JENA (dpa-AFX) - The Jenoptik technology group continues to benefit from strong demand, especially from the semiconductor industry. "Jenoptik has made a good overall start to the 2023 fiscal year with double-digit growth in sales and earnings," company CEO Stefan Traeger said Thursday, according to a statement. The optics business (Advanced Photonic Solutions division) in particular developed dynamically, as expected. The Executive Board is optimistic about the further course of the fiscal year due to the high order backlog. After initial gains, however, the Jenoptik share saw a clear downward trend.

In the morning, the share was down by around two and a half percent at 28.54 euros, making it one of the biggest losers in the MDax, the index of mid-sized companies. The share was thus trading at around twelve percent more expensive than at the turn of the year. However, its high for the year of a good 33 euros at the beginning of March is quite a way off again. Analyst Adrian Pehl of Invesmenthaus Stifel wrote in a first reaction of a slightly better than expected profit development, although this was due to the non-core business. Meanwhile, the order situation remains solid, he added.

In the first quarter, Jenoptik's sales rose by a good twelve percent year-on-year to around 234 million euros, the Thuringia-based company announced in Jena. In the optics division, good business with semiconductor equipment was the main contributor. However, business with systems and services related to traffic safety also developed better. By contrast, the Group's non-optics business posted lower losses.

The Executive Board is sticking to its targets for the year. Jenoptik is heavily dependent on sales abroad, even if their share of Group sales has recently declined. Overall, the company generated 74 percent of its sales abroad in the first quarter. A year earlier this figure was a good 76 percent.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) rose by almost three quarters to just under 37 million euros in the first quarter. The bottom line was a profit of just under 12 million euros, a good four times as much as in the same period of the previous year.

For the current year, management again expects strong growth due to good business with the semiconductor industry. In view of the high order backlog, sales are expected to increase to between 1.05 and 1.1 billion euros. Of this, 19.0 to 19.5 percent is expected to be retained as operating profit (Ebitda). In the previous year this margin was 18.8 percent.

According to its own information, the Jenoptik Group employs around 4,500 people./mne/stw/stk