Aixtron reports financial results for Q4 2015 and full financial year 2015

Aixtron has recently announced financial results for the fourth quarter 2015 and the full financial year 2015.

Aixtron said that on the way back to profitability, the company was able to reach important, but not all milestones in the past year. As planned, the Company generated a positive EBITDA for the second half of 2015.

Aixtron's operating expenses were also roughly in line with their target of around EUR 80m. Contrary to expectations, San'an Optoelectronics did not qualify the new AIX R6 system, and we were not able to reach our original revenue target. In spite of this, Aixtron managed to increase revenues slightly to EUR 197.8 million in 2015.

Key Financials

Financial Highlights

• The LED market remains challenging even though the global trend towards LED lighting continues
• Excess capacities and very intense competition between LED manufacturers in Asia put a strain on the demand for MOCVD production systems
• Aixtrons' 2015 equipment order intake at EUR 167.1m was down EUR 31.6m from the previous year’s figure of EUR 198.7m
• Following a negative free cash flow of EUR -35.0m in the fourth quarter, we ended fiscal year 2015 with a free cash flow of EUR -57.3m (2014: EUR -47m; Q3/2015: EUR -10.0m)
• This was mainly driven by a partial repayment of advance payments from San’an for the originally ordered 50 AIX R6 systems
• The remaining payment to San’an was made in Q1/2016
• Cash and cash equivalents (including bank deposits with a maturity of more than three months) as of December 31, 2015 amounted to EUR 209.4m (December 31, 2014: EUR 268.1m) and in comparison to 2014 were down by EUR 58.7m

Management Review

Martin Goetzeler, President and Chief Executive Officer at Aixtron said:

• In the past year, we were able to improve our earnings again even though we were not in the black yet. Achieving positive EBITDA in the second half of 2015 as planned and without the revenue share from China confirms our cost discipline as well as the progress in the implementation of our diversification strategy
• Aixtron has a promising technology and product portfolio which we are developing systematically
• Leaving aside LEDs, we were able to register the best year for optoelectronics, especially for applications such as laser, infrared LEDs and photovoltaics, as well as power electronics in a long time by partially tripling our revenues
• Although we are in an early phase in the area of carbon nano technology, we achieved another improvement in revenues in 2015
• Based on our technology for memory chips, we almost doubled our revenues in the silicon industry and we have continued to drive forward our market positioning for the development of new logic applications
• With the installation of our Gen8 demonstration system and the acquisition of the encapsulation technology from PlasmaSi, we see ourselves in a good position for the current year

Guidance

Based on the assessment on Aixtron's current order situation, including current risks and opportunities as well as on the internal budget rate of US$/EUR 1.10, Management expects to achieve revenues between EUR 170 and 200 million for fiscal year 2016 with a significantly stronger revenue generation in the second half of 2016 compared to the first half of 2016. Currency-adjusted order intake is expected to be at the same level as in fiscal year 2015.

Depending on the successful completion of qualification processes and market entry efforts as well as the achievement of revenues at the high end of the revenue guidance range, Management expects to achieve another improvement of results in 2016. EBITDA, EBIT, net result and free cash flow are expected to improve slightly compared to 2015 but to remain negative for the full year 2016.

Management expects to report a positive EBITDA for full year 2017.