Jul 26, 2017 / 5:00 CET/CEST
Bad Ragaz/Switzerland, July 26, 2017
INFICON Holding AG (SIX Swiss Exchange: IFCN) reports sales of USD 93.6 million for the second quarter of 2017. This is an increase of 24.0% over the same period of last year. Compared with the first three months of the year, the increase is 5.7%. Excluding currency effects (-1 percentage point), sales increased organically 25% compared with last year's figure. In the first half-year of 2017, sales rose 25.4% (organically: 25.7%) from USD 145.2 million a year ago to now USD 182.1 million. INFICON has raised its guidance and expects now to achieve sales of over USD 340 (previously 320) million and an operating income margin exceeding 18 (previously 17) % in the full year 2017.
Sales developments in the target markets
INFICON reports double-digit sales increases for all target markets except Security & Energy. Sales to customers in the Semi & Vacuum Coating target market rose in the second quarter by 55.2% to USD 43.3 million. Compared with the first quarter of 2017, sales picked again up by 6.9%. This appealing
trend reflects both the ongoing boom in OLED flat panel display technology as well as the continued
positive sales trend in the semiconductor market. INFICON remains confident for the prospects of this target market. Sales to customers in the Refrigeration, Air Conditioning & Automotive market increased by 15.7% over the same period last year to reach a new quarterly high of USD 20.4 million. Compared with the preceding first quarter, sales again show a double-digit (10.7%) surge. In the second quarter, important sales increases came from the automotive business, including the electromobility/battery business. Sales to the industrially broadly based General Vacuum market confirmed the overall economic recovery with a 14.2% sales increase to USD 25.4 million compared with corresponding prior-year figure. The sequential increase of 3.9% over the first three months of the year echoes this expected trend. In the Security & Energy market, INFICON achieved sales of USD 4.6 million in the reporting quarter. This is a decline of 13.9% compared with the first quarter of 2017 and a drop of 41.5% compared with the strong figure recorded in the same quarter a year ago. This decline was mainly attributable to the security market, a long-term project business dominated by large customer orders.
Strengthened margins
INFICON achieved a gross profit of USD 47.2 million in the reporting period after USD 38.1 million a year ago. This translates into an unchanged gross profit margin of 50.4%. The expenses for research and development remained almost at the same level, while sales and administrative costs increased to USD 21.9 million in the wake of ongoing and higher marketing and sales activities. INFICON closed the second quarter 2017 with a 56% higher operating income of USD 18.4 million, resulting in an operating income margin of 19.7% after 15.6% a year ago, and 20.1% recorded for the first quarter. The net income for the period was USD 13.8 million, bringing the net profit margin up by 2 percentage points to 14.8%. Earnings per share amounted to USD 5.72 after USD 4.08 at the end of June last year.
After returning USD 38.4 million to the shareholders in May, the balance sheet of INFICON shows a net cash position of USD 51.4 million as per June 30, 2017 after USD 63.9 Mio. at year-end. INFICON achieved a cash flow from operations of 14.9 million, up from USD 10.6 million a year ago. The working capital of USD 84.6 million equals 22.6% of sales and improved by 2.1 percentage points over last year's figure for the same period. Inventory turns increased to 4.3 times. Based on a balance sheet total of USD 239.2 million and following the dividend payments in May of this year, the equity ratio decreased and stands at 70.6% by the end of June after 78.9% at year-end 2016.
Full half-year report and presentations available for download
The full half-year report 2017 and the detailed presentation on the second quarter and half-year results are available for download in the investors' section of the INFICON website at http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=124424&p=irol-IRHome or under http://bit.ly/IFCN_IR_home.
Conference call and international webcast
INFICON discusses the second quarter and the first half-year 2017 results in more detail today at an English-speaking conference call at 09:30 a.m. CEST. Participants please dial in using any of the following numbers:
Europe: +41 (0) 58 310 5000
UK: +44 (0) 203 059 5862
USA: +1 (1) 631 570 5613
Please dial in some 10 minutes prior the conference. There is no PIN required to participate. The presentation accompanying the conference call is also available online in the investors' section of the INFICON website www.inficon.com, where you can also access the live webcast and, later on, an archived recording of the conference. Following http://bit.ly/IFCN_WebcastQ2 you are guided to the webcast.
Webcast access for mobile devices – QR code
You may also access the live and on-demand versions of the webcast from mobile
devices running iOS and Android using the QR code shown here:
Corporate calendar 2017
INFICON's corporate calendar is continuously updated and available at http://bit.ly/IFCN_Calendar.
E-mail Alerts
To automatically receive notification via e-mail of the latest financial information from INFICON, sign up to receive e-mail alerts from the Investors section of the INFICON website at http://bit.ly/IFCN_alerts.
Corporate Contact
Matthias Tröndle
Chief Financial Officer
+423 388 3510
matthias.troendle@inficon.com
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