Riber grows revenue 42% year-on-year for the first nine months of 2018, driven by MBE systems sales almost tripling

For third-quarter 2018, Riber S.A. of Bezons, France – which manufactures molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) systems as well as evaporation sources and effusion cells – has reported revenue of €4.7m, up 70% on €2.8m a year ago.

Revenue for the three quarters to end-September 2018 hence amounted to €21.7m, up 42% year-on-year from €15.2m due to good performance by all the business lines.

Specifically, Systems sales grew by 193%, from just €2m to €5.9m, following the delivery of five MBE machines over the first nine months of 2018 (including two production systems, compared with two research systems during the same period in 2017).

Revenues for Services & Accessories rose by 26% from €4.1m to €5.2m.

Evaporator sales rose by 16%, from €9.1m to €10.6m, following major deliveries for the screen industry (primarily during the first half of 2018).

Segmenting total revenue by geographic region, 59% came from Asia (up from 50% in the first nine months of 2017), 32% from Europe (down from 34%) and 9% from North America (down from 16%).

The order book at the end of September was €30.6m, up 15% on €26.6m a year previously.

Specifically, Systems orders grew by 120% from €10.1m to €22.2m. This includes 12 systems scheduled for delivery between 2018 and 2019, comprising (following the reclassification of one production machine as a research machine): seven production machines (versus just four in 2017) and five research machines (versus just two in 2017). This does not include the order for a production machine for Asia announced on 18 October.

Services & Accessories orders fell by 20% from €5.8m to €4.7m, linked to a contraction in demand for machine refurbishments.

Evaporator orders fell by 65% from €10.7m to €3.8m, following completion of the major wave of investment in the screen industry.

In line with the delivery schedule for the end of the year, Riber is targeting full-year 2018 revenue of €35m (up 14.4% on 2017’s €30.6m) and at least 15% year-on-year growth in income from ordinary operations.

Riber notes that, in a globally positive environment for the compound semiconductor market, it has good visibility for the medium term due to a robust order book that is expected to be further strengthened shortly by several projects currently in negotiations.

See related items:

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