Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

Tornos posts marked improvement in operating result

• Significantly more orders from the electronics industry
• Stable demand for SwissNano
• Merger with Starrag being evaluated

The Tornos Group has started 2023 with a record high order backlog. Compared to the first half of 2022, the Group again achieved a slight increase in sales in the first half of 2023. EBIT2) decreased slightly in absolute terms. A comparison of the result for this half-year with the adjusted EBIT2) for the first half of 2022 (excluding the special effect from the writeback of value adjustment provisions) shows a marked improvement.

With regard to new investments on the customer side, the Tornos Group felt significant uncertainty in some sales markets, which was reflected in various project postponements. This led to a decline in order intake, particularly in the USA and Europe. On a positive note, demand for Tornos products increased noticeably again towards the end of the half-year.

Development of key figures

Overall, Tornos generated order intake of CHF 79.7 million in the first half of 2023 (first half of 2022: CHF 98.3 million, -18.9%) and net sales of CHF 95.7 million (first half of 2022: CHF 93.7 million, +2.2%). EBIT2) for the first half of 2023 amounted to CHF 8.0 million (first half of 2022: CHF 8.8 million, or CHF 4.2 million excluding the special effect from the writeback of value adjustment provisions).

Significant increase in orders in the electronics industry

The share of orders from the automotive industry decreased significantly for Tornos in the reporting period – from 16.2% in the first half of 2022 to 9.5% in the first half of 2023. With a share of 29.7%, Tornos again received the most orders from the medical and dental technology sector (first half of 2022: 24.5%). Compared with the record high figure from the first half of 2022 (CHF 18.2 million), the absolute value here fell by 10.5% to CHF 16.3 million. By contrast, Tornos saw a 58.5% increase in the electronics industry – from CHF 7.6 million in the first half of 2022 to CHF 12.0 million. Its share of Tornos' order intake now amounts to 21.8% (first half of 2022: 10.2%), while that of the watchmaking industry is 19.3% (first half of 2022: 14.6%).

Stable demand for SwissNano produced in Switzerland 

The SwissNano Swiss-type automatic lathe produced in Switzerland continued to enjoy good demand in the first half of 2023. The MultiSwiss multispindle machines were most affected by project postponements. It is pleasing to note that MultiSwiss machines are also increasingly in demand outside the automotive industry. For machines produced by Tornos in the Taiwan region and in China, demand in the first half of 2023 was slightly lower than in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Service and spare parts business expanded further

Tornos' service and spare parts business continued to perform well. Compared with the first half of 2022, Tornos was able to increase sales in this area by a further 4%. The DECO 10 Plus offer, which allows Tornos customers to have their older DECO 10 machines upgraded to the latest technology, is still going well. Equally successful is Tornos' initiative to buy back older machines and put them back on the market in the spirit of a circular economy, after a complete overhaul to the latest state of the art.

Tornos evaluates a merger with Starrag

On May 26, 2023, the Board of Directors of Tornos Holding Ltd. decided to evaluate a possible merger of the Tornos Group with the Starrag Group. Both groups of companies are active worldwide. They are excellently positioned in their target markets and have a portfolio that is well aligned with customer needs. The market performances of Tornos and Starrag would complement each other excellently. The merger would strengthen the position of both partners and offer great development potential in all areas. In the case of a possible merger, the Tornos and Starrag brands are to be retained. No job cuts would be planned in this context either. The process of clarification and the discussions between Tornos and Starrag on a possible merger are still ongoing. Tornos will provide information in due course about the next steps in negotiations with Starrag.

Outlook

The Tornos Group still has a good order backlog and remains confident for the second half of 2023. However, concrete forecasts are still not possible. The development of demand in the individual markets and the availability of raw materials and vendor parts as well as their price development remain uncertain. In general, uncertainties in the global markets remain very high.

Link to :

• Half-year report 2023 
• Non-GAAP Financial Measures