Elettronica
RoodMicrotec: provisional annual figures for 2014
* These items are still under discussion with our auditor. The audit has not yet been completed.
RoodMicrotec N.V.'s sales in 2014 were EUR 9.972 million (2013: EUR 11.179 million), a 11% decrease compared to 2013 . Net sales are presented below, broken down by market segment.
Net sales broken down by customer type:
*) Due to an altered definition of sales by BU, there has been a shift between BUs.
*) Due to an altered definition of sales by BU, there has been a shift in sales between BUs, leading to an adjustment of the sales figures for the first half year. The total sales for the half year have not been adjusted.
In the second half of 2014, sales increased markedly compared to the average for the first half of this year. However, sales are still under pressure from postponed projects.
On the other hand, the quote portfolio (quotations to customers) remains high at over EUR 10 million. In addition, between 50 - 90% of the quotations results in an order (hitrate). In 2014, the book-to-bill ratio was above 1.0 in all quarters, and the average for the full year was between 1.1 and 1.2. This is significantly higher than in the past.
The fact that the factors set out above have not yet resulted in a material increase of sales is related to the inevitable long preparation times for most of the projects. However, once these projects start to generate sales, these will be recurring sales. Recurring sales will give us a far more stable position than we used to be able to realise.
We anticipate that for several projects we will be able to finalise the phase preceding actual production in the next 5 - 8 months. As of that time, these projects will start to generate actual turnover.
Medium-sized companies are increasingly working together in order to raise their joint services to a higher level so as to best combat competition from Asian countries. OEMs who still develop ASICs or other chips in-house will increasingly outsource this work to independent service providers like RoodMicrotec.
This outsourcing trend is expected to continue. Partly due to its infrastructure, RoodMicrotec is in an excellent position to profit from this optimally.
The successful issue of bonds with mortgage cover via NPEX and the strengthening of our equity have had a very positive impact on our balance sheet ratios and on our financial position in general, so we will be able to roll out our strategy better. This improved position allows us to contribute more actively to the development of new products, generating recurring sales.
Our new strategy involves co-investing in new promising projects while also investing in additional sales capacity, the latter mainly in order to compensate for the decline in sales in our 'traditional' product portfolio. By co-investing in promising projects, we aim to try to break through the continuing lending restraint in the financial markets, which often frustrates our customers, many of which are Fabless Companies (FCs), in their development. With our approach, we aim both to boost the development of FCs and increase our sales and our position in the marketplace.
We have transformed the company from a pure testhouse into a semiconductor company for new applications. Where in the past everything revolved around equipment and the operators, we are now focusing on finding solutions and offering a complete product based on integrated services throughout the lifetime of the product/chip. In this way, we will contribute more actively to new product development (co-creating and co-operation), which will result in recurring sales and in long-term projects that yield more stable, more predictable and less cyclic sales.
The majority of the headcount is nowadays of engineering degree level or similar. And our customer base is completely changed. We used to supply a few major IDMs, but now our main customers are Fabless Companies and OEMs like Philips, Siemens, Bosch and Porsche.
The new strategy also means co-investing in new and promising projects, which is partly aimed at breaking through the ongoing lending restraint in the financial markets.
The memorandum of understanding on the communication chip is a concrete example of the co-operation aspect of our new strategy. The device can be used in a number of advanced electronic applications such as smart metering, home, building and industrial automation. With ultra low power consumption, it allows wireless communication between 'things' (objects, products, equipment, systems) and between these things and humans, as envisaged in the EU initiative 'The Internet of Things' (IoT).
In our new strategy we focus increasingly on supporting product development by OEMs and FCs. This has already resulted in several contracts for long-term projects and recurring sales. In addition, we are working on preparations for 10 - 20 also long-term projects with recurring sales. These form the backbone of our growth strategy. We anticipate that these projects will be turned into contracts in the near future, which will lead to structural additional sales. In order to raise the volume of orders long-term, we continue to work on strengthening our sales organisation.
RoodMicrotec and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS agreed in 2014 to expand their existing collaboration. The aim is to offer customers complete solutions from ASIC design to supply chain management.
Fraunhofer IIS , one of Europe's leading IC design facilities located in Erlangen, Germany, and RoodMicrotec, an independent value-added service provider in the area of micro and optoelectronics for FCs and OEMs, will combine their experience, know-how, equipment and highly skilled staff in order to provide customers with a more efficient and complete supply chain solution from concept covering all the processes of design, manufacture, assembly, electrical test and qualification, down to delivery of the product ready for volume production of the customer's end product.
