Seoul Semiconductor achieves 1.04 billion US$ record annual revenues for fiscal year 2017

  • Reported 2017 revenues of US$ 1.04 billion and an operating profit of US$ 92 million, an increase of 16% and 71% year-over-year respectively as a result of rising sales across all business divisions
  • The increased revenue and profit are attributable to its portfolio of differentiated technologies and patents, which are gaining global wide recognition from its customers

ANSAN, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--$KOSDAQ046890 #Acrich--Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ 046890), a market leader in LED (light emitting diode) design and manufacturing, today announced 2017 fiscal year consolidated revenues of US$ 1.04 billion. The 16% rise in consolidated revenues far exceeds the industry average, which grew 2% during the same period. The growth of revenue is contributed to improvements in both general lighting sales and IT product related sales growing in the mid-teens as well as the automotive lighting business which grew more than 20%.


The rise in revenue for the general lighting segment was largely due to an increase in sales of 220V and 370V Acrich MJT products for household and industrial applications. Other notable revenue increases were reported for WICOP, an innovative product line of package-less LEDs, as well as for the Acrich NanoDriver, which incorporates step drive methods that achieve results greater than those of conventional SMPS technology. In addition to offering these differentiated technologies, Seoul expects its SunLike natural spectrum LED technology, which may offer health benefits for human eyes, to lead the future of LED lighting and become a large contributor to the future sales and profit for the company.

Researchers who won the Nobel Prize in 2017 were recognized for their new findings of the impact of light on circadian rhythm in humans. This has proven to be an important topic in our society and generated great attention for Dr. Charles Czeisler, the Harvard professor that has dedicated his research to this particular area. He is now conducting research study with NASA on how light affects the circadian rhythms of astronauts.

According to new research, myopia (near-sightedness) increased from 20% in the 1950s to 80% in 2010 among populations in Asia. Fluorescent lights and conventional LED light sources emit a strong blue light that is known to cause eye fatigue, which may later result in retinal damage. Seoul Semiconductor, together with Toshiba Materials of Japan, has jointly developed SunLike natural spectrum LED technology, which provides lighting conditions most similar to actual sun light and can be seen as a solution that helps to protect human eyes from this potential damage.

Company outlook

The company provided a revenue guidance of KrW 270 to 290 billion for the first quarter of 2018. This figure is in range of 5% to 13% on a year-over-year basis. Although first quarter is normally considered to be an off-season, the company is showing a positive outlook for growth from last year for this 2018 fiscal year.

Sangbum Kim, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, has stated that fiscal year 2017 sales were a result of the company’s relentless efforts to stay ahead of competition by continuously investing in R&D and strengthening global sales organizations. In order to further accelerate revenue growth into the double digit range for 2018, the company plans to further drive sales of differentiated products such as SunLike while also shifting more focus to its rapidly growing automotive lighting business.

About Seoul Semiconductor:

Seoul Semiconductor develops and commercializes light emitting diodes (LEDs) for automotive, general illumination, specialty lighting, and backlighting markets. As the fourth-largest LED manufacturer globally, Seoul Semiconductor holds more than 12,000 patents, offers a wide range of technologies, and mass produces innovative LED products such as SunLike – delivering the world’s best light quality in a next-generation LED enabling human-centric lighting optimized for circadian rhythms; Wicop – a simpler structured package-free LED which provides market leading color uniformity, cost savings at the fixture level with high lumen density and allows design flexibility; NanoDriver Series – World’s Smallest 24W DC LED Drivers; Acrich, the world's first high-voltage AC-driven LED technology developed in 2005, includes all AC LED-related technologies from chip to module and circuit fabrication, as well as multi-junction technology (MJT); and nPola, a new LED product based on GaN-substrate technology that achieves over ten times the output of conventional LEDs. UCD constitutes a high color gamut display which delivers over 90 % NTSC.

For more information about Seoul Semiconductor, please visit http://www.seoulsemicon.com

# Trademarks

Wicop and Acrich are trademarks of Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

Investor information and additional product details are available on the company website, www.seoulsemiconductor.com

Forward-looking statements:

This press release material contains forward-looking statements which reflect Seoul Semiconductor’s current views with respect to future events and financial performance, which are subject to certain risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Although Seoul Semiconductor believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be attained. Seoul Semiconductor undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. All financial figures are consolidated unless stated otherwise.


Contacts

Europe
Seoul Semiconductor Europe GmbH
Ariane Heim
Tel: +49 (0)89 450 3690-0
Email: [email protected]
or
North America
Seoul Semiconductor Inc.
David Cox
Tel: +1 (919) 410-9856
Email: [email protected]
or
Asia
Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd
Jake Jung
Tel: +82 070.4391.8270
Email: [email protected]