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News

25 October 2007

 

3S Photonics heads into profit as it cuts costs and launches new products

Optical component maker 3S Photonics of Marcoussis, France has reported net income of over $1m for fiscal 2006/7 (to end-June), an improvement on a net loss of $9.9m in fiscal 2005/6.

“This recovery [reaching positive income so quickly after the divestiture by Avanex] is the first clear sign indicating the company is on the path towards profitability,” says president, chairman and CEO Alexandre Krivine.

Also, for the first-quarter 2007/8 (to end September), revenue was over $8m, up 25% on last quarter’s $6.4m.

3S Photonics was founded in 1994 as Alcatel Optronics S.A. (a subsidiary of the Alcatel group) and was acquired in 2003 by Avanex Corp of Fremont, CA , USA, becoming Avanex France S.A. This April 2007, it was bought by Alexandre Krivine and Didier Sauvage and renamed 3S Photonics.

The firm designs and manufactures both active optical components (incorporating gallium arsenide and indium phosphide chips fabricated in-house at Nozay, France) as well as passive optical components based on fiber Bragg gratings, for use in optical discrete modules for high-speed telecom networks.

“Given the excellent footprint we have on the submarine market, we are ideally positioned to take full advantage of the submarine market return and growth with our current product portfolio,” says VP marketin, Yannick Bailly. “On top of that, we plan to introduce very soon a new generation of 980nm terrestrial pump laser modules powered by in-house chip technology, fully qualified for submarine applications and thus ensuring an outstanding level of performance and reliability”.

3S Photonics’ executive committee has also announced the implementation of a new worldwide sales network to serve existing customers while expanding the firm’s customer base and leveraging sales.

The upcoming launch of the new terrestrial pump laser modules, combined with the implementation of the new global sales network, should significantly boost sales over the next months, the firm reckons.

For full-year 2007/8 (to end-June 2008), the firm expects revenue of $34-37m, up more than 38% fiscal 2006/7 when considering post-divestiture product portfolio.

“Given our good sales trends confirmed by our Q1 results and considering the global cost-reduction plan launched in June 2007, we are quite optimistic in achieving our ambitious but realistic goals for fiscal year 2007/8,” says Krivine. “We expect to be break-even by Q3/2008.”

See related items:

3S Photonics launched on completion of Avanex France sale

Avanex France to become 3S Photonics

Avanex sells III-V fabs

Search: Avanex GaAs InP

Visit: www.3sphotonics.com