Pfeiffer Vacuum Announces Results for H1/2014
Pfeiffer Vacuum generated sales of € 198.1 million during the first six months of 2014 during which an EBIT margin of 10.4 percent was achieved. This result is broadly in line with management’s expectations communicated at the AGM.
“As expected, the second quarter’s sales and profit were on a comparable level as the prior year’s quarter “, says Manfred Bender, CEO of Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology AG.
“The semiconductor business has been recovering gradually. Sales in this segment were able to be increased sequentially in the second quarter. We expect this trend to accelerate further in the second half of 2014. During this time the sales with turbopumps should also be able to be increased.” Bender explains further: “This should lead to an improvement of the gross profit margin which at 34.5 percent was somewhat lower due to the product mix.”
“During the first half of 2014 we have achieved an operating cash flow of € 15.1 million. Following the dividend payment of € 26.1 million our liquid assets amounted to € 78.3 million and surpassed our financial liabilities of € 41.4 million – meaning that we maintain a net cash position.”
CEO Bender continues: “Concerning our full-year result for 2014, the cyclicality continues to make it difficult to give a precise forecast. Management continues to expect full-year sales in a range between € 410 and € 440 million. This is expected to coincide with an 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 6.8 percent increase in semiconductor to € 57.6 million (H1/2013: € 53.9 million). Sales in the industry segment decreased 2.8 percent to € 54.4 million (H1/2013: € 56.0 million). The analytics segment declined 6.4 percent to € 35.6 million (H1/2013: € 38.0 million). The sales contribution from the research and development remained constant at € 27.1 million (H1/2013: € 27.1 million) and sales in the coating market segment contracted by 5.7 percent to € 23.5 million in the reported period (H1/2013: € 24.9 million).
In Europe, sales remained nearly unchanged at € 89.8 million in the first half of 2014 (H1/2013: € 90.4 million). Sales in Asia decreased 5.3 percent in the reported period to € 64.2 million (H1/2013:€ 41.5 million).
Concerning product sales, the service business remained rather constant at € 40.8 million (H1/2013: € 40.9 million). This was also the case for sales with instruments and components which amounted to € 48.8 million (H1/2013: € 48.8 million). In contrast, backing pump sales experienced an increase of 2.7 percent to € 45.1 million (H1/2013: € 43.9 million). The decline in turbopump sales amounted to 7.4 percent which took the figure to € 57.3 million (H1/2013: € 61.9 million); in systems, sales increased 38.7 percent to € 6.2 million (H1/2013: € 4.5 million).
New orders in the first half of 2014 totaled € 195.9 million and were hence down 4.7 percent versus the previous corresponding figure (H1/2013: € 205.6 million). The book-to-bill ratio, the ratio of order intake to sales, was 0.99 for the period (H1/2013: 1.03). The company’s order backlog of € 58.8 million on June 30, 2014, was 24.0 percent lower than the corresponding figure a year earlier (June 30, 2013: € 77.4 million).
Pfeiffer Vacuum’s H1/2014 gross profit margin decreased by 0.7 percentage points to 35.5 percent (H1/2013: 36.2 percent). The period’s operating profit of € 20.6 million was 3.4 percent below the prior year’s corresponding figure (H1/2013: € 21.3 million). This resulted in an EBIT margin of 10.4 percent (H1/2013: 10.7 percent). Net income amounted to € 13.9 million and thus was 3.5 percent lower than a year earlier (H1/2013: € 14.4 million). This translated to earnings per share of € 1.41 for the reported first six months of 2014 (H1/2013: € 1.46).
Source: Pfeiffer Vacuum GmbH