Our planning and budgeting process is a very thorough and therefore time-consuming process. All our sales managers and directors are involved in this process. Our sales forecasts are based on information coming from our customers, a bottom-up approach.
The results of the diligently prepared information from our customers are reflected in our budget. This also means that leads and prospects generated after the budget period, as of January 2015, throughout the year are not taken into account.
Our experience over the past 10 years has shown us that in some cases growth is much higher than expected, sometimes lower. During the crisis, as of 2009, the uncertainty has been higher than normal. For example, we had a very successful period between the second half 2010 and the first half 2011. In that period our revenue increased significantly, but unfortunately deteriorated again in the second half of 2011.
Our total revenue over the last 10 years increased very strong between 2004 and 2011. We had a deterioration during the crisis. In 2014 our revenues increased in the second half year compared to the first half year. The total revenue is the sum of our three segments: FCs and OEMs on the one hand, and IDMs on the other. Our revenue increase was caused by our improved position in FCs and OEMs. In 2004, revenue from IDMs was roughly approx..70% of total revenue, in 2014 less than 10%. Conversely, our revenue from FCs and OEMs increased sharply from about 30% to 90% in 2014. We realised significant growth in our core segment, which is an important element in our strategic forecast. Another aspect is that FCs need a longer start-up phase, but will later lead to much more recurring business.
Of course, results realised in the past do not offer guarantees for the future, but that applies both ways. This means that a disappointing year may be followed by a very successful year.
Part of our strategy is also to strengthen our sales force, which we hope will result in a further increase of our quote portfolio, hitrate and book-to-bill ratio in 2015. This expectation is in line with the thoroughly prepared bottom-up forecasts from our sales managers/customers. All indicators point to increasing revenue and results, none point to the opposite.
The management of RoodMicrotec is convinced, based on strong evidence, of the correctness of the strategic choices we have made and of future growth which will result in better financial results, as presented in our forecast.
Of course, revenue guarantees for the year are impossible. We do not consider uncertainty concerning revenue as an argument to reduce the forecast for reasons of prudence. An annual report which shows too negative a perspective concerning the future is as incorrect and unreliable as a report which is too optimistic. From our point of view, we feel bound to disclose in our annual report, as we have done in the past, the uncertainty concerning future prospects.
As discussed before, our growth is coming from FCs and OEMs. The difference with doing business for IDMs is that orders from IDMs create business at short notice, while orders from FCs and OEMs require extensive preparation times and involve greater uncertainty. The financial crisis has reduced our revenue significantly. Many customers are unable to get funding in time. We have changed the way we work with our customers by introducing co-creating, co-operation, co-investing.
Despite the fact that we expect higher revenue in the coming years, we will reduce our headcount significantly. This will be achieved partly through natural wastage and partly by reassigning and reorganising tasks and responsibilities. Forced lay-offs are not excluded.
Our customers' sales forecasts raised expectations for 2014, as many had predicted strong growth. But sales growth proved elusive. Forecasts were adjusted downwards in the course of the year in the face of uncertainty in the market, which was partly due to ongoing uncertainty in the financial markets. This resulted in a mixed picture. The quote portfolio r emained high and even increased, but actual order placement often proved elusive. Projects were frequently postponed as well. Normally, postponed contracts tend to be offset by un-forecast new opportunities, but this was less the case in 2014. We expect that a majority of the postponed projects will be (re)started as of 2015.
The continuing order postponements in 2014 also contrasted with the increased quote portfolio. In spite of the positive developments and the fact that our new strategy has been received so well, the postponements were affecting our sales. On the other hand, we are proud to be playing an ever more important part in the supply chain for OEMs and FCs by supporting their new product development, which is reflected in our 2014 quote portfolio and book-to-bill ratio (see next paragraph). This significant upswing in our quote portfolio would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
In the second half of 2014, sales increased markedly compared to the average for the first half of this year. However, sales remain under pressure from postponed projects.
Our quote portfolio increased to more than EUR 10 million. In addition, between 50 and 90% of the quotes result in orders, and this overall hitrate trend (quotations turned into orders) continues to rise. In 2014, the book-to-bill ratio was above 1.0 in all quarters, and the average for the full year was between 1.1 and 1.2. This is significantly higher than in the past.
