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Media Release Haag , Switzerland , April 15 , 2021 RECORD QUARTERLY ORDERS AND STRONG NET SALES ; VAT HARNESSES MARKET LEADERSHIP IN AN ACCELERATING SEMICONDUCTOR MARKET Q1 2021 results Record quarterly orders of CHF 241 million , up 33 % year - on - year , driven by strong demand from the semiconductor industry and a rebound in industrial markets - Group net sales increased to CHF 192 million , up 32 % vs. Q1 2020 , and slightly above guidance Book - to - bill ratio reaches 1.25x Outlook 2021 Substantial growth expected from strong semiconductor and improving industrial markets Uncertainty from COVID - 19 pandemic remains but is expected to fade over the rest of the year Sales¹ , EBITDA , EBITDA margin and net income expected to grow vs 2020 Capex planned at around CHF 40 million ; free cash flow expected to be higher despite growth investments into working capital Guidance for Q2 2021 VAT expects net sales¹ of CHF 205 215 million . 1 At constant foreign exchange rates VAT GROUP in CHF million Order intake Net sales Order backlog 2 Quarter - on - Quarter ; ³ Year - on - Year Q1 2021 240.7 192.2 193.2 Q4 2020 VAT 210.0 187.6 145.3 CHANGE² 1 + 14.6 % + 2.5 % + 32.9 % Q1 2020 181.3 145.5 150.6 CHANGE3 + 32.7 % + 32.1 % + 28.2 % Q1 growth driven by Semiconductors , Global Service and Advanced Industrials The global semiconductor sector , VAT's largest end market , continued to grow in the first quarter of 2021. Driven by the global shortage of semiconductor chips and further technology advances , semiconductor manufacturers continued to heavily invest in new fabrication equipment . During the first quarter of the year , several companies announced increased capex projections for 2021 and into 2022. This drove higher demand for both vacuum valves and service products aimed at maximizing fabrication uptime . Industrial markets also rebounded from a weak first quarter a year ago , supported by the business unit Advanced Industries initiatives to drive growth , especially in Asia . As a result , Group orders in the first quarter were 33 % higher year - on - year and reached a record level of CHF 241 million , leading to a book - to - bill ratio of 1.25x . VAT believes that pre - ordering driven by high capacity utilization throughout the whole supply chain during the first quarter drove a small part of the order growth across all of our businesses . This could slightly impact orders in the second quarter of 2021. VAT's order backlog at the end of the first quarter was CHF 193 million , up 28 % compared with the end of March 2020 . Net sales in the first quarter of 2021 grew to CHF 192 million , an increase of 32 % compared with the same period in 2020 and slightly above the company's guidance issued with the fourth quarter and full - year 2020 results on March 4 , 2021. Foreign exchange movements , especially in US dollars , had a negative impact of less than two percent on first - quarter net sales compared to the same quarter in 2020 .