Topic: Yesterday, Rubean announced to have reached more than € 1.0m in sales (prelims) and quadrupled number of app users to c. 25k vs 6k at the end of 2022 (eNuW).

With > € 1.0m, Rubean increased sales by >20% yoy, which is slightly better than expected (eNuW old: € 0.98m; 17% yoy). Still, we consider 2023 as a transition year that was characterized by a delayed product roll-out resulting in a negative EBIT to the tune of € 3.6m (eNuW).

Positively, the recently announced new partnerships with i.e. Correos in Spain and emerchantpay as well as the quadrupling of app users is seen to bode well for Rubean and should start to materialize this year. Importantly, with Correos (12k devices already in use, further 15k should follow this month), Rubean is not only earning a monthly license fee per user, but is also participating in every transaction, executed via the software. Indeed, we consider this highly profitable revenue sharing scheme as a blueprint for future partnerships.

As Rubean´s leading softPOS product is ready for rollout, further new customer wins and partnerships are clearly in the cards for this year allowing for a continued dynamic top-line development. As Rubean should already be in advanced discussions with several potential partners, we expect positive newsflow from several new partnerships within the next couple of weeks and months that should further ramp-up sales and EBIT going forward.

In detail, we expect sales of € 2.9m and an EBIT of € -1.6m for FY24e. Mind you, that these estimates can be seen as rather conservative, as we have only considered growing sales with already signed customers.

Thanks to the SaaS model, scalability should kick-in quickly. Operating break-even should be hence reached already within next year. As said, considering a high likelihood of additional customer-wins, the break-even could be achieved even earlier.

In order to reflect the ramp-up potential stemming from the product roll-out and new partnerships, we reiterate BUY with an unchanged PT of € 8.00, based on our DCF.