Pfeiffer Vacuum Announces Results for 9M/2014
Pfeiffer Vacuum generated sales of € 296.4 million during the first nine months of 2014 during which an EBIT margin of 10.7 percent was achieved. This result is broadly in line with management’s expectations communicated at the AGM.
“Sales after nine months were on a comparable level as in the prior year’s period. The EBIT margin we achieved with the reported volume amounted to 10.7 percent“, says Manfred Bender, CEO of Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology AG.
“We are glad to see our Analytics segment having strongly recovered from its comparative weakness in the prior few quarters. We also continue to expect an ongoing recovery of the Semiconductor segment. The Coating segment has been gaining momentum and we expect this to generally remain the case moving into 2015.” Bender explains further: “Despite the current general economic uncertainties, these developments lead to positive expectations for the quarters to come.”
“During the first nine months of 2014 we have achieved an operating cash flow of € 27.3 million. Following the dividend payment of € 26.1 million our liquid assets amounted to € 88.1 million and surpassed our financial liabilities of € 41.4 million – meaning that we maintain a net cash position.”
CEO Bender continues: “Concerning the full-year result for 2014, management expects sales to materialize at the bottom end of the previously communicated range between € 410 million and € 440 million. This is expected to coincide with a slight improvement of the EBIT margin.”
The development of sales in the various markets was heterogeneous. This remains true for the market segments as well as the geographical sales split:
The distribution of sales by market segment showed a 1.7 percent increase in semiconductor to € 84.1 million (9M/2013: € 82.7 million). Sales in the industry segment stagnated at € 80.1 million (9M/2013:€ 80.0 million). The analytics segment declined 5.6 percent to € 56.4 million (9M/2013: € 59.8 million). The sales contribution from the research and development decreased 2.1 percent to € 39.4 million (9M/2013: € 40.2 million) and sales in the coating market segment contracted by 2.1 percent to € 36.4 million in the reported period (9M/2013: € 37.2 million).
In Europe, sales declined by 2.4 percent to € 134.7 million in the first nine months of 2014 (9M/2013: € 138.0 million). Sales in Asia decreased 6.5 percent in the reported period to € 94.4 million (9M/2013:€ 100.9 million). In the Americas an increase of 10.8 percent was realized, hence taking the sales figure to € 66.7 million (9M/2013: € 60.2 million).
Concerning product sales, the service business grew by 2.3 percent to € 62.3 million (9M/2013: € 60.8 million). Sales with instruments and components which amounted to € 70.5 million were down 4.5 percent in the reported period (9M/2013: € 73.8 million). In contrast, backing pump sales experienced an increase of 1.7 percent to € 65.6 million (9M/2013: € 64.5 million). The decline in turbopump sales amounted to 4.1 percent and took the figure to € 89.7 million (9M/2013: € 93.5 million); in systems, sales increased 16.5 percent to € 8.4 million (9M/2013: € 7.2 million).
New orders in the first nine months of 2014 totaled € 295.2 million and were hence down 4.6 percent versus the previous corresponding figure (9M/2013: € 309.5 million). The book-to-bill ratio, the ratio of order intake to sales, was 1.00 for the period (9M/2013: 1.03). The company’s order backlog of € 59.8 million on September 30, 2014, was 26.6 percent lower than the corresponding figure a year earlier (September 30, 2013: € 81.5 million).
Pfeiffer Vacuum’s 9M/2014 gross profit margin decreased by 1.8 percentage points to 35.1 percent (9M/2013: 36.9 percent). The period’s operating profit of € 31.6 million was 12.7 percent below the prior year’s corresponding figure (9M/2013: € 36.2 million). This resulted in an EBIT margin of 10.7 percent (9M/2013: 12.1 percent). Net income amounted to € 21.3 million and thus was 12.6 percent lower than a year earlier (9M/2013: € 24.4 million). This translated to earnings per share of € 2.16 for the reported first nine months of 2014 (9M/2013: € 2.47).
Personnel matter
The Supervisory Board has relieved CFO Nathalie Benedikt of her duties during its ordinary meeting on November 3, 2014.
Source: Pfeiffer Vacuum GmbH
