Kitron — Earnings Release 2019

Feb 13, 2020

Kitron: Q4 2019 - Strong development continues

Kitron: Q4 2019 - Strong development continues

(2020-02-13) Kitron today reported solid financial improvements, both for the

fourth quarter and full year 2019.

Kitron's revenue for the fourth quarter was NOK 889 million, an increase of 20

per cent compared to last year. Organic growth, excluding the acquisition of the

EMS division of API Technologies Corp., was 8 per cent.

The order backlog ended at NOK 1 884 million, an increase of 41 per cent

compared to last year. Organic order backlog growth, excluding the API

acquisition, was 29 per cent.

Profitability expressed as EBIT margin was 6.1 per cent in the fourth quarter,

compared to 5.7 per cent in the same quarter last year.

Peter Nilsson, Kitron's CEO, comments:

"We continued to grow both our top line and operating margin in 2019. We also

took major strategic steps to increase our capabilities in the US and China, as

well as establishing a strong presence in Poland. I am also pleased that we are

able to reduce our inventory and improve our working capital metrics. Moving

into 2020, we feel confident that Kitron is well prepared for another good

year."

Strong revenue growth

Kitron's revenue in the fourth quarter amounted to NOK 889 million, compared to

739 million in the same quarter last year. Revenue growth compared to the same

quarter last year was particularly strong in the Defence/Aerospace sector.

Strong order backlog

The order backlog ended at NOK 1 884 million, compared to 1 335 million last

year, and similar to the revenue development the order backlog increase was

particularly strong in the Defence/Aerospace market sector.

Improved profitability

Fourth quarter operating profit (EBIT) was NOK 54.2 million, compared to 42.3

million last year. EBITDA was NOK 82.2 million, compared to 54.6 million last

year. The effect on fourth quarter EBITDA and EBIT from implementation of the

IFRS 16 accounting standard is an increase of NOK 5.6 million and NOK 1.0

million respectively.

Profit after tax amounted to NOK 34.0 million, compared to 27.7 million in the

same quarter the previous year. This corresponds to earnings per share of NOK

0.19, up from 0.16 last year.

Full-year growth and profit improvement

Full year revenue of NOK 3 299 million gave an overall revenue growth of 26 per

cent for the year. Operating profit for the year ended at NOK 201.5 million,

compared to 156.1 million in 2018, resulting in an EBIT margin of 6.1 per cent,

compared to 6.0 per cent in 2018. Profit after tax was NOK 132.5 million, up

from 110.3 million, corresponding to NOK 0.74 earnings per share, compared to

0.63 in 2018.

The Board of Directors proposes a dividend of NOK 0.50 per share for 2019. Last

year Kitron paid a dividend of NOK 0.40 per share.

Working capital ratios improving

Net working capital was NOK 942 million, an increase of 21 per cent compared to

the same quarter last year. The ratio of net working capital compared to revenue

is improving from the third quarter. Capital ratios are expected to improve

going forward.

Outlook

For 2020, Kitron expects revenue to grow to between NOK 3 300 and NOK 3 700

million. The EBIT margin is expected to be between 6.4 and 7.0 per cent. Growth

is driven by the Defence/Aerospace and Industry sectors. Profitability is mainly

driven by operational improvements in Poland and the U.S.

Enclosed in PDF are the quarterly report and the presentation. The interim

report is presented today at 8:30 a.m. CET. The presentation will be given in

English by CEO Peter Nilsson and CFO Cathrin Nylander, and will be webcast at

the following link:

https://channel.royalcast.com/hegnarmedia/#!/hegnarmedia/20200213_2

For further information, please contact:

Peter Nilsson, President and CEO, tel. +47 94 84 08 50

Cathrin Nylander, CFO, tel: +47 900 43 284

E-mail: investorrelations@kitron.com (mailto:investorrelations@kitron.com)

Kitron is a leading Scandinavian electronics manufacturing services company for

the Defence/Aerospace, Energy/Telecoms, Industry, Medical devices and

Offshore/Marine sectors. The company is located in Norway, Sweden, Lithuania,

Germany, Poland, China and the United States. Kitron had revenues of about NOK

3.3 billion in 2019 and has about 1 700 employees. www.kitron.com

(http://www.kitron.com)

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section

5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.