2019 Annual General Meeting of PVA TePla AG

The Annual General Meeting of PVA TePla AG, Wettenberg, was held yesterday at the Giessen Congress Center and led by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Alexander von Witzleben. All items on the agenda were passed with a large majority, and around 62% of shareholders were in attendance.

Business figures - significant earnings growth
In his presentation to shareholders, CEO Alfred Schopf outlined the business figures for the past fiscal year. He said that the forecasts had been met with sales revenues of EUR 96.8 million and operating earnings (EBIT) of EUR 9.5 million (2017: EUR 3.0 million). The order backlog improved further compared with the previous year, reflecting the very good prospects for business development in the years to come. This was mainly driven by large-scale orders in crystal growing, but other business units also made a positive contribution to incoming orders. The break-even point and thus the cost structure were kept stable.

Capacity planning and Industry 4.0
Oliver Höfer - the Board of Management member responsible for production and technology - discussed the capacity expansion required in order to execute the major orders from the semiconductor industry. The introduction of flow production has increased manufacturing capacity from one to two crystal-growing systems a month, while measures to improve the supply chain, such as the establishment of in-house tank production, are helping to reduce supplier-side delivery bottlenecks. The PVA TePla Group has also substantially strengthened its position thanks to the 2018 acquisition of SPA Software Entwicklungs GmbH, a Coburg-based specialist for software and automation in the semiconductor industry, which represents a major step forward in the PVA TePla Group's strategic development. Oliver Höfer then gave a brief introduction to Industry 4.0 and the resulting challenges for PVA TePla. He added that the subsidiaries are already actively implementing key areas of Industry 4.0.

Diffusion bonding - a technology with significant market potential
Alfred Schopf then discussed the importance of diffusion bonding for a range of growth markets and the significant market potential this entails for the Group, which is a world leader in terms of both process and system technology.

Forecast for fiscal 2019 confirmed
The forecast for the key figures for 2019 was confirmed once again: Consolidated sales revenues and the operating result (EBITDA) are expected to be in the region of EUR 125 million and EUR 15 million respectively. Alfred Schopf added that the order backlog had developed extremely well, amounting to EUR 203 million at the end of March 2019.