SCHMID Group is a Freudenstadt equipment maker whose public-market story flipped in the first half from a liquidity rescue to an order-book rebound that still has not produced cash. The company builds wet-process and metallization tools for printed circuit boards, substrates, and panel-level packaging, and the latest half-year print shows demand for those tools returning first in China and only later at the German plant. What changed is not the product catalog. What changed is that family debt, a Chinese creditor swap, and two layers of convertible notes recapitalized a balance sheet that the auditor flagged as a going concern in the spring annual, while a surge of AI-server and optical-module equipment orders rebuilt the backlog. The equity now prices a recovery that the income statement has only begun to corroborate.
First-half sales reached about $53 million. That compares with a depressed year-ago half near $19 million. More than half of the recovered volume came from lower-margin China work, and management cut the full-year adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization margin guide from above twelve percent to a band of six to nine percent. Gross profit returned to positive territory after last year's gross loss, which is genuine operating progress. The operating loss barely moved, because recapitalization fees, share-based awards, and the Sprint overhead program loaded the first half. Operating cash outflow then consumed most of the new financing as working capital normalized from an unsustainably tight year-end position. Headline net loss widened on non-cash accounting around the XJ Harbour liability conversion and warrant fair value, so reported earnings are not the operating read.
The debate is whether the late-summer order book converts into higher-margin German shipments in the second half without another trip to the standby equity line. Year-to-date equipment orders through late August already sit near $111 million, close to the low end of the raised full-year intake range, and a single repeat modified semi-additive process award in July for AI-server boards is large enough to dominate the print. Against that, cash at the end of June was thin until the July convertible closed, related-party debt still sits on the book, and ordinary shares outstanding have already swollen through conversions. The next few prints resolve whether this is a genuine operating turn or a recap that bought time for a China-heavy mix.