Original-Research: NFON AG (von NuWays AG): BUY

Classification of NuWays AG to NFON AG

Company Name:	NFON AG
ISIN:	DE000A0N4N52
Reason for the research:	Update
Recommendation:	BUY
from:	22.08.2025
Target price:	EUR 12.10
Target price on sight of:	12 months
Last rating change:
Analyst:	Philipp Sennewald

Macro headwinds trigger expected guidance cut; chg.

Yesterday, NFON released its H1 report, with sales growth lagging expectations but profitability exceeding our estimates.. Still, amid macro headwinds, management cut the guidance on both, sales growth and adj. EBITDA. In detail:

Q2 sales advanced 3.9% yoy to € 22.1m (eNuW: € 22.4m; eCons: € 22.3m), which was entirely driven by subsidiary botario. In fact, botario’s sales surged to € 1.1m (€ 1.9m in H1 with a 42% operating margin), which was due to project related sales (48% across Q1 & Q2). Overall, this should translate into ARR of c. € 2.4m (eNuW). On the other hand, NFON’s legacy business, cloud PBX, contracted slightly with sales of € 21.0m (-1.4% yoy). This reflects the continued investment reluctance, reduced hardware sales and lower voice-minute usage, which however was at least in part due to seasonal effects in connection with bank holidays. Positively, the recurring sales ratio remained strong with 92.9%, despite a 2pp decline related to the strong project business of botario.

Despite the slightly slower growth, adj. EBITDA came in ahead of expectations (eNuW: € 2.9m) at € 3.1m, implying a 14.0% margin. Main drivers for this was the improved gross margin (+1.2 pp to 86.1%) that made up for slightly increased adj. personnel cost (+0.7pp yoy) and other OpEx ratios (+0.2pp yoy). Reported EBITDA came in at € 2.4m (+4.3% yoy), resulting in a 10.8% margin.

Guidance revised. Based on the muted growth momentum, management decided to revise the FY25 guidance downwards, now targeting sales growth of 3-5% (old: 8-10%; eNuW new: 3.9%) and adj. EBITDA of € 12.5-14.0m (old: € 13.5-15.5m; eNuW new: € 13.4m). At mid-point, this implies 4.1% growth in H2 and a 16.2% adj. EBITDA margin, which we regard as reasonable given the historically stronger H2. Meanwhile, the mid-term outlook (FY27) remained unchanged, as management continues to target a FY24-’27 sales CAGR of >10% (eNuW: 10.6%) and an adj. EBITDA margin of >15% (eNuW: 18.4%).

Despite the guidance cut, the investment case remains intact. Growth should reaccelerate from FY26e onwards, with management already observing signs of easing sales cycles and a gradual recovery in customer investment activity. Looking ahead, growth is seen to be strongly supported by the rollout of new AI-driven features - an area where NFON is clearly ahead of peers such as Gamma, Placetel, or Starface. Innovations already introduced, including voicemail transcription, the AI assistant “NIA,” CarPlay integration, and enhanced security functions, not only broaden the product portfolio but also open meaningful upselling opportunities, supporting ARPU expansion. Additional features like automated call summaries and action-item generation, launched in Q3, further underline NFON’s technological edge and its ability to drive scalable, margin-accretive growth.

Consequently, NFON remains a high conviction call as we keep the stock in our NuWays Alpha List, which is not least due to the attractive valuation of 8.5x EV/adj. EBITDA FY25e (6.2x FY26e).

BUY with an unchanged PT of € 12.10 based on DCF.

You can download the research here: nfon-ag-2025-08-22-previewreview-en-1a79b
For additional information visit our website: https://www.nuways-ag.com/research-feed

Contact for questions:
NuWays AG - Equity Research
Web: www.nuways-ag.com
Email: research@nuways-ag.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nuwaysag
Adresse: Mittelweg 16-17, 20148 Hamburg, Germany
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