Koenig & Bauer confirms its full-year guidance after a successful third quarter of 2025. With a significant improvement in the quarterly operating result, a significant step towards the operational turnaround was achieved, leading the nine-month period into operating profitability.

“The Q3 figures speak for themselves: We have made a significant step towards the operational turnaround,” Dr. Stephen Kimmich, CEO of Koenig & Bauer AG, says. “This performance, in the context of a macroeconomic environment that continues to deteriorate, underscores the effectiveness of our strategic direction and the strength of our market position.

“In view of the challenging macroeconomic environment and the increased trade and geopolitical uncertainties, we confirm the guidance for the full year 2025, but see a higher probability of achieving our operating EBIT target in the lower half of the range.”

Order intake after nine months, at €856.8 million, was -13.3% below the strong previous year. In Q3-25, it reached €249.9 million (YcOY -27.9%). The decline was in line with expectations and is particularly attributable to the stochastic order intake in Banknote Solutions (BNS) in the previous year and the phasing-out drupa effect.

Adjusted for this BNS special effect, the decline after nine months amounted to only around -3.5% (Q3-25: around -12.5%). At €1,035.7 million, the order backlog as of Sept. 30 remained at a historically high level (previous year: €1.080.0 million). It serves as a solid basis for the final quarter and beyond but is not evenly distributed across all segments.

Group revenue increased by +5.0% to €860.9 million in the first nine months of 2025. Revenue in Q3-25 rose by +8.0% year-on-year to €310.5 million, showing sequential growth since Q1-25.

On the basis of this positive revenue development and thanks to the planned progress of the “Spotlight” program, operating EBIT improved significantly by €37.6 million to €6.4 million.

“The significant increase in our operating profitability in Q3-25 led to a positive free cash flow of €21.8 million, following an outflow of €-8.1 million in the same quarter last year,” notes Dr. Alexander Blum, CFO of Koenig & Bauer AG. “This is further proof that our net working capital management is also taking effect and that the measures to strengthen cash generation are showing initial progress.”

In the nine-month period, free cash flow amounted to €-61.9 million (previous year: €-35.8m million). The decline is primarily due to an increase in net working capital (NWC) of €55.9 million compared to year-end 2024, whereas NWC has improved compared to year-end 2023 (€43.0 million).

The Paper & Packaging Sheetfed Systems (P&P) segment proved to be resilient. At €500.3 million, order intake in the nine-month period was only slightly below the previous year’s drupa level (YOY -2.2%). With revenue growth of +4.4% to €487.1 million after nine months, the strong operating performance in Q3-25 with an operating EBIT of €7.4 million marked a significant step towards the operational turnaround.

In the Special & New Technologies (S&T) segment, order intake (€375.3 million) was, as expected, below the previous year, mainly due to the base effect of high orders at BNS. Revenue after nine months rose by +8.1% to €396.9 million, with the third quarter being particularly strong at €140.3 million (+21.4%).

Koenig & Bauer confirms its guidance for the full year 2025. The Executive Board expects slight revenue growth to €1.3 billion, with an increase in operating EBIT to a corridor between €35 million and €50 million. Due to the challenging macroeconomic environment and the increased trade and geopolitical uncertainties, target achievement for operating EBIT is currently seen with a higher probability in the lower half of the corridor.