Melexis Q1 2016 results - Strong sales growth to start the year

Intermediate declaration by the Board of Directors
Ieper, Belgium - 22 April 2016, 07.00 am CET

Sales for the first quarter of 2016 were 109.4M EUR, an increase of 16% compared to the same quarter of the previous year and an increase of 7% compared to the previous quarter.
The EUR/USD exchange rate evolution had a positive impact of 4% compared to the same quarter of last year and a positive impact of 1% compared to the previous quarter.
Gross margin was 49.3M EUR, an increase of 4% compared to the same quarter of last year.
R&D expenses were 13.5% of sales, G&A was at 4.3% of sales and Selling was at 2.1% of sales.
The operating result was 27.5M EUR, a decrease of 2% compared to the same quarter of the previous year and an increase of 15% compared to the previous quarter.
Net income was 22.8M EUR or 0.57 EUR per share, a decrease of 16% compared to 27.1M EUR or 0.67 EUR per share in the first quarter of 2015 and an increase of 4% compared to 22.0M EUR or 0.54 EUR per share in the previous quarter.

Outlook
Melexis expects sales in the second quarter of 2016 to be around the level of 112M EUR.
For full year 2016, Melexis expects sales growth to be between 8% and 12%, a gross profit margin around 47% and an operating margin around 25%, all taking into account a EUR/USD exchange rate of 1.10.

Business comment - Françoise Chombar, CEO:
"We are pleased to announce that we have made a good start of the year: growth picks up again, as anticipated already, resulting in a 7% sales increase versus the fourth quarter of 2015. The usual effects of the yearly price downs and the Chinese New Year slow were more than offset by a strong order intake of our customers in Europe, Asia and the Americas. We expect the growth path to continue in the next quarter.
Sales increase in the first quarter was mainly driven by the strong performance of our magnetic sensor portfolio. We also continue to see good traction in our product lines LIN (local interconnect network) and pressure sensors.
Sales to automotive customers represented 90% of total sales. The portion of standard product (ASSPs) sales represented 61% of total sales."

Financial calendar

Dividend pay date: 28 April 2016 (ex coupon on 26 April 2016)
Publication Q2/HY1 2016 Results: 27 July 2016
Publication Q3 2016 Results: 26 October 2016
Publication FY 2016 Results: 8 February 2017

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