• Incoming orders of CHF 188.3 million
• Net sales of CHF 262.0 million
• EBITDA of CHF -13.5 million
• EBIT of CHF -28.6 million
• Net loss of CHF -39.7 million
• Advanced strategic realignment and divestment of non-core activities
• Gunter Erfurt, CTO Meyer Burger, to succeed Hans Brändle as new CEO
• Ongoing evaluation of strategic options
• Changes in the Board of Directors
Meyer Burger Technology Ltd (SIX Swiss Exchange: MBTN) received incoming orders of CHF 188.3 million in the fiscal year 2019, compared to CHF 326.8 million in 2018. Adjusted for divestments, incoming orders decreased by 24.3%. Orders on hand as at 31 December 2019 amounted to CHF 105.1 million (31 December 2018: CHF 240.5 million). The book-to-bill ratio was 0.72 for the fiscal year 2019 (2018: 0.80 for 2018). As part of the cooperation with Oxford PV, Meyer Burger has received orders totaling CHF 38.5 million for HJT production lines, including the upgrade for perovskite tandem cell production. In addition, the Group has received two major orders from Asian customers for its MAiA® cell coating equipment totaling CHF 24.5 million.
Hans Brändle, CEO of Meyer Burger commented on the fiscal year 2019: “Business development in 2019 was disappointing. Sales and margins in the bulk business remained below our expectations. This reflects the difficult market environment due to increasingly strong Chinese competition and the Chinese government’s goals set out in the “Made in China 2025” strategic plan. Against the backdrop of these market dynamics, we continued, in the reporting year, to undertake a strategic realignment of Meyer Burger. That is to say, we are focusing on the marketing and ongoing development of our own heterojunction/SmartWire connection technologies as well as the highly promising tandem cell technology, a combination of heterojunction and perovskite. As a result of our strategic refocusing, we have restructured and divested business units and assets that no longer form part of our core business. Thereby we further reduced our fixed cost base and improved the efficiency of the organization. Our financial key figures reflect the ongoing transformation of the Group and the divestments.”
Net sales reached CHF 262.0 million (2018: CHF 407.0 million). Adjusted for divestments and currency effects, the organic decline in sales for the continuing operations was 22.1%. Sales development accelerated in the second half of 2019 to CHF 139.4 million from CHF 122.6 million in the first half of 2019.
