INFICON Achieves Record Results in Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023

Corporate Contact
Matthias Tröndle
Chief Financial Officer
+423 388 3510
matthias.troendle@inficon.com

'Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR'

Announcement of INFICON Holding AG
Bad Ragaz/Switzerland, March 5, 2024

• Fourth Quarter 2023: Sales USD 174.5 million, plus 9.5% over prior year and 2.6% over Q3 2023; Operating profit USD 38.2 million or 21.9% of sales, plus 12.7% (Q4 2022: USD 33.9 million; 21.3%)
• Full-year 2023: Sales USD 673.7 million, plus 15.9%; Operating profit USD 135.2 million or 20.1% of sales, plus 21.1% (2022: USD 111.6 million; 19.2%); Net profit USD 106.0 million or 15.7% of sales (2022: USD 88.5 million; 15.2%)
• Outlook 2024: Sales of USD 650-700 million with operating profit margin around 20%
• Annual General Meeting of Shareholders and Distribution: Invitation to the AGM, scheduled for April 4, 2024, with all items on the agenda and proposals by the Board of Directors available for download. Proposed distribution per share of CHF 20.00 as ordinary dividend. Payout ratio approximately 53%
• Annual Report and Media/Analyst Conference: The Annual Report 2023 is available online. English language analyst/media conference on the year-end results today at 09:00 a.m. CET in Zürich (OBC Zürich-Europaallee, Europaallee 41, 8021 Zürich). Live streaming via MS Teams at https://ir.inficon.com/conference-calls-or-webcasts/

INFICON (SIX Swiss Exchange: IFCN), a globally leading provider of vacuum technology and Smart Manufacturing sensors and software, reports record-high results both for its fourth quarter and the full business year 2023. Looking ahead, INFICON is confident to pursue its growth path based on its customer proximity, its market-leading product and service pipeline, and ongoing expansion projects, leveraging its leading vacuum technology and Smart Manufacturing expertise into an expanding range of dynamically growing application areas and industries. For the current business year 2024, INFICON expects to achieve sales of USD 650-700 million at an operating profit margin of around 20%.

Record-high fourth quarter and full year 2023 sales

Sales reached a new high in the fourth quarter of 2023 with USD 174.5 million. This is an increase of 9.5%. Excluding positive currency effects of 1.2 percentage points, this equals an organic plus of 8.3%. In a challenging market environment, INFICON reported robust, yet with -2.1% slightly lower sales of USD 82.1 million (47.1% of Group sales) than a year ago for its largest target market Semi & Vacuum Coating. Compared with the preceding third quarter of 2023, sales clearly gained momentum and grew by 15.6%. The overall sales growth in the fourth quarter received the strongest contribution from the General Vacuum market (USD 53.3 million; 30.6% of Group sales). Sales in this market grew by 35.3% compared with the same prior-year period and developed steadily compared with the third quarter. Sales to customers in the Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, and Automotive market improved year-on-year by 13.1% to USD 30.5 million. However, this was 17.8% below the strong third quarter level. The Security & Energy market, influenced by large public sector orders, was confronted by some supply chain and supplier quality issues and saw both a decline over the same period of last year (-6.2%) and the third quarter (-1.5%) to USD 8.5 million.  

Looking at the full-year 2023 results, INFICON achieved sales of USD 673.7 million, a plus of 15.9%. Excluding negative currency effects of -0.4 percentage points and minimal positive acquisition effects of 0.2 percentage points, the organic increase was 16.1%. Year-on-year, INFICON grew 2023 in all target markets and world regions: While all regions showed increases between 13% and 18%, INFICON achieved on average a plus of around 30% in the non-semiconductor-oriented target markets while the Semi and Vacuum Coating market closed a difficult year in the Semiconductor industry with a remarkable increase of 2.0%. This market contributed with USD 311.8 million 46.3% to Group Sales. Sales to the General Vacuum market grew by 28.9% to USD 196.5 million, representing 29.2% of Group sales. Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, and Automotive reports 30.2% higher sales of USD 131.5 million. This is 19.5% of overall sales. The smallest and sales-wise the most unsteady market, Security & Energy, achieved a yearly sales increase of 46.7% to USD 33.9 million or some 5% of Group sales.

Improved margins, cash flow, and balance sheet

For the fourth quarter, INFICON achieved a gross profit of USD 81.4 million, yielding a margin of 46.7%, up from 46.1% a year ago. After constant investments into R&D and slightly rising selling, general, and administrative costs, INFICON achieved a 12.7% higher operating income of USD 38.2 million. This equals a solid margin of 21.9%. At USD 32.8 million net result, earnings per share were USD 13.41 for the reporting quarter after USD 12.11 a year ago.

