EQS-News: AUSTRIACARD HOLDINGS AG: Press Release H1 2025 Financial Results

Positioned for sustained growth in the second half of the year

Resilient strategic progress, with Document Lifecycle Management and Digital Technologies maintaining strong momentum, despite market normalization in payment cards category in Türkiye

 

• Group Revenues of €163.6m (16% reduction vs. H1 2024), primarily reflecting continued normalization in the Turkish payment card market, a temporary moderation vs. last year’s significant contribution of metal card sales to Fintech in Europe as well as the administrative-related delays in certain contracted, large-scale, public sector digitalization projects in Greece (revenue recognition expected in the coming quarters supporting as well growth in 2026). Document Lifecycle Management (WEST, MEA and our distribution services in CEE), and payment cards in our core CEE markets delivered solid revenue growth, reaffirming our successful geographical and market share expansion strategy to date.
• Adjusted EBITDA of €19.3m (11.8% margin), impacted by the revenue shortfall, despite cost optimization efforts and a more favourable revenue mix towards service-related revenues.
• Net Profit of €2.5m (vs. €11.2m in H1 2024), reflecting the operating profitability reduction as well as higher FX losses (€0.7m impact from USD), despite lower net financial expenses (-8% vs. H1 2024).
• Solid operating cash flow generation of €10.4m (+26% vs. H1 2024), backed by our disciplined focus to optimize cash flow management as well as a reduced pace of working capital build-up.
• Group Leverage maintained at healthy levels (2.1x). Group Net Debt of €96.1m almost unchanged vs. end-2024.
• Dividend payment of €0.11 per share (approx. 2% yield), resolved by the AGM on June 24^th, reaffirms our target to maintaining a progressive dividend payout of 20-25% of net profit between 2025-2027 as well as our commitment to deliver shareholder returns.
• FY2025 adj. EBITDA revised guidance to mid-single digit decline vs. 2024, reflecting aforesaid revenue headwinds in H1 2025. Nonetheless, we expect strong growth momentum in H2 2025 as we are set to deliver substantial sequential growth and a meaningful improvement vs. H2 2024, on the back of a robust contracted pipeline, the benefits from efficiency initiatives and disciplined cost management, the strategic progress made in enhancing our revenue mix, particularly through higher contribution from Citizen Identity and Document Lifecycle Management solutions, together with an already evident stabilization of the Turkish payment card market. These initiatives position us to deliver enhanced EBITDA margins and sustained earnings growth going forward.

 

August 28, 2025 – AUSTRIACARD HOLDINGS AG (ACAG), the international applied technology group headquartered in Vienna, announces its H1 2025 financial results.

 

Manolis Kontos, Chairman of the Management Board and Group CEO, commented:

“?n the first half of 2025, we faced challenging conditions due to market normalization in Türkiye, following several years of exceptional growth, a temporary moderation in metal card sales to Fintechs and delays in contracted, large-scale, public sector digitalization projects in Greece. Despite this, we continued to pursue our strategic initiatives and made progress in delivering cutting-edge products and comprehensive solutions, such as Card-as-a-Service and the Agentic AI solutions Digital Taskforce for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) as well as applications that use AI technology for data extraction as part of Public and Private sector Document Digitalization contracts.

 

Our Document Lifecycle Management, Digital Technologies and payment card business in our core markets all maintained solid momentum, reaffirming the resilience of our strategy and business model. We also continued expanding our footprint, enhancing our solutions portfolio, and accelerating the development of AI-driven solutions. The key agreements signed in the first half — including collaborations with leading financial institutions and the launch of new digital initiatives — set a strong foundation for performance acceleration in the second half of 2025. We are also actively exploring value-accretive acquisitions to further expand our solution stack across geographies and verticals.

 

Looking ahead and in view of the realized H1 2025 revenue shortfall, we revise our guidance for FY2025 adj. EBITDA to mid-single digit decline vs. 2024. Still, we remain confident in delivering substantial sequential growth and a meaningful improvement, supported by a robust contracted revenue pipeline, increasing contributions from high-margin Citizen Identity and Digital Technology solutions, a stabilizing Turkish market, and improved operational efficiency.

