EQS-News: Amadeus Fire Group publishes key financial figures for Q1/2025 and confirms the outlook for the financial year 2025 

Amadeus Fire Group publishes key financial figures for Q1/2025 and confirms the outlook for the financial year 2025    

Frankfurt/Main, 6^thMay 2025

The Amadeus Fire Group (ISIN: DE0005093108, Prime Standard, SDAX) begins the year 2025 as expected at a weak level with significantly lower results. This is due to a challenging market environment and the high level of uncertainty among market participants in Germany. As already mentioned in the Annual Report, no signs of business recovery were observed in January and February compared to the end of 2024. The most recent positive signs were a slight improvement in the performance of the Amadeus Fire business in March, while the business climate index also recovered. This is in contrast to increasing pressure on global and national growth forecasts and geopolitical uncertainties. Furthermore, whether the new coalition government in Germany will be able to provide impetus once it takes office remains to be seen. Overall, the Management Board confirms the forecast of achieving an operating EBITA of around € 40 million in 2025.

The German economy starts 2025 under difficult conditions. Weak domestic demand, geo-political uncertainties and a decline in incoming orders are burdening the economy. While industrial production increased by 2.6 percent in January, the service sector and the labour market were unable to provide any positive impetus. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently revised the growth forecast for Germany significantly downwards and expects no economic growth for 2025. The IMF expects moderate growth of 0.9 percent only in 2026.

The negative trend in the personnel services market continued. The number of employees covered by social insurance in the temporary staffing sector fell by 12 percent in January 2025. The number of new positions is stagnating at a low level. This has resulted in a declining success rate in the conversion of enquiries into placements in both temporary staffing and permanent placement.

The ifo Business Climate Index rose by 1.6 points to 86.9 points in April 2025 compared to February 2025, providing a glimmer of hope. Both situation assessments and business expectations have improved. This may indicate a possible recovery in the German economy, but the situation remains uncertain.

In contrast, the market volume of publicly funded training is increasing, ensuring that the Amadeus Fire Group's proactive investments in internal IT infrastructure and the use of AI-supported CRM systems to increase the efficiency of the core business are forward-looking. The development of innovative training programmes relating to AI skills and future skills also addresses the attractive market demand in all segments.

The Amadeus Fire Group generated revenue of € 98.2 million in the first quarter of 2025, in line with market expectations, but 14.5% below the previous year's figure of € 114.8 million. The operating gross profit margin* of 52.0 percent is only slightly below the previous year's figure of 54.6 percent, but also results in a significantly lower operating gross profit* of € 51.1 million (previous year: € 62.7 million), a decrease of 18.6 percent.

Lower operating gross profits* in both the Personnel Services and Training segment as well as forward-looking investments in the digital transformation of the Amadeus Fire Group led to a disproportionate decline in operating EBITA* of around 70 percent. The operating EBITA* achieved in the first quarter of 2025 amounted to € 4.3 million (previous year: € 14.4 million).

After three months of the financial year 2025, the Amadeus Fire Group generated a profit after taxes of € 1.6 million (Q1/2024: € 9.6 million). Net income attributable to the shareholders of Amadeus Fire AG for Q1/2025 amounted to € 1.0 million (Q1/2024: € 9.1 million), resulting in undiluted earnings per share of € 0.18 after € 1.67 in the same quarter of the previous year.

At € 156.0 million as at 31 March 2025, the Group's equity was slightly above the level of 31 December 2024 of € 155.0 million. This resulted in a slightly lower equity ratio of 46.5 percent (31 December 2024: 46.9 percent) due to the approximately 1.6 percent increase in total assets compared to the end of 2024.

In the long term, the Amadeus Fire Group will remain on a profitable growth path, focussing on organic growth in both business segments. Especially in the Training segment, the Company is benefiting from digitalisation and new, more flexible learning formats. The aim is to build and establish an own education ecosystem. At the same time, targeted investments in inorganic growth through acquisitions in the Training segment are being examined.

The Amadeus Fire Group is very well positioned in view of the ongoing shortage of skilled workers, the advancing demographic change and the high demand for professional qualifications in a dynamically changing labour market. The Management Board confirms the forecast for the current financial year 2025 with revenue in the range of € 387 to 417 million and operating EBITA* in the range of € 36 to 44 million, despite the once again challenging conditions in the current financial year.   

