• Development of sales exceeds expectations
• Improved earnings
• Full-year guidance confirmed
Asslar, November 6, 2012. Pfeiffer Vacuum achieved sales revenues of € 354.3 million during the first nine months of 2012. In a difficult market environment, this result came in better than expected. “Sales revenues in the third quarter exceeded our expectations”, says Manfred Bender, CEO of Pfeiffer Vacuum. “Continued improvement in profitability is a particularly positive development. We are right on track in this respect. In nine months we have already generated an operating cash flow of over € 42 million. This figure is up about 18 percent over the previous year. Furthermore, liquid assets nearing € 90 million far outstrip bank liabilities totaling more than € 55 million. This means we are net debt free”. Bender continues: “As far as the full-year result for 2012 is concerned, I believe we will be able to achieve our low-end target of € 470 million. The EBIT margin will be around the 15 percent mark.”
The development of sales in the various key markets was very mixed. This is true both for market segments as well as for regional distribution. The distribution of sales revenues according to user markets showed a 6.5 percent decline in the Semiconductors market to € 131.5 million (previous year: € 140.7 million). Sales revenues in the Industry market segment decreased by 1.9 percent to € 85.1 million and have therefore proved relatively stable (previous year: € 86.7 million). In Analytics, in contrast, there was an increase of 1.2 percent to € 63.0 million (previous year: € 62.2 million). Similarly, the Research and Development segment showed a 1.0 percent improvement in sales revenues to € 40.3 million (previous year: € 39.9 million). Only the Coating market segment recorded a significant downturn. Sales revenues here dropped 54.6 percent to € 34.4 million (previous year:
€ 75.9 million).
In Europe, sales declined by 20.1 percent in the first nine months of 2012 to € 144.4 million (previous year: € 180.8 million). Sales in the Asian region decreased 9.6 percent to € 134.5 million (previous year:
€ 148.8 million). Sales revenues in the Americas remained encouragingly stable at € 74.6 million (previous year: € 74.9 million).
