Pfeiffer Vacuum Announces Results for Fiscal Year 2014
Total sales for FY 2014 which had already been preliminarily announced and have meanwhile been audited amounted to € 406.6 million. This represents a decrease of 0.5% (previous year: € 408.7 million).
Key figures at a glance (Image: Pfeiffer Vacuum GmbH)
Operating profit (EBIT) amounted to € 44.7 million (previous year: € 50.5 million). As a result, the operating profit margin (EBIT margin) for FY 2014 amounted to 11.0% and, thus, was 1.4% points lower than the previous year’s figure of 12.4%.
The Management and Supervisory boards have proposed an unchanged dividend of € 2.65 per share. The payout ratio therefore would amount to around 81% of consolidated net income.
Manfred Bender, CEO of Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology AG, comments: “Order intake in the fourth quarter was more than ten million euros higher than in the previous quarters. This development, including orders received in the first two months of FY 2015, shows that the year has started off positively. For this reason as well as our strong balance sheet and the improved operating cash flow, we prefer to keep the dividend payment stable for FY 2014 despite slightly lower net earnings. As a result, management and the supervisory board will propose a dividend of € 2.65 per share at the AGM in May. The investment in the economic potential of vacuum technology will remain worthwhile in the future.”
In context of regional sales, Europe posted a slight increase of 0.6% to € 183.2 million (previous year: € 182.1 million) while sales in Asia receded by 9.4% to € 130.3 million (previous year: € 143.9 million). The development in the Americas was very pleasing where sales increased by 13.7% to € 92.6 million (previous year: € 81.4 million).
Sales of turbopumps remained approximately stable at € 124.7 million (previous year: € 125.3 million). Instrument and component sales experienced a decline of 4.2% to € 96.9 million (previous year: € 101.1 million). Revenues from backing pumps fell by 2.9% to € 89.4 million (previous year: € 92.1 million). Service revenues rose by 4.1% to € 85.0 million (previous year: € 81.7 million). Finally, systems sales saw a development of plus 25.5% to € 10.6 million (previous year: € 8.5 million).
The sales split by market segments shows sales of € 118.4 million (previous year: € 123.4 million) in the semiconductor market. This represents a decline of 4.1%. In the heterogeneous market segment industry there was a sales increase of 2.2% to € 107.2 million (previous year: € 104.9 million). Sales in the analytical market segment fell by 1.2% to € 78.7 million (previous year: € 79.6 million). The research anddevelopment market segment remained approximately stable at € 55.2 million (previous year: € 55.1 million) while coating sales grew by 3.0% to € 47.1 million (previous year: € 45.7 million).
Gross profit for the reporting period amounted to € 143.4 million (previous year: € 149.4 million). This meant that the gross profit margin declined by 1.2% points to 35.3% (previous year: 36.5%). The operating profit (EBIT) amounted to € 44.7 million. It was 11.4% below the previous year’s figure of € 50.5 million. This corresponds to an operating profit margin (EBIT margin) of 11.0% (previous year: 12.4%).
Source: Pfeiffer Vacuum GmbH
