in both segments

As a result, all key earnings figures improved in the past financial year. Gross profit rose by 25% to € 34.5 million, with most of this growth attributable to “Managed Services”, the larger of the company’s two segments. Gross profit in this business field, which traditionally has strong margins, grew by a further 20% to € 29.5 million. In the “Consulting” segment, this key figure rose by 76% to € 5.1 million.

Benefiting above all from significantly lower sales and administrative expenses, consolidated net income improved to € -4.0 million, up from € -16.4 million a year earlier. “In line with our plans, consolidated net income is approaching break-even”, added CFO Nora Wolters. This progress resulted from consistent implementation of the 2025 Strategy: “In ‘One q.beyond’, we have managed in just two years to notably simplify our structures and processes and significantly raise the share of our nearshoring and offshoring activities.” At 31 December 2024, employees at the locations in Latvia, Spain, and India already made up 14% of the workforce, up from 3% at the end of 2022.

q.beyond plans to further increase its earnings strength in the current financial year. EBITDA is set to rise to between € 12 million and € 15 million. In addition, the company intends to generate sustainably positive consolidated net income based on revenues of between € 184 million and € 190 million. When comparing revenues with the previous year’s figure, it should be noted that, in liaison with its customers, q.beyond will uphold its focus on profitable products and services in the current year. Based on this approach, the comparable previous year’s revenue figure stands at around € 180 million. This outlook is based on the assumption that Germany’s economy moves on from its recession and achieves growth, however weak, in the current year.

q.beyond aims to double its EBITDA margin to at least 10% in the medium term

For q.beyond, 2025 is a further step on the way to achieving attractive earnings strength, also compared with other sector players. In the medium term, q.beyond aims to double its EBITDA margin from 5% currently to at least 10%. Factors contributing to this growth include stable demand for digitalisation projects among German SMEs, as well as a further rise in the nearshoring and offshoring ratio and growing deployment of AI.

The EBITDA margin of at least 10% is the core target within the further developed 2025plus Strategy. As it heads to becoming the IT service leader, q.beyond intends in particular to strengthen competencies critical to its success, such as AI and security, among its teams at domestic and foreign locations, increasingly internationalise its customer business, and expand its sector expertise by, among other things, making targeted acquisitions. With net liquidity of € 39.1 million and no debts at 31 December 2024, the company is very well financed for this. “We are working on our further development together with our customers and thus strengthening our leading position in the market”, commented q.beyond’s CEO with regard to the main thrust of the strategy.

The increased earnings strength resulting from the 2025plus Strategy creates a good basis for further increasing the company’s value. In 2024, this key figure already rose by 22% to € 90.9 million. According to Thies Rixen, however, share price growth was not the only factor making q.beyond shares an attractive investment: “Thanks to the further development in our strategy, we are laying the foundations needed for our shareholders to participate in the company’s performance also by way of a dividend once again in future.”

Key figures at a glance

Notes:
This Corporate News contains forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and forecasts on the part of the management with regard to future events. Due to risks or erroneous assumptions, actual results may deviate materially from these forward-looking statements. q.beyond will publish its 2024 Annual Report at www.qbeyond.de/en/investor-relations on 31 March 2025.

About q.beyond AG:
q.beyond AG is the key to successful digitalisation. We help our customers find, implement and operate the best digital solutions for their businesses. Our strong team of 1,100 specialists accompanies SMEs reliably as they tackle their digital transformation. Customers benefit here from our all-round expertise in cloud, applications, AI and security. With locations across Germany, as well as in Latvia, Spain, India and the USA, and its own certified data centres, q.beyond is one of Germany’s leading IT service providers.

Contact:
q.beyond AG
Arne Thull
Head of Investor Relations/Mergers & Acquisitions
T +49 221 669-8724
invest@qbeyond.de
www.qbeyond.de