PICOGIGA TO CONTINUE ITS STRONG GROWTH
Source: Picogiga
Villejust, France. The turnover of 2000 fourth quarter will be far above the previous record reached for the third quarter. The very strong wireless local loop market strengthens Picogiga s position in high frequency applications. This year end will also see the beginning of Picogiga s penetration in the fibre optic telecommunications field: low noise amplifier and modulator.
New products, metamorphic HEMT and HBT, give rise to tremendous interest from customers. The present HBT means of production are not sufficient to respond to the very strong demand from customers. The third Riber 6000 machine has recently been installed and is therefore assigned to HBT wafers. It will be operational on January 2001 as previously planned. The V150 machine, also assigned to HBT, will be delivered end of December 2000, i.e. three months earlier than the planned date. This will enable Picogiga to enlarge its HBT clients portfolio. The remaining equipment, another V150, one GEN 2000 and one Riber 7000 will be installed in 2001 without any delay on the programme. It will insure strong growth of HBT clients in year 2001.
Moreover, Picopolish will also show a record turnover for the fourth quarter. Picopolish is building a new facility at Peynier, and will therefore be closer to its customers and will optimise its logistics and service quality.
Finally, Modulight, Picogiga s Finnish subsidiary, is under qualification for a high performance transmission laser with high thermal stability. Modulight is also developing a photodetector in cooperation with one of its customers.
Linh Nuyen, Chairman and CEO comments : " We can notice for the three activities of the Picogiga group - compound semiconductor epitaxial wafers, wafer recycling and optoelectronics- a continuous and strong growth of the demand. This situation confirms our forecast. Our present production equipment represents a capacity three times higher than that at the beginning of this year. The capital increase postponement, due to exceptionally unfavourable stock market conditions, not have any incidence, neither on our growth nor does on our development plan. Picogiga s strong cash flow gives the company a certain autonomy.
Substantial expenses related to the operation of capital increase are "exceptional charges". They will reduce the year profits while the operational results will remain at a very high level.
The Extraordinary Shareholder Meeting to be held on January 12th 2001, as we are announcing today, should enable the Board to improve the conditions for increase in capital and thus ensure its success.
Finally, we are very pleased to be informed that Picogiga will enter the IT CAC 50 Index on December 21st."
About Picogiga
Picogiga is a world leader in the production of compound semiconductor products for the electronics and optoelectronics industries. Linh Nuyen, the Company s Chairman and CEO, was the co-inventor of the High Electron Mobility Transistor ("HEMT"). The very high speed of HEMT is the result of the structure of the compound semiconductor material used to fabricate the transistor.
Picogiga was created in 1985 to address demand for the new HEMT wafers and became the first commercial company to launch industrial production of ultra-thin layer compound semiconductor wafers with monoatomic precision through Molecular Beam Epitaxy. Picogiga is now recognised as the world leader in epitaxial gallium arsenide wafers for microwave applications. Picogiga recently launched a new product - epitaxial wafers for Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor ("HBT") - aimed primarily at the mobile telecommunication market and the optical telecommunication market.
Picogiga also recently announced an investment in Modulight, a spin-off of the world-renowned Optoelectronic Research Center ("ORC") at the Tampere University of Technology, Finland. Modulight s product range, which is complementary to Picogiga s includes transmission lasers and pump lasers as well as avalanche photodiodes used in fibre optic telecommunications. In addition, Modulight greatest strength is its pump laser which does not contain any aluminium in its semiconductor material in the active region; this enables a higher level of laser reliability whilst retaining a simple and low-cost manufacturing process.
Picogiga recently acquired Picopolish, a leader in the recycling of Gallium Arsenide and Silicon wafers. This activity enables the compound semiconductor industry to drastically reduce costs for the utilization of recycled wafers. Therefore the synergy between Picogiga and Picopolish is very strong.
Picogiga obtained a listing on the Paris Nouveau Marché in 1996 and will be on the IT CAC 50 Index on December 21st, 2000.
