Micronic Mydata's Q1 - slightly worse than last year

The company's net sales landed on SEK 226 million for the first quarter of 2013, down compared to the SEK 295 million recorded the same period last year. EBIT was SEK -11 million, compared to 2 million the same period last year. CEO Lars Josefsson comments: "We have seen low demand in early 2013 due to the generally weak economy. The electronics industry, in which Micronic Mydata operates, is however expected to have a long-term growth. The first quarter results were affected by lower sales but also by a strong Swedish krona vis-à-vis the currencies which are most important for us. Business area SMT experienced a decline in the order intake and in sales compared with the strong first quarter of 2012. Jet printing, with the MY500, how ever experienced increased demand. Development of demand for SMT equipment in 2013 is expected to be skewed towards the second half of the year. The Group's aftermarket business remains strong, particularly within business area PG. The degree of utilization of mask writers is rising at customer sites. We see that customers have capacity requirements but no space in their budgets for investment yet. This has a positive effect on demand for aftermarket services. We also believe that the LRS-15N can offer some of our customers the possibility of securing capacity while they wait for the time to be right for major investments. Micronic Mydata continues to focus on creating the prerequisites for sustainable profitability. We now see that the measures implemented during the second half of last year have had the desired effect on cost levels. Already at the start of 2013 we could see the full effect from these measures, meaning decreasing annual costs by SEK 60 million. We have also managed and adapted development activities to develop the product offering which is the basis for our revenue." 1 SEK = 0.11697 EUR (Oanda, 22 Apring 2013)