SLM Solutions reports 37% revenue growth in the first nine months of 2020
SLM Solutions Group AG, Lübeck, Germany, has released its financial results for the first nine months of 2020. The company reported revenue of €45.9 million for the first nine months of the 2020 financial year, a 37% increase on the €33.4 million in the same period of 2019. EBITDA was reported to be €12.2 million, up from €19.7 million in the first nine months of 2019. Both figures improved significantly, despite the unfavourable market environment created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the third quarter of 2020, SLM Solutions recorded revenue of €14.8 million, a slight increase over the revenue recorded in Q2 2020 of €13.3 million but below the revenue recorded in Q3 2019 of €17.1 million.
The main driver for the year-on-year decrease seen in Q3 2020 continues to be the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic such as travel limitations, restrictions on access to customer premises to install and test new machines and softer capital spending by customers in times of significant uncertainty. Due to COVID-19-related restrictions, not all machines that were ready for delivery could be installed and put into operation at the customers’ premises.
Incoming orders for the quarter amounted to €11.9 million, continuing the positive trend in order intake in 2020, with Q2 order intake having been reported at €10.7 million and Q1 €2.9 million.
Overall, the total order intake in the first nine months of 2020 was €25.6 million, compared to €38.2 million in the first nine months of 2019. Orders slowed down compared to the previous year given the significant restrictions imposed by COVID-19 and the resulting global economic slowdown.
Meddah Hadjar, CEO of SLM Solutions, commented, “SLM Solutions showed a solid performance in the third quarter. Although the COVID-19 pandemic burdens our target markets and has led to a clearly noticeable reluctance of customers to invest, we nevertheless were able to improve revenue and order intake compared to the second quarter.”
“Despite the adverse environment, the development program of our next generation SLM® machine is fully on track, which is of particular strategic importance to us,” he continued. “The upcoming market launch of this new machine is a significant milestone for the entire metal manufacturing industry, as it will revolutionise the industrialisation of metal Additive Manufacturing using SLM® technology.”
Dirk Ackermann, CFO of SLM Solutions, added, “In the third quarter, we also completed the review of our inventories, which has been ongoing since the beginning of the year. This led to a negative EBITDA effect of €2.3 million in the past quarter. We do not expect any further significant balance sheet or P&L effects from this measure in the future, which means that we will see our operating performance much more clearly in our results from Q4 2020 onwards.”