Personnel Services segment

As expected and forecasted, the Personnel Services segment did not match the significantly stronger previous year's quarter in the first three months of 2025. The segment's performance was noticeably characterised by the ongoing recessionary mood and the associated uncertainty among candidates and companies. While the Interim and Project Management service, whose revenue development depends primarily on company-specific projects and less on the general economic situation, remained stable compared to the previous year, the Temporary Staffing and Permanent Placement services each recorded a decline in revenue of more than 20 percent in the first quarter compared to the same quarter of the previous year, when the market situation was still significantly better. The decline was particularly marked in January and February. Both months saw weak business levels comparable to the fourth quarter of 2024. There were signs of a slight stabilisation in March.

Segment revenue of € 57.9 million in the first quarter of 2025 (Q1/2024: € 71.8 million) was down by -19.4 percent on the previous year's figure. The operating gross profit generated by the segment fell by -23.0 percent to € 27.1 million (Q1/2024: € 35.1 million). The segment's operating gross profit margin fell accordingly to 46.8 percent (Q1/2024: 48.9 percent).

The sales organisation is burdened by the ongoing negative market situation. In order to be able to operate as effectively as possible in the current market, the performance parametres of the individual teams are being closely monitored and vacancies resulting from fluctuation are not generally being filled. Compared to the previous year, the number of employees in the sales organisation has been continuously reduced. Falling personnel expenses and intensive expense management contrast with a further slight increase in expenses for the evolution of the IT environment and applications.

At € 2.7 million, operating segment EBITA was finally significantly below the previous year (€ 7.9 million) but in line with expectations, and resulted in an operating EBITA margin of 4.7 percent (Q1/2024: 11.0 percent).

The market opportunities for the Personnel Services segment can still be considered positive in the medium term. A tight labour market for specialists and managers supports the Amadeus Fire Group's business model. However, companies are currently noticeably more reluctant to fill new or vacant positions and candidates' willingness to change jobs can still be considered inhibited. The costs of sales, administration and marketing should develop largely in line with business performance in the financial year 2025 and the number of employees is expected to be lower than in the previous year.

The Personnel Services segment expects sales of € 219 million to € 239 million and operating EBITA of € 20 million to € 26 million in the financial year 2025. Based on these expectations, the average operating EBITA margin would be around ten percent.

Training segment

In the first quarter of 2025, the revenue trend for publicly funded training suffered due to the ongoing restrictions on visibility on the Federal Employment Agency's ‘MeinNOW’ information platform, despite a fundamentally positive market environment. Following the abrupt end of the German ‘traffic light’ coalition, we once again observed a reluctance to approve training vouchers before a federal election, which was more pronounced in this case due to the uncertainty initially arising. As expected, the situation resolved after the election.

The training and seminar business with private customers showed robust growth in the first three months of 2025. The various forms of instruction ensure access to broad customer groups while maintaining attractive margin structures. Training revenue with corporate customers was below the previous year's level in the first quarter of 2025.

Overall, segment revenue fell by -6.5 percent to € 40.4 million compared to the very successful first quarter of the previous year (Q1/2024: € 43.2 million), resulting in an operating EBITA* margin of 3.9 percent (Q1/2024: 15.1 percent).

At € 1.6 million, operating EBITA* in the Training segment was 75.9 percent below the previous year's figure of € 6.5 million. Due to the lower capacity utilisation of the network of locations, the costs for qualified freelance staff in particular rose at an above-average rate. In addition, there were costs and investments for the modernisation and further development of the IT environment, which enable advancing digitalisation and new forms of learning.

The continuously growing Training segment expects a slight further growth in publicly funded training (B2G). The expansion of marketing and sales activities as well as the consistent expansion of the range of courses and seminars offered at economically strong locations with own training facilities, multimedia and digital training concepts are expected to gain further market share. The areas of corporate customers (B2B) and self-paying private customers (B2C) expect revenue to remain constant or increase slightly.

The Training segment expects a slight increase in revenue to between € 168 million and € 178 million and an operating EBITA* of between € 16 million and € 18 million in the financial year 2025. This would result in an average operating EBITA* margin of around ten percent. The forecasted growth for the Training segment is based purely on organic growth and does not include potential acquisitions.

 

* Explanations of the alternative performance indicators used can be found in the 2024 Annual Report:
https://group.amadeus-fire.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Geschaeftsbericht-2024_EN-1.pdf

You receive the dial-in details for the explanatory conference call on 7 May 2025 at 08:30 a.m. CEST by separate invitation.

The full interim statement is published on our website at
https://group.amadeus-fire.de/en/investor-relations/financial-reports/.

 

Contact:
Jörg Peters
Head of Investor Relations
Tel.: +49 69 96 87 61 80
eMail: jpeters@amadeus-fire.de