Austriamicrosystems Q2 net profit rises 61%

Austriamicrosystems AG (AMS), an Austrian chipmaker whose components are used in mobile phones and digital music players, said second-quarter profit climbed 61%, helped by rising demand for new products. Net income rose to € 5.7 million ($7.2 million) from € 3.5 million a year ago, the Unterpremstaetten, Austria-based company said yesterday. Sales gained 14% to € 45.9 million and the order backlog increased to € 64.6 million from € 54.1 million.
AMS is selling more chips to customers including cell-phone makers Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd. and Motorola Inc. as they seek to reduce power consumption and add more applications. The company said it expects full-year earnings to grow „significantly” faster than sales, which are forecast to gain 10 to 15%. In the industrial and medical markets, AMS saw further business expansion in metering and industrial automation and continuing growth from healthcare IC solutions. In the automotive area, AMS was invited to join the consortium defining next-generation data bus systems in Japan and launched an automotive rotary encoder product based on its highly successful encoder technology. The foundry segment continued to perform well serving a variety of high quality customers with increasing focus on specialty processes such as High Voltage and Silicon Germanium. (Bloomberg, austriamicrosystems.com)