Melexis Q2 2009 results

Intermediate declaration by the Board of Directors.
Ieper, Belgium – July 30th, 2009, 07.00 hrs CET

Revenues for the second quarter were 28.2 million EUR, a decrease of 45% compared to the same quarter of the previous year and an increase of 25% versus the previous quarter.

Gross margin was 9.7 million EUR, a decrease of 54% compared to the same quarter last year. Despite increased sales, the margin was stable compared to the previous quarter. This is due to unused capacity in manufacturing. Sales were partially delivered out of inventory and production output in Q2 2009 was lower than in Q1 2009.

The operating result was at -0.6 million EUR, compared to 9.4 million EUR in the same quarter the previous year.

The company has recorded an additional financial loss of 10.12 million EUR in the second quarter on the fair value of the CDO portfolio. The CDO portfolio, classified as non current financial asset, is now fully written off.

As a result, net profit came out -7.9 million EUR, -18 cent per share, down from 20 cent per share in the second quarter of 2008.

R&D expenses were 25% of sales, Selling was 4.7% of sales and G&A was at 10.4% of sales.

Cost reduction program
We achieved 4.6 million EUR cost savings in the first half year, of which 2.2 million EUR in cost of goods sold. 

Rudi De Winter, CEO of Melexis comments:
"China overtook the US with respect to the number of cars sold. While the rest of the world suffered from decreased car sales, China car sales increased 4% compared to previous year. In order to better serve the 
Chinese automotive market and our Chinese customers, Melexis decided to set up an application engineering and sales office in Shanghai, that will be fully operational by end of the year."

Françoise Chombar, CEO of Melexis comments:
‘’We gradually see sales picking up again and our cost reduction programs are taking effect. Moreover, our new design wins have increased compared to the same period last year. Our expectations regarding the evolution of worldwide automobile sales during 2009 are pretty close to what we anticipated on November 26, 2008.’’ 

Dividend
The Board of Directors decided not to pay out an interim dividend in view of the current circumstances

Outlook 2009
Melexis reconfirms sales expectations for 2009 to be in the range of 118 to 123 million EUR.

The half-year report 2009 will be available on our website www.melexis.com as of August 31st, 2009.

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