WETTENBERG (dpa-AFX) - After a surprisingly good year in 2023, the technology company PVA Tepla intends to grow strongly in the longer term. For 2024 and 2025, the management expects only "moderate growth", as the specialist for semiconductor and vacuum technologies announced on Tuesday in Wettenberg, Hesse. By the end of 2028, however, turnover will have almost doubled to around 500 million euros. Company acquisitions are also expected to drive this. The share price rose after the news was published.

With a recent gain of 5.5 percent, the SDax stock moved closer to the interim high it reached just over two weeks ago. The price gain achieved so far in 2024 is 12%. However, the record level of November 2021 remains a long way off: since then, the share has lost more than half of its value.

In 2023, PVA performed slightly better than expected by management and analysts. According to the press release, the company increased its turnover by 28% to EUR 263 million. The company earned EUR 41 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), which corresponds to an increase of 38% compared to 2022.

For 2024, the Hesse-based company expects sales of between 270 and 290 million euros and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of between 47 and 51 million euros. From today's perspective, growth of this magnitude is also expected for 2025. The company is referring to the absolute figures.

In order to reach the half a billion euro turnover mark by the end of 2028, Group CEO Jalin Ketter also wants to acquire other companies. The aim is to complement the PVA Tepla Group's existing technology portfolio in a meaningful way.

According to Ketter, she wants to make PVA less dependent on individual industry cycles and is concentrating on markets that focus on topics such as decarbonization and mobility. Her Management Board colleague Oliver Hofer spoke of a reduced dependence on individual large orders and shorter lead times in production.

This realignment is also a reason for the decline in the ratio of incoming orders to sales - the so-called book-to-bill ratio - to below 1. "Metrology solutions, i.e. measurement and inspection systems based on acoustic, optical or chemical methods, for example, can be produced with significantly shorter lead times than a complex, customer-specific system concept for the production of new materials or a crystal growing system tailored to the specific needs of a customer," explained Hofer.

PVA intends to announce further details at a capital market day on May 16. The annual report for the past year is to be presented on March 20./lew/tav/mis