semiconductor
Boom in the chip industry: Siltronic starts the year with optimism
The Siltronic site in Freiberg, Saxony. Photo: Siltronic AG/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Companies all over the world are desperately looking for electronic chips – companies like Siltronic, which manufacture the basis for them, benefit from this. However, the takeover issue is not entirely off the table.
The global chip bottlenecks continue to give the wafer manufacturer Siltronic a tailwind. Overall, a good start to 2022 can be assumed, the SDax company announced on Wednesday when it presented preliminary figures for 2021.
It had previously become known on Tuesday that the planned takeover of Siltronic by the Taiwanese group Globalwafers had failed. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection had not granted the necessary approval by the end of January.
Irrespective of this, Siltronic boss Christoph von Plotho sees the company in a good position. The company explained that significantly rising costs as a result of inflation are likely to weigh on the result. However, the market environment remains positive and sales prices are likely to continue to rise significantly. Demand remains high. In this environment, the wafers manufactured by Siltronic – thin slices of silicon that form the basis for electronic chips – are in great demand among chip groups.
In the past year, Siltronic increased sales based on preliminary figures by 16 percent to a good 1.4 billion euros. The operating result (Ebitda) increased by a good 40 percent to 466 million euros. This corresponds to an operating margin of 33 percent. On average, analysts had significantly less profit on the slip. The final results are to be published on March 9th.
Strong demand
The past year was characterized by strong customer demand, reported Siltronic. The company cited catch-up effects from 2020, continued high investments in digitization and the use of semiconductor components in more and more applications as the causes. However, higher energy and freight costs would have eaten up part of the positive development. Almost all companies are currently struggling with such problems. However, electricity prices have a particularly strong impact on energy-intensive manufacturers such as Siltronic.
In order to be able to meet the growth in demand expected in the coming years, Siltronic announced last summer that it would build another factory in Singapore, which would cost billions, and expand the production site in Freiberg, Saxony.
However, the issue of takeovers is not completely off the table. Siltronic’s major shareholder, Wacker Chemie, is still looking for a buyer for its 31 percent stake in the Munich semiconductor supplier. However, Wacker-Chemie boss Christian Hartel sees no time pressure.
It could be more expensive for potential buyers
However, potential buyers may have to dig deeper into their pockets. Globalwafers had offered Siltronic shareholders EUR 145 per share. In an interview in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (Tuesday), however, von Plotho was self-confident that this would probably no longer be enough in the current environment.
“Wafers are scarce and prices are rising,” said the manager. “We are building a giant factory in Singapore. We have concluded supply contracts worth several billion with customers. We will receive hundreds of millions of deposits. The funding is in place.” With the new factory, the company can increase its market share. “Siltronic is in a better position than before. From today’s perspective, an unchanged offer is not very attractive.” In addition, the geopolitical situation has changed massively.
Pre-market trading on Wednesday morning showed that Siltronic shares were up almost three percent. Your course should therefore continue the recovery of the past two days. Previously, when it became apparent that the Globalwafers deal would fail, it had slipped from around 140 euros to around 110 euros.