SÜSS MicroTec : Mar 27, 2024 Annual financial report 2023

SUSS MICROTEC Annual Report 2023

Key Figures

SUSS MicroTec Group - including SUSS MicroOptics

Company | Condensed Management Report | Consolidated Financial Statements | Notes | Further Information

2022

446.2

346.4

299.1

110.1

36.8%

189.1

30.1

41.9

14.0%

32.8

11.0%

24.5

Change

−0.5%

34.1%

9.4%

−3.6%

−4.4%-Points

16.9%

9.9%

−39.3% −6.2%-Points −51.0% −6.1%-Points −80.8%

in € million

Balance sheet and cash flow Equity

Equity ratio

Balance sheet total

ROCE

Net Cash

Free Cashflow

Further key figures

Investments

Investment ratio

Depreciation

Employees as of December 31

2023

176.6

47.8%

369.7

8.3%

28.6

−4.4

8.2

2.5%

9.3

1,345

2022 Change

177.7−0.6% 50.3% −2.5%-Points

353.24.7%

19.4% −11.1%-Points

41.3 −30.8%

1. -

1. 3.8%

2.6% −0.1%-Points

9.12.2%

1,2527.4%

1.28

−80.5%

1 See Notes letter B., Application costs were reclassified from distribution costs to research and development costs in order to ensure comparability with the current figures.

SUSS MICROTEC Annual Report 2023

Key Figures

SUSS MicroTec Group - continuing operations

Company | Condensed Management Report | Consolidated Financial Statements | Notes | Further Information

2022

411.0

335.4

260.0

100.6

38.7%

159.3

28.7

37.4

14.4%

31.5

12.1%

23.3

Change

2.3%

34.9%

17.0%

3.2%

−4.6%-Points

25.7%

9.0%

−7.3% −3.0%-Points −11.7% −3.0%-Points −25.5%

in € million

Balance sheet and cash flow Equity

Equity ratio

Balance sheet total

ROCE

Net Cash

Free Cashflow

Further key figures

Investments

Investment ratio

Depreciation

Employees as of December 31

2023

176.6

47.8%

369.7

17.5%

32.8

7.9

4.6

1.5%

6.9

1,207

2022 Change

177.7−0.6% 50.3% −2.5%-Points

353.24.7%

23.6% −6.1%-Points

41.3 −20.6%

1. -
2. 12.2%

1.6% −0.1%-Points

5.9 16.9%

1,091 10.6%

1.22

−25.4%

1 See Notes letter B., Application costs were reclassified from distribution costs to research and development costs in order to ensure comparability with the current figures.

8

11

20

24

124

138

203

204

212

213

Letter to the Shareholders

Report of the Supervisory Board

Investor Relations - SUSS MicroTec in the Capital Market Condensed Management Report

Consolidated Financial Statements (IFRS) Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements Responsibility Statement by The Legal Representatives Audit Certificate of the Independent Auditor Five-Year-Overview

Contact / Imprint

We recorded new orders worth

€ 420.5million

in the financial year 2023

2023 was a year of very strong growth. With a 17% increase in sales to € 304.3 million, we achieved a new record in our core business. As a result, we have continued and even accelerated the growth of recent years. Even more important is our focus on the future, where we like to grow further in the year to come. In the past twelve months, our customers have placed orders worth € 420.5 million with us - which is the highest order intake in our company's history.

The biggest driver for new projects has been artificial intel- ligence, or AI in short. Applications such as ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Copilot have one thing in common: they all require very powerful AI chips. These AI chips consist of state-of-

from left to right: Dr. Thomas Rohe, Dr. Cornelia Ballwiesser and Burkhardt Frick

the-art logic chips to solve user queries and powerful memory chips because they process huge amounts of available data and content to come up with creative solutions. At SUSS MicroTec, we are proud to support this megatrend with our solutions in multiple ways. That is why we have chosen the AI theme, where humans and machines achieve unprecedented results, in the cover of this annual report.

What exactly do we contribute to AI-designated chips? First, our temporary bonding solutions help memory manufacturers produce high-performance memory, known as high-bandwidth memory, or HBM in short. These memory chips consist of eight or more very thin layers of memory stacked on top of each other. To do this, the circular wafer with a diameter of 30 centimeters must first be grinded

down to a thickness of about 50 micrometers. To illustrate: this corresponds to a commercially available pizza with the thickness of an average human hair. To ensure that the wafer is not damaged during the thinning process and does not curl up, it is supported by a second substrate wafer from which it is later detached. This temporary connection between the two circular wafers is handled by our equipment,

The total value of orders received for AI applications amounted to

€ 130million

in 2023

for which we received the majority of AI-related orders totalling approximately € 130 million in the second half of 2023. We also help to combine these memory chips with the logic chip in a high-performance package at a later stage. A leading Taiwanese foundry is also using two of our solutions: our temporary bonding platform and our UV projection scanner.

