20. Equity

The breakdown of and changes to equity in the 2025 and 2024 financial years are presented in the combined statement of changes in equity as a separate component of the combined financial statements as of December 31, 2025.

a) Included capital of BLG AG

As in the previous year, the share capital (subscribed capital) amounted to EUR 9,984,000.00 and was divided into 3,840,000 approved, no-par registered shares with voting rights. Any transfer of the shares requires the approval of the company in accordance with Section 5 of the Articles of Incorporation. As in the previous year, the share capital was fully paid as of December 31, 2025.

The retained earnings include the legal reserve pursuant to Section 150 of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG) of EUR 998 thousand (previous year: EUR 998 thousand) which was allocated in full, as well as other retained earnings of EUR 13,873 thousand (previous year: EUR 12,839 thousand). In the 2025 financial year, transfers to retained earnings came to EUR 1,034 thousand (previous year: EUR 1,679 thousand).

b) Included capital of BLG KG

The capital attributable to the limited partner of BLG KG is recognized. The limited liability capital and the share premium were almost exclusively made up of contributions in kind.

The share premium account includes allocations of asset-side differences from the time before the transition of the combined financial statements to IFRS. Furthermore, in 2021, the limited partner, the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, made a contribution to the share premium of EUR 53,000 thousand.

In addition to undistributed profits from prior periods, retained earnings include dividend payments and other withdrawals, earlier changes in the basis of consolidation recognized outside profit or loss, and other changes and shares in combined net profit for the period. In addition, retained earnings also include the differences between the German Commercial Code (HGB) and IFRS that existed on January 1, 2004 (date of transition). There is no separate presentation of the net profit or loss of consolidated companies.

The actuarial gains and losses credited or charged directly to equity from the measurement of gross pension obligations in accordance with IAS 19 and the difference between the expected and actual return on plan assets are reported under “Other reserves.”

The reserve from the fair value measurement of financial instruments includes net gains or losses credited or charged directly to equity from changes in the market value of the effective portion of the cash flow hedges. Reserves are generally released upon settlement of the underlying transaction. In addition, the reserves are released on expiration, disposal, termination or exercise of the hedging instrument, in the event of revocation of the designation of the hedging relationship, or if the requirements for hedging under IFRS 9 are no longer met. The reserve also contains changes in the measurement of equity investments measured at fair value. Further disclosures on hedge accounting are presented in note 32 under “Derivative financial instruments.”

As of the reporting date, the reserve consisted of the fair values of the interest rate swaps qualifying as hedges of EUR 4,591 thousand (previous year: EUR 3,303 thousand), deferred taxes on this amount recognized directly in equity of EUR 453 thousand (previous year: EUR 453 thousand), as well as EUR 298 thousand (previous year: EUR 2,437 thousand) from the fair values of financial instruments at associates recognized directly in equity.

Foreign currency translation includes exchange differences from the translation of financial statements of consolidated companies in currencies other than the euro.

c) Equity of non-controlling interests

This item includes EUR 10,352 thousand (previous year: EUR 8,305 thousand) for the minority interests in the equity of fully consolidated subsidiaries.

For the development of the individual equity components, please see the separate Combined statement of changes in equity.