FULL YEAR RESULTS 2024

Kortrijk, Belgium, 11 February 2025, 7:00 am – Today Barco (Euronext: BAR; Reuters: BARBt.BR; Bloomberg: BAR BB) announced results for the six- and twelve-month periods ended 31 December 2024.

Highlights fiscal year 2024

•      Orders of € 990.6 million (-7% y-o-y) and sales of € 946.6 million (-10% y-o-y), with growth in Americas and a decline in EMEA and APAC

•      Book-to-bill > 1 leading to an all-time high order book of € 563.7 million

•      Gross profit margin at 40.7%, 1.1 ppts below 2023, supported by new products and more software, but negatively impacted by product mix in Enterprise and Entertainment

•      EBITDA of € 120.8 million; EBITDA margin of 12.8% vs 13.6% in 2023, driven by a focused cost control and with a strong recovery in the second semester

•      Strong free cash flow of € 110.3 million versus € 38.0 million in 2023, driven by working capital improvements

•      Net Earnings of € 63.0 million versus € 80.2 million in 2023

•      Launch of more than 10 new products in the course of the year

•      Opening of a new factory for Entertainment in Wuxi, China, in May 2024

•      Proposal to increase the gross dividend to € 0.51 per share versus € 0.48 last year

•      Initiation of a share buyback program, planning to purchase Barco shares for an amount of up to €60 million euro over the next 12 months.

Executive summary

Group topline – second half around the level of last year, after a weak first semester; Americas growing while EMEA and APAC declined

Order intake for 2024 was 990.6 million euro, 7% lower than 1,061.6 million euro in 2023.  There were significant regional differences. The Americas posted single digit growth, mainly driven by Healthcare. EMEA experienced very weak market conditions resulting in double digit declines for all divisions. APAC saw a single digit decline, although within this region China did resume growth after a decline in 2023.

Sales amounted to 946.6 million euro, 10% down versus 1050.1 million euro last year. Also here, a significant contrast can be noted between the regions. Sales in the Americas grew in all three divisions, most prominently in Healthcare and Entertainment, where Cinema delivered strong growth in the fourth quarter. EMEA suffered from weak macro-economic conditions, with double-digit declines in all divisions. APAC posted a moderate decline, strongest for Enterprise, where Control Rooms withdrew from several markets as part of its restructuring.

Book-to-bill remained above 1, resulting in an all-time high orderbook of 563.7 million euro at the end of December 2024, versus 494.8 million euro a year earlier, with an important step-up for Entertainment year-over-year.

Divisional topline – Healthcare most resilient; rebound in second half for Entertainment; Enterprise absorbed channel inventory resets

Healthcare’s topline was the most resilient of the divisions, with orders up 7% and sales down 4% year-over-year. Orders were up significantly in the second half, driven by a strong performance in the Americas region. Diagnostic Imaging benefited from successful new product launches starting mid-year, notably the OneLook mammography display and the radiology home-reading portfolio.  Surgical & Modality recorded a significant increase in orders in the second semester in the Americas, after customer inventory levels reset. The product mix shifted towards more software enabled products.  

Enterprise declined 18% in orders and 16% in sales. Meeting Experience faced tough market conditions and increased competition in the EMEA corporate market. Moreover, the topline was impacted by inventory reductions at channel partners. Control Rooms continued to execute its new strategy, focusing future development on the CTRL software offerings. Despite activity being discontinued in several APAC countries, sales for Control Rooms were flat, and included growth in the Americas.

Entertainment had orders and sales of -7% and -9% respectively versus 2023. Cinema was challenged by the aftermath of the Hollywood writers’ strikes in the first semester but saw gradual recovery from mid-year onwards, driven by the Americas. This led to full year sales, very close to last year. In tough market conditions, Immersive Experience managed to secure a similar order intake as last year. Sales ended below last year, as shipments of some of the new products are shifting into the new year.

