EQS-News: AT&S increases revenue in a challenging market environment

 

AT&S increases revenue in a challenging market environment

 

• Revenue 2024/25 increases to € 1,590 million
• Sale of AT&S Korea leads to profit for the year of € 90 million
• Cost optimization and efficiency program continued
• Customer diversification successfully advanced
• Quarterly rather than annual guidance due to current uncertainty about global development

 

Leoben – AT&S increased revenue slightly in an overall difficult market environment. “The market situation in the past financial year confronted us with many challenges. Thanks to starting our transformation process early, we nevertheless managed to partially compensate for the pricing pressure and even increase revenue,” explains CFO Petra Preining. “As a result of the strategic decision to sell the plant in Korea and to focus on our core business, we can also report earnings per share of € 1.86,” Preining adds. The new CEO, Michael Mertin, further explains, “We plan to use the profit for the year to return to profitable growth and to deliver an increase in company value.”

 

In comparison to the prior-year period, consolidated revenue rose slightly to € 1,590 million in the financial year 2024/25 (PY: € 1,550 million). AT&S recorded positive volume development during the reporting period, which compensated for the persistent high price pressure for both printed circuit boards and IC substrates.

 

EBITDA rose by 97% from € 307 million to € 606 million. The improvement in earnings is predominantly attributable to the sale of the plant in Korea. Despite the positive development, AT&S is intensively continuing its comprehensive cost optimization and efficiency program in order to counter effects such as price pressure and Inflation resulting from the persisting difficult market environment. In addition to price pressure, start-up costs in Kulim, Malaysia, and Leoben, Austria, as well as costs related to the cost optimization and efficiency program had a negative impact on earnings. Adjusted for these costs and the positive effect from the sale of the plant in Korea, EBITDA amounted to € 408 million (PY: € 384 million), which corresponds to an increase by 6%.

 

The adjusted EBITDA margin was further increased and amounted to 25.7% (PY: 24.8%). The reported EBITDA margin (not adjusted for start-up and restructuring costs) amounted to 38.1% (PY: 19.8%).

 

Depreciation and amortization increased by € 52 million to € 328 million (21% of revenue). EBIT rose from € 31 million to € 277 million. The EBIT margin amounted to 17.5% (PY: 2.0%). Finance costs – net declined from € -50 million in the previous year to € -83 million primarily due to higher interest expenses. Driven by the sale of the plant in Korea, profit for the year increased from € -37 million to € 90 million, leading to an increase in earnings per share by € 3.25 from € -1.39 to € 1.86.

 

Cash flow from operating activities fell to € -75 million in the financial year 2024/25 (PY: € 653 million). The company’s international factoring program was reorganized and started in the first quarter of 2025/26.

 

 

 

 

 

Key figures

in € million	Q4 2024/25	Q4 2023/24	Change in%	FY 2024/25	FY 2023/24	Change in%
Revenue	393	345	14	1,590	1,550	3
EBITDA	374	40	>100	606	307	97
EBITDA adjusted1)	76	64	20	408	384	6
EBITDA margin (in %)	96.2	11.5	-	38.1	19.8	-
EBITDA margin adjusted (in %)1)	19.4	18.4	-	25.7	24.8	-
EBIT	279	-32	-	277	31	>100
EBIT adjusted1)	-15	-6	>100	97	113	-14
EBIT margin (in %)	70.9	-9.3	-	17.5	2.0	-
EBIT margin adjusted (in %)1)	-3.9	-1.7	-	6.1	7.3	-
Profit/loss for the year	185	-44	-	90	-37	-
ROCE (in %)1)	n.a	n.a	-	7.0	0.6	-
Net CAPEX	87	157	-44	415	855	-52
Cash flow from operating activities	-45	156	-	-75	653	-
Earnings per share (in €)	4.65	-1.23	-	1.86	-1.39	-
Number of employees2)	12,963	13,829	-4	13,261	13,828	-6

 

¹⁾ Adjusted for start-up and restructuring costs as well as effects from the sale of the plant in Korea

²⁾ Incl. leased personnel, average. As at March 31, 2025: 12,620

 

Total assets declined by 1.1% to € 4,622 million in the financial year 2024/25. The equity ratio improved by 2.6 percentage points to 23.3% due to the profit for the year as well as positive exchange rate effects in other comprehensive income (OCI).

 

Cash and cash equivalents decreased to € 485 million (March 31, 2024: € 676 million). In addition, AT&S has unused credit lines of € 256 million to secure the financing of the future investment program and short-term repayments. The net debt/EBITDA ratio decreased from 6.1 (as of December 31, 2024) to 2.5.

