QUEBEC CITY — Telecom testing equipment and analytics solution provider EXFO reported Tuesday afternoon its sales continued to be negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, although its earnings improved.
According to its financial results for the first quarter ended November 30, 2020, sales decreased 2.8% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2021 to US$71.5 million (the Quebec-based company reports in U.S. dollars), down from US$73.6 million in the first quarter of 2020. Its test and measurement (T&M) segment sales dropped 9.8% to US$50.5 million in Q1 2021 from a record US$55.9 million in the first quarter of 2020, while its service assurance, systems and services (SASS) sales increased 18.6% year-over-year to US$21 million compared to US$17.7 million in Q1 2020.
EXFO’s sales in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific improved 23.3% and 9.2% year-over-year, respectively, while sales in the Americas decreased 20.4%.
The company reported IFRS net earnings of US$3.6 million in the first quarter of 2021, compared to a net loss of US$0.1 million in the first quarter of 2020. The IFRS net earnings included an after-tax wage subsidy of US$1.4 million under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) program, as well as an after-tax insurance recovery of US$2.5 million related to the loss of assets.
Adjusted EBITDA totalled US$9.9 million, or 13.9% of sales, in the first quarter of fiscal 2021 compared to US$7.5 million, or 10.3% of sales, in the first quarter of 2020.
“EXFO delivered a strong first-quarter performance in fiscal 2021 as compared to a coronavirus-free opening quarter in 2020,” said EXFO CEO Philippe Morin, in the press release. “Robust sales and earnings results confirm market acceptance of our highly differentiated solutions related to fibre, cloud-native and 5G network deployments as we continue to develop new ways to engage and serve our global customer base in this virtualized environment. We’re particularly pleased with our SASS offering’s penetration into new accounts through the recently announced fibre monitoring deal with BT’s subsidiary, Openreach, and five service assurance contracts secured in the fourth quarter of 2020.”
For more information on EXFO’s financial results for the first quarter of 2021, please click here.
