Topic: Last week, Rubean announced to have quintuples its turnover in Q1´24 against Q1´23. Further, Rubean signed a contract with SEUR and reduced its cost base by 10% yoy. In detail:

Turnover increased by 500% yoy to € 493k in Q1, partially due to roll-out of Rubean´s software to new, large customers, acquired already last year that has started to materialize. Still, after having generated a turnover of € 340k in January alone, that should have included one-offs, Rubean has to massively increase its monthly recurring turnover to reach its guidance. For FY24, management expects to grow sales by 135% at mid-point to € 2.2-2.5m. On the back of the recently announced cooperations (i.e. with Global Payment), paired with further likely customer wins, we consider this guidance as achievable, anticipating sequential improvements and € 3.0m sales (eNuW).

Promising start into Q2. Rubean has started Q2 by signing a contract with Geopost´s Spanish subsidiary “SEUR” to equip thousands of devices with the Rubeans leading software. This cooperation is just the latest of a whole series of important strategic partnerships within a short period of time (i.e. Global Payments, Correos, emerchantpay), that all clearly underpin that Rubean´s leading softPOS product is ready and that the roll-out is in full swing.

Reduced cost base. Rubean reduced its cost base by 10% yoy, which was necessary, but should not be seen as a key element of the case. We expect Rubean to achieve profitability by FY25e and its mid-term vision of 40+% EBIT-margin by FY27e purely due to a steep topline growth trajectory and the resulting operating leverage. For FY27e, Rubean is aiming for € 10+m in sales, implying a 78% CAGR2023-27e. As we see Rubean at the forefront of the rapidly growing market for mobile payment acceptance systems that is just at the beginning, the vision looks reasonable.

Additional positive newsflow looming. Throughout FY24, we expect Rubean to announce further partnerships that could turn into additional sales and EBIT drivers during the next few years and could even allow the company to outperform its mid-term targets, in our view.

We hence reiterate BUY with an unchanged PT of € 9.00, based on our DCF.