Coherent Reports $37M Profit for 2010, Acquires Hypertronics

As part of a plan to increase its business in Asia, laser maker Coherent will acquire Malaysia-based Hypertronics in an all-cash transaction, the company announced in its quarterly financial statement Thursday. Coherent also reported a profit of $36.9 million, or $1.47 a share, for 2010, compared to a loss of $35.3 million, or $1.45 a share, in 2009.

Privately held Hypertronics is "a designer and manufacturer of laser-based tools for flat panel, storage, semiconductor and biomedical applications," said Coherent President and CEO John Ambroseo. Hypertronics' engineering and integration center is in Singapore and it has a low-cost manufacturing hub in Penang, Malaysia.

"These operations will serve as a nucleus for laser manufacturing and repair in Asia," he said. "We intend to also increase our global sourcing initiative through the establishment of an international procurement office." The purchase price of the acquisition was not disclosed.

In its financial report, Coherent reported fourth-quarter earnings of $9.9 million on sales of $166.4 million, or 39 cents a share. For the same quarter one year ago, the company reported a loss of $4.5 million, or 18 cents a share, on sales of $107.6 million.

Net sales for 2010 increased by $170 million over 2009, to $605 million. Sales were essentially flat between the third ($166.7 million) and fourth ($166.4 million) quarters of 2010. Bookings for the fiscal year ended Oct. 2, 2010, were $696 million, compared to $419.2 million in bookings received during fiscal 2009. Bookings for the fourth quarter increased 44.3 percent year over year to $192.5 million, a 6.6 percent increase over the previous quarter.

"Momentum continues to build in our business as evidenced by another round of record-setting orders. Demand was led by flat panel display applications for LCD annealing systems and lightguide panel manufacturing used in LED-based displays," Ambroseo said. "We also had a very strong quarter within our scientific business with record orders for Chameleon™ lasers used in biological imaging and for amplifiers favored in basic research.

"While our fourth fiscal quarter results were negatively impacted by two vendor component issues that are now behind us, we believe the current momentum will be sustained into fiscal 2011 such that the combination of our record backlog and future order stream should support organic, year-over-year revenue growth of 15 to 20 percent," he said.

For more information, visit: www.coherent.com