SBF AG Reports Strong First Half Performance Despite Challenging Manufacturing Environment
SBF AG demonstrated resilience in a difficult market by significantly improving profitability through restructuring measures while maintaining confidence in achieving its full-year targets despite some revenue pressures.
SBF AG reported robust operational performance for the first half of 2025, navigating a challenging manufacturing environment while significantly improving profitability through strategic restructuring measures. The publicly traded company specializing in innovative solutions for rolling stock, lighting, electromechanics, and sensor technology maintained its position despite market headwinds affecting the broader manufacturing sector.
Group revenue reached EUR 21.9 million, slightly below the EUR 22.9 million recorded in the same period last year. This modest decline primarily resulted from short-term delays in customer call-off orders that are expected to continue affecting performance in the second half of the year. However, the company achieved a substantial improvement in EBITDA, which rose to EUR 0.5 million compared to just EUR 0.1 million in the first half of 2024. When adjusted for a precautionary entry related to a customer insolvency, EBITDA would have reached EUR 0.9 million, demonstrating the effectiveness of the company's restructuring initiatives.
Robert Stöcklinger, member of the Management Board of SBF AG, explained the company's performance in the context of market conditions. "We are operating in an extremely challenging market environment. Consumer reluctance, supply chain problems, and structural adjustments are shaping the business. In this demanding phase, we have once again demonstrated our resilience," he stated. Stöcklinger emphasized that the company remains on track to achieve its annual targets and sees new opportunities emerging from extensive investments in infrastructure, mobility, and defense sectors.
The Rolling Stock segment showed particularly strong performance, generating sales of EUR 11 million in the first half of the year, representing a 19% increase compared to the EUR 9 million recorded in the same period last year. Despite expectations of significant short-term postponements by customers affecting the second half, the company maintains an exceptionally high order backlog in this segment. The contractually secured project durations ensure good production capacity utilization in the coming months and years, positioning the company favorably in the rail market.
In contrast, the Public and Industrial Lighting segment underperformed initial expectations with revenue of EUR 4.5 million compared to EUR 6 million in the first half of 2024. The weaker performance reflects ongoing challenges from sluggish order intake and Germany's industrial economic conditions. However, the company has implemented extensive measures to strengthen this business, including relocating production to the Budweis site, which is now fully operational with significantly lower rental and personnel costs. Product certifications obtained for projects with Deutsche Bahn and local authorities should help strengthen future order entry.
The newly established Sensor Technology and Electromechanics segment delivered solid performance, generating EUR 7 million in revenue, matching the previous year's results. Earnings improvement measures are already showing positive effects, and based on the promising order backlog, the company expects good results by year-end. This segment is positioned to play a central role in the Group's growth strategy, with increasing synergy effects expected to strengthen the entire Group's earnings power over the long term.
The Management Board confirmed its outlook for the full 2025 fiscal year, expecting revenue between EUR 43.0 and 46.0 million compared to EUR 47.2 million in the previous year. Consolidated EBITDA is projected to range between EUR 1.5 and 2.5 million, a significant improvement over the EUR 0.6 million recorded in 2024. The company targets continued profitability improvements starting from 2025 onward. The complete 2025 half-year report is available on the company's website at https://www.sbf-ag.com/investor-relations/finanzpublikationen.