Jena, Germany - Despite a challenging market environment, the Jenoptik Group reports revenue of 600M euros for the first time in 2013. The increase in revenue over the prior year (585M euros) thus came to ~3%. Growth momentum was primarily attributable to the Middle East/Africa, America and Germany. The operating result (EBIT) is at over 52M euros (prior year 54.8M euros) and was influenced by major investment in expanding international distribution structures, new products, and expenses for Group development projects. As a result, the Group achieved a profitability level almost on a par with the 2012 record. The EBIT margin comes to ~8.8%, according to provisional calculations (prior year 9.4%).
In the 2013 fiscal year, the Jenoptik Group received new orders totaling around 575M euros. According to preliminary figures, the order intake was thus below the level of the prior year (prior year 587.2M euros). In this context, allowance should be made for the fact that the figure for the prior year included major orders in the Metrology and Lasers & Optical Systems segments. In addition, as a result of a weaker development of the economy, there were postponements of orders to subsequent periods, the company report said.
At the end of 2013, the order backlog of the Jenoptik Group, at 411M euros, was below the high level in the prior year (12/31/2012: 446.8M euros) due to a modified order structure. In the future, Jenoptik will increasingly focus on international orders with a shorter term as well as on products for civil applications in the Defense & Civil Systems segment.
The Lasers & Optical Systems segment was affected by the weakness in the semiconductor equipment market, particularly in the first half-year and stronger sales in the life science market in the second half of the year. Revenue in the segment came to ~225M euros (prior year 212.3M euros), the EBIT to ~25M euros (prior year 27.1M euros); determinants were a modified product mix, start-up costs for new products, and the expansion of international distribution.
At present, Jenoptik is anticipating revenue growth of between 5 and 10% for the 2014 fiscal year. The Group EBIT is due to come in at between 55 and 62M euros.
The Jenoptik Group expects to achieve profitable growth over the coming years and an average EBIT margin of around 9 to 10%, as well as revenue growth of ~10% over the course of the market cycles. Once again the revenue target is expected to primarily be achieved through organic growth. Up to 2017, Jenoptik will be striving to increase revenue to ~800M euros and grow the share of revenue in America and Asia / Pacific jointly to more than 40% of Group revenue.
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