Trikon Announces Record Earnings for 2nd Quarter

NEWPORT, United Kingdom, July 31 -- Trikon Technologies Inc., a maker of semiconductor processing equipment, reported record earnings results and shipments for its second fiscal quarter of 2001, ended June 30. Revenues for the quarter were $27.7 million, an increase of 12 percent over a year-ago's $24.7 million for the same period, and a decrease of 27 percent from this year's first quarter $37.6 million total.

Revenues for the six months, ended June 30 2001, were $65.3 million, up some 53 percent from last year's comparable revenues of $42.7 million. Operating income for the quarter was $5.1 million, an increase of 62 percent over last year's $3.1 million for the same period. For the six-month period, operating income was $14.1 million, an increase of 180 percent over last year's $5.0 million for the same six-month period. Net income applicable to common shares, for the quarter, were $3.8 million or $0.30 per share, including a tax charge of $1.2 million, or $0.10 per share, a 26 percent hike over year-ago totals for the same period.

For the first 6 months of 2001, net income applicable to common shares was $10.5 million, or $0.85 per share, including a tax charge of $3.4 million, or $0.27 per share, a 175 percent increase of the comparable value of a year ago (before the cumulative effect of SAB 101 implementation).

"I am pleased with Trikon's operating performance and tight operational controls at this difficult time in the semiconductor market," said Nigel Wheeler, president and CEO. "The dynamics of our industry have been widely reported upon and whilst order levels remain low with a book to bill of 0.39 to 1, our orders are up 15% sequentially on Q1 and, more importantly, they indicate a broadening of our technological base into areas in which we can grow significant business in the future. Orders for the quarter included 5 plasma etch systems; two for photonics applications, one for MEMs, one for compound and a fifth for advanced etching on silicon."