News Article
Rubicon Reports 30% Increase in Revenue
Operating margin was 40 % and diluted earnings per share nearly doubled sequentially to $0.35. The firm also announced that it will open manufacturing plants in Illinois & Malaysia.
Rubicon Technology, a leading provider of sapphire substrates and products to the LED, RFIC, Semiconductor, and Optical industries, has reported financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2010 and announced the opening of two new manufacturing facilities.
Commenting on the results, Raja Parvez, President and CEO said, "We had another outstanding quarter with strong growth in revenue and earnings. Overall demand from the LED market remained strong in the quarter as our customers continued to add capacity in response to the projected rapid growth in the LED industry."
The Company's revenue increased 30 % sequentially to $20.5 million in the current quarter largely due to increased pricing for sapphire substrates driven by strong demand from the LED market. The Company also reported continued strong interest for its polished six inch wafers. Parvez continued, "With the increased polishing capacity we are bringing on-line, we expect the six inch polished wafer product to become an increasingly large percentage of our total revenues."
Commenting on the outlook for the fourth quarter, William Weissman, Rubicon's CFO said "While we have seen some softening in demand in certain geographies associated with higher TV panel inventories, overall demand remains strong and we expect prices for our sapphire products to increase in the fourth quarter by at least 15 % on average sequentially. We also anticipate beginning to add capacity in both crystal growth and polishing in the quarter. As a result we expect revenue to increase approximately 27 % sequentially to between $25 and $27 million. Gross margin should be in the high 50 % range with operating margin in the mid 40 % range. Based on a projected diluted share count of 24 million shares, we expect diluted earnings per share to be between $0.47 and $0.49."
The Company also reported that it recently opened both its new crystal growth facility in Batavia, Illinois and its new polishing facility in Penang, Malaysia. The new crystal growth facility will be producing larger crystals allowing the Company even more flexibility in addressing the growing demand for larger diameter sapphire substrates. The new polishing facility will be responsible for the more labor intensive crystal fabrication processes and will also allow the Company to significantly expand its capacity for large diameter wafer polishing.
Parvez commented, "Combined, I believe these two new facilities give us a significant advantage in the marketplace. This combination of high volume, high quality, large diameter crystal growth and polishing capability makes us unique in the marketplace today and positions us very well to maintain our leadership position for years to come."
Conference Call Details
Rubicon hosted a conference call yesterday to review the highlights of the third quarter 2010 results and the fourth quarter 2010 outlook.
The conference call will be available to the public through a live audio web broadcast via the Internet. Log on through the Investor Relations section of Rubicon's website at http://www.rubicon-es2.com/index.html.
An audio replay of the call will be available approximately two hours after the conclusion of the call. The audio replay will remain available until 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on November 11, 2010, and can be accessed by dialing
(888) 286-8010 (domestic) or (617) 801-6888 (international)
Callers should reference conference ID 19125212. The webcast will be archived on the Company's website.
Rubicon Technology is an advanced electronic materials provider that is engaged in developing, manufacturing and selling monocrystalline sapphire and other crystalline products for light-emitting diodes (LEDs), radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), blue laser diodes, optoelectronics and other optical applications. The Company applies its proprietary crystal growth technology to produce very high-quality sapphire in a form that allows for volume production of various sizes and orientations of substrates and windows. Rubicon is a vertically-integrated manufacturer with capabilities in crystal growth, high precision core drilling, wafer slicing, surface lapping, large-diameter polishing and wafer cleaning processes, which the Company employs to convert the bulk crystal into products with the quality and precision specified by its customers. The Company is actively developing larger diameter products to support next-generation LED, RFIC and optical window applications.