 

With our strong portfolio, expanding geographic presence, and unwavering commitment to innovation and value creation, we reinforce our vision of being the partner of choice for our clients. We remain focused on transforming AUSTRIACARD into a comprehensive applied technology provider, confident that our efforts will lead to sustainable growth and long-term value for our shareholders”.

 

GROUP PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS[1]

 

 

 

Group Revenues

Group Revenues at €163.6m, declined 16% vs. H1 2024, on account of:

• the continued normalization of the Turkish payment card market (€23.4m total impact to Group Revenues), primarily driven by cyclicality and a challenging macro backdrop, following several years of exceptional growth (5-year CAGR of 52%)
• a temporary moderation vs. last year’s significant contribution of metal card sales to large scale Fintech in Europe (€14.1m total impact to Group Revenues)
• administrative-related delays in certain contracted, large-scale public sector digitalization projects in Greece, the revenue of which is however expected to be recognised in the following quarters supporting as well growth in 2026.

Nevertheless, the following categories within our Group have delivered solid revenue growth, hence reaffirming our successful strategy to date:

• Document Lifecycle Management, particularly our document output and distribution services
• Payment cards in the Group’s core CEE markets
• Digital Technologies in both WEST and MEA segments (albeit from a rather low base, yet the outlook is promising as we are already leveraging on our investments in technologically advanced solutions e.g. Card-as-a-Service and our proprietary agentic AI platform GaiaB™).

After excluding the adverse negative effect of both the Turkish payment card market and the metal cards sales to Fintech in Europe, Group Revenues increased by 3% vs. H1 2024 (or by €4m).

 

 

Western Europe, Nordics, Americas (WEST)

Revenues in the segment registered a 16% decline vs. H1 2024 to €54.7m, largely due to the aforesaid temporary moderation vs. last year’s significant contribution of metal card sales to Fintech in Europe (€14.1m total impact to Group Revenues). Note that during the course of 2024 certain of our Fintech clients in Europe had launched metal cards campaigns, resulting in sizeable metal cards orders, which have not been repeated this year. Nevertheless, revenues related to our distribution services have continued their upward trajectory, generating solid growth of 19% vs. H1 2024.

Overall, we continue to make meaningful progress in advancing our strategic priorities in the WEST segment, aimed at developing cutting-edge products and comprehensive solutions (e.g. Card-as-a-Service) for both the fast growing segment of the Challenger Banks/Fintech and the Tier 2 Banks in the UK, together with our strategic market entry in the French Fintech market.

 

Central Eastern Europe & DACH (CEE)

Revenues in the segment registered a 14% decline vs. H1 2024 to €104.0m, largely due to the reduction in the intra-segment revenues between CEE and MEA segments (€19m revenue reduction for the segment, driven by 69% drop in card deliveries vs. H1 2024), on account of the aforesaid headwinds in the Turkish payment card market. Moreover, administrative-related delays in certain contracted, large-scale, public sector digitalization projects in Greece resulted in the deferral of the relevant revenue recognition in the coming quarters, supporting as well growth in 2026. This has more than offset solid revenue growth delivered by the following categories in the segment:

• distribution services (+2% vs. H1 2024), particularly in Romania (+59% vs. H1 2024)
• cards in core CEE markets (+4% vs. H1 2024)

Overall, we remain firmly committed to our key strategic pillars that guide our future growth in the segment:

• strengthen client relationships through platform integration & document lifecycle services
• roll-out technologically advanced solutions (Digital Technologies) to our long-term clients in our core markets

 

Türkiye, Middle East and Africa (MEA)

Revenues in the segment registered a 60% decline vs. H1 2024 to €16.3m, adversely impacted by the continued normalization of the Turkish payment card market (€23.4m total impact for the segment), on account of the persistent macroeconomic volatility and uncertainty, together with cyclicality and normalized customer stock levels, following high levels of paid stock after several years of substantial growth. Notwithstanding these headwinds, our solid market share in Türkiye remained unchanged.

Moreover, our revenues in the segment related to the Document Lifecycle Management solutions have doubled vs. H1 2024, with document output and postal services the key drivers.

All in all and in the context of our strategic decision to transition from a product supplier to an end-to-end solutions provider, we are pursuing targeted initiatives and opportunities in the Document Lifecycle Management and holistic Citizen ID services that are already building a recurring revenue base, which is expected to further diversify our earnings profile in the coming quarters, mitigating any likely volatility in the Turkish card payment market.

