ATMI Reports First Quarter Financial Results
PR NEWSWIRE - April 23, 2003 06:00
DANBURY, Conn., Apr 23, 2003 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- ATMI, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATMI), a supplier of materials and services to the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers, today announced revenues of $53.8 million for the first quarter of 2003, an increase of 11% over $48.4 million in the first quarter of 2002, and a decrease of 1% from $54.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2002.
The Company's net loss narrowed to $1.6 million during the quarter, which represents a 41% improvement from the $2.7 million loss in the first quarter of 2002, and a 12% improvement from the $1.8 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2002. Loss per fully diluted share of $0.05 in the first quarter of 2003 improved from the loss of $0.09 in the first quarter of 2002, and the loss of $0.06 in the fourth quarter of 2002.
Gene Banucci, Chief Executive Officer, said, "This was an unusual quarter for the Company in that January and February were weaker than expected, while March was much stronger. Similarly, we believe wafer starts were modestly positive during the quarter, but weak in February and strong in March. Worldwide, we believe wafer starts were up approximately 2% sequentially for the quarter, with wafer starts in Taiwan up between 8-10% sequentially solely on the basis of a strong March."
Doug Neugold, ATMI President, said, "We continued to make excellent inroads with key customers during the quarter; our commitment to global key account support teams is creating a measurable difference in our performance with our key customers. This investment -- along with the manufacturing and technology development investments we have made throughout this downturn -- has created numerous new opportunities for ATMI. One example, our new NOWTrak(R) radio-frequency materials identification and tracking product, has moved into production. In beta testing, our customers have been enthusiastic with the material use optimization and process efficiency enhancement that NOWTrak(R) provides them. Besides this new product technology, ATMI's Packaging group has had key wins for our NOWPak(R) and SmartProbe(R) products in China and other Asia/Pacific markets, opening up new opportunities to spread this industry standard product."
Dan Sharkey, Chief Financial Officer said, "As Gene indicated, we had a 'down and up' quarter which ultimately resulted in an overall flat quarter sequentially. We remain very focused on cost containment and operating efficiency, and we believe we are in a strong financial position to respond to the anticipated recovery."
During the quarter, ATMI's Materials segment produced revenues of $36.2 million, or approximately 67% of ATMI's total revenues. Materials revenues increased 24% from $29.2 million during the first quarter of 2002, but declined 2% from $36.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2002. Gross profit margins were 49.3%, compared with 50.5% for the same quarter last year, and 51.5% for the fourth quarter of 2002. Revenues in the Technologies segment were $17.6 million, down 8% from $19.1 million for the first quarter last year, and up 1% from $17.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2002. Gross margins were 25.2%, compared with 23.9% in the first quarter last year and 16.5% for the fourth quarter of 2002, as equipment spares and increased volume in our Epitaxial Services business helped incrementally improve gross margins.
In the first quarter of 2003, gross margins were negatively affected by the incremental depreciation and fixed cost structure of our new materials manufacturing facility in Burnet, Texas and positively affected by some high margin, previously deferred revenue. Also during the quarter, ATMI completed its exit from the gallium arsenide epitaxial services business and recouped a modest amount of the provision made in the third quarter of 2002. There was a restructuring charge in the quarter, related to the closing of a parts cleaning facility in Colorado Springs. Together, these items had a positive pre-tax effect of $340,000 for the quarter. |