Artificial intelligence is the hot topic in the semiconductor industry. The key question for all manufacturers and therefore for our customers is: How can we increase production capacity as quickly as possible? One thing is clear: this is not possible without additional production equipment from us and other equipment suppliers. That is why we are committed to growth.

Because growth always involves change, we are realising that we are undergoing a growth transformation. In concrete terms, this means that we are advancing our manufacturing and process capabilities. We are increasing the number of employees, especially in manufacturing and manufacturing-related areas. This will enable us to produce more tools - especially at our production site in Hsinchu, Taiwan, where we have started hiring more than 50 employees to build temporary bonders starting in the

fall of 2023. Another way we are expanding capacity is by increasing our use of external manufacturing partners. Instead of sourcing individual components, we are building up strategic suppliers in Europe and Asia who manufacture entire modules for us. This is a targeted way of reducing our vertical integration.

Some of the measures associated with this growth transformation involve additional expenses and an initial decline in efficiency. These effects are visible in our figures: our gross profit margin was only 34.1%, and our EBIT margin was just 9.1%. We cannot be satisfied with that and must get through the learning curve quickly. We are confident to make a step forward as early as 2024. We expect the gross profit margin to be in the range of 35 to 38% this year. At the same time, the EBIT margin should improve to a range of 10% to 12%. 2024 will therefore be an important milestone on the way to achieving our mid-term target of an EBIT margin of at least 15% in 2025. We remain committed to this target. The same applies to our sales target of € 400 million for the same year.

When these 2025 targets were defined a few years ago, the MicroOptics business was still an integral part of this plan- ning. This has changed in the meantime, as you have

probably noticed. At the beginning of 2023, we announced that this segment would no longer be part of our core business due to a lack of synergies with the semiconductor segments. This was followed in November 2023 by the announcement that we had reached an agreement with Fo- cuslight Technologies on the sale of our subsidiary SUSS MicroOptics S.A. The transaction was officially completed in January 2024. This move has sharpened our strategic focus. At the same time, we received cash totalling € 75 mil- lion. We will use these funds for targeted measures and investments in our core semiconductor business and our sites, such as the creation of additional cleanroom capacity for development and production and the energy-­ efficient optimization of buildings. Increased spending will also be required in the coming years to digitize our business processes and modernize our IT systems, such as the migration of our ERP system to S / 4HANA. In addition, we are now financially well equipped to pre-finance our targeted growth further, for example by procuring materials for new orders at an early stage, and to maintain sufficient liquidity for industry-specific volatility.

Our sales guidance for the year 2024 is

€ 340-

370million

We look forward to 2024 with confidence. Our very high order book is the basis for further growth. We expect sales in the new fiscal year to be between € 340 million and € 370 million. At the midpoint of this range, this would represent an increase of 16.7%. The outlook beyond our mid- term targets for 2025 is also intact. The general market environment and special factors such as the increasing acceptance of AI applications and the construction of additional semiconductor fabs in North America, Europe and Asia should enable SUSS MicroTec to continue to grow. In addition, there is the potential of our two most important development projects: hybrid bonding and wafer cleaning. In both cases, we took an important step forward in 2023 and installed the first pilot systems at our application center­

in Sternenfels, Germany. These tools enable us to demonstrate the performance of our solutions to customers. In wafer cleaning, we are working to significantly improve the environmental friendliness of the cleaning process by replacing aggressive chemicals. Sustainability is therefore an integral part of our product development. You can read about this and much more in our non-financial statement, which is part of our management report.

We also view sustainability as a long-term success factor. This year we will celebrate our 75th anniversary. It is a great achievement that we have evolved over decades in the fast-moving semiconductor equipment industry. It is in our hands to continue to grow profitably based on execution of our high order book and promising future prospects.

We would like to thank our employees for their extraordinary commitment during the past year. A year characterized by growth, but also by demanding delivery schedules. We would also like to thank you, our shareholders, for the trust you have placed in us. We will continue to do everything in our power to create value for our company.

Best regards,

Burkhardt Frick

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Dr. Cornelia Ballwiesser

Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Dr. Thomas Rohe

Chief Operating Officer (COO)