Riber announces year of earnings growth
Revenues up 3 percent, driven by the diversification of the product mix
French MBE firm Riber has released its full-year earnings for 2021. Full-year revenues came to €31.2m, up 3 percent from 2020. Sales of MBE systems are down 4 percent following the export licenses rejected by the French authorities for a total of €9m in 2021. In all, sales totalled €17.4m, with eight machines delivered, versus ten in 2020.
Sales of services and accessories maintained their strong growth (+15 percent), climbing to €13.8m, representing 44.2 percent of the Company’s total revenues in 2021.
The gross margin came to €11.1m, representing 35.4 percent of revenues, up +5.3 points compared with 2020 (30.1 percent), thanks to the favorable change in the product mix and the increase in the value of the systems sold.
Operating expenditure increased by €1.4m (€9.8m in 2021, versus €8.4m in 2020), due to the ramping up of R&D investments to reach 12 percent of revenues in 2021 (€3.8m; +80 percent). Sales and marketing costs (-4 percent) and administrative costs (-6 percent) are down slightly.
In this context, operating income came to €1.3m, compared with €0.7m in 2020, up +83 percent.
Net income totaled €1.5m, compared with €0.3m in 2020. In 2021, it included +€0.4m of financial income and expenses, linked primarily to the revaluation in euros of receivables denominated in US dollars.
The cash position at end-2021 is positive, with €5.8m, down €2.2m from the end of 2020. This change reflects a strong growth in cash flow from operations, the increase in working capital requirements and the ramping up of investments. The group’s net financial debt represented €2.4m at December 31, 2021. Shareholders’ equity came to €19.8m, up €0.8m from 2020. This change is linked to earnings for the year and the distribution of amounts drawn against the issue premium for 2020 to shareholders.
Order book
The order book at December 31, 2021 is up 3% to €14.8m, including three orders for MBE systems (€7.9m), with one production system, and a robust level of orders for services and accessories (€6.9m). This order book does not take into account the additional orders for six systems (five research and one production) announced during the first quarter of 2022, for a total of around €9m.
Outlook
In view of these elements, Riber is forecasting growth in both revenues and profitability for 2022 compared with 2021. Alongside this, it expects to continue to record new orders during the second quarter of 2022 thanks to a strong pipeline of prospects.
Over the longer term, in an environment supporting the emergence of a European semiconductor industry, Riber is moving forward with a project for profitable growth built around its technological and industrial know-how, as well as its capacity for innovation.
The executive board will submit a proposal to shareholders at the General Meeting on June 21, 2022 to approve a cash payout based on reimbursing part of the issue premium for €0.05 per share. It will be released for payment on July 4, 2022.
