Pfeiffer Vacuum’s sales revenues developed on a very positive note during the first half of 2011. The significant 186.6-percent year-on-year rise was attributable – aside from the strong development of the company’s core business – first and foremost to the initial consolidation of the adixen operations.

Pfeiffer Vacuum had acquired the “adixen” vacuum business unit from the Alcatel-Lucent Group on December 31, 2010, which is why all line items in the income statement for fiscal 2011 were impacted considerably by this transaction.

In Europe, sales revenues advanced by 120.2 percent to € 127.4 million in the first half of 2011 (2010: € 57.9 million). Sales revenues in Asia more than sextupled to € 105.5 million (2010: € 17.0 million). In the Americas, sales revenues grew by 117.9 percent to € 51.5 million (2010: € 23.7 million).

One of the major reasons for the acquisition of the adixen operations was adixen’s technology leadership and outstanding positioning in the field of dry-compressing backing pumps. Accordingly, backing pump sales revenues rose to € 109.7 million (2010: € 14.2 million). Turbopump business, which is dominated by Pfeiffer Vacuum, grew by 91.2 percent to € 77.1 million (2010: € 40.4 million). Sales of components and instruments, too, nearly doubled to stand at € 58.8 million (2010: € 30.6 million). Service, as well, saw a significant rise in sales revenues to € 36.4 million (2010: € 10.5 million). Systems posted a decline in sales revenues to € 3.0 million (2010: € 3.8 million).

In the Semiconductor market, sales revenues advanced to € 100.4 million during the first six months (2010: € 10.0 million). Fueled by good organic growth, sales in the Industrial Applications market segment increased by 116.0 percent to € 58.0 million (2010: € 26.9 million), while sales revenues in the Coating market segment quadrupled to € 57.2 million (2010: € 14.1 million), with a positive impulse from the solar industry, first and foremost, coming to bear here. In Analytics, sales revenues rose by 50.4 percent to € 43.2 million (2010: € 28.7 million). The Research & Development market saw growth of 32.3 percent to € 26.2 million (2010: € 19.8 million).

New orders during the first half of 2011 totaled € 293.2 million (2010: € 103.2 million). This 1184.1-percent rise was strongly impacted by the first-time consideration of adixen’s order backlog. However new orders from the former Pfeiffer Vacuum Group also developed very well with growth of around 20 percent. As at June 30, 2011, the book to bill ratio, the ratio between new orders and sales revenues, stood at 1.03 (2010: 1.04). The order backlog rose to € 99.4 million at period-end (2010: € 45.5 million).

As a result of effects stemming from the initial consolidation of adixen, the gross margin declined by 12.0 percentage points to 33.9 percent (2010: 45.9 percent). Consequently, gross profit totaled € 96.5 million for the first half of 2011, representing an increase of 111.5 percent (2010: € 45.6 million). This development led to a 92.5-percent rise in operating profit to € 43.6 million (2010: € 22.7 million). This corresponds to an EBIT margin of 15.3 percent (2010: 22.8 percent). Net income stood at € 29.1 million (2010: € 17.8 million). During the first six months of fiscal 2011, earnings per share amounted to € 2.93 (2010: € 2.07). It should be noted that calculation of earnings per share is based upon the average number of shares in circulation. Consequently, this value rose year on year as a result of the 10-percent increase of capital and the sale of treasury shares (5.1 percent of the former equity capital) in November 2010.

Pfeiffer Vacuum Chief Executive Officer Manfred Bender had this to say about the results: “We are highly satisfied with the course of business thus far. The semiannual results that we have now announced show that we are on the right track in connection with the integration of adixen. This is also manifesting itself in our success in the market segments of Industrial Applications, Coating and Analytics. After six months, our operating profit (EBIT) is up € 21 million, or 93 percent, from the year before. This is very noteworthy given the fact that the integration process has only been in place for the past six months.” Bender continues: “We view our sales revenue target of around € 550 million for the current fiscal year as being realistic in the current market environment. The same also applies with respect to our planned EBIT margin of around 15 percent.”