Aurora, Illinois–Cabot Microelectronics Corp., a leading supplier of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) polishing slurries to the semiconductor industry, today reported operating results for its first fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2000. Revenues for the quarter increased 97% to $68.6 million. Net income for the quarter increased 206% over the prior year to $14.4 million, and diluted earnings per share grew to $0.59.

“Our record first quarter results exceeded our estimates and were primarily driven by two factors. First, most of our IC device manufacturing customers, who had been capacity-constrained in our third and fourth quarters, brought on more capacity for advanced IC’s sooner than we had anticipated. As a result, demand for our high performance polishing slurries increased significantly, and our organization efficiently responded. Second, during the quarter our revenue growth outpaced the increase in costs,” said Matthew Neville, Cabot Microelectronics Corp.’s president and CEO. “Our record performance demonstrates the importance of CMP as an essential part of the production of leading edge IC devices, and our ability to meet our customers’ needs”.

During the quarter, Cabot Microelectronics benefited from revenue growth across all applications and regions. Gross profit was 52.5% of revenue, slightly higher than a year ago due to an improved product mix and increased plant utilization, but in line with recent quarters. “We have continued to invest in the selling, technical and administrative areas, resulting in a 46% increase over the prior year. We have leveraged these investments into a higher rate of sales growth, thereby resulting in net income increasing to 21% of revenue,” stated Neville.

“We remain confident about our growth prospects for our 2001 fiscal year. The outlook for CMP and the production of advanced IC devices remains strong overall. Last year was a record year for IC unit production, and particularly strong in the last quarter due to new capacity additions during that period. We believe the slowing economy in the last quarter resulted in some increased inventory for certain end market applications. We expect this to have a short-term effect as this inventory is reduced to normal levels. In spite of this anticipated short-term effect, we are raising our expectations slightly for year over year performance. We anticipate revenue growth in excess of 50% and earnings between 16% and 18% of revenue, due to slightly higher growth and slightly lower costs for the overall year,” said Neville.