Schweizer Benefits from Auto Sector and Export Business in Q3

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The successful business development with automotive customers led to an increase of 2.1% to 29.1 million Euro in Schweizer’s third quarter turnover (previous year 28.5 million Euro). Sales with this customer segment alone grew by 12.1% to 22.3 million Euro against 19.9 million Euro the year before. The EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) reached the target with a total of 2.9 million Euro, and the margin of 10% was above this year’s half year-level of 7.9%, but fell slightly behind last year’s third quarter-margin of 12.0 % (3.4 million Euro). The EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) amounted to 0.9 million Euro (2015: 1.5 million Euro).

Power electronics products showed an outstanding 20%-sales increase in the automotive sector. They are necessary to construct reliable solutions in e-mobility applications, where the effective management of high temperatures and high currents has to be ensured. While the turnover share of the industry sector declined from 21.1% to 16.5%, initial sales could be realised with aviation customers, letting Schweizer report first achievements as regards the envisaged expansion of its customer portfolio. While turnover in Asia doubled to 2.6 million Euro, figures in the European region slightly declined from 24.2 million Euro in 2015 to 23.5 million Euro this year. Schweizer’s export ratio, however, increased to 41%. The company’s order book grew by 45 million Euro (34%) against last year’s third quarter to a total amount of 177.5 million Euro.

Outlook

“Our EBITDA ratio has reached 8.6% in the first nine months of 2016. Currently, we expect our fourth quarter results to be on a similar level as in the third quarter, presuming that no unforeseen factors occur, which will either burden or benefit the results. This means, we could close our accounts of 2016 with an EBITDA ratio of between 9% and 10%, coming up to our forecast from August this year. Due to delays in the Vietnam ramp-up and at WUS, Kunshan, however, we expect our turnover to stay stable, which is in contrast to our August forecast of a 2%-increase”, comments Marc Bunz, Chief Financial Officer at Schweizer Electronic AG.