The stage is set.

Comet enters the new decade stronger after a demanding year. We have sharpened our strategic focus, launched the Group-wide Boost improvement program and strengthened the core business. The suite of actions initiated early in fiscal year 2019 is producing results. With an EBITDA margin of 10.8%, our profitability is above expectations.

As Chairman since April and CEO since July of the year, I together with the leadership team and staff have looked very closely at our portfolio of customers, markets, technologies and the business model: Our company is endowed with highly motivated employees, superb technological expertise and excellent potential. In recent years Comet has grown into an important partner to customers in the semiconductor and electronics industry. This attractive growth market – driven by the progressive digitalization, and despite fluctuations – offers great potential for Comet’s plasma control technology and Comet x-ray technology. In order to continue to succeed in this fast-paced, innovation-driven market as our customers’ strong partner, we are focusing on these two technologies, on our data analytics capabilities, and on a select few high-volume, high-growth markets. Our realignment will in future enable us to generate up to 70% of our business in the semiconductor and electronics market and, I am confident, will allow us to achieve growth above market rates and best-in-class EBITDA profit margins of about 25%. Before we become this high-performance organization, there is still much work to do. Through Boost, we have made a good start. Strong growth drivers such as digitalization will continue to support our ambitions.

What we have accomplished thus far, we owe to the enormous dedication of our employees and to the confidence placed in us by our customers, partners and investors. I sincerely thank all of you and look forward to your continuing support on our charted course forward.

Heinz Kundert
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Interim CEO