Infineon annonce record earnings in the past fiscal year

null - "Infineon clearly exceeded the expectations it set at its initial public offering in March 2000," explained Dr. Ulrich Schumacher, President and CEO of Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX), at the company's first public Annual General Meeting. The key success drivers were substantial productivity gains and improvements in margins across all segments in a booming market. Infineon is now looking to stand firm in the volatile market environment in 2001. In contrast to the current weakness in the memory segment and in wireless communications is a robust margin and revenue growth in the areas of automotive electronics, smartcards, and various applications in wireline communications, commented Dr. Schumacher. Especially in the current market conditions Infineon is benefiting from its well balanced product portfolio. At the General Meeting, shareholders are voting on the issue of a one-time dividend, the inception of an innovative stock option plan for Infineon employees, and the use of modern telecommunications to ease the exercise of voting rights.

Sales in fiscal 2000 (ending September) rose 72 percent to7.28 billion Euros. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased to 1.67 billion Euros, compared to a13 million Euros loss in the previous year. In addition, earnings per share grew from 0.10 Euros in fiscal 1999, to 1.83 Euros in fiscal 2000. The EBIT margin improved sharply, rising to 23 percent. Dr. Schumacher stated: "By focusing on high-margin business segments such as communications, we substantially improved our gross margins as well as our EBIT margins."

Innovative stock option plan to secure a competitive edge At the end of the past fiscal year, Infineon's headcount totaled more than 29,000 employees worldwide. Today, this figure has increased to approximately 32,000. In research and development alone, Infineon was able to increase its headcount in the past fiscal year by more than 400, to over 4,700 worldwide. "By expanding our intellectual property, we are protecting the strategic know-how we need to develop tomorrow's technologies and products," said Dr. Schumacher.

The company philosophy is that research and development is an important, if not the most important, competitive differentiator in microelectronics. Therefore, the global competition for "best talents" in the semiconductor sector continues to intensify. "Given the high-speed innovation race in the semiconductor industry, we need the most capable researchers and developers in the world if we are to continue to lead the field," explained Dr. Schumacher. "For Infineon, this means offering attractive employment terms and conditionsplus individual, performance-based compensation."

Infineon has a strong portfolio of semiconductor technologies and is successfully safeguarding its technological lead, particularly in the rapidly growing wireline and wireless communications segments, security and chip card ICs, and the internet infrastructure markets. In the 2000 fiscal year, Infineon generated 40 percent of its sales in these segments.

The automotive and industrial electronics business group performed exceptionally well in 2000. Infineon today ranks second worldwide and first in Europe in this area with the trend toward an increasing quantity of electronics in vehicles continuing. Last year alone, the semiconductor content in cars increased 20 percent. The power management and supply business unit is also extremely successful, profiting from a variety of applications in the automotive sector and in wireless communications.

In 2001 Infineon will be focusing on the rapidly growing communications, automotive electronics, and memory sectors. Infineon expects to see strong growth in security applications and chip-card solutions as well as in some important applications of the wireline communication business. Developments in automotive and industrial electronics business are also extremely positive. Dr. Schumacher stated: "We are confident that compared to last fiscal year we will be able to continue to increase significantly margins in these areas."