The listed Styrian printed circuit board manufacturer AT&S achieved record sales and a strong profit increase in the first three quarters thanks to high demand. Sales rose by 17.3 percent to EUR 883.8 million, and consolidated earnings rose by 47.8 percent to EUR 37.3 million. The company announced on Tuesday morning that the expanded capacities at the Chongquing I plant in China contributed significantly to the increase in sales.
Pandemic drives up data traffic
“The corona pandemic has led to a surge in digitization in many areas of life,” said CEO Andreas Gerstenmayer, according to the announcement. “In almost every country in the world there has been a massive increase in data traffic, which among other things is increasing the demand for ABF substrates. Because of these developments, we are assuming that markets will continue to grow in all of our business areas in the future. ”We are therefore massively expanding capacities.
The forecast for the full year 2020/21 has been raised: an increase of between 17 and 19 percent is expected for sales, and a range of 20 to 22 percent for the operating return on sales (EBITDA margin). In the third quarter it was 21.1 percent.
Currency effects as a damper
EBITDA rose by 19.4 percent to EUR 186.7 million, primarily due to the higher group turnover. Currency effects, particularly as a result of the weaker US dollar, had a negative impact on sales and earnings.
Cash and cash equivalents totaled EUR 393.9 million. In addition, AT&S has financial assets of EUR 38.6 million and EUR 421.6 million of unused credit lines to secure the financing of the future investment program and repayments due at short notice.
