Amadeus FiRe ETR: AAD reported a difficult 2025 marked by weakening demand across its staffing and training businesses, restructuring expenses, and a sharp drop in profitability, even as the company completed two acquisitions aimed at expanding its corporate learning offering.
Management cites weak sentiment and stalled hiring in Germany
CEO Robert von Wülfing told participants at the German Select Conference that the group showed “a good level of resilience” in 2025 despite “a persistently challenging environment,” but said profitability fell “significantly” below historic levels.
Von Wülfing attributed the pressure to poor business sentiment in Germany during 2025, with companies delaying investments and acting cautiously on recruiting and training budgets. He highlighted structural and macro challenges including demographic change, bureaucratic burdens, slow digitalization progress, lingering effects of the energy crisis, weakening consumer confidence, and what he described as a prolonged phase of stagnation escalating into a “profound growth crisis.”
He also pointed to Germany’s 0.2% GDP growth in 2025, an unemployment rate of 6.4% in February, and rising global uncertainty, including trade conflicts and armed conflicts.
2025 results: lower revenue, restructuring costs, and a net loss
Von Wülfing said Amadeus FiRe saw a negative revenue trend across both segments in 2025 and recorded restructuring costs of €6 million. The company also continued investing in its digital transformation, which contributed to weaker earnings.
- Revenue: €364 million, down 16.8% from €437 million, and within the company’s forecast range of €355 million to €385 million
- Operating gross profit: €187 million; operating gross profit margin of 51.4% (compared with 54.2% in 2024, as cited by management)
- Operating EBITDA: €40 million, down from €56 million in the prior year
- Consolidated net result attributable to shareholders: -€2.2 million
- Basic EPS: -€0.44 (versus €6.01 in the previous year)
Von Wülfing also discussed profitability excluding one-off effects from restructuring, stating that operating EBITDA “excluding the one-off effect of the restructuring costs” stood at €20 million and landed in the middle of the group’s originally forecast range of €15 million to €25 million.
No dividend proposed for 2025
Following the net loss, management said the Management Board and Supervisory Board will propose to the annual general meeting that no dividend be paid for 2025, in line with the company’s current dividend policy.
In the Q&A, von Wülfing said the group’s policy has been to distribute two-thirds of earnings per share, adding that the policy is under review. On capital allocation, he described three core options the company continues to evaluate: investing in the business, acquisitions, and returning capital to shareholders through dividends and potentially share buybacks. He noted that after completing two acquisitions, the company is “currently… not that hungry” for additional deals.
Acquisitions: Masterplan and eduBITES, with early cross-selling
Von Wülfing said the company completed two acquisitions at year-end—Masterplan and eduBITES—describing them as “technology and AI-driven buy and build cases” in the B2B corporate learning market.
He explained that Masterplan is a corporate learning platform with content and tools for organizing client training programs, while eduBITES is focused on using AI-driven interviewing techniques to capture and convert corporate knowledge into learning elements, including use cases such as off-boarding and onboarding.
Cross-selling has begun, von Wülfing said, with the group leveraging its staffing salesforce to bring the products to corporate clients. He noted that the acquisitions closed at the end of September and end of November, with salesforce onboarding completed for Masterplan by year-end and for eduBITES in February. While he said the company has already secured “first successful orders,” he cautioned it will take “some months or quarters” to see a fuller picture, adding that a better B2B market environment would help adoption—though he also cited “a certain momentum” in AI training due to demand.
2026 outlook: stabilization target, earnings recovery expected
Looking ahead, von Wülfing said the economic outlook for Germany in 2026 remains weak and uncertain, and the company’s planning assumption is for a weak German market for B2B services throughout the year.
In staffing, he said hiring decisions remain cautious, candidate willingness to change jobs is limited, and demand for skilled white-collar personnel is subdued. He added that temporary staffing has been pressured by collective wage agreements and regulation, and that permanent placement should outperform temporary staffing in a recovering market. Overall, he said no meaningful improvement is expected and that the market may remain around the low level seen in Q4 2025 and early 2026.
In training, management expects a more positive performance in 2026, with a strategic “AI-first” orientation and plans to expand AI-related training programs. Von Wülfing said the company expects a slight increase in B2C participants and revenue, and improving momentum in publicly funded training registrations, though he noted that early 2026 will start below the prior year due to the earlier decline in participants.
At the group level, the company is targeting revenue stabilization and improved earnings in 2026:
- Group revenue guidance: €362 million to €395 million (0% to 8% growth)
- Operating EBITDA guidance: €20 million to €31 million, implying an operating EBITDA margin of 5% to 9%
By segment, the company guided for Personnel Services revenue of €190 million to €210 million and operating EBITDA of €9 million to €16 million, and Training revenue of €172 million to €184 million (including acquisition-related growth) with operating EBITDA of €11 million to €15 million.
Von Wülfing described 2025 as the “low point” and said the company expects “quarter-by-quarter” improvement through 2026, entering 2027 with “positive momentum.” During the Q&A, he also confirmed a stabilization trend in Germany in early 2026, while emphasizing it is stabilizing at the weak level reached in Q4 2025.
The company expects to release its Q1 results on May 6, according to von Wülfing.
About Amadeus FiRe ETR: AAD
Amadeus FiRe AG provides personnel and training services in Germany. It offers specialized personnel services, such as specialist temporary staffing, permanent placement, and interim and project management for professional and management staff in commercial professions and IT fields. The company provides advanced vocational training and retraining options with a focus on commercial and IT skills; and training for business clients through open or in-house seminars. In addition, it offers courses and degree programs for private individuals, including professional training in the fields of tax, accounting, and controlling; private-sector certification courses for finance and accounting; specialized training in international financial reporting comprising IAS/IFRS and US GAAP; master's degree program in taxation; educational content on IT, multimedia, and commercial subjects; and executive and team training, seminars for trainers, and language courses, as well as publicly funded training services under the Comcave College, GFN, Steuer-Fachschule Dr.
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