The Jenoptik Group predicts that its earnings before interest and taxes for 2011 will be €44 million (about $58.8 million), more than a 50 percent increase over 2010 results. The prediction stems from a 10.9 percent increase in sales with the semiconductor and automotive industries for the first nine months of 2011 – €383.9 million, or about $512.8 million, versus €346.2 million, or about $462.3 million, in 2010. Foreign sales accounted for ~60 percent of total sales. Jenoptik posted its strongest growth in Asia, with a 37 percent increase in sales to €38.3 million (about $51.5 million). Improved cost structures in all individual areas also improved purchasing processes, and the increase in capacity utilization contributed to the growth in earnings. The Lasers & Optical Systems Div. in particular made a positive contribution to the development of the results, with a 122.9 percent increase in earnings after tax. The company posted a 25 percent increase in the order intake. As expected, order intakes from the semiconductor industry declined slightly. Jenoptik offset this reduction through several major orders in the Defense & Civil Systems Div. plus growth in the Metrology Div. segment. The growth in order intake outpaced the increase in sales; the order backlog rose correspondingly by 34.3 percent. In the third quarter, Jenoptik initiated major investments. The optimized production facilities were officially opened at the Altenstadt site (Bavaria), allowing for the growth in the energy systems area of the defense and civil systems segment, which received several major orders from the US over recent months. The decision to invest in the expansion of the Berlin site in the lasers and optical systems segment will significantly increase the capacities for the production of laser bars, the base material for high-power diode lasers. Production is expected to begin in early 2013. The increase in sales was accompanied by a small rise in personnel numbers in the Jenoptik Group, with the number of employees worldwide totaling 3039 at the end of September compared with 2951 at the end of 2010. As previously announced, the rate of increase in the number of employees was clearly underproportional to the growth in sales. Jenoptik expects the fourth quarter to see this positive trend continue. For more information, visit: www.jenoptik.com