Financial targets
2025 outlook
Canatu sees that the company’s long-term potential in the three business focus areas—Semiconductor, Automotive, and Medical Diagnostics—has remained unchanged.
Canatu expects that its revenue for the financial year 2025 will be weighted towards the second half of the year. This is primarily driven by the anticipated timing of potential new CNT100 SEMI reactor orders and the associated revenue recognition of such orders.
In the near term, Canatu sees that there are certain factors, which affect the revenue visibility and may increase the volatility of the company’s revenue development, particularly in the Semiconductor and Automotive businesses. For example, the roll-out of ready CNT pellicles ultimately depends on Canatu’s customers and their processes.
In accordance with its disclosure policy, Canatu does not issue any specific numerical guidance or other financial outlook for the financial year 2025 at this point. However, the company will assess the possibility of issuing such guidance or outlook later during the financial year.
Semiconductor outlook
In the near-term, Canatu expects that royalty and consumable revenue from existing CNT100 SEMI reactor customers will depend on three key steps: (i) the customers need to complete the final Site Acceptance Tests (SAT) of the first two CNT100 SEMI reactors and related equipment Canatu shipped in 2024; (ii) the customers need to receive certain internal and/or external approvals for their ready CNT pellicles; and (iii) the customers need to ramp-up high-volume production of ready CNT pellicles. Since Canatu has agreed to deliver the reactors for CNT pellicle membrane production, the final timing of steps two and three and hence of such royalty and consumable revenue depends on the customers and their processes, not on Canatu.
Furthermore, Canatu expects that any potential follow-on CNT100 SEMI reactor orders from existing customers will likely also be subject to the successful completion of the final SATs for the first two CNT100 SEMI reactors and peripherals Canatu shipped in 2024. Canatu expects these SATs to be completed in 2025.
Canatu expects to sustain its position as a leading supplier of inspection membranes used in patterned EUV mask inspection for debris filtering in the financial year 2025.
As a key priority for 2025, Canatu focuses on supporting its customers to reach the capability to launch the production of ready CNT pellicles. At the same time, Canatu continues to invest in the development of new inspection membrane products and the next-generation CNT SEMI reactors.
Canatu expects that the Semiconductor business will be the largest contributor to the group’s revenue also in the financial year 2025.
Automotive outlook
In the Automotive business, the ramp-up of ADAS camera heater mass production has been delayed due to certain customer processes. Canatu expects the mass production ramp-up to commence in 2025.
At the same time, Canatu is working towards advancing its cooperation and work on developing future solar cells. If Canatu is successful in these efforts, this would have a positive impact on the Automotive business unit’s revenue in 2025.
Medical Diagnostics outlook
Canatu currently focuses on accelerating the development of its Medical Diagnostics business and is working on a refined application and go-to-market strategy for the business area. The new strategy is expected to be launched in the second half of 2025.
Canatu expects that the Medical Diagnostics business will make a non-material contribution to the 2025 financial year revenue relative to the contributions by the Semiconductor and Automotive businesses.
Long-term financial targets
Canatu’s long-term financial targets are:
- Over EUR 100 million revenue in 2027
- EBIT margin (adjusted for goodwill amortization in accordance with the Finnish Accounting Standards) in 2027 over 30 percent
Canatu expects the relative contribution to the targeted revenue by Semiconductor to be large, by Automotive medium, and by Medical limited.
Canatu expects that the current level of capital expenditure, EUR 5–6 million annually on average, is adequate for reaching the long-term financial targets in 2027, and that reaching the long-term financial targets in 2027 may require to grow the headcount by 25–35 FTEs annually. Additionally, Canatu may also do certain targeted recruitments and investments to support higher revenue growth and growth beyond 2027.
These targets are grounded in (i) existing customer relationships, (ii) the current or currently developed offering in three focus industries, (iii) assessment of its gross profit potential, and (iv) the more conservative assumptions from the market analysis.
For the semiconductor sector, this assumes CNT pellicles will be adopted solely in logic chip production and in high-power (>500W) EUV lithography scanners and inspection membranes will be used only for patterned mask inspection.
Long-term financial targets are not predicated on substantial upside scenarios, such as (i) broader adoption of CNT pellicles in memory chip production (ii) adoption of CNT pellicles in <500W machines, (iii) broader adoption of inspection membranes for blank mask inspection or as optical filters, (iv) rapid expansion into new markets, or (v) potential additional investments enabled by the over EUR 100 million capital from Lifeline SPAC I.