EQS-News: SUSS continues to grow highly profitably in the third quarter

• Significant growth in sales, gross profit margin and EBIT margin in the third quarter of 2024
• Order book of € 430.8 million ensures high visibility well into 2025
• Management Board confirms forecast for the 2024 financial year

Garching, November 7, 2024 – SUSS, a leading manufacturer of equipment and process solutions for the semiconductor industry, today published its quarterly statement for the third quarter 2024 and continued the growth trajectory of the previous quarters. “At the beginning of this year, we said that in 2024 it would be important to reliably execute our well-filled order book and grow profitably,” says Burkhardt Frick, CEO of SUSS. “We achieved this in the third quarter with sales of € 102.5 million and an EBIT margin of 16.9%. This makes the third quarter our most successful quarter so far this year.”

After nine months, sales rose by 46% to € 295.3 million (previous year: € 202.3 million). “Our efforts to increase production capacity are paying off. We are delivering more tools to our customers this year than ever before in our company's history,” says Dr. Thomas Rohe, COO of SUSS. With a total value of € 430.8 million as of 30 September 2024, the order book remains very high and will ensure high capacity utilization well into 2025, particularly at our production sites in Sternenfels (Germany) and Hsinchu (Taiwan). Dr. Thomas Rohe: “It is important for us not only to meet the current high demand, but also to prepare our company for further targeted growth in the coming years. That is why we have decided to rent a new, larger production site in Taiwan.” As already announced in a press release on November 4, 2024, the Zhubei site is located 10 kilometers from the existing production facility in Hsinchu, is scheduled to be moved into in the second half of 2025 and offers the potential to approximately double production under clean room conditions.

Despite the focus on capacity expansion and growth, SUSS has significantly improved its profitability in the course of 2024. At 39.0%, the gross profit margin in the third quarter of 2024 was significantly higher than the previous year's low figure of 29.4%. Respectively for the first nine months, our gross profit margin increased from 33.5% to 39.6%. “It is very pleasing that both segments contributed equally to this significant improvement, in particular thanks to a very positive product and customer mix,” says Dr. Cornelia Ballwiesser, CFO of SUSS. While the gross profit margin in the Advanced Backend Solutions segment increased from 35.2% to 41.6% in the first three quarters, it climbed from 29.2% to 35.5% in the Photomask Solutions segment. Both segments contributed to the sales increase with growth rates of 42.1% (Advanced Backend Solutions) and 55.9% (Photomask Solutions). The Group's EBIT margin increased significantly to 16.1% after the first nine months of the current financial year (previous year: 6.3%).

In view of the positive development of business to date, the Management Board of SUSS MicroTec SE has confirmed the forecast for the 2024 financial year, which was raised in July, in the quarterly statement published today. The Management Board continues to expect sales of between € 380 and 410 million, a gross profit margin of 38 to 40% and an EBIT margin of 14 to 16%. All three financial figures are expected to be achieved well in the upper half of the respective forecast range.

With a volume of € 84.0 million, order intake in the third quarter was below the previous year's figure of € 103.0 million and below the average new business of the first two quarters. In total, order intake after nine months amounted to € 276.2 million and was therefore slightly below the previous year's figure of € 281.2 million. “This trend with a more moderate third quarter comes as no surprise to us,” explains Burkhardt Frick. “Especially demand from Chinese customers is normalizing after a long period of exceptionally high orders, as other semiconductor equipment manufacturers also reported. Outside of China, however, our order intake has increased significantly.” In the Advanced Backend Solutions segment, the third quarter of 2024 also saw the leading memory manufacturers in particular focus on the installation of equipment and the ramp-up of high-volume production of AI chip modules. Frick continues: “As a result, follow-up orders for our temporary bonding solutions were lower in the third quarter than in the first half of the year. However, we do see opportunities with our customers for the rest of the year and have already received further follow-up orders in October.” The demand for coating solutions developed very positively in the third quarter: between July and September, SUSS received more orders than in the entire first half of the year. The order situation for imaging solutions is expected to improve in the fourth quarter.

The quarterly statement for the third quarter of 2024 is available at https://www.suss.com/en/investor-relations in German and English.

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

About SUSS

SUSS 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 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 supports more than 8,000 installed systems worldwide. SUSS 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 suss.com.

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