Revenues of € 100.0 million were achieved by Pfeiffer Vacuum in the first quarter of 2013.
“Considering that we started the year 2013 with an order intake of € 97 million in the fourth quarter of 2012, we can be reasonably satisfied with a revenue level that is greater than this”, comments Manfred Bender, Chairman of the Management Board of Pfeiffer Vacuum. “We have always said that the first half of 2013 will be affected by a difficult market environment. This also counters our efforts to improve profitability. With regard to order intake, however, an upturn is already apparent”.
The situation of customers in Europe has improved to a certain extent. Sales revenues there fell by just 5.1 percent to € 46.9 million (previous year: € 49.4 million). In contrast, sales revenues in Asia fell by 43.8 percent to € 31.4 million (previous year: € 55.8 million). In the Americas revenues decreased by 18.8 percent to € 21.5 million (previous year: € 26.5 million).
Looking at revenues for different product categories, Pfeiffer Vacuum saw an improvement of 7.0 percent for services, which rose to € 20.7 million (previous year: € 19.3 million). Turbopumps showed a decrease in revenues of 11.3 percent, falling to € 31.8 million (previous year: € 35.8 million). Sales revenues for instruments and components fell by 29.7 percent to € 24.1 million (previous year: € 34.2 million). For backing pumps, sales revenues amounted to € 21.9 million, which corresponds to a decrease of 44.2 percent (previous year: € 39.2 million). With regard to systems, sales revenues halved to € 1.6 million (previous year: € 3.4 million).
A slight rise of 0.7 percent to € 12.8 million was achieved in sales revenues for Coatings (previous year: € 12.7 million). Sales revenues in the market segment Industry decreased by 2.2 percent to € 27.7 million in the first quarter of 2013 (previous year: € 28.3 million). Sales revenues in the semiconductor market fell by 50.9 percent to € 26.0 million (previous year: € 52.9 million). The Analytics market segment showed a decrease in revenues of 12.8 percent, falling to € 19.9 million (previous year: € 22.8 million). In Research and Development, sales revenues amounted to € 13.6 million, which represents a decrease of 10.7 percent (previous year: € 15.3 million).
New orders in the first quarter of 2013 at € 104.1 million were 23.9 percent below last year s level (previous year: € 136.8 million). Compared to the previous quarter, however, it is an improvement of 6.9 percent (Q4 2012: € 97.4 million), which indicates a positive trend. The book-to-bill ratio, the ratio of orders to sales revenue, as at March 31, 2013 was 1.04 (previous year: 1.04). Orders on hand at € 75.9 million showed a reduction of 17.9 percent compared to the previous comparable period (previous year: € 92.4 million). Here too there is an increase over the previous quarter of 5.7 percent (as at December 31, 2012: € 71.8 million).
Despite a decline in sales revenues of 24.2 percent, the gross profit margin remained exactly at the level of the previous year, namely 35.6 percent. Measures taken to improve efficiency are making an impact here. In absolute values, the gross profit fell by 24.3 percent to € 35.6 million (previous year: € 47.0 million). The operating profit of € 11.1 million remained 45.2 percent below that of the previous year (previous year: € 20.3 million). This resulted in an EBIT margin of 11.1 percent (previous year: 15.2 percent). Income after tax amounted to € 7.5 million, which is a decrease of 44.6 percent compared to the last year (previous year: € 13.6 million). Correspondingly, earnings per share amounted to € 0.76 (previous year: € 1.37).
