Deep Dive: Meeting with Chapters management reinforces confidence in AI resilience

As is now tradition, the German investment holding company Chapters Group (Frankfurt: CHG) published its preliminary annual figures on the eve of its presentation at the RedEye serial acquirer conference. Joep Dikken and Michael Gielkens attended the conference on behalf of Tresor Capital and spoke extensively with the management of the acquisition machine.

2025 figures
Chapters Group presented strong preliminary financial results for the 2025 financial year. The company saw pro-forma revenue rise significantly to a level of EUR 193 million. This result represents a substantial increase of 53% compared with the previous year. Excluding one-off accounting effects, organic revenue growth came in at 4.5%.

In addition, pro-forma operating profit also showed a substantial increase of no less than 62%, to approximately EUR 49 million. This represents extraordinary growth of 62% compared with the results achieved in 2024. Measured on an organic basis, operating profit grew by a solid 12%, while total recurring revenue over the past year amounted to EUR 93 million. This concerns predictable income and underlines the stability and robustness of the company. During a private meeting, Jan Mohr explained that these results reflect the fruits of the operational optimisations of recent years. Moreover, the company is now achieving significant cost savings through targeted restructurings in which automation and artificial intelligence play a facilitating role.

NB: pro-forma figures include the results of the acquired companies. This is reported because it effectively represents the core of the company and gives a good picture of the total revenue and profitability of the current portfolio.

Outlook for 2026 and the impact of AI
For 2026, Chapters Group's management has given its shareholders a very optimistic forecast. Management expects a further acceleration of organic growth across the entire group. Organic revenue growth is expected to come in within a range of 7-9%, with recurring revenue growing even faster in volume terms. For operating profit, strong organic growth of around 15% is expected for the coming year.

This acceleration is partly driven by positive volume developments and by the revenue and cost synergies resulting from a major acquisition in the FinTech division last year. The combined companies Fintiba and Expatrio also benefit directly from a 20% higher short-term interest rate curve, which further boosts income.

Jan Mohr is clearly positive about the opportunities artificial intelligence (AI) offers Chapters: "When we decided in 2023 to develop the Manuscript Method, we could not foresee how powerful this would prove in the age of AI. Sharing best practices and aligning strategic direction has been a substantial effort over the past 18 months. We are now reaping the rewards of this work, as we have achieved a pragmatic, fast and trusted exchange with our platforms. This allows us to go all in on the best opportunities to pursue an offensive AI strategy across the entire group. Automation of processes that improve cost efficiency is a key reason behind the strong outlook for organic growth in operating profit. We are also confident that in the medium term we will see tangible revenue effects from AI initiatives as well."

RedEye Serial Acquirer Conference 2026
For the second year running, we attended the RedEye conference, this year with two of us. We spoke extensively with more than 12 serial acquirers at the conference, and took the opportunity to also meet with investment holding companies Investor AB, Investment AB Latour and Lifco (not present at RedEye) in Stockholm. We expect to share more information in the coming period.

In this article we limit ourselves to Chapters Group. Jan Mohr's presentation at the conference can be viewed via the link below:

This article was translated automatically from Dutch using AI. In case of any difference, the Dutch original prevails. Read the original in Dutch.