Fingerprint needs to cut costs – 179 employees to go

As previously communicated, Fingerprints’ sales and earnings have been impacted by a weak market development and a continued negative price development for capacitive sensors. In view of the continued weakening of sales and gross margin during the company’s first quarter, and the shift in demand in favour of smaller and cheaper fingerprint sensors, Fingerprints is now initiating additional cost savings measures. The implementation of these actions is estimated to be finalised during the third quarter of 2018. The initiatives are estimated to result in additional cost savings of some SEK 350 million on an annual basis with full effect at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. The number of positions will be reduced by approximately 179. Restructuring costs are currently estimated at SEK 65 million (EUR 6.3 million) and will mainly be recorded in the third quarter of 2018. At the same time, the company also announces a non-cash inventory write-down of approximately SEK 336 million (EUR 32.6 million) and a non-cash write-off of capitalised R&D projects amounting to approximately SEK 143 million (EUR 13.9 million). “We are continuing to adapt our operations to the fundamental and rapid change in business conditions, with the objective of returning to profitable growth. The cost reduction measures we are communicating today are important in order to strengthen our competitiveness”, commented Christian Fredrikson, President and CEO of Fingerprints.