SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES : Reports Sales Growth and Positive EBIT for 2013 - Optimistic Outlook for the Current Year

SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES Reports Sales Growth and Positive EBIT for 2013 - Optimistic Outlook for the Current Year

Kahl am Main, March 31, 2014 - In the course of the annual financial results press conference the SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES Group (SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES) presents the final financial for the business year 2013 as well as an outlook for the business year 2014.

Overall, the past business year has been very favorable thanks to the financial success of the Optical Disc segment. SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES was able to meet the communicated forecast and achieved a positive operating result (EBIT). After taking into account financing costs in the Group, a slightly negative result pursuant to IFRS still resulted.

Dr.-Ing. Stefan Rinck, Chief Executive Officer of SINGULUS, comments: "In 2013, the strong demand for Blu-ray Discs resulted in a high demand for production machines. We sold all produced BLULINE II machines by the end of the year 2013."

Unfortunately, the global market for production machines for solar cells and modules remained weak in the past year. However, some success was achieved in the Solar segment. In the fourth quarter 2013 the delivered production line for crystalline solar cells in Vilnius, Lithuania, was commissioned. The coating machine SINGULAR XP for the rear-side coating of the new PERC solar cells was successfully placed with the initial customers. In the area of thin-film solar cells SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES developed and delivered a new vaporization machine in 2013, amongst others. Thus, SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES already today covers two thirds of the required machines of a CIS/CIGS modules production with its own range of machines.

In 2013 numerous semiconductor coating machines were assembled and successfully commissioned by our globally operating semiconductor customers. SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES extended its machine platform and developed and presented a new coating machine under the name of TIMARIS III with a considerably increased capacity for the wafer production. The ROTARIS was finalized as a platform for research and development applications and already established in the market with the first customers. Accordingly, the demand for equipment in the areas of research and development as well as the industrial mass production of wafers can be met.

Key financial figures business year 2013
Sales (gross) of the business year 2013 amounted to € 134.9 million and were therefore significantly above previous year's level (previous year: € 108.6 million). This corresponds to a rise in sales of 24.2 % compared with the prior-year level. In the year under review the EBIT amounted to € 2.2 million (previous year: € -60.5 million). In 2013 SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES realized a gross profit margin in the amount of 25.0 % (previous year: 18.0 %).

In the business year 2013 the order intake stood at € 115.1 million, which was slightly below the prior-year level (previous year: € 121.9 million). The order backlog amounted to € 20.3 million as of December 31, 2013 (previous year: € 40.1 million). The amount of the order intake and the order backlog for the business year 2013 is mainly due to until December 31, 2013 not yet realized contract conclusions in the segments Solar and Semiconductor. At the end of 2013 the SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES Group employed 362 people in total (previous year: 400 employees), thereof 283 employees in Germany (previous year: 305 employees).

Strategy and outlook for 2014
The path of further development along the core competencies entered by the Executive Board of the SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES in the past couple of years will also be consistently followed in the coming years. This means an expansion of the production range within the already existing segments. For this the development efforts are continued and intensified in order to implement machines and plant concepts and to develop them to marketability. On the other hand, the company's competencies will be transferred to new application areas to broaden the customer base. At the same time, the dependency on the cycles in the individual sales markets will be reduced. The intensive further development of the existing product portfolio through research and development will also be in the spotlight of the corporate strategy in the year 2014. Similar to the past business year 2013, the Executive Board will review the acquisition of companies or parts of companies. SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES' know-how offers very good prospects to strengthen the company through internal and external growth and to expand the position as a leading technology company.

For the year 2014 SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES once again expects a favorable course of business with positive operating earnings (EBIT).

Background SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES - Innovations for New Technologies
SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES' goal is the technologic leadership in the segments Optical Disc, Solar and Semiconductor as well as the use of synergies to open new work areas in the future. In this process SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES focuses on solutions that are not only economical, but also sustainable and resource-efficient.

In the Optical Disc segment SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES continues to expand the market leadership and today is already able to offer machines, which enable the production of triple-layer Blu-ray Disc wit a storage volume of about 100 GB in total.

In the Solar segment SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES positions itself as a supplier for new production solutions for crystalline and thin-film solar cells, which with lower production costs increase the level of efficiency or achieve a higher level of efficiency. SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES establishes itself in this market as a development partner and machine supplier for technologies enabling a sustainable and chosen energy provision on the basis of renewable energies.

In the Semiconductor segment SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES focuses its activities on the vacuum coating of wafers with ultra thin layers for the manufacturing of MRAM memory, thin-film write/read heads, sensors and other semiconductor applications.

SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES is continuously expanding the technologic know-how in the areas vacuum coating, automation, process technology as well as the integration of production steps in order to open further, attractive work areas. In this context, internal growth from the development of proprietary solutions as well as acquisition opportunities for the generation of external growth are analyzed with respect to their feasible implementation.

At a Glance - Consolidated Key Figures

		2012	2013
Sales	in million €	108.6	134.9
Order intake	in million €	121.9	115.1
Order backlog (Dec. 31)	in million €	40.1	20.3
EBIT	in million €	-60.5	2.2
Earnings before taxes	in million €	-63.8	-1.0
Net profit/loss	in million €	-62.4	-0.7
Operating cash flow	in million €	-0.4	-0.6
Shareholders' equity	in million €	74.5	73.8
Balance sheet total	in million €	206.5	194.4
Expenses research & development	in million €	8.9	7.7
Employees (Dec. 31)		400	362
Weighted average shares outstanding, basic	shares	48,930,314	48,930,314
Earnings per share, basic	€	-1.25	-0.01

SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG, Hanauer Landstraße 103, D-63796 Kahl/Main, ISIN: DE0007238909, WKN: 723890