EQS-Adhoc

Cicor exceeds previous year's results and looks positively to the future

EQS Group-Ad-hoc: Cicor Technologies Ltd / Key word(s): Half Year Results Cicor exceeds previous year's results and looks positively to the future 12-Aug-2021 / 07:00 CET/CEST Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

The ongoing shortage in the market for semiconductor devices and certain other input materials poses challenges for Cicor. Due to the long process times in semiconductor production, the situation is not expected to ease until around the end of the year. On the one hand, this slows down sales growth; on the other hand, customers place longer-term orders, which, in addition to the significant recovery of the global economy, led to the striking 51 % increase in order intake of CHF 139.8 million (1st half-year 2020: CHF 92.6 million). The book-to-bill ratio reached 1.20 (1st half-year 2020: 0.85), pointing in the direction of further growth for the Cicor Group. The order reach was 8.5 months, significantly above the previous year's figure of around 7 months.

Cicor Group's focus on operational excellence and structural optimization is showing results: both EBIT margin of 5.7 % (1st half-year 2020: 3.7 %) and EBITDA margin of 9.9 % (1st half-year 2020: 8.5 %) thus not only significantly exceeded the previous year's results, they were also above the operating margins achieved before the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2019.

The tripling of net profit to CHF 5.2 million or 4.4% of sales (1st half-year 2020: CHF 1.7 million, 1.5% of sales) is mainly due to the good operating results. In addition, the favorable development of the Euro against the Swiss franc in the reporting period also contributed. Free cash flow in the first half of 2021 was negative at CHF -1.8 million (1st half-year 2020: 0.7 CHF million), because inventories of preliminary products were selectively increased to secure production. The net debt/EBITDA ratio deteriorated only slightly from 0.7 to 0.8 despite the dividend payment, while the equity ratio remained unchanged at 41.9 % (31.12.2020: 41.9 %).