News

31 August 2006

 

IQE confirms 50% revenue rise

After providing a trading update on 21 August, epiwafer foundry IQE plc of Cardiff, UK has confirmed first-half 2006 revenues of £14.59m, up 30% on second-half 2005's £11.23m and up 51% on first-half 2005's £9.67m. All market sectors showed solid, sustainable growth, with the wireless marketplace particularly strong, says IQE.

Operating loss has been cut from first-half 2005's £3.1m and second-half 2005's £2.96m (£1.22m after exceptional items) to £1.45m. Capital expenditure rose from £0.570m to £1.337m, mainly from the purchase of an additional reactor at IQE Inc in Bethlehem, PA, USA.

IQE has also won an additional two-year extension of effective exclusivity to its largest outsource contract, secured in November 2004. Also, additional contracts have been secured for products from the silicon division. Several other contracts are in various stages of negotiation, says
IQE.

"We are moving firmly into a market situation where outsourcing is featuring more prominently in many companies' strategic considerations because the industry is now becoming capacity constrained in several areas," says IQE's CEO Drew Nelson. "We see this as an advantage to the Group as our breadth of product range, large-scale production capacity and economies of scale are key considerations in attracting new business." Work is well underway to integrate Emcore Inc's Electronic Materials Division (now IQE RF), acquired in August, Nelson adds. "We look forward to continued strong growth as capacity utilization continues to increase and the industry continues to expand," he concludes.

Visit: http://www.iqep.com