EANS-Adhoc: austriamicrosystems AG / austriamicrosystems reports revenues and earnings for fiscal year 2009

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annual report

22.02.2010

Financial results for fiscal year 2009 and fourth quarter 2009

Unterpremstaetten, Austria (February 22, 2010) — austriamicrosystems
(SIX: AMS), a leading worldwide designer and manufacturer of high
performance analog ICs for consumer & communications, industry &
medical and automotive applications, was impacted by the global
economic crisis and the resulting semiconductor industry downturn in
the fiscal year 2009. Full year revenues decreased by 26% to EUR
137.2 million and the operating result was a loss of EUR -18.6
million. In the fourth quarter 2009, austriamicrosystems recorded a
significant improvement in orders and returned to profitability with
revenues of EUR 43.9 million, up 11% quarter-on-quarter. Total
backlog at the end of 2009 was EUR 45.6 million (2008: 29.8 million).
For full year 2010 austriamicrosystems expects a further strong
improvement in revenues and gross margins and a return to
profitability.

Financials

Audited group revenues for fiscal year 2009 were EUR 137.2 million,
26% below the previous year´s revenues. On a constant currency basis,
full year revenues decreased by 29% compared to the previous year.
Revenues for the fourth quarter 2009 were EUR 43.9 million, up 11%
quarter-on-quarter and up 2% from the EUR 43.2 million recorded in
the last quarter 2008. On a constant currency basis, revenues for the
fourth quarter increased by 14% compared to the same quarter 2008.

Gross margins for the full year 2009 decreased to 34%, clearly
showing the impact of the industry downturn which resulted in low
production utilization rates and high unabsorbed fixed costs in the
first half of 2009 (2008: 51%). A full natural hedge in the
production costs and manufacturing cost reduction and efficiency
programs provided some support for gross margins in 2009. Gross
margins for the fourth quarter 2009 improved to 42%, up 5 percentage
points quarter-on-quarter but down from 49% in the same period 2008.

The group result from operations (EBIT) for 2009 was a loss of EUR
-18.6 million compared to a profit of EUR 25.0 million in 2008. The
investment in research & development was EUR 40.5 million, down from
EUR 43.6 million in 2008, and continued to be driven by strong
customer projects and long-term product roadmaps. The group EBIT for
the fourth quarter 2009 was a profit of EUR 1.8 million, compared to
a loss of EUR -0.2 million in the previous quarter and a profit of
EUR 4.9 million in the fourth quarter 2008.

Net income for 2009 was a loss of EUR -18.0 million, compared to a
profit of EUR 12.3 million in the previous year. Basic and diluted
earnings per share for 2009 were CHF -2.55 / EUR -1.69 (2008: CHF
1.78 / EUR 1.13 and CHF 1.77 / EUR 1.12 respectively). Net income for
the fourth quarter 2009 was a profit of EUR 1.3 million, compared to
a loss of EUR -6.2 million for the same period 2008. Basic and
diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter were CHF 0.18 / EUR
0.12 (2008: CHF -0.86 / EUR -0.57 and CHF -0.87 / EUR -0.58
respectively).

Cash flow from operations was EUR 20.3 million in 2009 (2008: EUR
47.5 million) as the company recorded a positive operating cash flow
of EUR 15.4 million in the fourth quarter 2009. Capital expenditures
for 2009 were EUR 10.3 million, 29% lower than EUR 14.4 million
recorded in 2008. Total backlog at the end of 2009 was EUR 45.6
million compared to EUR 29.8 million on December 31, 2008. Total
backlog at the end of 2009 does not reflect consignment stock
agreements with major customers.

Cash and short term investments stood at EUR 42.2 million on December
31, 2009 compared to EUR 30.7 million at the end of 2008. Net debt
decreased to EUR 25.7 million on December 31, 2009 compared to EUR
31.2 million at the end of 2008. The equity ratio was 60% at year-end
2009, compared to 62% at the end of 2008. The average number of group
employees was 1,087 for fiscal year 2009, compared to 1,129 for the
year 2008, and 1,071 for the fourth quarter 2009.

austriamicrosystems implemented a range of cost reduction measures in
2009, including the previously announced workforce reduction of
around 70 employees worldwide. Due to the difficult market
environment austriamicrosystems introduced short-time work for more
than half of its Austrian workforce in June 2009; however, this was
stopped earlier than expected at the end of 2009. Exceeding previous
expectations, austriamicrosystems realized operating cost savings of
approximately EUR 17 million in 2009, of which approximately one
third will continue to benefit the operation cost structure going
forward.

