AT&S Reports Record Sales for the First Nine Months of 2007

AT&S announced that it has posted its strongest sales for first nine months in its history with revenues of EUR 368.3m and net profit of EUR 33.3m in the first three quarters of financial 2007/08.

“Despite the weakness of the US dollar, which had a considerable negative impact on our revenues, we were successful in raising total revenues and earnings per share to a new record high,” reports Chairman of AT&S's Management Board, Harald Sommerer.

The ramp-up of the second site in Shanghai has been successfully completed, and work has begun on the commissioning of the third site. “This additional capacity provides AT&S with a basis for considerable growth over the coming years,” explains AT&S’s Chief Financial Officer Steen Hansen.

According to the company, worldwide mobile telephone sales are expected to increase by about 10 percent in 2008 to around 1.25 billion units. It is safe to assume, the company said, that technological requirements will continue to become more complex, which in turn will require increasingly complicated printed circuit boards – a market that will favor AT&S. Complex electronics are also increasingly being used by the automotive industry. AT&S said it will be able to employ its expertise in the production of highly complex HDI printed circuit boards, which gives it a clear competitive advantage. The facilities in Austria and in India are geared not only to the European automotive industry, but to the industrial market as well. AT&S is also supported by its new service business, whose activities include procuring PCBs from partner organizations and assembly services. “We will continue to steadily expand our service activities and to take advantage of orders from other segments whenever they occur – major telecommunications orders made an important contribution to sales last year,” Harald Sommerer explains.

The significant weakness of the dollar had a considerable impact on sales, particularly in globally oriented markets such as the telecoms industry. AT&S has now established the majority of its production for the telecoms market in the extended US dollar area, so that these exogenous effects on costs can largely be taken into account at the operating level. Since the remaining currency exposures have been hedged, the impact of the dollar decline was largely confined to revenues and had a much reduced effect on earnings.

“We are highly satisfied with our record results – our highest sales for the first nine months and the highest profit for the period in our history,” explains Harald Sommerer.

AT&S today employs 6,452 people at its production sites in Austria, India, China and Korea, and in its sales offices worldwide. Based on its performance over the first three quarters and the success of its hedging activities, the company said it continues to be optimistic about the outlook for the Group’s net income and EPS for the whole of the financial year, and reaffirms guidance for the latter of EUR 1.60–1.70.

www.ats.net