For full-year 2015, Riber S.A. of Bezons, France, which manufactures molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) systems as well as evaporation sources and effusion cells, has reported revenue of €12.8m, down 23% on 2014's €16.6m.
This is due in particular to MBE System revenue falling by 34% from €9.3m to €6.1m. Over the full year, just nine R&D systems were delivered and invoiced (including four in fourth-quarter 2015), down on 11 in 2014.
Revenue for Services & Accessories fell by 31% from €6.1m to €4.2m, which included a major sale (of €1.2m) for the full reconfiguration of a production system in France. The contraction in demand for resupplying machines has been partially mitigated by the redeployment of the range with leading customers, as well as the diversification of the products and services offered following the acquisition of MBE Control Solutions of Santa Barbara, CA, USA (which operates maintenance and refurbishment services for all types of MBE systems).
Revenue for Cells & Sources grew strongly, by 127% from €1.1m to €2.5m, due to the development efforts made, making it possible to further strengthen and diversify the ranges of cells offered.
The drop in sales is reflected in a reduction in gross margin, from 22.6% in 2014 to 14.9% for 2015.
Sales & administrative costs have been cut by 5%, as a result of the savings measures rolled out by the firm over the past two years. Nevertheless, R&D spending rose by €0.6m. Other expenses reflect the negative impact for €0.8m of provisions recorded for receivables, as well as the earnout following the acquisition of MBE Control Solutions and the company's restructuring costs.
In this context, factoring in the financial expense and tax expense recorded, consolidated net income for 2015 shows a loss of €6.3m, up from €3.8m in 2014.
Faced with a lower level of business, cash flow from operations is negative, at €4.7m, partially offset by the significant improvement in working capital requirements (-€2.3m) due to a reduction in production lead-times and trade receivables.
Cash at the end of 2015 amounted to €0.6m, and total short-term debt was €1.2m (€0.5m of bank overdraft and two export credits, gathered in second-quarter 2015 for a total of €0.7m).? Consolidated cash is hence down from €2m at the end of 2014. After factoring in consolidated earnings, shareholders' equity is down by €6.2m year-on-year to €15.4m.
In order to stream line it's treasury position, Riber is undertaking a bargain agreement with regards to selling part of it's facility.
As announced on 21 April, the order book at the end of March has shown a significant improvement (up €4.5m year-on-year to €12.4m). This includes seven MBE systems (including two production machines to be delivered in 2016) as well as a higher level of orders for services, cells & accessories (€2.9m at the end of March). Due to this positive trend in the order book, business is expected to pick up again in 2016, concludes Riber.
