Soitec reports consolidated sales of 43.2 million Euros for the first quarter 2013-2014 consistent with its FY2013/2014 revenue guidance

Soitec reports consolidated sales of 43.2 million Euros for the first quarter 2013-2014 consistent with its FY2013/2014 revenue guidance 

·        Consolidated sales down by 28.3% year on year
·        Confirmed electronic sales sequential growth for Q2 2013-2014
·        Strengthened balance sheet after successful €71.5m capital increase  

Bernin, France, 25^th July 2013 - Soitec (Euronext Paris), a world leader in generating and manufacturing revolutionary semiconductor materials for energy and electronics, today announced consolidated sales of 43.2 million Euros for the first quarter down by 28.3% on a year-on-year basis and by 40.5% on a sequential basis, in line with the recent guidance.

Electronic Business Segment

As anticipated, the Electronic segment recorded a significant sequential decrease in sales by 40.0% compared to last year fourth quarter. Major customers in high performance markets reduced inventories due to continued low demand in many PC related markets.

Digital sales (i.e. total 300 mm wafer sales) for the first quarter were down by 48.9% at 18.0 million Euros on a year-on-year basis. Other electronic sales dedicated to RF and mobile applications (i.e. small diameter wafer sales excluding royalties and equipments) were up by 4.5% at 22.0 million Euros on a yearly basis.

Licensing revenues were 0.7 million Euros and Equipment sales (i.e. Altatech) were at 0.3 million Euros in the first quarter.

Solar Energy and Lighting Business Segments

The Solar Energy division reported 0.3 million Euros of sales for the first quarter as it continues to execute on its pipeline projects.

Lighting revenues were 0.2 million Euros.  

Return to sequential growth anticipated for the second quarter

Electronic sales are expected to increase by about 10% from the first to the second quarter of the 2013-2014 financial year at constant exchange rates. The group anticipates that this will be followed by further growth over the financial year. Therefore, the group anticipates that for the full 2013-2014 financial year the decrease in percentage of sales of its electronic activity should be equivalent to the decrease registered for the full 2012-2013 financial year.

The Solar division is expected to continue to ramp deliveries for the South African project on time in order to achieve 50% completion of the project before the end of calendar year 2013. Revenue recognition is dependent upon the passing of certain project related milestones. Therefore, the Group continues to anticipate recognizing the full c.€80m revenue related to the Touwsrivier project by the end of FY2013/2014.

Implementation of the Soitec 2015 program

The Soitec 2015 program is focused on addressing significant market evolutions, increasing Soitec's revenue and growth opportunities, and streamlining its current organization with a view to achieve its target of being profitable at the operating profit level by FY 2015-2016.

As part of the program, the Group is assessing the option to regroup its global Solar manufacturing operations at its San Diego facility in order to improve the cost-base structure of the Solar Energy Division .

In the Electronic segment, as part of its productivity initiatives and in order to enhance its load factor, Soitec will return its wafer refresh activities to its Bernin facilities, thus freeing manufacturing capacity in Singapore to address the future ramp-up of FD SOI.

Successful Capital increase

The €71.5 million share capital increase with preferential subscription rights was oversubscribed with a total demand of approximately 75 million shares, representing approximately 153% of the offer. André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé, Chief Executive Officer of Soitec, declared: "I am delighted about the success of this transaction and want to thank our shareholders on the trust they have shown in the context of this share capital increase. We will now be able to proceed to the second phase of our program to refinance the OCEANEs and continue our growth strategy."

Recent Developments

Soitec and Alstom announced on July 23, 2013 that they signed a cooperative agreement in order to provide concentrating photovoltaic power plants. This agreement follows the call for tender issued by the French Energy Regulation Commission, last March 13th, in order to exploit solar power plants using whole or in part concentrating photovoltaic technology, for a total power capacity of 100 MW. In order to propose a complete and competitive offer, Alstom and Soitec will combine their experience in delivering turnkey power plants and in providing integrated solutions and main equipment for power generation on one hand, and concentrating photovoltaic technology, on the other hand.

Agenda
The second quarter sales for the financial year 2013-2014 will be published on 21 October 2013 after the closing of the Paris Stock Exchange.

About Soitec:

Soitec is an international manufacturing company, a world leader in generating and manufacturing revolutionary semiconductor materials at the frontier of the most exciting energy and electronic challenges. Soitec's products include substrates for microelectronics (most notably SOI : Silicon-on-Insulator) and concentrating photovoltaic systems (CPV). The company's core technologies are Smart Cut(TM), Smart Stacking(TM) and Concentrix(TM), as well as expertise in epitaxy. Applications include consumer and mobile electronics, microelectronics-driven IT, telecommunications, automotive electronics, lighting products and solar power plants for large-scale utilities. Soitec has manufacturing plants and R&D centers in France, Singapore, Germany, and the United States.

For more information, visit: www.soitec.com.

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