Financial results round-up

07 May 2010

If financial results are anything to go by then the latest announcements from industry big-hitters Coherent, IPG Photonics and Rofin-Sinar paint a positive and improving picture for the optics and photonics industry.

• For its second fiscal quarter ended 3 April 2010, Coherent announced net sales of $149.2 million and a net income of $8.5 million. These results compare with net sales of $105.4 million and a net loss of $9.1 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2009. Bookings received during the quarter came to $164.5 million, a 75.3% increase from $93.8 million in the same prior year period and an increase of 3.9% compared to bookings of $158.4 million in the immediately preceding quarter.

"We experienced additional design wins and significant orders for OLED production. There is continuing improvement in the materials processing space for marking applications that support consumer products. And we are seeing signs that elective laser-based medical procedures are recovering, thereby driving demand for a number of products in our portfolio," said John Ambroseo, Coherent's president and CEO. "The combination of our backlog and sustained demand in our commercial markets enables us to increase our full fiscal year outlook for net sales to $590-600 million, which is a 35-38% increase over fiscal 2009."

• IPG Photonics has reported a revenue of $51.2 million and an operating income of $5.3 million for the first three months of fiscal 2010. This compares with a revenue of $45.4 million and an operating income of $2 million in the equivalent period in 2009.

"We are encouraged by our prospects for a recovery in 2010 as we see demand returning in our most significant applications and geographies," said Valentin Gapontsev, IPG Photonics' CEO. "Sales for materials processing applications increased 23% year over year and 4% sequentially, driven by increased sales of pulsed lasers for materials processing applications, particularly marking and engraving. Sales for medical applications delivered another quarter of triple-digit year over year growth as we continue to diversify our customer base and customers introduce new systems."

• Results at Rofin Sinar Technologies were equally positive. "Our second quarter results are encouraging with order entry, sales and net income increasing by 75%, 27% and 299% respectively in comparison to the second quarter of last fiscal year," said Gunther Braun, CEO and president of Rofin-Sinar. "We are experiencing strong demand for our macro products from the machine tool industry, and our micro and marking business was positively impacted by increased orders from the medical device, semiconductor and electronics markets."

Net sales for Rofin’s second quarter ended 31 March 2010 totalled $95.9 million and the company’s net income was $4.7  illion. Sales of laser products used for macro applications increased by 32% to $39.9 million, accounting for 41% of total sales. Sales of lasers for marking and micro applications increased by 31% to $45.7 million and represented 48% of total sales.