Singulus Technologies announced preliminary financial results for its full 2015 business year.
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Unedited press release follows:
SINGULUS Reports Preliminary Results For 2015
Kahl am Main, February 04, 2016 – The SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG (SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES) reports preliminary unaudited financial results for the business year 2015. Sales amounted to about € 84 million in 2015 and were thus above the prior-year level of € 66.8 million. Compared with 2014, the order intake improved to about € 96 million (2014: € 60 million). The order backlog stood at approx. € 26 million as of December 31, 2015 (2014: € 14.0 million).
While the order intake, sales and the EBIT in the Solar division increased compared with the previous year, these key financial figures remained weak in the Optical Disc segment. This is especially the case for sales of the Blu-ray Disc production systems BLULINE II. SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES has responded to the changed market situation in the optical disc market and has written down replication lines of the BLULINE II type for Blu-ray Discs. The company expects only a few new orders for these production systems in the future. The disc manufacturers are working on the market introduction of the Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc. SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES expects that mainly investments in production equipment for Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs will be made in the future.
These write-offs and other restructuring charges, which were incurred in the business year 2015 due to the difficult situation of the company, have adversely impacted the earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) in 2015. The EBIT including impairment and restructuring charges amounted to € – 33 to -35 million in the year under review (previous year: € -49.1 million). Excluding the impairment and restructuring charges an EBIT in the amount of € -17 to -19 million (previous year: € -27.8 million) was realized. The EBITDA amounted to € -26 to -28 million (previous year: € -24.1 million)
As of December 31, 2015, the Group’s liquidity amounted to € 19.0 million (previous year: € 35.8 million).
In the past couple of years, SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES has continuously progressed its technologic know-how and developed new production solutions for the Solar segment, which were successfully introduced to the market. In particular machines for the production of thin-film solar cells like the vacuum machines VISTARIS and CISARIS as well as for crystalline high efficiency cells especially the SILEX II machines, SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES was able to establish the right solutions. Therefore we already received successful orders in the last year.
For a new application range like for producers of consumer goods first machines could be sold respectively new machines are in the research & development or test stage and are currently discussed with potential buyers for cooperations. SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES will continue to intensively work on the market launch of new equipment in the business year 2016 and expects first successes during the course of 2016.
The comprehensive financial results for the business year 2015 will be published by the company on March 24, 2016.
Profile SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES:
SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES develops technologies for economical and resource-efficient production processes. The application areas include vacuum thin-film and plasma coating for wet-chemical processes as well as thermal process technologies.
For all processes and applications SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES utilizes its know-how in the areas of automation and process technology in order to develop additional, attractive work areas with innovative products next to the existing application areas of Solar, Semiconductors and Optical Disc.