The fact that the factors set out above have not yet resulted in a material increase of sales is related to the inevitable long lead times for many of the projects. However, once these projects start to generate sales, these will be recurring sales. Recurring sales give us a far more stable position than we used to be able to realise.
We anticipate that for several projects we will be able to finalise the phase preceding actual production in the next 5 - 8 months. As of that time, these projects will start to generate actual turnover.
Currently, all the lights are green and we anticipate that all this will start to bear fruit in 2015. We have worked hard in 2014 to put ourselves in this position, both in terms of winning projects and in terms of the (staff) structure of the company. An interesting initiative in this context is the setup of an Automotive Competence Centre (see at the top of this report). OEMs and FCs have received it with great enthusiasm because they are interested in the high tech market. This clearly distinguishes us from other market parties.
The average number of full-time employees (FTE) decreased by approx. 2 % from 99 FTEs in 2013 to 97.0 FTEs in 2014. Sales per full-time employee decreased by approx. 10 % from EUR 113,000 in 2013 to EUR 103,000 in 2014.
The strategy change mentioned in this report has obviously impacted the organisation, leading to a different composition and management of our staff. We plan to optimise our organisation, in balance with the new service portfolio. A significant headcount reduction in some business areas is inevitable. The total reduction will be between 10% - 15% in 3 years, resulting in a cost reduction of EUR 1.3 million in 3 years. This programme is based on attrition as well as on forced layoffs. Reductions will occur only after the completion of appropriate consultation processes and in accordance with local legal practices.
Ongoing postponement of orders makes is difficult for us to state when the sales increase anticipated by our high hitrate will materialise. During 2014 we improved our forecasting system and besides customer forecasts, we use indicators based on our quote portfolio, hitrate and book-to-bill ratio. All these indicators are positive. We are also mindful of recent developments, with the euro falling in value on one hand, and quantitative easing in the capital market on the other hand, in conjunction with the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) global market growth forecast of 3.4% for 2015 and 3.1% for 2016. However, these figures are still below the 6% multi-year average since 2000. Both in view of the general market outlook, the macroeconomic forecasts and based on our internal analyses we expect gradual sales growth in 2015, that is to say, skewed towards the second half of the year.
We maintain our previously stated long-term objective to realise annual autonomous growth of between 3 and 13% at an average 6% growth of the semiconductor market up to 2017, and of improving the operating and net results.
The present headcount will be reduced by approximately 15% in the next 3 years to bring it in line with our new strategy and the corresponding market position, preferably of course through natural wastage. Forced lay-offs are not excluded.
RoodMicrotec will continue to strengthen its product portfolio, inter alia by focusing on FCs and OEMs (particularly on outsourcing: project Atlas).
There will be a conference call for press, analysts and other interested parties. The telephone number to join the call is + 31 20 531 5850.
With reference to our previous press release the publication of our annual report 2014 has been rescheduled to April 6 ,2015 as a result to this the Annual General Shareholders Meeting will be held on Monday May 18 , 2015.
* These items are still under discussion with our auditor. The audit has not yet been completed.
* These items are still under discussion with our auditor. The audit has not yet been completed.
* The audit has not yet been completed.
With 45 years' experience as an independent value-added service provider in the area of micro and optoelectronics, Rood Microtec offers fabless companies, OEMs and other companies a one-stop shopping proposition. With its Rood Microtec has built up a strong position in Europe.
Our services comply with the industrial and quality requirements of the high reliability/space, automotive, telecommunications, medical, IT and electronics sectors.
concerns inter alia testing of products to the stringent ISO/TS 16949 standard that applies to suppliers to the automotive industry. The company also has an accredited laboratory for test activities and calibration to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard.
The value-added services comprise inter alia ( e X tended) supply chain management, failure & technology analysis, qualification & burn-in, test- & product engineering, production test (including device programming and end-of-line service), ESD/ESDFOS assessment & training, quality & reliability consulting and total manufacturing solutions with partners.
Rood Microtec has branches in Germany (Dresden, Nördlingen, Stuttgart), the UK (Bath) and the Netherlands (Zwolle).
Philip Nijenhuis, CEO
Telephone: +31 (0) 38 4215216
Email: investor-relations@roodmicrotec.com
Website: www.roodmicrotec.com
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