DGAP-News

Brockhaus Capital Management AG: Technology group BCM with revenue growth in the first half of 2020 despite effects of the COVID-19 pandemic - Seite 2

"The BCM Group was able to satisfactorily manage the uncertainties caused by the pandemic to date. In particular, the new products of our subsidiary Palas for the testing and quality assurance of respiratory masks have been in great demand in recent months and enabled us to contribute to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Our organic growth in these difficult economic times confirms my view that we, as a technology group, are well positioned for the future" says Marco Brockhaus, CEO of BCM.

Strong demand for newly developed devices of Palas for testing the filter efficiency of respiratory masks

Particularly the Environmental Technologies segment, consisting of Palas, developed very positively in the reporting period. Palas increased revenue by +4.2% to € 6.0 million compared to H1 2019. One of the reasons for this is that, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, public interest in the topics of "aerosols" and the effectiveness of respiratory masks has increased significantly. Palas is one of the leading developers and manufacturers of high-precision instruments for the measurement, characterization, and generation of smallest particles in air (such as fine dust and nanoparticles). Based on its leading technology, Palas was able to develop and successfully launch new filter test rigs for respiratory masks already in Q1 2020. These test rigs are being used, among others, by the German government for the import of masks from China, but also directly on site in hospitals as well as in nursing and elderly homes.

Continued travel and contact restrictions affect the installation of IT infrastructure projects on the side of IHSE customers

The Security Technologies segment, consisting of IHSE, remained with a revenue of € 17.2 million and a decline of -0.5% in the reporting period almost at the level of H1 2019. This was mainly because the installation of numerous complex IT infrastructure projects could not yet be realized by IHSE's customers due to ongoing travel and contact restrictions. This resulted in clear shifts in sales and order intake for IHSE. The company develops, manufactures, and sells high-performance network technology for the 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. Considering the critical nature of this KVM technology (Keyboard, Video, Mouse), significant catch-up effects are expected with a weakening of the COVID-19 pandemic.