EQS-News: SUSS MicroTec continues strong growth and significant margin expansion in the second quarter

•    Order book remains at a very high level of € 450.0 million
•    Q2 sales of € 99.3 million exceeded high Q1 sales (€ 93.5 million)
•    Gross and EBIT margins for the first half of 2024 significantly above
     previous year
•    Forecast already raised on July 18, 2024

Garching, August 7, 2024 – SUSS MicroTec SE, a leading manufacturer of equipment and process solutions for the semiconductor industry, today publishes its half-year financial report for fiscal year 2024. The key financial figures for the first half of 2024, which were preliminarily announced on July 18, 2024, are confirmed without exception.

In the second quarter of 2024, SUSS MicroTec generated an order intake of € 93.9 million (Q2 2023: € 83.3 million). Around 70% accounted for the Advanced Backend Solutions segment, with the continued high demand for bonders. The larger share was attributable to temporary bonding solutions. The order intake also included an order for the hybrid bonding platform introduced in May 2024, which enables both die-to-wafer (D2W) and wafer-to-wafer (W2W) hybrid bonding processes. Order intake in the Photomask Solutions segment amounted to € 28.1 million in the second quarter (Q2 2023: € 46.1 million). After six months of the current financial year, incoming orders totaled € 192.2 million (previous year: € 178.2 million). The order book increased to € 450.0 million as of June 30, 2024, up 18.0% compared to the previous year (June 30, 2023: € 381.5 million).

“The high order book drives us to continue the expansion of flexible production capacities and measures to increase operational efficiency at full speed. The pressure on manufacturing remains high in order to meet the ambitious capacity expansion plans of our customers, especially for AI-related microchips,” says Burkhardt Frick, CEO of SUSS MicroTec SE. “We want to demonstrate that we are a strong partner for further growth and are working intensively to accelerate the delivery capability from our production sites in Germany and Taiwan,” adds COO Dr. Thomas Rohe.

Sales increased significantly by 45.6% to € 192.8 million in the first six months of 2024 (previous year: € 132.4 million). The second quarter of 2024 contributed € 99.3 million (Q2 2023: € 68.4 million) and was thus above the level of the first quarter of 2024 of € 93.5 million. Growth in the first half of the year was driven by both segments. While sales in the Advanced Backend Solutions segment rose by 39.1% to € 136.0 million (previous year: € 97.8 million), the sales volume of Photomask Solutions increased by 64.6% to € 56.8 million (previous year: € 34.5 million). In the backend business, sales of the bonding product line almost tripled compared to the first half of 2023. The steep increase in sales was enabled by the high order intake in the second half of 2023 and the successful expansion of capacity for temporary bonders at the production site in Hsinchu (Taiwan).

Gross profit increased by € 29.7 million to € 76.8 million in the first half of 2024 (previous year: € 47.1 million). The gross profit margin thus improved by 4.2 percentage points to 39.8% (previous year: 35.6%), mainly due to a favorable product mix and a volume effect. Both segments contributed to the substantial margin improvement: The Advanced Backend Solutions segment improved to 42.3% (previous year: 37.3%) and the Photomask Solutions segment managed an increase to 34.5% (previous year: 30.9%). EBIT increased to € 30.1 million in the first half of 2024 (previous year: € 11.5 million), corresponding to an EBIT margin of 15.6% (previous year: 8.7%).

At € 22.5 million, earnings after taxes from continuing operations in the first half of 2024 were significantly higher than the previous year's figure of € 9.4 million. The total profit for the period amounted to € 80.8 million (previous year: € 6.2 million) and included earnings from discontinued operations after tax of € 58.3 million, including the income from the sale of the MicroOptics business.

Forecast

Demand for systems and solutions from SUSS MicroTec remains high. “We are confident that we will be able to build on the positive sales and margin momentum of the first half of the year in the second half. Consequently, we have raised our expectations for all three key forecast figures,” says Dr. Cornelia Ballwiesser, CFO of SUSS MicroTec.

As already announced in an ad hoc announcement on July 18, 2024, management expects sales for the full year 2024 to be in the range of € 380 to 410 million (previously: € 340 to 370 million). The gross profit margin is expected to be in the range of 38 to 40% (previously: 35 to 38%) and the EBIT margin in the range of 14 to 16% (previously: 10 to 12%). Dr. Cornelia Ballwiesser comments: “The expected development of the financial performance indicators underlines the fact that we want to grow very significantly in the current transformation phase and achieve increasing profitability despite rising expenses for research and development, production and administration.”

The half-year financial report is available at https://www.suss.com/en/investor-relations in German and English language. 

Media contact:
Sven Köpsel
Vice President Investor Relations and Communications
E-Mail: sven.koepsel@suss.com
Tel.: +49 89 32007151

About SUSS MicroTec
SUSS MicroTec is a leading supplier of equipment and process solutions for microstructuring in the semiconductor industry and related markets. In close cooperation with research institutes and industry partners SUSS MicroTec contributes to the advancement of next-generation technologies such as 3D Integration and nanoimprint lithography as well as key processes for MEMS and LED manufacturing. With a global infrastructure for applications and service SUSS MicroTec supports more than 8.000 installed systems worldwide. SUSS MicroTec is headquartered in Garching near Munich, Germany. The shares of SUSS MicroTec SE are traded in the Prime Standard of the German Stock Exchange (ISIN DE000A10K0235). For more information, please visit http://www.suss.com.

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