AT&S opens financial year 2014/15 with rise in profits

The AT&S Group generated revenue of € 141.3 million in the first three months of the financial year 2014/15, which was in line with the previous year’s total (Q1 2013/14 € 142.5 million). Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) amounted to € 29.1 million, an increase of 3.6% on the Q1 2013/14 total of € 28.1 million. Consolidated net income for the first quarter rose by 14.6% to € 7.6 million. “Like last year, the new financial year has got off to a successful start. The main factors behind this are the continued growth in sales in the Automotive, Industrial and Medical Technology segments. At this point I would like to emphasise that we were able to successfully make up for a decline in demand – which was considerable in the case of certain Mobile Devices customers. Capacity utilisation was strong and reaffirmed AT&S’s strong standing on the market. We expect this positive performance to continue particularly in light of the traditionally strong demand for mobile devices in the second half of the calendar year,” explained CEO Andreas Gerstenmayer. Mobile Devices’ sales reached € 68 million, down by around 9% on the previous year’s total (Q1 2013/14: € 74.5 million). Comparatively lower volumes resulted from different time periods for the ramp-up of new projects. While the same period of 2013/14 was characterised by the introduction of the BB10 platform, this year reflects normal seasonal patterns with new product ramp-ups taking effect a quarter later. Industrial & Automotive’s sales for the first quarter of 2014/15 reached € 72.6 million, an increase of around 9% on the comparative period (2013/14: € 66.4 million). Increased use of innovative electronics in cars has fuelled rising demand for high-value printed circuit boards. The growth in industrial applications remains steady, primarily due to positive demand for applications used e.g. in machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, industrial automation or LEDs. In Medical Technology revenue gains were primarily attributable to increased demand for therapeutic applications. Development of the Chongqing plant with a strategic focus on the new integrated circuit (IC) substrates business is progressing according to plan. The installation and qualification process has been launched for production equipment and machinery.