 

 

Identity & Payment Solutions

Revenues have been adversely impacted by the continued normalization of the Turkish payment card market as well as the temporary moderation vs. last year’s significant contribution of metal card sales to Fintech in Europe (refer to the analysis before). Both have more than offset the solid revenue growth delivered by cards in our core CEE markets (+4% vs. H1 2024).

After excluding the adverse negative effect of both the Turkish payment card market and the metal card sales to Fintech in Europe, Identity & Payment Solutions revenues registered a 3% increase vs. H1 2024.

 

Document Lifecycle Management

Revenues registered a solid 5% increase vs. H1 2024, largely driven by the following categories:

• distribution services (Romania, Poland, USA and the UK) (€2.5m contribution or +7% vs. H1 2024)
• document output (+2% vs. H1 2024). CEE is the key driver (+2% vs. H1 2024).

 

Digital Technologies

Revenues reported a modest decline of 4% vs. H1 2024, due to the base effect in 2024 from a number of private sector digital solutions implementations in Romania as well as the administrative-related delays in certain contracted, large-scale public sector digitalization projects in Greece. Regarding the latter, said delays resulted in the deferral of the relevant revenue recognition in the coming quarters, supporting as well growth in 2026. Nevertheless, revenues from Digital Technologies in both WEST and MEA have doubled vs. H1 2024 (albeit from a very low base), on the back of (a) significant progress in rolling out Card-as-a-Service (CaaS) for Challenger Banks/Fintech in WEST and (b) document digitization projects in MEA.

We consider Digital Technologies a key growth contributor in the future, on account of our continued investments in R&D, aimed at scaling our digital services, rolling-out our technologically advanced solutions (e.g. Card-as-a-Service) and the implementation of large-scale government digitalization projects.

 

 

 

Gross profit I: the reported 13% decline vs. H1 2024 is largely attributed to the aforesaid revenue shortfall.

Nevertheless, Group Gross profit I margin widened by almost 2 percentage points to 47%, on the back of a more favorable revenue mix towards service-related revenues, which are not burdened by the associated material costs. Worth highlighting that all 3 geographies have reported expanded Gross Profit I margin (MEA by 11 percentage points, CEE by 1.7 percentage points and WEST by 1.4 percentage points). Please refer to pages 11-13 for a detailed analysis of the Group segments.

 

Gross profit II: the reported 25% reduction vs. H1 2024 is attributed to:

• the Gross Profit I reduction, and
• higher production costs (largely due to depreciation & amortization expenses).

Group Gross profit II margin tightened by almost 3 percentage points to 22.5%.

 

 

 

Group OPEX (excluding depreciation, amortization & impairment) declined by 2% vs. H1 2024, as our disciplined focus on operational efficiency improvements delivered an 8% reduction vs. H1 2024 to Group SG&A (includes both Selling and distribution, and Administrative) expenses. Notably, our SG&A cost rationalisation efforts are clearly visible in both WEST (-7% vs. H1 2024) and CEE (-8% H1 2024) segments. Moreover, the increase in R&D expenses reflects our continued investment in R&D capabilities to support future business growth (especially in Digital Technologies).

 

 

Group adjusted EBITDA: the reported 34% reduction vs. H1 2024 is largely associated to the aforesaid revenue shortfall, which more than offset our cost optimization initiatives on both cost of sales and SG&A. That said, Group adjusted EBITDA margin contracted by some 3 percentage points to 11.8%.

Group adjusted EBIT: following the adjusted EBITDA reduction, higher depreciation & amortization expenses, associated to our prior-year CAPEX and M&A activity, further burdened Group adjusted EBIT (-53% vs. H1 2024), resulting in an almost 5 percentage points tightening to the relevant margin at 5.9%.

Please refer to pages 11-13 and 20-21 in the Appendix for a detailed analysis of the Group segments per Geography.

 

 

 

Special items: lower costs related to the management participation programs (attributed to the lower number of eligible participants) were more than offset by higher FX losses (particularly related to the USD intragroup receivables).

 

 

 

Group Profit: lower net financial expenses (-8% vs. H1 2024), driven by a reduction to the average outstanding debt position (refer to cash flows from financing activities and the net debt commentary on page 10), only marginally compensated for the aforesaid reduction to Group EBITDA/EBIT, which adversely impacted Group bottom-line results.

