Planning security is important — change to BMH’s articles of association in favor of Defence

Our focus is curr­ently clearly on growth in the SME sector. Follo­wing a phase of noti­ceable restraint, we are seeing many compa­nies post­po­ning projects and invest­ments due to uncer­tainty about how econo­mic condi­ti­ons, energy prices and poli­ti­cal reform plans will actually deve­lop. SMEs in parti­cu­lar are waiting to see whether the announ­ced reforms in tax law, bureau­cracy reduc­tion and digi­ta­liza­tion will actually take effect. 

We find that imple­men­ta­tion problems and high regu­la­tory requi­re­ments are often the real obsta­cle. Many funding and invest­ment programs require a great deal of admi­nis­tra­tive effort and simply too many experts to get them off the ground quickly. Despite these chal­lenges, we have alre­ady been able to realize around 40 finan­cing projects this year, inclu­ding seve­ral new invest­ments. — This shows that The need for capi­tal and the will to deve­lop are there, but the decis­ion-making proces­ses take longer.

We expan­ded our invest­ment guide­lines in 2025 to also enable future commit­ments in the area of defense and secu­rity-rela­ted dual-use tech­no­lo­gies. — The back­ground to this decis­ion is the incre­asing stra­te­gic importance of secu­rity, resi­li­ence and tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­nty for the economy and society. Many inno­va­tions that origi­nally came from the civi­lian envi­ron­ment — for exam­ple in the areas of digi­ta­liza­tion, data analy­sis, sensor tech­no­logy, commu­ni­ca­tion, energy supply or mate­ri­als tech­no­logy — now have a dual use, both civi­lian and security-related. 

A new, high-growth field is opening up here, parti­cu­larly for SMEs and inno­va­tion-driven start-ups: nume­rous compa­nies have exper­tise and products that can be used in secu­rity-criti­cal appli­ca­ti­ons, for exam­ple in logi­stics, energy, cyber­se­cu­rity or manu­fac­tu­ring. By adap­ting our invest­ment prin­ci­ples, we are crea­ting the oppor­tu­nity to support these compa­nies in the future — be it with succes­sion solu­ti­ons, carve-outs or inno­va­tion and growth finan­cing. We see this as a real oppor­tu­nity for German SMEs to contri­bute their tech­no­lo­gi­cal strength to new value chains and thus contri­bute to econo­mic and social resi­li­ence. Our aim is to streng­then inno­va­tion, compe­ti­ti­ve­ness and secu­rity-rele­vant tech­no­logy deve­lo­p­ment in Hesse in the long term. 

The mood in the invest­ment sector is curr­ently cautious to cautiously opti­mi­stic. Uncer­tainty about the economy, inte­rest rates and poli­ti­cal condi­ti­ons is having an impact on willing­ness to invest. A parti­cu­larly frequently discus­sed topic is the exit risk: IPOs are rare and sales at the calcu­la­ted valua­tion levels are incre­asingly diffi­cult to realize. The ques­tion of the “right price” is omnipresent. 

The advan­tage of our model is parti­cu­larly evident in this envi­ron­ment. BMH can support compa­nies throug­hout their entire life cycle — from the early inno­va­tion phase to growth finan­cing and succes­sion solu­ti­ons. Although we see less dyna­mism in the early phase than in the past, we conti­nue to see inte­rest, parti­cu­larly in tech­no­logy-orien­ted start-ups with a high level of inno­va­tion — as in the case of etaly­tics, an energy tech start-up in which BMH has been invol­ved since the seed round. Another exam­ple is the deep-tech start-up HCP Sense, a sensor tech­no­logy specia­list in which BMH is the lead investor. 

For compa­nies in the growth phase, the trend is rather subdued: Many are looking for capi­tal for digi­ta­liza­tion, expan­sion or inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, but are more selec­tive in their risk posi­ti­ons. In this area, for exam­ple, we provi­ded BRAIN Biotech AG with growth finan­cing of EUR 5 million to expand its R&D acti­vi­ties. — Demand for succes­sion solu­ti­ons remains constant. Here we support entre­pre­neurs in handing over their life’s work to new hands — as was the case recently with Data­force, a provi­der of market data and analy­ses for the auto­mo­tive indus­try, where we supported a manage­ment buy-out for the second time. Our long-term, part­ner­ship-based approach is a decisive stabi­lity factor — for our port­fo­lio compa­nies as well as for the Hessian economy as a whole. 

Dr. Stef­fen Huth has been Mana­ging Direc­tor of bmh Betei­li­gungs-Manage­ment­ge­sell­schaft Hessen mbH since 2021. Before joining bmh Hessen, he worked for the invest­ment company abacus alpha GmbH as an invest­ment mana­ger. There he also assu­med opera­tio­nal respon­si­bi­lity as Mana­ging Direc­tor within the portfolio