(Boursier.com) — Soitec published a turnover of 245 ME for the second quarter of its 2023-2024 financial year, down 7% at constant scope and exchange rates compared to the 2nd quarter of 2022-2023.
Half-year turnover amounted to €401 million, down 15% in published data and at constant scope and exchange rates.
“With sequential growth of more than 50% compared to the first quarter, our second quarter revenue recorded a significant rebound, as anticipated. This was particularly the case in our Mobile Communications business, thanks to the improvement inventory across the smartphone value chain. We continue to benefit from strong demand in automotive to deploy our SmartSiC roadmap and we continue to actively progress with several customers. Overall, our sales figure “First half business is in line with our expectations. We maintained strong profitability and a strong financial position while continuing to invest in R&D and our industrial capacity, and building inventory to prepare for the second half.” comments Pierre Barnabé, Managing Director of Soitec.
The EBITDA margin reached the level of 33% over the half-year (35.5% a year earlier) while the group emphasizes having maintained significant investments in R&D. Current operating profit fell to 85 million euros in the first half of 2023-2024. It represents 21.3% of turnover compared to 23.4% in the first half of 2022-2023. The group generated a negative free cash flow of 85 million euros in the first half of 2023-2024 compared to a positive free cash flow of 7 million euros in the first half of 2022-2023. Half-year net profit fell by 16% to €80 million.
“As we look towards the end of the financial year, we maintain our growth outlook for the second half of the 2023-2024 fiscal year. However, we note that the absorption of RF-SOI stocks by our customers will last longer than initially anticipated. At the same time, we continue to plan for sustained demand for our Automotive & Industrial products as well as for our products intended for Smart Objects. Consequently, we now expect annual turnover to decline by one percentage of approximately mid-single digit at constant scope and exchange rates for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, and an EBITDA margin of approximately 35%. After this transition year, we will resume our growth trajectory “, explains Pierre Barnabé.
Soitec is therefore revising its annual outlook downwards: 2023-2024 turnover is expected to decline by a percentage of approximately “mid-single digit” at constant scope and exchange rates (previously stable) and the margin EBITDA around 35% (maintained at around 36% previously).
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