Looking at the full fiscal year 2023, the gross profit developed in line with sales and amounted to USD 309.6 million, yielding a slightly improved margin of 46.0%. After R&D and tightly managed expenses, the operating profit for the full year increased by 21.1% to USD 135.2 million, or 20.1% of sales. The net result for 2023 increased by 19.8% to USD 106.0 million or 15.7% of sales. Earnings per share rose to USD 45.37 after USD 36.30 a year ago.

INFICON achieved a strong operating cash flow of USD 38.8 million in the fourth quarter and of USD 118.2 million for the full year after USD 46.2 million in the business year 2022. Inventories grew under-proportionately resulting in a Working Capital of USD 225.2 million or a slightly improved 32.3%. INFICON’s balance sheet shows a net cash position of USD 44.7 million (after USD 2.5 million end of 2022) and a solid equity ratio of 65.4% after 64.6% a year ago.

Investments, dividend proposal, and Annual General Meeting of Shareholders

In 2023, INFICON concluded a major expansion program designed to double its production capability across the globe. Going ahead, INFICON is working on the next expansion needs and growth opportunities. The main objective for the next years is to continue to strengthen the proximity to the global customer base – technologically and geographically – and to become an ever more flexible and responsive technology partner. The clear strategy, a robust business model, and healthy financial results enable INFICON to pursue these objectives. The Board of Directors thus proposes to the Shareholders to distribute an ordinary dividend of CHF 20.00. The Annual General Meeting will take place at the University of Applied Sciences OST in Buchs/SG. The invitation including the items on the agenda and all the Board of Directors’ proposals is available online at https://ir.inficon.com/annual-general-meetings/. The invitation is published today in the Swiss Gazette of Commerce and will be sent to all registered shareholders.

Outlook 2024

INFICON assesses the outlook for the upcoming quarters mostly optimistic. The order backlog, the current order intake, and the expectations for the developments in our end markets, let us expect sales in the range of USD 650 million to USD 700 million and an operating profit margin of around 20%.

Media and Analyst conference

INFICON discusses today, March 5, 2024, at 09:00 a.m. CET its fourth quarter and full-year results in more detail at an English-language media and analyst conference in Zürich, at OBC Zürich Europaallee, Europaallee 41, 8021 Zürich. The presentations will also be streamed via MS Teams. Online participants are requested to log in via https://ir.inficon.com/conference-calls-or-webcasts/. The presentation visuals are available for download in the investor relations section of the INFICON website www.inficon.com from 07:00 a.m. CET.

Annual Report and Sustainability Report 2023

INFICON’s Annual Report 2023 and its Sustainability Report are available for download at www.inficon.com in the investors’ section or directly following this link https://ir.inficon.com/financial-results-and-presentations/.

Communication calendar 2024

The results for the first quarter 2024 will be published on April 25, 2024, at 07:00 a.m. CET in a press release and at 09:30 a.m. at an English-language online conference which will be recorded and archived. The communication calendar of INFICON is continuously updated and available at https://ir.inficon.com/financial-calendar .

E-Mail Alerts

To automatically receive notification via e-mail of the latest financial information from INFICON, sign-up for e-mail Alerts in the Investors section of the INFICON website at Contact and Information Request – INFICON Holding AG – Investor Relations

About INFICON
INFICON is a leading provider of innovative instrumentation, critical sensor technologies, and Smart Manufacturing /Industry 4.0 software solutions that enhance productivity and quality of tools, processes and complete factories. These analysis, measurement, and control products are essential for gas leak detection in air conditioning/refrigeration, and automotive manufacturing. They are vital to equipment manufacturers and end-users in the complex fabrication of semiconductors and thin film coatings for optics, flat panel displays, solar cells and industrial vacuum coating applications. Other users of vacuum based processes include the life sciences, research, aerospace, packaging, heat treatment, laser cutting and many other industrial processes. We also leverage our expertise in vacuum technology to provide unique, toxic chemical analysis products for emergency response, security, and environmental monitoring. INFICON is headquartered in Switzerland and has world-class manufacturing facilities in Europe, the United States and China, as well as subsidiaries in China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. INFICON registered shares (IFCN) are listed on SIX Swiss Exchange. For more information about INFICON and its products, please visit www.inficon.com.  

This press release and oral statements or other written statements made, or to be made by us contain forward-looking statements that do not relate solely to historical or current facts. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of our management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect our current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.