After Lotus, another billion-dollar company: chip producer Melexis | Domestic

Cookie baker Lotus Bakeries already managed to reach 1 billion euros in turnover last year. This may happen this year for Melexis. “We expect to arrive at around that figure,” says CEO Marc Biron.

Just like Lotus, Melexis is experiencing strong growth. In 2019, it only issued invoices for 486.9 million euros. Five years later that will be twice as much. This is partly because there are more and more chips in a car. Last year, 90% of the chips designed by Melexis went to this sector, although it is now trying to diversify its sales markets.

This does not alter the fact that growth weakened somewhat at the end of 2023. In the fourth quarter, turnover amounted to 250.5 million euros, ‘only’ 12% more than in the same period of 2022. This ensured that the total increase in sales for the entire year was limited to 15% and to 964 .3 million euros.

The fact that the market cooled down somewhat was due to lower than expected growth in sales of electric vehicles. These cars contain more chips than in vehicles with a traditional combustion engine. Partly as a result, manufacturers also decided to reduce their inventories somewhat, which reduced the ordering rate.

This situation may continue in the first semester, but afterwards Melexis expects an acceleration again. “Many of our customers indicate that they expect another increase in the second half of the year,” says Biron.

Melexis’ profit development also lagged somewhat behind. For the full year 2023, the company’s net profit ‘only’ rose by 6% to 209.5 million euros, despite a decline of 4% to 49.8 million euros in the fourth quarter. “That was because we invested in innovation and in people and capacity,” says financial director Karen van Griensven.

Melexis offers its shareholders a dividend of EUR 3.70 per share, of which it already paid out EUR 1.30 as an advance in October. The balance of 2.30 euros will follow in May, after the general meeting of shareholders.

On the Brussels stock exchange, Melexis shares initially recorded a strong profit on Wednesday, but by the closing bell it was still 0.56% in the red at 80 euros.