FPC Finds Encouraging Trends in 2021 Results

Fingerprint Cards (FPC) has posted its results for the fourth quarter of 2021 and for the full year, showing a challenging quarter but solid overall results.

Revenues for the quarter came in at SEK 356.6 million, compared to revenues of SEK 369.4 million for Q4 of 2020. But the full fiscal year for 2021 saw revenues of just under SEK 1.356 billion, compared to revenues of a little under SEK 1.256 billion in 2020.

FPC’s EBITDA numbers tell a similar story. The company reports EBITDA of SEK 26.7 million for the latest quarter, down from EBITDA of SEK 32.4 million in the corresponding period of 2020. Looking to full-year results, however, shows an EBITDA jump from SEK 59.4 million in 2020 to SEK 85.6 million last year.

There was also a huge improvement in FPC’s operating result, which went from a loss of SEK 365.8 million in 2020 to an operating loss of just SEK 7.6 million in 2021.

Commenting on the results, Fingerprints CEO Christian Fredrikson noted that the company was able to increase sales year-over-year “despite an insufficient access to production capacity throughout the year due to the prevailing semiconductor shortage in the world,” adding, “I believe that this demonstrates the strength and stability of our business, which also began to expand into new areas during the year at a significantly higher pace than previously.”

Fredrikson went on to note that FPC’s mobile operations remained strong, and that the capacitive fingerprint sensor “remains the most common biometric modality by far in the mobile industry.” Meanwhile 2021 saw the first volume orders for FPC’s biometric sensors designed specifically for PC applications, and Fredrikson believes that sales in this area could outgrow those of FPC’s access control solutions in the next 12 to 18 months, thereby becoming the company’s second-largest business area after mobile biometrics.

Finally, the chief executive shed a little more light on FPC’s dramatic restructuring into two separate subsidiaries, the result of a strategic review launched by the company’s board of directors last summer. Fredrikson said that the change, which entailed the creation of payments and access-focused Fingerprint Cards Switzerland and mobile and PC-focused Fingerprint Technology Company, took effect on January 1 of this year.

“This change enables an even sharper focus on our two individual business operations, which have industry conditions that differ in terms of structure, geography, customers, partners and regulations,” he said, adding that it also provides “better possibilities to explore distinct and separate financing options and avenues of development” for each of the subsidiaries.

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January 28, 2022 – by Alex Perala