 

Sale AT&S Korea

AT&S successfully completed the sale of the plant in Ansan, Korea, to the Italian company SO.MA.CI.S. as of January 31, 2025, thus further sharpening the Group’s strategic profile. The purchase price (equity value) amounted to € 405 million and approximately € 17 million in interest income (equity ticker). The transaction is offset by a disposal of carrying amount of € 43 million (as of January 31, 2025) and resulted in cash inflows before tax of € 353 million (after tax: € 317 million). EBITDA increased by roughly € 325 million as a result of the sale. The gain from the sale will not be included in the adjusted EBITDA margin.

 

 

 

Cost optimization and efficiency program

Cost saving efforts were again stepped up significantly in the financial year 2024/25 and all investments underwent thorough review. Compared to the previous year, the cost base was sustainably reduced by € 120 million. In order to compensate for effects from the ongoing challenging market environment as well as the start-up costs from the additional production lines in Kulim, the measures implemented so far will be continued in the financial year 2025/26. The target for the current financial year is to sustainably save an additional € 130 million.

 

Dividend

In order to strengthen the balance sheet position, the Management Board will propose to the Annual General Meeting on July 3, 2025, subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board, not to distribute a dividend for the financial year 2024/25 (PY: 0.00 € per share).

 

Expected market environment

Although there have been signs of easing in recent days, the smoldering trade conflict between the USA and the rest of the world – in particular China – remains the main uncertainty factor for the expected market environment. The development of the different market segments currently shows significant discrepancies. While volume in the areas of mobile devices, computers and communication infrastructure proves to be stable and has shown seasonal growth, the automotive segment is stagnating, and the industrial segment continues to be weak. AT&S expects this weakness, which primarily affects Europe, to continue into the next financial year. Although overall PCB prices declined to a lesser degree than in the previous year, price pressure is persisting to a large extent. In the area of substrates, pressure on prices remains unchanged.

 

In the printed circuit board segment, it is above all mobile devices, the armament industry and data centers that show positive forecasts and drove the PCB market in the last quarter. In addition to increased investments in servers, the related communication infrastructure is being further expanded. At the same time, lower demand for e-mobility and a general economic weakness continue to burden demand for automotive and industrial printed circuit boards. Automotive and industrial inventory levels are also still high and are currently being reduced.

 

In the area of IC substrates, the market benefited from the recovery of client computing demand and special AI chips, whereas the classic server segment continues to be subdued. An upturn is largely dependent on a general economic recovery and is therefore not expected this year.

 

Outlook 2025/26

It is expected that, in the coming months, the US government will provide a clear picture of how it intends to deal with tariffs on goods imported into the USA in the future. While AT&S does not expect such a decision to result in an immediate substantial impact on its own products, it may have a significant influence on its customers’ end products – and consequently on the demand for AT&S products. The Management Board therefore decided to wait until the effects of potential decisions have been coordinated with key customers before publishing an annual guidance for 2025/26.

 

Rather than an annual guidance, the company is announcing its expectations for the first quarter of 2025/26. The management is planning investments of roughly € 65 million (Q1 2024/25: € 93 million). In the other quarters of the financial year, the company expects the investment volume to be higher. The majority of these investments will be used for the expansion of IC substrate production at the new plant in Kulim.

 

In the first quarter of the financial year 2025/26, the management has been observing that the volatile order behavior of a key customer is continuing and the weakness of the European automotive and industrial markets is persisting. High-volume production at the new plant in Kulim has started, but start-up costs for further production lines will continue to burden the earnings/revenue ratio in the coming months. The company expects to generate revenue of approximately € 400 million in the first quarter (Q1 2024/25: 349 million); the expected EBITDA margin, at around 16%, will reflect the above-mentioned start-up costs of additional production lines (Q1 2024/25: 18.5%).

 

Outlook 2026/27

The production capacity expansion in Kulim and the expansion of the site in Leoben are still developing positively despite the currently challenging global economic situation. AT&S currently assumes that revenue of approximately € 2.1 to € 2.4 billion will be generated in the financial year 2026/27 and expects an EBITDA margin of 24 to 28%. This forecast neither includes a potential escalation of the currently smoldering trade dispute nor potential revenue from the second plant built by AT&S in Kulim. The management monitors the currently tense geopolitical situation very carefully in order to be able to respond to developments at any time and to make strategic adaptations.

 

 

AT&S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik Aktiengesellschaft – Advanced Technologies & Solutions

AT&S is a leading global manufacturer of high-end IC substrates and printed circuit boards. AT&S industrializes leading-edge technologies for its core business segments Mobile Devices & Substrates, Automotive & Aerospace, Industrial and Medical and high-performance computing for VR and AI applications. AT&S has a global presence with production sites in Austria (Leoben, Fehring) as well as plants in India (Nanjangud) and China (Shanghai, Chongqing). A new high-end production site for IC substrates has been established in Malaysia (Kulim). In Leoben, a European competence center including series production for IC substrate technologies has been built, which will be officially opened in June 2025. Both sites started production in the financial year 2024/25. The company currently employs 13,000 people. For further information please visit www.ats.net

 

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