SCHMID Group: Order Intake Inflection Powers a Balance-Sheet Reset

SCHMID Group: Order Intake Inflection Powers a Balance-Sheet Reset

The Order Intake Inflection

SCHMID Group's first half of 2026 was, in CFO Arthur Schütz's words, “6 months of significant transformation” — Arthur Schütz, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) · 2026-08-25. But the headline is not just the restructuring — it's the demand signal. After a slow Q1, the company saw an extraordinary acceleration: €52.3 million of orders in just eight weeks (mid-June to mid-August), bringing year-to-date intake to €96.6 million. This is a company that generated only €18.2 million in Q1 revenue — the order flow is now overwhelming the revenue base.

The surge is driven by flip chip BGA substrate capacity investments and AI server board demand, as CSO Roland Rettenmeier explained: “Most of the projects are mostly the order intake projected for the rest of the year is already in negotiation.” — Roland Rettenmeier, Chief Sales Officer (CSO) · 2026-08-25 The company raised its full-year order guidance to €125–150 million and now expects to land in the upper half. The record €89 million backlog — mostly for 2027 delivery — suggests the momentum is structural, not a one-off.

I think mostly or I know that most of the projects are mostly the order intake projected for the rest of the year is already in negotiation.

Strategic Pivot: Panel-Level Packaging and the China Expansion

Beyond the immediate order streak, SCHMID is repositioning its entire product roadmap. The delivery of its first panel level packaging system — the InfinityLine H+ for 700×700 mm substrates — to a U.S. customer marks a step into the next-generation packaging paradigm. The company is also doubling Chinese production capacity with a new owned campus in Zhongshan (€11 million, operational by Q4 2027), which management says will lift revenue capacity to €100 million from €50 million.

The strategic bet is increasingly on glass core substrates — a material set that promises better flatness, dielectric constant, and signal integrity for AI and HPC chips. Roland told analysts the company is engaged with “most of the major supply chain players” — Roland Rettenmeier, Chief Sales Officer (CSO) · 2026-08-25 across Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD ecosystems. The key technical bottleneck, he noted, is the metallization of through-glass vias (TGVs) — exactly where SCHMID's wet-processing expertise lands. “The technical bottleneck is for sure the metallization of the TGVBs.” — Roland Rettenmeier, Chief Sales Officer (CSO) · 2026-08-25

A Cleaner Balance Sheet

Financing this expansion without diluting shareholders is now plausible. The company raised €33 million in new net capital (convertible + SEPA), reduced total debt from €53 million to €23 million via a debt-to-equity swap, and executed the Sprint program to cut €4 million in fixed costs. Management now sees "debt capacity" — particularly in China where borrowing costs run ~2.7% — as a way to fund growth. They explicitly stated they do not see any need for new equity in the next six months.

The working capital story is also improving: operating cash flow was negative €29.3 million in H1, but that was largely due to a deliberate build of inventory and receivables ahead of the order ramp. Management expects working capital as % of sales to fall from 14% to ≤10% as payment terms normalize.

Riding the AI Infrastructure Wave

SCHMID is not alone in benefitting from AI infrastructure spending. The global tape shows AI data centers as a dominant 90-day advancer, and recent reporters like NAPA (fiber/communication equipment) and DQ (power infrastructure) are echoing the theme. But SCHMID's niche — semiconductor capital equipment for advanced packaging — is a higher-margin, higher-barrier corner of that wave. As the company noted, semiconductor customers "are typically used to pay higher prices" and expect higher service levels, which should support gross margins as the mix shifts.

In the prior quarter, Roland had already flagged the trajectory: “About 60% of our order intake of the last 12 months is AI infrastructure or optical module related, and this mix is expected to move towards about 70% by the end of the year 2026.” — Roland Rettenmaier, Chief Sales Officer (CSO) · 2026-05-19 Today he sees even broader adoption, with panel-level packaging now driven by performance, not just cost. The tipping point for glass core substrates, as he said in May, is “here in 2027” — Roland Rettenmaier, Chief Sales Officer (CSO) · 2026-05-19 — and SCHMID appears to be the equipment supplier positioned at the inflection.