Pfeiffer Vacuum has announced its results for the first nine months of 2007. The company is reiterating the lower end of its sales forecast and raising its profitability outlook.
After the first three quarters of the 2007 fiscal year, sales total € 136.7 million, up 3.6 percent from the strong numbers for the comparable period the year before (€ 132.0 million). Contributing in particular to this sales growth, in addition to turbopumps (+ 3.4 percent), were backing pumps, whose sales advanced by nearly 28 percent from € 17.2 million for the first nine months 2006 to € 21.9 million for the comparable period this year.
In terms of the regional mix, there is encouraging news to report from Germany, where sales rose by nearly 12 percent from € 36.3 million to € 40.6 million. Growth here came from solar technology and the analytical industry, in particular. The development of sales in the United States and Asia, on the other hand, was unable to quite live up to the ambitious expectations. In the United States, dollar-denominated sales increased by nearly 8 percent from US$ 39.6 million to US$ 42.6 million year on year. Expressed in euros, however, these sales stand at the same level as the year before. The strong euro also made the Asian market more difficult. Sales of € 22.1 million for the current fiscal year in this region lagged 5.4 percent behind the comparable period the year before.
Pfeiffer Vacuum again set new records on the profitability side. Economies of scale and efficiency gains combined to produce a record EBIT margin of 26.7 percent for the first nine months of 2007 (9M 2006: 24.7 percent).
The company will benefit from the reduction in corporation tax rates in Germany that is planned for 2008. However this did result in a non-recurring, non-cash tax burden of € 1.1 million in the 3rd quarter of 2007; this will increase tax ratio to 46 percent on a one-time basis. The tax ratio should amount to around 39 percent for the full fiscal year, reducing to between 32 and 33 percent in fiscal 2008. In spite of the non-recurring tax burden, net income for the first nine months of the 2007 fiscal year advanced by 24 percent year on year. This results in earnings per share of € 2.84, up € 0.51 from € 2.33 the year before.
Chief Executive Officer Manfred Bender had this to say about the company's profitability: "Pfeiffer Vacuum is more profitable today than ever before. We are generating around 23 percent of our sales in the United States. Yet in spite of the sustained weakness of the dollar, we were able to increase our operating profit from € 32.6 million to € 36.6 million.
"Our EBIT margin stands at 26.7 percent, up significantly year on year. Given the company's high level of orders on hand and new orders during the current quarter, we anticipate a very strong 4th quarter. We expect to post total sales of between € 192 and € 197 million by year end. And our EBIT margin should be significantly higher than our previous forecast of at least 25 percent.
"We are also outstandingly aligned over the medium- and long-term. The company has brought a number of innovative products to market, and more are still to follow by year end. We won the prestigious R&D 100 with the OnToolTM Booster. In Asia, we are increasing our presence with a new company in China, in addition to our subsidiaries in Korea and India."