Given the net loss recorded for fiscal year 2009, austriamicrosystems
will not propose a dividend for 2009. Despite this, the company´s
cash dividend policy remains in place and the distribution of 25% of
net earnings is expected to resume after the company has returned to
profitability on a full year basis.

Business

austriamicrosystems´ business performed in line with expectations in
the past year taking into account the global economic crisis and its
impact on the company. In spite of the difficult demand environment
which began to improve in the second half, austriamicrosystems was
very successful in its target markets gaining hundreds of design-ins
as a leader in low power consumption, high accuracy and analog
performance.

In Consumer & Communications, austriamicrosystems now supplies 4 of
the Top 5 handset vendors with power and lighting management products
providing industry-leading solutions for all major applications and
technologies. Orders and shipments in the handset market continued to
return toward previous levels in the second half of 2009 and
particularly the fourth quarter which saw strong order and shipment
volumes. In LCD TV LED backlighting, austriamicrosystems is shipping
significant mass production volumes of LED drivers to several major
OEMs in Korea, Japan and Taiwan following a rapid ramp-up which
started in the third quarter last year. austriamicrosystems commands
a significant share of this exciting market and expects the LCD
backlighting market to continue to show rapid growth going forward.

MEMS microphone products also performed strongly in 2009 with
significant further volume growth expected for 2010. In this market
austriamicrosystems maintained an estimated market share of over 90%,
building on its expertise of 5 product generations and more than 1
billion parts shipped. In other growth applications such as active
noise cancellation, the EasyPoint™ input device or handset camera
autofocus austriamicrosystems achieved important design-ins for
upcoming devices or is seeing first end products on the market.

Industry & Medical showed a mixed performance in the last year. The
industrial market continued to be heavily impacted by the global
economic downturn with customer orders and shipments at significantly
reduced levels in the major market segments industrial automation,
sensors and building automation. Despite signs of an improvement in
demand from certain industrial applications over the last months
austriamicrosystems does not expect revenues from this area to reach
previous levels in 2010. The company´s industry-leading magnetic
encoder product range again increased market acceptance and achieved
good design-ins in 2009 given its compelling advantages. The medical
business, on the other hand, remained robust throughout 2009.
austriamicrosystems was also able to win major new accounts for
dedicated IC solutions in both key areas, medical imaging (digital
X-ray, CT, ultrasound) and personal healthcare devices.

Automotive remained negatively affected by the sharp automotive
industry downturn for most of 2009, however, customer demand and
orders improved in the fourth quarter. austriamicrosystems´
automotive customer base expanded last year despite the industry
downturn and customers´ development and design-in efforts on next
generation technologies continued at a good pace. These include
encoders, FlexRay data bus systems and battery management for current
and upcoming technologies. The Full Service Foundry business was
successful as a leading analog foundry focused on specialty processes
in spite of the difficult market environment in 2009, given its high
quality client base, particularly in sensors.

Despite the semiconductor industry crisis, austriamicrosystems added
significant new customers to its global base in a number of markets
and won numerous important projects and design-ins at existing
customers. This success attests to austriamicrosystems´ technology
leadership and strong product portfolio gaining increasing
recognition and design sockets at top OEMs worldwide.

Outlook

With its successful products and increasing base of high quality
customers, austriamicrosystems is strongly positioned in its target
markets Consumer & Communications, Industry & Medical and Automotive
for 2010 and beyond. The company´s own world-class production
infrastructure provides an additional competitive advantage in the
current market environment showing increasing signs of tightening
semiconductor capacities worldwide.

Based on currently available information, austriamicrosystems expects
full year revenue growth for 2010 of around 20% compared to 2009, a
significant improvement in full year gross margins and a return to
full year profitability. austriamicrosystems will update its full
year outlook as more information becomes available during the year.
For the first quarter 2010, austriamicrosystems expects revenues and
earnings to show strong growth compared to last year´s first quarter
and quarter-on-quarter revenue seasonality to stay significantly
below historic levels.

Additional financial information is available on the
austriamicrosystems website at
http://www.austriamicrosystems.com/eng/Investor

end of announcement euro adhoc
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ots Originaltext: austriamicrosystems AG
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Further inquiry note:

Moritz M. Gmeiner

Director Investor Relations

Tel: +43 3136 500-5970

Fax: +43 3136 500-5420

Email: investor@austriamicrosystems.com

Branche: Technology
ISIN: AT0000920863
WKN: 632638
Börsen: SIX Swiss Exchange / official dealing