Newsletter Q1 2025
Dear shareholders,
ladies and gentlemen,
The new year is just 16 days old and therefore young enough to take a look back. 2024 was a successful and active year for Blue Cap. Profitability in the portfolio increased significantly compared to the previous year. And with the sales of nokra and Neschen in September and October, we achieved two very good exits. As a result of these successful sales of investments, our shareholders can expect a special dividend in line with our dividend policy. As usual, we will announce our dividend proposal when we publish our annual report at the end of April.
In 2024, we also worked continuously on the further development of the other portfolio companies, which would not have been possible without a dedicated team - both in the holding company and in our portfolio companies. We are therefore dedicating this newsletter to the topic of employees. In the Blue Cap Insights category, one of our youngest talents has his say and talks about his everyday life with us. In the Portfolio Deep Dive, you can find out what H+E does to attract and retain its young talent.
Let us now take a look at the year ahead: our focus is clearly on the acquisition side. Following the two realized sales, Blue Cap has significant financial resources for portfolio acquisitions. We have increased our visibility in the environment relevant to us and our team has examined numerous interesting opportunities in recent months. In our view, the market conditions for acquisitions have improved significantly and we are very confident that we will be able to strengthen the Blue Cap portfolio with good new investments in 2025.
We would be delighted if you would continue to accompany us in 2025 and wish you an interesting read! Please contact us if you have any questions or suggestions at ir@blue-cap.de.
Best regards,
Your Blue Cap Team
Blue Cap Insights
The development and training of young talents is also a key issue at Blue Cap. In this Blue Cap Insights article, we would like to introduce Benjamin Bracq. Benjamin joined Blue Cap as an intern and is now an integral part of our M&A team as an analyst. In this interview, he talks about his career start and what he particularly likes about our group of companies.
Portfolio News
_ HY-LINE is creating opportunities to develop even more system solutions in-house at its development site in Durchhausen. Customers can carry out their tests there in HY-LINE's own EMC laboratory and receive support with design and construction as well as certifications.
_ Transline has been officially certified according to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 for information security since December - a decisive advantage for customers, especially in the healthcare industry, where confidentiality, data integrity, high availability, reduced cyber risks and compliance with standards are particularly important.
_ Planatol continues to expand its international sales activities. With a new presence in the UK, the Planatol sales team is growing in order to invest in local support and further strengthen proximity to customers there. In addition, the Hunkeler Innovation Days 2025, the industry event for continuous and sheet-fed printing technology, in Lucerne at the end of February will put the spotlight on the adhesive manufacturer's innovative solutions for an international audience.
_ Inheco will be exhibiting at SLAS 2025 in San Diego, as it does every year, and will be presenting three new products at this leading trade fair for laboratory automation: The new liquid-cooled Thermoshake AC LC and the also liquid-cooled CPAC, as well as the new Teleshake (95) AC USB.
Portfolio Deep Dive
In times of increasing skilled labor shortages, recruiting young talent is becoming increasingly crucial for companies. Learn how H+E approached this challenge over the past year in our Portfolio Deep Dive.
Capital market and share
_ 1 On September 30, we announce the sale of nokra.
_ 2 With the sale of Neschen, we complete another successful exit. At the same time, we are raising our EBITDA forecast for the year as a whole. Warburg Research and SMC Research accompany this announcement with an increase in their price targets.
_ 3 On October 23, we publish our Q3 figures, which are characterized by a noticeable increase in the EBITDA margin.
_ 4 Nebenwerte Journal publishes an article on Blue Cap AG.
Market capitalization (31.12.2024): € 72.2 mn
1-year performance (31.12.2024): -10%
Sources: Stock Exchange Frankfurt (XETRA)
Upcoming dates *)
March 2025: Release of the preliminary financial figures for FY 2024
April 2025: Publication of the 2024 Annual Report
June 27, 2025: 2025 Annual General Meeting, virtual
*) expected
