Brockhaus Capital Management AG: Preliminary revenue for 2020 only 5% below record year 2019 despite coronavirus effects; strong acquisition pipeline for H1 2021
Brockhaus Capital Management AG, a long-term oriented technology group focused on acquiring high-margin and high-growth technology champions within the German Mittelstand, announced last week its preliminary revenue for fiscal year 2020 and informs about expiry of the lock-up for pre-listing shareholders.
- Preliminary figures for 2020 underpin successful management of coronavirus effects; revenue only around 5% lower than record year 2019
- Strong acquisition pipeline of high-margin and high-growth technology leaders for first half of 2021
- Purchase of shares for investors eased due to potentially higher liquidity following end of restrictions on sale (“lock-up”)
The successful closing of financial year 2020 confirms BCM’s focus on acquiring high-margin and high-growth technology leaders within the German Mittelstand. Looking at the preliminary figures Group revenue in 2020, which was impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, is only around 5% lower than in the previous pro-forma year and therefore matched the Company’s corrected guidance. “This is an outstanding achievement in this year and confirms us with regard to the relevance of the technologies of our subsidiaries Palas and IHSE,” says Marco Brockhaus, CEO of BCM. Palas offers one of the leading technologies for high-precision measurement and characterization of smallest particles in air — such as fine dust and nanoparticles — which is since early 2020 also being used for quality testing of respiratory masks for the protection against COVID-19. The technology of IHSE enables a highly secure, low latency and loss-free transmission of data in “mission critical” applications such as, for example, control rooms for police and fire departments, air traffic control or also hospitals.
In terms of acquisitions, BCM is also anticipating a positive first half of 2021 with a strong transaction pipeline and a series of potentially interesting takeover targets, to be financed with the proceeds of the listing. Marco Brockhaus: “The current environment for acquisitions is very challenging. There are a lot of attractive companies in the pipeline and we are confident that we will soon find a suitable candidate for our shareholders. However, many options fail to meet our high requirements in a careful due diligence process. Nevertheless, once a company finds its new safe haven with us, we expect strong further growth.”
As part of the listing completed in July 2020, a private placement aimed solely at institutional investors, BCM’s pre-listing shareholders committed to a standard restriction on sale (“lock-up”) regarding their shares in BCM for a period of 180 days. This lock-up period will end regularly on Sunday, January 10, 2021, with the lock-up effectively expiring on Monday, January 11, 2021. Pre-listing shareholders will then be able to dispose of their BCM shares freely for the first time. As a result, also retail investors will benefit from the potentially increased free-float providing a better and more liquid environment for share purchases.
BCM’s management board and the management teams of its two subsidiaries Palas and IHSE (which currently hold around 28% of outstanding shares) will remain subject to a lock-up until July 2022 as they agreed to a much longer lock-up period of 720 days at the time of the listing. This means that the majority of shares acquired before listing are still covered by a lock-up.
“Our shares are now becoming more liquid and accessible to investors of all kinds,” says Marco Brockhaus. “Investing in the innovative and sustainable German technology Mittelstand will therefore be even easier than before.”
The audited Annual Report for 2020 will be published on April 15, 2021.
