SEZ Group: Significantly higher sales and earnings projections for business year 2000

With the business environment still buoyant, the SEZ Group has raised both sales and earnings projections for the current business year. By end-December 2000, SEZ expects consolidated sales to double from the previous year to CHF 160 to 170 million (1999: CHF 83.7 million), while the net margin for 2000 should rise to around 16% (1999: 12.4%). The company had previously forecast sales of CHF 140 million and a net margin of 15% for the current business year.

The higher sales projection reflects the continued strong demand worldwide for semiconductor equipment - in particular from microchip manufacturers in Southeast Asia and Europe. In the first five months of 2000, order intake soared by 179% over the year-back period to CHF 78.9 million (CHF 28.3 million). In the same period, SEZ delivered spin processors worth CHF 64.2 million (CHF 15.0 million). The book-to-bill ratio (ratio of order intake to deliveries) in the period from January to May 2000 was 1.22. The order backlog at SEZ as per 31 May 2000 came to CHF 65.9 million (CHF 12.1 million).

The unrivalled spin-etch process technology (a wet-etching process for wafer surface treatment in microchip production) developed by SEZ has established the Group as the world leader in this technology. You will find further information on the Group's website at www.sez.com.

Villach/Zurich, June 27, 2000