German Laser Maker LPKF Earns €124.3 Million Last Year

Not long ago, LPKF announced its results for fiscal year 2023, which showed revenues of €124.3 million (€123.7 million last year), EBITDA of €3.7 million (€6.8 million last year), and an EBITDA margin of 3.0% (5.5% last year). Both figures are at the low end of expectations, despite record Q4 revenues.LPKF had previously forecast group revenues in the range of €125 million to €135 million for FY2023, with an EBITDA margin of 3-7%.
According to the analysis, the weak overall revenue growth in the current fiscal year is mainly attributable to operational factors such as delays in project and order processing, which indirectly reduces profitability. In order to bring new products to the market faster and more flexibly, the company is investing a lot of effort in advancing the scalability and standardized design and manufacturing methodology of modular operational production.
In fiscal year 2023, its order intake was €120.2 million, down 3.3 percent year-on-year (2022: €124.2 million), and the order backlog declined from €63.2 million in the previous year to €58.9 million as of December 31, 2023.LPKF also secured a large order of more than €15.0 million for its solar energy business in the first quarter of the year, which was initially scheduled to be be completed by the end of 2023. As a result, the company continues to see a positive trend in its order intake.
The company's Board of Management initiated structural measures to improve efficiency and fix the cost base in 2023 and will expand these measures with external support in the current financial year. These measures will improve LPKF's currently unsatisfactory profitability starting in the second half of 2024.
The Board of Management believes that LPKF is making good progress in achieving its strategic corporate objectives in key areas for fiscal year 2023. Klaus Fiedler, Chief Executive Officer, said, "We have made significant progress in the integration of the semiconductor market and have entered the biotechnology market with new products for the first time. In electronics, we have also significantly increased our market penetration for high-precision stripping of printed circuit boards."
In the company's core areas, the laser systems business for printed circuit board stripping performed well. the 2023 target was achieved and further growth is expected.
The welding business failed to meet expectations in the current financial year. This was mainly due to delays in follow-up orders from various medical technology customers as well as sales performance in individual regions. To address this, LPKF developed and implemented countermeasures during the fiscal year. In addition, LPKF initiated focused cooperation programs with customers in frontier markets in 2023.
The solar energy sector is growing strongly due to high global demand for renewable energy. This is evidenced by the major new orders announced by the company a few days ago.LPKF is the market leader in the construction of thin-film solar modules and is also actively involved in the development and production of methods for processing new types of semiconductors such as chalcogenide.
The company has been working with major global manufacturers for many years to make glass available to the semiconductor and display industries, and today LPKF is making significant progress with new technologies. Several models of LIDE systems (Laser Induced Depth Etching) are already in operation, and leading chipmakers want and must use glass substrates in the future for the manufacture of high-performance chips, e.g. for AI applications, so they are increasingly pushing the boundaries of this technology," says Klaus Fiedler. " "We are convinced that our LIDE technology will play a key role here, as we can offer our customers a high level of process maturity and tangible evidence of performance."