SUSS MicroTec expects sales to increase to € 340-370 million and gross profit margin and EBIT margin to improve in fiscal year 2024

Garching, March 27, 2024 – SÜSS MicroTec SE, a leading manufacturer of system and process solutions for the semiconductor industry, today publishes its Annual Report 2023 with final, audited financial figures for the past fiscal year. The preliminary and unaudited key figures for the fiscal year 2023 announced on February 29, 2024 are confirmed without exception.

Order intake based on continuing operations, i.e. excluding the sold MicroOptics business, reached a record level of € 420.5 million (previous year: € 411.0 million). At € 296.4 million (previous year: € 279.7 million), the Advanced Backend Solutions division accounted for the largest share of new business. The biggest growth driver was the bonder business, which more than doubled its order intake to € 156.8 million (previous year: € 76.6 million). This strong order momentum was driven by capacity expansions for the production of microchips used in Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. Order intake for lithography solutions decreased significantly to € 139.6 million (previous year: € 203.0 million), triggered by more cautious investment behavior of chip manufacturers in the current semiconductor industry cycle. Order intake in the Photomask Solutions division reached a strong level of € 124.1 million in fiscal year 2023, just missing previous year's record level of € 130.9 million. The order book of the continuing operations as of December 31, 2023 amounted to € 452.5 million, reaching a new record level (December 31, 2022: € 335.4 million). "The capacity utilization of our production sites will therefore be very high in 2024 and partly also in 2025, especially for bonders and in the Photomask Solutions division," says Dr. Thomas Rohe, Chief Operations Officer at SUSS MicroTec.

Sales from continuing operations increased by 17.0% to € 304.3 million (previous year: € 260.0 million). The Photomask Solutions division made the largest contribution to group growth with an increase in sales of € 40.9 million or 83.8% to € 89.7 million (previous year: € 48.8 million). The main reasons for this were the execution of the high order book and the significant easing of supply chains constraints. In the Advanced Backend Solutions division, sales increased in absolute terms by € 3.8 million to € 214.7 million (previous year: € 210.9 million). Here, too, the bonders developed very positively with growth of 47.7% to € 51.7 million (previous year: € 35.0 million). The positive order development in the fiscal year 2022 and in the first half of 2023 contributed to this significant increase in sales. In contrast, sales in the lithography business decreased by -7.3%.

The gross profit margin from continuing operations reached 34.1% (previous year: 38.7%) and was impacted by an unfavorable product mix and expenses to increase production capacity to fulfil the very positive order intake. EBIT from continuing operations amounted to € 27.8 million, down € 3.7 million from € 31.5 million in the previous year due to increased R&D and transformation expenses. Consequently, the EBIT margin reached 9.1% (previous year: 12.1%). However, with an EBIT margin of 14.6%, Q4 was the most profitable quarter of the year.

Net income for the year amounted to € 4.7 million (previous year: € 24.5 million). The decrease was mainly due to the result from discontinued operations of € -12.6 million. This included a negative result from the MicroOptics division and expenses of € 4.4 million in connection with the sale of the subsidiary SUSS MicroOptics S.A., which was completed in January 2024 and already had been recognized in the previous fiscal year.

The Management Board and the Supervisory Board will propose to the Annual General Meeting on June 11, 2024 to distribute an unchanged dividend of € 0.20 per share. This would result in a total payout of € 3.8 million and a payout ratio of approximately 50% of the free cash flow from continuing operations. Overall, i.e. including the MicroOptics division, the free cash flow amounted to € -4.4 million. "We are thus deviating from our dividend policy of paying out 20 to 40% of free cash flow. The reason for this is that in SUSS MicroTec's anniversary year – in 2024 we are celebrating our 75th anniversary and our 25th anniversary as a listed company – we want our shareholders to participate in the success of the sale of the MicroOptics business, even though the extraordinary income will not be realized until fiscal year 2024," explains Dr. Cornelia Ballwiesser, CFO of SÜSS MicroTec SE.

Outlook

Provided no unexpected deterioration in the global economy in general and the semiconductor or semiconductor equipment market in particular, and provided the Company is not again impacted by increased administrative efforts and delays in export approvals for shipments to China, management expects full year 2024 sales to be in a range of € 340 to 370 million. The midpoint of this range would represent a growth rate of 16.7%. "We expect the largest growth contribution to come from our bonder business, which has recently been very strong in terms of orders and where we are benefiting from the substantial capacity expansion of AI related chip production," says Burkhardt Frick, CEO of SUSS MicroTec.

Management generally expects the gross profit margin to improve in 2024. The expected higher sales volume is likely to ensure a better coverage of fixed costs. The product mix of the system shipments planned for 2024 should also have a positive impact on the margin development. At the same time, SUSS MicroTec is undergoing a growth transformation, which is associated with costs. Taking all factors into account, the gross profit margin is expected to be in a range of 35 to 38% in fiscal year 2024. The midpoint of this range would represent an improvement of 2.4 percentage points compared to the gross profit margin of 34.1% in fiscal year 2023.

The higher level of sales and the associated economies of scale are expected to also have a positive impact on EBIT. At the same time, higher expenses will be required for research and development and transformation-related expenses in production, sales and administration. Overall, the company expects an EBIT margin in the range of 10 to 12%. Non-operating extraordinary income of approximately € 58 million will also be realized from the sale of the MicroOptics business, which was completed in January 2024.

The 2023 Annual Report is available for download at www.suss.com/en/investor-relations in German and English language.

Media contact:
Sven Köpsel
Vice President Investor Relations, Corporate Communications and Corporate Marketing
E-Mail: sven.koepsel@suss.com
Tel.: +49 89 32007151

About SUSS MicroTec
SUSS MicroTec is a leading supplier of equipment and process solutions for microstructuring in the semiconductor industry and related markets. In close cooperation with research institutes and industry partners SUSS MicroTec contributes to the advancement of next-generation technologies such as 3D Integration and nanoimprint lithography as well as key processes for MEMS and LED manufacturing. With a global infrastructure for applications and service SUSS MicroTec supports more than 8.000 installed systems worldwide. SUSS MicroTec is headquartered in Garching near Munich, Germany. The shares of SUSS MicroTec SE are traded in the Prime Standard of the German Stock Exchange (ISIN DE000A10K0235). For more information, please visit http://www.suss.com.

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