Profitability & free cash flow – strong free cash flow on lower net working capital

The gross profit margin was 40.7% versus 41.8% in 2023. New products and a shift of the product mix towards more (embedded) software supported margins across the divisions, most prominently in Healthcare which saw a significant improvement in its gross profit margin. In Enterprise the gross profit margin declined on lower volumes as a result of customer inventory corrections and in Entertainment the gross margin declined in Immersive Experience on unfavorable product mix and lower volume.

The EBITDA margin was 12.8% for the full year, versus 13.6% in 2023. Lower sales led to operating deleverage, especially in the first semester. In the face of lower topline and continued global inflation, Barco executed focused cost control, resulting in a 5% reduction of operating expenses versus last year. R&D investments were maintained in support of the many new product introductions. The EBITDA margin significantly improved in the second semester, to 16.7%, compared to 8.1% in the first half, resulting from higher volumes, a more favorable product mix and the benefits of the sale-lease back of a facility in the Americas.

Free cash flow for 2024 grew substantially to 110.3 million euro versus 38.0 million euro for 2023, largely driven by lower net working capital, landing at 11.8% of sales at year-end. The main contributors were lower inventories and higher prepayments from customers. Furthermore, capital expenditure decreased year-over-year, after completing the new factories in China. As an additional upside, there were proceeds from the sale-lease back of a building in the Americas.  

Quote of the CEO, An Steegen

An Steegen commented: “2024 presented us with several headwinds from a top-line perspective, although we saw an important contrast between the Americas, which posted growth in all three divisions, and EMEA and APAC which contended with soft market conditions.  The first semester was marked by customer inventory resets in Healthcare and Meeting Experience, and a soft Cinema market. We were pleased to see the situation improve in the second half, also thanks to the many new product introductions.

We reached important strategic milestones this year with the opening of a new manufacturing plant in Wuxi, China, and with the launch of many new innovative products. Throughout the year, we maintained focused cost control, and we generated a strong free cash flow. I’d like to express my gratitude to all our teams for the progress we made. Together we are committed to keeping our focus on innovation and growth in the next year.

We start 2025 in a context of normalized channel inventory levels, and with the positive perspective of the full-year impact of last year's new product introductions, the benefits of our ongoing transformation towards more software, and the efficiencies from further investments in automation and focused factories.”

Outlook FY25

The following statements are forward looking on a like-for-like basis and actual results may differ materially.

In 2025, assuming geopolitical and macro-economic conditions do not strongly deteriorate, management expects topline growth on a full year basis, with an increase in the EBITDA margin.

Dividend

Barco’s Board of Directors will propose to the General Assembly to distribute a gross dividend of 0.51 euro per share, up 0.03 euro versus last year’s dividend of 0.48 euro.

Share buyback program

Barco remains committed to exploring acquisition opportunities to strategically strengthen the Group, as well as to optimizing its capital allocation and delivering long-term value to its shareholders.

Backed by robust free cash flow generation and a strong balance sheet, the Board of Directors has decided to initiate a share buyback program, planning to purchase Barco shares for an amount of up to €60 million euro over the next 12 months.

The Board of Directors will carefully assess and determine the optimal use of the repurchased shares at a later stage.

Disclaimer
This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Barco is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release in light of new information, future events or otherwise. Barco disclaims any liability for statements made or published by third parties and does not undertake any obligation to correct inaccurate data, information, conclusions or opinions published by third parties in relation to this or any other press release issued by Barco.

About Barco
Barco, headquartered in Kortrijk (Belgium), is a global company leading in visualization, networking, and collaboration technology. Its innovative solutions drive advancements in the healthcare, enterprise, and entertainment markets. At the heart of Barco’s success are over 3,000 dedicated ‘visioneers’, each passionately contributing to driving change through technology.

Listed on Euronext (BAR), Reuters (BARBt.BR), and Bloomberg (BAR BB), Barco realized sales of 947 million euro in 2024.

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