Highlights

• Net turnover rises to EUR 213.6 million, up 7.9 percent year-on-year, largely on the back of strong contributions from Semiconductor, Automotive and Defence.
• Order intake increased by 12.1 percent year-on-year, primarily driven by new contracts at Semiconductor and Automotive. Order book stood at EUR 218.0 million at end-June 2017, up from EUR 184.4 million at end-June 2016.
• Gross margin at EUR 84.8 million, an increase of 9.3 percent compared with the first half of 2016, on the back of higher sales and the realisation of purchasing benefits.
• Normalised operating result at EUR 7.2 million, in line with the first half of 2016. Faster than anticipated growth in activity levels and late deliveries due to scarcity in the components market resulted in inefficiency in the production process and the greater use of temporary staff. In addition, Neways made extra investments in the organisation to facilitate the realisation of larger and more complex development projects, which had a dampening effect on the operating result.
• Net income came in 11.4 percent higher at EUR 4.9 million, due to a one-off tax gain of EUR 0.4 million and lower interest expenses.

Huub van der Vrande, CEO: “The increase in orders and turnover in the first half of the year shows that we are growing strongly and that OEMs clearly recognise the added value of our proposition as a full-fledged development and lifecycle partner. Both new and existing clients increasingly approach and engage Neways in the early stages in the development of electronic components and systems. This was a particularly busy first half for our developers and engineers.

In addition to strong growth in the number of orders, the average volume of orders also increased. This increased the range of demands and requirements from our clients and the complexity of the orders. A number of projects required additional efforts due to the rapid upscaling in terms of both the size and complexity of development projects. We see clear potential to improve the execution of projects in term of both effectiveness and efficiency. However, we are not satisfied with the development of the result in the past six-month period.”

Neways will continue the roll-out of its group-wide improvement programme “Up to the next level” in the second half of 2017 and as part of this programme will prioritise improvements in operational efficiency. Thanks to these efforts and the strong increase in the order book, Neways expects to record higher net turnover and normalised operating result for the full-year 2017 compared to the full-year 2016.