Manz AG: Continued Profitable Growth Expected for 2019

• Preliminary figures for the 2018 fiscal year confirmed: 296.9 million euros revenue with a positive EBIT without special effects
• Comprehensive measures for sustainably improving profitability significantly increased earnings in 2018
• 2019: revenue growth between 10 % - 14 % and EBIT margin in the low single digits expected

Reutlingen, March 28, 2018 - Manz AG, a globally active high-tech equipment manufacturer, has released its full Annual Report for the financial year 2018. The report confirms that the company saw highly positive developments in its business over the past year, returning to operational profitability. Both revenue as well as earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) considerably increased compared to the previous year. Revenue increased by 11.6 % to 296.9 million euros (previous year: 266.1 million euros¹), while EBIT before non-operational special effects increased by more than 35 million euros to 1.7 million euros (previous year -33.8 million euros¹). Including the extraordinary effect of a fire damage at the Taiwan location, amounting to 5.1 million euros, the EBIT was -3.4 million euros.

Martin Drasch, CEO of Manz AG, commented: "2018 was a successful year in which we achieved key milestones. We focused Manz AG's business model consistently on profitability, increasing EBIT by more than 35 million euros. We want to continue along this path and generate EBIT margins of around 10 % in the long term once again."

For 2019, the Managing Board sees further potential to improve competitiveness and returns. The company plans to add further standardized technological modules to its product portfolio over the current fiscal year, which can be combined flexibly to create a wide range of equipment based on individual customer requirements. This shortens lead times for customer projects while lowering development costs. At the same time, the Managing Board has launched a project to further increase value creation in international, group-internal collaboration. All signs for the future point to operational growth: as prospects remain good for a significant increase in incoming orders in the Energy Storage and Electronics segments, the company expects to receive CIGS follow-up orders in the Solar segment starting in late 2019.

"At the end of 2018, we achieved an order volume of 215.2 million euros," added CFO Manfred Hochleitner. "The intensity of inquiries from the industry is solid, and planned incoming orders for 2019 are promising. This is a good starting point for continuing our profitable growth course in 2019."

For the 2019 fiscal year, the Managing Board expects to see revenue growth of between 10 % and 14 % in comparison to the previous year, with a positive EBITDA margin in the middle single digits and a positive EBIT margin in the low single digits. This corresponds to further improvements in operating results of several million euros. The company expects revenues to increase in all segments, with the exception of Solar. In this area, the Managing Board expects a negative revenue trend due to the progress in the current CIGS projects, since follow-up orders expected in 2019 will not have an immediate impact on revenues. Despite continued high expenses on research and development to expand the product portfolio and investments in market development, the Electronics and Energy Storage segments will make a balanced contribution to the group EBIT in 2019. Detailed prognoses for all the segments have been published in the 2018 Annual Report.

The complete report for 2018 is available for download as of today on the company's website www.manz.com in the section "Investor Relations" / "Publications."

2018 revenue, EBITDA, and EBIT compared to the previous year

in millions of euros	2018	20171
Group revenue	296.9	266.1
Solar	105.0	104.3
Electronics	93.9	88.5
Energy Storage	35.4	23.8
Contract Manufacturing	43.1	32.0
Service	19.5	17.3
Group EBIT	-3.4	0.6
Solar	14.4	31.0
Electronics	-12.0	-17.0
Energy Storage	-9.9	-22.7
Contract Manufacturing	1.2	4.0
Service	3.9	5.6
Group EBITDA	9.5	10.1
Solar	18.1	33.8
Electronics	-6.6	-13.4
Energy Storage	-6.9	-20.4
Contract Manufacturing	1.8	4.6
Service	4.1	5.8

¹ With Talus Manufacturing Ltd., Manz retroactively deconsolidated a previously fully consolidated company within the framework of an adjustment and has now included this company in its financial statements as an associated company.

Company profile:

Manz AG - passion for efficiency

Founded in 1987, Manz AG is a global high-tech equipment manufacturing company. Its business activities cover the areas of Solar, Electronics, Energy Storage, Contract Manufacturing and Service.

With many years of expertise in automation, laser processing, vision and metrology, wet chemistry and roll-to-roll processes, the company offers manufacturers and their suppliers innovative production solutions in the areas of photovoltaics, electronics, and lithium-ion battery technology. The company's product portfolio includes both customer-specific developments and standardized single machines and modules, which can be linked to create complete custom systems. Manz AG offers high-quality, needs-based solutions that can be integrated early into customer projects to contribute significantly to customer success.

The company, listed on the stock exchange in Germany since 2006, develops and produces in Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, China and Taiwan. It also has sales and service branches in the USA and India. Manz AG currently employs roughly 1,600 workers worldwide, around half of whom work in the Asia region, which is key to the company's target industries. Manz Group revenue in the 2018 financial year totaled around 297 million euros.

Investor Relations Contact

Manz AG
Axel Bartmann
Tel.: +49 (0)7121 - 9000-395
Fax: +49 (0)7121 - 9000-99
e-mail: [email protected]

cometis AG
Claudius Krause
Tel.: +49 (0)611 - 205855-28
Fax: +49 (0)611 - 205855-66
E-Mail: [email protected]