Aixtron Se Unsp/Adr

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the conference call regarding the Q1 2024 results of XTRAN-SE. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Carsten Werle.

Yeah, thank you very much, Heike. Welcome to iXtron's Q1 2024 results call. I'd like to particularly welcome our CEO, Dr. Felix Grabert, and our CFO, Dr. Christian Danninger, who will guide you through today's presentation and then take your questions. This call is being recorded by iXtron and is considered copyright material. As such, it cannot be recorded or rebroadcast without permission. Your participation in this call implies your consent to this recording. Please take note of the disclaimer that you find on page two of the presentation document as it applies throughout the conference call. This call is not being immediately presented by webcast or any other medium. However, we will place a transcript on our website at some point after the call. And with these introductory remarks, I'd like to hand over to our CEO for his opening remarks. Felix, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Carsten. Let me also welcome you all to our Q124 presentation. As you may hear, I caught a bad cold and I hope my voice will make it throughout the call. I will start with an overview of the highlights of the quarter and then hand over to Christian for more details on our financial figures. Finally, I will give you an update on the development of our business and our guidance. Let me start by giving you an update on the key business developments of the first quarter on slides two and three. The most important messages for today from my point of view are In Q1, we have seen a strong increase in revenues and profits. Our market position in silicon carbide has been significantly strengthened throughout the last two quarters with new customer wins. We were able to win an additional top five player in ZIC. We have secured a substantial volume order from China. We could win several customers for our G10 ZIC tool, amongst them several from Japan. This is the result of the recent technical progress that we have made with this tool. Also, the other family members of the G10 generation continue to gain strong momentum. We have secured various orders from multiple customers in the micro-AED sector. The construction of our innovation center is progressing smoothly and is fully on track. Despite negative news flow from some segments of the industry, we can confirm our full year 2024 growth guidance. Let us have a look at our financial performance in Q124. I will start with our top line, and Christian will focus on the overall set of numbers. Our revenues have seen an upswing of 53% year over year, reaching 118 million euros, reflecting the high demand for our systems and the fact that in the last year some revenues have been delayed from Q1 to Q2 due to outstanding export licenses. Order intake in Q1-24 came in at 120 million euros, with the equipment order backlog remaining stable at 355 million euros, consistent with the full year 23 levels. We have experienced well-balanced demand across all the end markets that we addressed. Christian will provide a more detailed look into our financials on the following pages. Christian.