Singulus Technologies announced financial results for the first quarter of 2017.

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Unedited press release follows:

SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES announces key figures for Q1 2017

• Sales significantly improved compared with 1st quarter one year ago
• Positive operating result
• High order backlog
• Additional contract for the delivery of CIGS production machines signed

Kahl am Main, May 12, 2017 – Sales within the SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES Group (SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES) amounted to € 26.1 million in the 1st quarter of 2017 and were thus significantly higher than the prior-year level of € 14.1 million. The operating result before interest and taxes (EBIT) of € 1.4 million was positive (previous year: € -5.8 million). In this line, the EBITDA of € 1.9 million also improved (previous year: € -5.2 million). The high order backlog of € 92.9 million as per March 31, 2017 (March 31, 2016: € 22.9 million) mainly includes machines for the production of CIGS solar modules for a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned enterprise China National Building Materials (CNBM).

At the beginning of March 2017, SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES was able to sign a contract with another customer for the delivery of CIGS production equipment with a volume of more than € 20 million. The company expects the first prepayment and will have than the order intake. Excluding this delivery contract the order intake in the quarter under review thus only came to € 9.1 million (previous year: € 10.4 million).The profit margin was increased substantially, in the first three months of the business year 2017, a gross margin in the amount of 30.1 % (previous year: 16.5 %) was achieved.

The headcount within the SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES Group remained at a constant level of 315 employees as of March 31, 2017 (December 31, 2016: 318 employees).

The Market for Production Machines for Solar Cells
At the world’s largest solar trade fair SNEC 2017, Shanghai, China, SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES presented its new machines for CIGS solar as well as heterojunction technology.

Dr.-Ing. Stefan Rinck, CEO: “The interest on part of the customers for the new production machines was high. For the market of machines for the production of heterojunction solar cells we have presented a new vacuum sputter machine in Shanghai under the brand name GENERIS PVD.” The new machine concept is based on an inline machine, which is able to vacuum coat up to 5,200 solar wafers per hour. With its flexibility and performance, the modularly built machine is directly targeting the requirements of the solar industry. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Rinck continues: “For wet-chemical applications, we have introduced the innovative inline processing machine LINEX for the cleaning and texturing of solar wafers. With its newly developed transport system, the machine guarantees a particularly careful treatment of solar wafers during the cleaning process.”

Outlook for the Business Year 2017
For the current business year SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES forecasts a doubling of sales pursuant to IFRS compared with the previous year. The operating result (EBIT) should come in at a low single-digit million level for the Group.

In the current business year in the Solar division, sales are generated from the construction and commissioning of production machines, which are primarily based on a few major project orders. This particularly applies to orders for investments in production lines for thin-film solar modules on the basis of CIGS. Moreover, orders for production machines for crystalline high-performance cells (e. g. heterojunction cells) are expected. The forecast for the annual targets for 2017 mainly rests on the assumption that the solar market will develop favorably in both the CIGS segment as well as the wet-chemical division. Furthermore, we expect the prepayment by our customer CNBM during the first half of 2017 for the second of the two factory sites. The prepayment from another customer for a further CIGS delivery contract signed in March 2017 is expected as well.

1^st quarter

SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES – Innovations for New Technologies
SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES is an engineering company and develops and builds machines for economic and resource-efficient production processes. The range of use of the machines built by SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES include vacuum thin-film and plasma coating, wet-chemical cleaning and etching processes as well as thermal processing technology.

For all machines, processes and applications SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES utilizes its know-how in the areas of automation and process technology in order to provide additional, attractive work areas with innovative products next to the existing application areas of Solar, Semiconductors, Coatings and Optical Disc.