Good results bring good news for ASML
ASML announced a good outlook for 2006 in its 2005 annual and fourth quarter earnings results. Reporting 2005 net profit of EUR 311 million or 12.3 percent of sales and Q4 2005 net profit of EUR 52 million or 9.4 percent of sales.
"2005 was a year where our continued focus on execution paid off," said Eric Meurice, president and CEO, ASML.
"In spite of an overall semiconductor equipment market which decreased by nine percent in 2005, our sales increased by three percent year on year, while net profit improved by 32 percent to EUR 311 million. Net cash from operations in 2005 nearly tripled to EUR 711 million versus 2004. We reinforced our market position, as we gained 12 new customers in 2005, including our sixth customer in Japan. With 13 immersion systems delivered to date, 13 immersion orders already in our backlog, and 8 pending orders, we are increasing our technology lead in the race to meet customer needs for new generation semiconductor products."
