SUSS MicroTec starts fiscal year 2024 with strong growth and improved margins

•    Order book reaches new record level of € 456.9 million
•    Sales of € 93.5 million significantly up 46.1% on the same quarter
     of the previous year
•    Gross profit and EBIT margin benefit from high sales level and
     favorable product mix
•    Forecast for the full year 2024 confirmed

Garching, May 8, 2024 – SÜSS MicroTec SE, a leading manufacturer of equipment and process solutions for the semiconductor industry, today publishes its quarterly statement for the first three months of the 2024 fiscal year. The preliminary financial figures for the first quarter of 2024 announced on April 18, 2024 are confirmed without exception.

In the first quarter of 2024, SUSS MicroTec generated an order intake of € 98.3 million (Q1 2023: € 94.9 million). The Advanced Backend Solutions segment accounted for approximately two thirds of this. The positive development of the bonder product line was again noteworthy with new business of € 34.4 million. This was driven by existing customers using temporary bonding solutions to produce so-called HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) chips, thus supporting the capacity expansion for microchips used in AI applications. Two new customers were also acquired, including one for the production of energy-efficient silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors. In addition, an order for a wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonder was collected. In the Photomask Solutions segment, order intake amounted to € 33.7 million, further increasing compared to the previous two quarters. The order backlog as of March 31, 2024 totalled € 456.9 million, an increase of 25.5% over the prior year (March 31, 2023: € 364.0 million).

In the first three months of this year, sales increased significantly by 46.1% to € 93.5 million (Q1 2023: € 64.0 million). Both business units contributed to this growth. While sales in the Advanced Backend Solutions segment increased by 37.6% to € 56.4 million (previous year: € 41.0 million), sales in the Photomask Solutions segment grew even by 60.6% to € 37.1 million (previous year: € 23.1 million). The biggest growth driver was the bonder business, which more than doubled compared to the first quarter of the previous year due to the high order intake in the second half of 2023. "We want to meet our customers' demanding schedules and enable them to expand their capacity to manufacture semiconductors for AI applications. 2024 is therefore a crucial year in which the efficient execution of our high order book is key. Q1 was the strongest first quarter in our company's history and indicates that we are well on track achieving this goal," says Burkhardt Frick, CEO of SÜSS MicroTec SE.

Gross profit rose by € 14.6 million to € 36.6 million in the first quarter of 2024 (previous year: € 22.0 million). The gross profit margin thus improved by 4.7 percentage points to 39.1% (previous year: 34.4%), mainly due to a favorable product mix and a volume effect from the higher sales. The margin trend was positive in both segments, with a stronger increase in the Advanced Backend Solutions segment, from 36.3% in the first quarter of 2023 to 44.5% in the first quarter of 2024. EBIT increased to € 14.9 million (Q1 2023: € 3.8 million), corresponding to an EBIT margin of 15.9% (previous year: 5.9%).

Net profit from continuing operations in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to € 10.4 million (previous year: € 3.0 million). Total net profit for the period amounted to € 68.7 million (previous year: € 2.1 million) and included the result from discontinued operations due to the sale of the MicroOptics business in the amount of € 58.3 million.

Outlook

Demand for SUSS MicroTec's equipment and solutions remains high. Overall, the company is confident about the further development of demand, although it is still waiting for the order situation for imaging and coating solutions to recover. For the full year 2024, management continues to expect sales in the range of € 340 million to € 370 million. "The high order book remains a major challenge for our production. However, we are confident that we will be able to continuously increase our output thanks to the measures already initiated to reduce throughput times, the capacity expansion at our production site in Taiwan and the increased involvement of external production partners," explains Dr. Thomas Rohe, Chief Operations Officer at SUSS MicroTec.

The gross profit margin for the full year 2024 is still expected to be in the range of 35 to 38 percent, while the EBIT forecast is in the range of 10 to 12 percent. Dr. Cornelia Ballwiesser, CFO of SÜSS MicroTec SE, comments: "For both key figures we expect positive impulses from the higher sales level and the associated economies of scale as well as from the customer-specific product mix. At the same time, we are still in the course of our growth transformation, which is coupled with additional expenses in production and administration.” The outlook for the key financial figures for the current fiscal year 2024 is therefore confirmed.

The Financial Report for the first three months of the 2024 fiscal year is available at www.suss.com/en/investor-relations in German and English.
 

Media contact:
Sven Köpsel
Vice President Investor Relations, Corporate Communications and Corporate Marketing
E-Mail: sven.koepsel@suss.com
Tel.: +49 89 32007151

About SUSS MicroTec
SUSS MicroTec is a leading supplier of equipment and process solutions for microstructuring in the semiconductor industry and related markets. In close cooperation with research institutes and industry partners SUSS MicroTec contributes to the advancement of next-generation technologies such as 3D Integration and nanoimprint lithography as well as key processes for MEMS and LED manufacturing. With a global infrastructure for applications and service SUSS MicroTec supports more than 8.000 installed systems worldwide. SUSS MicroTec is headquartered in Garching near Munich, Germany. The shares of SUSS MicroTec SE are traded in the Prime Standard of the German Stock Exchange (ISIN DE000A10K0235). For more information, please visit http://www.suss.com.

Legal Disclaimer
All statements in this release other than historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe", "expect", "intend", "anticipate", "estimate", "should", "may", "will", "plan" and similar words and terms used in relation to the enterprise are meant to indicate forward-looking statements of this kind. The company accepts no obligation toward the general public to update or correct forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, as a result of which actual events may diverge numerically from expectations. The forward-looking statements reflect the view at the time they were made.