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Monocrystal Announces Strong Full Year Results for 2008
- Revenue of US$61 Million, Up 52%
- Net Income of US$9.3 Million, Up 73%
- EBITDA of US$19.3 Million, Up 96%
Stavropol, Russia – March 23, 2009 – Monocrystal, Inc. – world’s leading provider of sapphire products and metallization pastes to semiconductor, optical, and photovoltaic industries, today announced key financial results that reflect pro-forma combination of Energomera’s electronic materials business, including Monocrystal and Atlas, for the full year ended December 31, 2008.
Total revenues of $61 million for the full year 2008 were $20.9 million, or 52%, higher than 2007 full year revenues of $40.1 million. Net income was $9.3 million, an increase of 73% compared to net income of $5.4 million in 2007. EBITDA was $19.3 million, an increase of 96% compared to 2007 EBITDA of $9.8 million. Net profit and EBITDA margins improved from 13.4% and 24.5% in 2007 to 15.2% and 31.6% respectively in 2008.
Revenues from sapphire and solar pastes operations totaled $14.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2008, a 15% increase on an annual basis, and a 4% decline compared to the third quarter as a result of lower order amounts from customers in the fourth quarter due to growing uncertainties about the markets.
“We are very pleased about results of Energomera Electronic Materials business that surpassed targets we set for this business group headed by Monocrystal for 2008. Our strong growth was supported by each of our major product segments – sapphire and solar pastes,” said Vladimir Polyakov, President of Energomera and Chairman of Monocrystal. “Acquisition of Atlas in March 2008 was also an important factor that contributed to the growth. We have continued integration of Monocrystal and Atlas sapphire operations and also restructured our Electronic Materials group to further improve corporate and managerial effectiveness.”
“This substantial organic growth of the group in 2008 was driven by higher sales of larger diameter substrates for LEDs, silicon-on-sapphire wafers, sapphire products for optics, and screen printing pastes for metallization of solar cells,” commented Andrey Kravchenko, CEO at Monocrystal and the head of Energomera Electronic Materials group. “We continued expanding our market and technological leadership by innovating premium quality products aimed at meeting current and future needs of our clients in the sapphire and solar segments. In 2008, we introduced and started shipments of the next generation 8” sapphire substrates for LEDs and RFICs, as well as our unique lead-free RoHS compliant solar pastes for the contact formation of wafer-based solar cells. We feel confident about our ability to further develop the group business and continue improving on costs reduction, new product development, and customer service.”
Business outlook
Continued uncertainty in the global economy makes projections of Monocrystal’s customers extremely short-term, mostly not exceeding one-two months ahead. This lack of visibility makes it difficult for Monocrystal to provide its own reasonable guidance for the full 2009 at the moment. Monocrystal intends to remain profitable and to preserve the group market position in 2009. The management will provide more detailed guidance for 2009 as soon as visibility improves.
About Monocrystal
Monocrystal is a market leader in providing sapphire products, metallization pastes, and other advanced electronic materials to semiconductor, optical, and photovoltaic industries. Monocrystal’s product portfolio includes large diameter sapphire substrates for LED and RFIC applications and unique lead-free screen printing pastes for wafer-based solar cells. The company exports 90 percent of its production to more than 20 countries around the globe. Monocrystal is the head company of the electronic materials business of Energomera Corp. To know more about Monocrystal, visit www.monocrystal.com.
About Energomera
Energomera Corp. manages a diversified portfolio of growing market-leading businesses that operate in Russia and globally. The company’s electrotechnical business dominates Russian electricity metering market and enjoys over one third market share by manufacturing and selling meters and metering solutions to most of Russian utilities. Energomera’s electronic materials business is the world’s leading provider of sapphire products and metallization pastes to semiconductor, optical, and photovoltaic industries, and the company’s agricultural business was named among the top three Russian grain producers in 2008. |