COMET grows in 2008 despite weak economy

Including YXLON International, consolidated from the acquisition date in July 2007, sales grewfrom CHF 171.1 million to CHF 222.6 million and EBITDA earnings rose from CHF 22.2 million toCHF 24.6 million. Despite difficult market conditions, COMET delivered pro-forma growth of 3.3%in local currencies (a decrease of 0.9% in CHF) and an EBITDA margin of 11.0% (prior year:12.2%), with the weak US dollar having a substantial negative effect on sales and EBIT operatingincome. Earnings per share were boosted from CHF 8.57 to CHF 11.04. The Group has a soundbalance sheet with an equity ratio of 50.7%.

Modules & Components division The product areas in the Modules & Components division showed a heterogeneous performance.Industrial X-Ray grew by a robust 15.1% in local currencies (or 10.6% in CHF), driven by higherdemand in the security industry. However, it was not possible to entrench the minitube technologyin the analytics market, as the previously booming market for lead detection is now largelysaturated. In a portfolio streamlining, COMET has therefore decided to discontinue this productinitiative.For the Vacuum Capacitors side of the division, the fourth quarter brought a downturn ofunprecedented severity for customers in the semiconductor and solar sectors. Although theenvironment for vacuum capacitors and RF (radio frequency) modules deteriorated significantlyand further sales growth proved elusive last year (at a decrease of 0.1% in local currencies and of5.1% in CHF), COMET remains fully committed to the forward strategy pursued in the area of RFmodules. In this product segment, extensive preparations have been made to position COMET toparticipate disproportionately strongly in the industry's next upswing. The Modules & Componentsdivision as a whole attained sales growth of 6.6% in local currencies (or 1.9% in CHF) and anEBITDA profit margin of 13.3% (prior year: 17.6%).

Systems division The Systems division felt the declining demand from the automotive sector in the second half ofthe year, but performed well overall. With pro-forma growth of 2.3% in local currencies(contraction of 1.4% in CHF) and a constant EBITDA margin of 6.9%, the synergies targeted inconnection with the acquisition were fully achieved; the Feinfocus product line as well generated asmall profit after substantial losses in the prior years. As a result of the higher gross margin andreduction of functional costs, EBIT profit improved by CHF 2.3 million. Further, this divisionincurred restructuring costs of CHF 1.1 million, such as for the merging of the Germansubsidiaries. The merger permitted the recognition of one-time tax income of CHF 3.3 million in2008. Except for the ongoing harmonization of the ERP systems, the integration projects for theYXLON group are successfully completed.

Future business activity: e-beam Next to the existing core technologies of industrial X-ray sources and vacuum capacitors, anadditional product area for opening up new markets is currently being established in the form of ebeamtechnology. COMET is working with well-known industrial partners to develop thistechnology to market readiness. With the world market leader in food packaging, Tetra Pak,COMET has been collaborating closely for years toward the goal of introducing e-beam as thenext-generation packaging sterilization technology. The technology is currently in the validationstage.A further use for e-beam is the sterilization of pharmaceutical packaging, with early field trialsbeing conducted by the Packaging Technology division of Robert Bosch GmbH. In the mediumterm, another emerging application is the rapid curing of printing ink. Using e-beam-based curingtechnologies from Ciba AG, manufacturers of printing equipment are expected to be able toincrease throughput in their production significantly in the future.

Dividend The Board of Directors of COMET HOLDING AG decided at its meeting on March 20, 2009 that itwill propose to shareholders at the Annual Meeting being held on April 23 in Berne to pay anunchanged dividend of CHF 3.00 per share.

Outlook The difficulties of customers in the semiconductor and automotive industries will have a significanteffect on sales and earnings in the 2009 fiscal year. The COMET Group was quick to take costreduction measures. Among other steps, the number of employees is being reduced by 17% since the middle of 2008 through the measures initiated thus far. For several reasons - the seasonallyweaker period in the first half of the year, the lag before the cost reduction initiatives gain traction,and exceptional expenses for restructuring - an operating loss is likely in the first half of 2009. Asit remains difficult to forecast business performance in 2009 and 2010, operations are currentlybeing geared to a level of sales approximately 20% below the prior-year level.Thanks to a healthy balance sheet and sufficient liquidity, however, COMET is able to continuethe important capital expenditures in the areas of research & development, processes and marketdevelopment.

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