SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES : publishes financial figures for the first half year of 2017

• Positive trend in sales and EBIT
• High order backlog
• Additional CIGS production machines sold - prepayments
• received in July
• Positive Outlook for CIGS Solar Segment
• More Projects in Discussion

Kahl am Main, 11. August 2017 - The SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG (SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES) reports half-year sales for 2017 of € 48.3 million, which is significantly higher than the prior-year level of € 24.6 million. In the second quarter 2017 sales in amount of € 22.2 million were booked, which is also above the previous year's level of € 10.5 million. The order backlog at June 30, 2017 amounted to € 87.7 million (June 30, 2016: € 133.5 million)

Dr.-Ing. Stefan Rinck, CEO of SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG: 'During the last weeks, we have received more important orders for different CIGS production systems. These are buffer layer deposition systems of the type TENUIS II as well as vacuum sputtering systems of the type GENERIS.'

Dr. Rinck adds: 'We further developed a new version of our vacuum sputtering system GENERIS for the specific application in the CIGS thin-film solar technology and could already sell several systems in July 2017.'

In the first half of 2017 earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were positive at € 2.5 million (previous year: € -9.3 million). In the 2 quarter 2017 the EBIT stood at € 1.1 million (previous year: € -3.5 million). In the first half of 2017 the financial result came to € -0.8 million (previous year excluding restructuring gains: € -2.6 million). As of June 30, 2017, the available liquid funds amounted to € 24.4 million (previous year: € 18.5 million).

The number of employees in the SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES Group decreased slightly from 318 employees as of December 31, 2016 to 312 employees as of June 30, 2017.

Outlook for the business year 2017
For the current year SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES projects a doubling of sales pursuant to IFRS compared with the previous year. The operating result (EBIT) for the Group should come in at a low, positive double-digit million range.

The forecast for the annual targets for 2017 mainly rests on the assumption that the majority of the concluded delivery contracts, which are currently booked as order backlog, can be finished as scheduled within the course of the business year. The prerequisite for this is that the respective, contractually agreed prepayments are received in a timely manner.

For the two major orders reported in 2017 with additional customers for CIGS production machines, the prepayments were received in the quarter under review or shortly thereafter and the assembly of the machines has begun. The pending prepayments for the second site in the context of the major order placed by the Chinese customer CNBM have to be made during the third quarter for the order to make sufficient sales and earnings contributions within the course of the year. Furthermore, additional orders in the area of wet-chemical machines are anticipated for 2017. In particular with respect to wet-chemical machines, the company is subject to high competitive pressures.

SINGULUS company key figures according to IFRS (unverified)

SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES - Innovations for New Technologies
SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES builds machines for economical and resource-efficient production processes.

SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES' strategy is based on the use and expansion of its existing core competencies. The application areas include coating technology, surface processing, wet-chemical applications as well as the related chemical and physical processing steps. The company's target is to reach a technologically leading position in the Solar division.

For all machines, processes and applications SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES draws upon its know-how in the areas of automation and process technology.