In the first quarter of this year Philips semiconductor operations increase sales by 20% on a nominal basis and 13% on a comparable basis to 1.2bn euros ($1.49bn), led by growth in demand for chips handling multimedia messaging services and from the automotive and identification sectors.
With utilization rates up to 82% compared with 75% a year earlier, there was a strong improvement in earnings before interest and taxation, which rose from 14m euros ($17.2m) to 89m euros ($109.3m).
However, growth is slowing and low to mid-single-digit sales growth in US dollar terms is expected in the second quarter.
At the end of the first quarter, the book-to-bill ratio stood at 1.12, compared with 0.96 three months earlier, and the total order book increased by 16%, mainly for delivery beyond the short term.
Philips announced in December a plan to spin out its $5.7bn a year semiconductor operation and it is likely to merge it with another chipmaker to take part in what the company sees as the inevitable consolidation of the industry.
