Bittium Q3 numbers beat consensus by a wide margin, combining robust Defense & Security (D&S) deliveries with a substantial licence milestone from the Indra technology transfer. Sales nearly doubled yoy to € 45.8m (eNuW: € 38.9m, eCons: € 34.9m), a 31% beat vs consensus. D&S sales rose c. 145% yoy to € 38.1m (eNuW: € 31.2m, eCons: € 27.3m), 40% above consensus, driven by product deliveries and Indra licence revenue. The latter should have contributed € 18-22m in Q3. If our Indra contribution holds, D&S still grew by mid-teens without the licence revenue (eNuW).
Medical delivered a strong quarter, with sales up 18.5% yoy to € 5.1m (eNuW: € 4.4m, eCons: € 4.5m), supported by c. 25% growth in Cardiac sales outside the US and the launch of the Faros Pro ECG device. Engineering Services were flat and in line with eCons/eNuW at € 3.3m despite a weak market for product development services and returned to profit at the EBIT level.
On profitability, group EBITDA reached an exceptional € 27.0m (eNuW: € 12.7m, eCons: € 10.5m), a 59.0% margin (+39.0pp yoy), lifted by the high-margin Indra licence income. Group EBIT came in at € 16.5m (eNuW: € 7.7m, eCons: € 6.6m), a 36.0% margin (+25.2pp yoy). This was despite significantly elevated D&A of € 10.5m (Q2'26: € 2.0m; eNuW: € 5.0m), driven by accelerated amortisation linked to the Indra licence. Medical displayed solid profitability with an EBIT of € 0.6m (as expected), an 11.0% margin (-1.3pp yoy).
Ahead of the report, Bittium raised its FY26 EBIT guidance to € 29-36m (old: € 26-32m), as 9M'26 EBIT of € 26.1m had already reached the lower end of the previous guidance.
Typical for a third quarter, order intake was seasonally soft at € 14.7m (Q3'25: € 13.4m), implying a book-to-bill of 0.32x, with D&S orders at € 6.9m (Q3'25: € 7.1m). Group backlog more than doubled yoy to € 71.7m (Q2'26: € 102.2m), of which € 63.3m sits in D&S.
Looking ahead, whether further Indra milestones fall in Q4 remains open, but with D&A only seen to normalise in 2027e, we expect some additional Indra licence revenue to land in Q4, albeit well below the Q3 level (eNuW). We previously estimated that the € 50m licensing deal from last December contributed c. € 10m in Q4'25, and we now estimate a further c. € 20m was recognised in Q3'26. This leaves max € 20m still to be recognised, which is seen to be spread across Q4'26 and FY27 (eNuW).
With a backlog of € 71.7m, Bittium is well positioned to deliver on this year's sales guidance, and we stay slightly above the range at € 156m (guidance: € 140-155m). Order intake in Q4 remains the key item to monitor for 2027 runway, and given the typical seasonality of the business, we expect a strong Q4 once again.
Raised FY26 EBIT estimates. We keep our FY26 sales estimate at € 156m but cut Q4'26 sales from € 59.3m to € 52.3m, as Bittium recognised a larger share of the Indra milestones earlier than we anticipated. We raise our FY26 EBIT estimate to € 34.7m (old: € 29.2m), in the upper half of the new guidance (€ 29-36m), reflecting the outstanding margin profile, as displayed by the Q3 print.
We reiterate our BUY rating and € 46 PT on continued momentum.
ISIN: FI0009007264
