Bechtle : Quarterly Statement 1.2021

1 S T Q U A R T E R 2 0 21

QUARTERLY STATEMENT

AS OF 31 MARCH 2021

Your strong IT partner. Today and tomorrow.

KEY FIGURES OF THE BECHTLE GROUP AT A GLANCE

			01.01-		01.01-			Change
			31.03.2021		31.03.2020			in %
Revenue	€k	1,510,202	1,355,674	11.4
IT System House & Managed Services	€k	971,303	859,116	13.1
IT E-Commerce	€k	538,899	496,558	8.5
EBITDA	€k	86,951	76,185	14.1
IT System House & Managed Services	€k	59,250	49,485	19.7
IT E-Commerce	€k	27,701	26,700	3.7
EBIT	€k	62,134	52,627	18.1
IT System House & Managed Services	€k	41,066	32,489	26.4
IT E-Commerce	€k	21,068	20,138	4.6
EBIT margin	%		4.1	3.9
IT System House & Managed Services	%		4.2	3.8
IT E-Commerce	%		3.9	4.1
EBT	€k	60,988	51,055	19.5
EBT margin	%		4.0	3.8
Earnings after taxes	€k	43,624	36,468	19.6
Earnings per share	€	1.04	0.87	19.6
Return on equity1	%		16.3	15.4³
Cash flow from operating activities	€k	20,573	23,456³			−12.3
Number of employees (as of 31.03)			12,306	11,768	4.6
IT System House & Managed Services			9,768	9,221	5.9
IT E-Commerce			2,538	2,547			−0.4
			31.03.2021					Change
			31.12.2020			in %
Cash and cash equivalents2	€k	404,757	403,173	0.4
Working Capital	€k	644,295	652,674			−1.3
Equity ratio	%		44.8	43.2

1 Annualised

2 Incl. time deposits and securities

3 Prior year adjusted

REVIEW BY QUARTER 2021

Revenue	€k
EBITDA	€k
EBIT	€k
EBT	€k
EBT margin	%
Earnings after taxes	€k

1st Quarter		2nd Quarter		3rd Quarter		4th Quarter	2021 FY
01.01- 31.03		01.04- 30.06		01.07- 30.09		01.10- 31.12	01.01- 31.03
1,510,202								1,510,202
86,951								86,951
62,134								62,134
60,988								60,988
4.0								4.0
43,624								43,624

3

EARNINGS POSITION

In the first three months of 2021, the Bechtle Group achieved impressive year-on-year growth despite the persistently difficult framework conditions.

As of 31 March, the order backlog amounted to €1,088 million (prior year: €908 million). Of this amount,

the IT System House & Managed Services segment accounted for €829 million (prior year: €725 million),

and the IT E-Commerce segment for €259 million (prior year: €183 million).

Year on year, the revenue in the period from January to March went up by 11.4 per cent to €1,510.2 million­.

At 10.4 per cent, Bechtle's organic growth accounted for the major part of the growth.

GROUP REVENUE										€m
											1,782.2
							1,597.4
												1,510.2
			1,353.4					1,355.7	1,310.5	1,370.9
			1,239.9	1,260.8	1,276.3
		1,049.6
955.4	965.0
Q1/18	Q2/18	Q3/18	Q4/18	Q1/19	Q2/19	Q3/19	Q4/19	Q1/20	Q2/20	Q3/20	Q4/20	Q1/21

The growth achieved by the domestic companies (12.4 per cent) was a bit stronger than the growth achieved abroad (9.8 per cent). The domestic trading companies reported particularly high growth of 19.8 per cent. The system houses abroad recorded the highest growth of 22.4 per cent.

Bechtle AG Quarterly Statement as of 31 March 2021

4

REVENUE BY SEGMENTS												€m
0	250	500	750	1,000	1,250	1,500	1,750	2,000	Total
Q1/2020				859.1			496.6					1,355.7
													1,510.2
Q1/2021						971.3		538.9
													(+ 11.4 %)
	IT System House & Managed Services		IT E-Commerce

The IT E-Commerce segment increased its revenue by 8.5 per cent. At 13.1 per cent, the growth in the IT System House & Managed Services segment was even stronger. Organically, the segment grew by 11.4 per cent.

REVENUE - GROUP AND SEGMENTS					€k
		Q1/2021		Q1/2020	Change
Group	1,510,202	1,355,674		+11.4%
Domestic		931,542	828,748		+12.4%
Abroad		578,660		526,926		+9.8%
IT System House & Managed Services	971,303	859,116		+13.1%
IT E-Commerce		538,899		496,558		+8.5%

Gross earnings went up by 6.8 per cent. The gross margin dropped from 15.0 per cent to 14.4 per cent. Especially the material costs increased at an above-average rate. The below-average increase in depreciation and amortisation in cost of sales and the significant decline in other operating expenses were unable to counteract this development.

The expenses in the two functional areas, sales and administration, developed differently. In sales, expenses increased by 10.8 per cent, a rate similar to that of the revenue increase, and the expense ratio thus remained stable at 5.7 per cent. In the field of administration, expenses dropped by 4.5 per cent. The administrative expense ratio thus receded from 5.7 per cent to 4.9 per cent. This was due to the changed allocation of employees to the respective functional areas.

Year on year, EBITDA rose by 14.1 per cent. At 5.8 per cent, the EBITDA margin was higher than in the prior year (5.6 per cent).

Depreciation and amortisation increased by 5.3 per cent. As previously, depreciation of property, plant and equipment accounted for the greatest share of the depreciation and amortisation, rising from €19.9 million to €20.8 million.

Year on year, EBIT increased by 18.1 per cent to €62.1 million. The EBIT margin rose from 3.9 per cent to 4.1 per cent.

Bechtle AG Quarterly Statement as of 31 March 2021

5

EBT AND EBT MARGIN										€m and %
3.7	4.5	4.4	5.0	3.6	4.4	4.5	4.9	3.8	4.4	5.2	5.0	4.0
											89.9
							78.6
			68.2							71.7
									58.1			61.0
					55.7	57.0
								51.1
	43.6	46.1		45.0
35.4
Q1/18	Q2/18	Q3/18	Q4/18	Q1/19	Q2/19	Q3/19	Q4/19	Q1/20	Q2/20	Q3/20	Q4/20	Q1/21

Year on year, the tax rate declined slightly from 28.6 per cent to 28.5 per cent.

Earnings after taxes went up 19.6 per cent to €43.6 million. EPS thus amounted to €1.04.

At segment level, the earnings situation was as follows:

EBIT in the IT System House & Managed Services segment increased 26.4 per cent to €41.1 million. This item was affected by the cost savings due to the coronavirus pandemic and a higher level of ­efficiency in service delivery. As a result, the EBIT margin went up from 3.8 per cent to 4.2 per cent.

In the IT E-Commerce segment, EBIT went up 4.6 per cent to €21.1 million. Due to the different cost structure, the cost savings due to the coronavirus pandemic did not affect this item too much. The EBIT margin declined from 4.1 per cent to 3.9 per cent.

EBIT - GROUP AND SEGMENTS					€k
		Q1/2021		Q1/2020		Change
Group		62,134	52,627	+18.1%
IT System House & Managed Services		41,066		32,489		+26.4%
IT E-Commerce		21,068		20,138		+4.6%

Bechtle AG Quarterly Statement as of 31 March 2021