Inficon profit slips 16 percent in 2nd quarter, but company raises forecast

De WITT — Inficon Holding AG (SIX Swiss Exchange: IFCN) recently reported that its net income fell 16 percent to 

$9.1 million in the second quarter, from $10.9 million in the year-earlier period.

Earnings per share for the latest earnings period totaled $4.08, down 17 percent from $4.91 in the second quarter of 2011. Net sales fell 7.7 percent to $75.5 million in the latest quarter from $81.8 million a year prior.

Inficon, based in Switzerland, produces high-tech instrumentation, sensors, and process-control software. The firm’s products are used in manufacturing devices like smartphones, flat-screen TVs, and even solar cells.

Inficon serves the environmental protection and emergency-response markets as well. Its systems can monitor and analyze air and water, for example, and detect contaminants and dangerous substances.

The company’s largest facility is in DeWitt, where it employs 220 people. Worldwide, the firm employs 850, including 320 in the United States.

Going forward, Inficon said in its earnings release that it “remains cautiously confident for the coming months.” The company said that assuming that economies in Europe and Asia stabilize, it forecasts slightly higher sales of $290 million to $310 million (compared to earlier guidance of $280 million to $310 million). Inficon also forecasts operating profit of $42 million to $54 million, compared to its earlier guidance of $38 million to $54 million.

Inficon said it expects to launch more new products into the market soon, after having presented several new products in the second quarter. The company said the products it launched in the quarter — which included a new mass spectrometer for gas analysis, a pressure sensor, a leak detector, and an easily transportable service leak detector — strengthen the company’s technology leadership in its traditional business areas, and are geared toward gaining new market share or entering new market segments.