Bruker fourth-quarter GAAP revenue up 16%

Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ: BRKR) today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2009.

“Given the challenging economic conditions in 2009, we are extremely pleased that we could exceed our full-year 2009 financial goals with year-over-year”

Financial Results

In the fourth quarter of 2009, GAAP revenue increased by 16% to $366.4 million, compared to revenue of $315.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. Excluding the effects of foreign currency translation, fourth quarter revenue increased by 6% year-over-year. In the fourth quarter of 2009, GAAP revenue increased by 13% year-over-year for the Bruker Scientific Instruments (BSI) segment, and by 116% year-over-year for the Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies (BEST) segment.

GAAP operating income in the fourth quarter of 2009 was $76.2 million, compared to $48.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $43.5 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, compared to $26.2 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2008. Included in GAAP EPS for the fourth quarter 2009 was non-cash stock-based compensation expense of ($0.01) per diluted share, the same as in the fourth quarter of 2008.

For the year 2009, GAAP revenue increased by 1% to $1,114.5 million, compared to revenue of $1,107.1 million for the year 2008. Excluding the effects of foreign currency translation, full year 2009 revenue increased by 2% year-over-year. For the year 2009, GAAP revenue decreased 1% to $1,062.7 million for the BSI segment, and increased 37% to $59.8 million for the BEST segment, compared to the year 2008.

For the year 2009, GAAP operating income was $136.7 million, compared to $108.2 million for the year 2008. Operating income for the BSI segment in 2009 was $141.7 million, compared to $116.2 million in 2008. In the year 2009, BSI operating income was favorably impacted by $6.7 million, or by 60 basis points, upon recognizing revenue for the world’s first 1 GHz NMR system, for which the majority of R&D expenses were recorded prior to 2009.

For the year 2009, GAAP net income was $81.2 million, or $0.49 per diluted share, compared to $64.9 million, or $0.39 per diluted share, in 2008. Included in GAAP EPS for the full year 2009 was non-cash stock-based compensation expense of ($0.03) per diluted share, compared to ($0.02) per diluted share for 2008. For the year 2009, the BSI segment contributed GAAP earnings of $0.53 per diluted share, compared to $0.44 in 2008. For the year 2009, the BEST segment contributed a GAAP loss of ($0.04) per diluted share, compared to ($0.05) in 2008.

Cash flow from operations for the full year 2009 was $149.8 million, compared to $106.9 million in 2008. Free cash flow, defined as operating cash flow less capital expenditures, was $131.7 million during 2009, compared to $59.5 million during 2008. During the year 2009, the Company repaid $86.1 million of debt, and as of December 31, 2009, Bruker had cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of $209.1 million and net cash of $71.4 million.

Comment and Outlook

Frank Laukien, President and CEO, commented: “Given the challenging economic conditions in 2009, we are extremely pleased that we could exceed our full-year 2009 financial goals with year-over-year

• currency-adjusted total revenue growth of 2%,
• BSI improvement in GAAP operating margin of 250 basis points,
• BSI increase in GAAP net income of 19%, plus excellent improvements in cash flow.

This success is directly attributable to the strength of our high-performance, innovative scientific instruments and analytical solutions portfolio, as well as to the enthusiasm and customer focus of our global Bruker team.

Moreover, we are also pleased with the recent acceleration in growth of BEST, which more than doubled its fourth quarter 2009 revenue year-over-year. We are optimistic about the prospects for this ‘intrapreneurial’ venture, as BEST further develops its broad technology base in superconducting materials and devices, in order to address potentially large emerging markets in clean tech, alternative energy and ‘big science’ infrastructure.”

Dr. Laukien continued: “In 2010, as Bruker celebrates its 50^th anniversary, our goal is to build on our success over the past 50 years by remaining true to our innovation and profitable growth strategy. We believe that our commitment to R&D and customer focus, coupled with emphasis on operational excellence, can generate further improvements in financial performance. Our financial goals for the year 2010 are:

• total Bruker currency-adjusted revenue growth of greater than 5%,
• BSI operating margin improvement of greater than 125 basis points, excluding the 60 basis point favorable impact from the 1 GHz NMR recognized in 2009,
• BSI net income and EPS increase of greater than 15%, and
• BSI working capital decrease of more than 5%.

For our BEST segment, in 2010 we plan greater than 25% revenue growth, continued infrastructure, marketing and R&D investments for clean-tech and alternative energy applications, with an expected BEST 2010 operating loss of $7-8 million.”