 

 

GROUP FINANCIAL POSITION

 

 

Total Equity as of 30/06/2025 reached €121.6m, a €3m decline vs. 31/12/2024, since net profit generation in the period was more than offset by:

• dividend payments to shareholders (€4m or €0.11 per share), as resolved by the AGM on June 24, 2025
• negative effect in the FX translation reserve (impact from USD).

 

 

 

Net Working Capital: the €2m increase (+3%) vs. 31/12/2024 is largely attributed to the reduction in Trade Payables (€13m), due to vendor payments for card chips. This more than offset our efforts to improve cash collections from clients as well as to enhance inventory management, together with a reduced pace of working capital build up.

 

 

Cash flows from operating activities resulted in €10.4m inflow (+26% vs. H1 2024), on account of the reduced pace of working capital build-up.

 

Cash flows from investing activities resulted in €5.5m net outflow, reflecting:

• regular investments in plant and equipment
• investments in additional machinery for delivering large-scale security printing projects in MEA
• inhouse software development, aimed at enhancing our Digital Technologies solutions.

 

Cash flows from financing activities resulted in €9.2m outflow, reflecting:

• scheduled net repayments of loans and borrowings (revolving loan facilities) (€2.8m)
• payments of finance leases (€2.1m)
• interest expenses (€3.6m)
• share buy-back programme (€0.5m)

 

 

Group Net Debt of €96.1m remained almost unchanged vs. 31/12/2024, through a combination of:

• declining gross loans and borrowings balance (€4.5m), due to scheduled repayments, and
• net cash utilization (€5m) for (a) CAPEX and (b) scheduled debt repayments and finance lease payments.

Group Leverage (Net Debt / adjusted EBITDA on a 12-month rolling basis) maintained at healthy levels (2.1x).

 

 

 

 

SEGMENTS REPORTING

Western Europe, Nordics, Americas (WEST)

 

 

 

Central Eastern Europe & DACH (CEE)

 

 

 

Türkiye / Middle East and Africa (MEA)

 

 

 

The full Interim Financial Report of AUSTRIACARD HOLDINGS AG for the period from January 1 to June 30, 2025, excerpts of which were used in this H1 2025 Results Press Release, is available on the Company’s website: https://www.austriacard.com/investor-relations-ac/

 

 

Conference call Financial Results

AUSTRIACARD HOLDINGS AG Management will host a conference call and live webcast to present the ?1 2025 Financial Results.

 

 

 

ABOUT AUSTRIACARD HOLDINGS AG

AUSTRIACARD HOLDINGS AG leverages over 130 years of experience in information management, printing, and communications to deliver secure and transparent experiences for its customers. They offer a comprehensive suite of products and services, including payment solutions, identification solutions, smart cards, card personalization, digitization solutions, and secure data management. ACAG employs a global workforce of 2,400 people and is publicly traded on both the Athens and Vienna Stock Exchanges under the symbol ACAG.

 

 

Contact person:  Mr. Dimitris Haralabopoulos, Group IR Director

E-Mail:   investors@austriacard.com

Tel (AT):   +43 1 61065 357

Tel (GR):   +30 210 669 78 60

Website:  www.austriacard.com

Symbol:  ACAG

ISIN:  AT0000A325L0

Stock Exchanges:  Vienna Prime Market (VSE), Athens Main Market (ATHEX)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX

 

A.                  PRIMARY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

B.                   SEGMENT REPORTING

 

 

 

 

 

 

^[1] The analysis herein is based on the business performance as monitored by Group management with a separate presentation of Special Items which include i.a. effects from Management participation programs, foreign exchange and other valuation related effects below adjusted Profit/(Loss) before tax. Starting as of 2025 the Management view also includes effects from Hyperinflation Accounting for the Türkiye based entity in all positions, therefore previous year figures were adapted accordingly.

^[2] The analysis herein is based on the business performance as monitored by Group management with a separate presentation of Special Items which include i.a. effects from Management participation programs, foreign exchange and other valuation related effects below adjusted Profit/(Loss) before tax. Starting as of 2025 the Management view also includes effects from Hyperinflation Accounting for the Türkiye based entity in all positions, therefore previous year figures have been adapted accordingly.