Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on February 11, 2025
By Nathan Vifflin
(Reuters) -Austrian sensor maker ams OSRAM on Tuesday forecast first quarter revenue below or in line with last year's number due to muted demand for automotive semiconductors, but said it saw recovery in the second half of 2025.
Its Switzerland-listed shares soared 17% by 1009 GMT, leading gains on the Swiss mid-cap index, with analysts at Jefferies and Vontobel saying the quarterly forecast was better than the market had feared.
Uncertainties and inventory corrections over the automotive supply chain have persisted into the first quarter, while industrial and medical markets show signals that might indicate a bottom to the cycle, ams OSRAM said in an earnings statement.
"The company expects a meaningfully stronger second half mainly due to product ramps and to some extent, market normalization," it added, foreseeing improved profitability at moderate revenue development.
It sees revenue of 750 million to 850 million euros ($773 million to $876 million) in the first three months of 2025, compared with 847 million in the same period last year. Analysts polled by Vara were expecting 782.5 million euros.
Chief Executive Officer Aldo Kamper said during a conference call that the company did not see a meaningful impact from tariffs on its cost base for now.
"A noticeable impact on our business would come along when global car production, for example, is negatively affected, or when people start to buy fewer smartphones because of the trade tensions," Kamper added, however.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he was also looking at tariffs on cars and semiconductors after raising them for steel and aluminium. Some costs of those tariffs could be passed on to customers through price hikes, impacting demand.
The company refrained from giving specific sales or earnings forecasts for the rest of the year, the latest semiconductor firm exposed to the automotive sector to do so.
STMicroelectronics, one of Europe's biggest chipmakers, last month said it was too early guide for 2025 as customers deal with inventory corrections and place orders later than usual.
($1 = 0.9704 euros)
(Reporting by Nathan Vifflin and Ozan Ergenay in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi)
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