Sivers Press
We reach sales levels of 2019, despite challenging times.
First quarter 2020
Significant events during the first quarter:
Significant events following the period:
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Key figures
| SEK thousand | 2020 Jan-Mar |
2019 Jan-Mar |
2019 Jan–Dec |
| Revenue | 22 810 | 23 099 | 96 355 |
| EBITDA | -11 001 | -5 604 | -48 322 |
| Profit/loss for the period | -21 217 | -14 004 | -75 661 |
| Earnings per share before and after dilution, SEK | -0,16 | -0,12 | -0,60 |
| Equity per share, SEK | 2,35 | 2,20 | 2,17 |
We reach sales levels of 2019, despite challenging times
Business activity has slowed significantly in many parts of society due to the Covid-19 pandemic. During the first quarter, I am grateful that we were only moderately affected. Despite growth being slightly inhibited, we managed to deliver sales at the same level as in 2019. However, during the beginning of the second quarter, we have seen customers being slower in taking decisions or postponing decisions. Thus, we see some postponements in network rollouts. In the longer term, we do not see that our underlying market will be affected, but just as before, growth will vary over the quarters. Despite the pandemic, in April we received our first small volume order of approximately SEK 3.5 million to CCS/ADTRAN at 60 GHz for delivery in the second and third quarter.
Sales in the first quarter were SEK 23 million and operating profit deteriorated by SEK 7 million to SEK -18.5 million. Among other things, this is due to a reduction of SEK 5 million in capitalized work on own account. Furthermore, for strategic reasons, we reduced a research project for which we received grants, which had a negative impact on other income of SEK 2 million.
We continue to build our customer base and are in many discussions with both old and new customers and partners. Despite a general cautiousness in the global economy, the tone of the discussions remains very positive and implies a large underlying need. We believe in a rapid recovery in the latter part of the year and therefore do not want to slow down too much, but of course, we have adjusted our costs to this more cautious market situation.
Our business area Photonics has gone from strength to strength over the past year and has seen strong demand outside of its traditional optical fiber communication market. After the end of the first quarter, we received another development order from a new Fortune 100 customer. The order of SEK 7.5 million applies to optical sensors and will be delivered and invoiced during the year. It includes both development services and manufacturing and delivery of early prototypes. It is our second Fortune 100 customer in Photonics and demonstrates our strength in this area.
We sold 11 new test systems during the quarter, six of them to universities and five to potential new 5G customers in a number of different verticals. At the time of writing, we have 16 design-in agreements, four of which were signed in January this year. In the quarter, we signed a 5G supply agreement with Cambium Networks, a global system provider of wireless broadband solutions. The agreement follows a successful design win at the end of 2018 and demonstrates our ability to convert design wins into long-term agreements with significant customers.
In the quarter, together with our partner Ampleon, we launched a Dual Quad Beamformer IC (BFIC) to be used in several 5G applications. Together, we have developed a unique BFIC that allows our customers to differentiate their products in the highly competitive 5G mm Wave market. We have been working with Ampleon since 2017, and our jointly developed, market leading BFIC is a real milestone for which our customers show great interest.
In the quarter, we extended the collaboration that began in 2019 with imec, a world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technology. Through this collaboration, we are expanding our silicon photonics (SiPho) portfolio. The SiPho technology has made a rapid advance in fiber optic communications in recent decades, but cost-sensitive markets have lacked a simple, cost-effective solution. Our lasers and optical amplifiers can eventually meet this type of demand on imec’s SiPho platform. An important driver of our growth, both within 5G and Photonics, is our strong partner network and our many collaborations. I am convinced that our development collaborations will continue to be important growth drivers in the future.
I would like to take this opportunity to give thanks for the confidence that was given to us in connection with the directed new share issue that we conducted in the middle of the quarter. The issue was oversubscribed several times and brought the company approximately SEK 54 million before costs. It was made in order to be able to meet increased demand from customers, to further invest in the development of our chipsets and to finance increased manufacturing capacity within Photonics.
In mid-March, we held a digital capital markets day with a total of 500 listeners. It is gratifying and encouraging to see the great interest in Sivers IMA as a company and in our stock as an investment. The capital markets day is still available on our website.
My optimism about the future remains very strong. The market for old and new verticals within 5G and Photonics is developing positively and will thus continue to deliver good growth. The pandemic will of course affect everyone, but beneath the surface we are involved in many positive discussions. Our highly competitive products and our strong global network make us well equipped to take advantage of the market’s underlying strong demand and I look forward with anticipation.
Anders Storm, CEO of Sivers IMA Group
For more information, please contact:
Anders Storm, CEO
Tel: +46 (0) 702 62 63 90
E-mail: [email protected]
Erik Penser Bank is appointed Sivers IMA Holding AB’s Certified Advisor at Nasdaq First North Growth Market.
Tel: +46 (o) 8 463 80 00
E-mail: [email protected]
This is information that Sivers IMA Holding AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above at 8:00 am CET on May 19, 2020.
