Semcon adapting activities

Semcon adapting activities

Semcon is closing two premises in Rüsselsheim and Munich to adapt German
activities to current market conditions for GM and BMW and carrying out staff
cuts at these sites. Activities at other sites in Germany are, under the
circumstances, showing stable growth. The closure and staff cutting costs amount
to around SEK 40 million and will impact on Q4 2008, together with the
previously announced costs for staff cuts in Swedish activities of SEK 40
million.

The weak trend in the industry is continuing and it's very difficult to predict
what's going to happen with customers mainly in the automotive sector. We're
following developments very closely but we believe that we'll unfortunately be
forced to carry out cutbacks in Q1 because most of our major customers are
continuing to lay off personnel. Uncertainty in the global economy means that we
need to act to ensure that Semcon's customer base is in line with a weaker
economic situation,” says Kjell Nilsson, CEO of Semcon AB.  

This uncertainty has also meant that the figures for the fourth quarter will be
burdened by reserves for bad debts of around SEK 20 million. These bad debts
include demands of around SEK 10 million from basically sound Russian customers
who've experienced financing problems due to the economic downturn. 

“Despite the uncertainty on the market in the short term from some industries
and individual customers we're still seeing a major demand for technical
development. We're focusing on securing a good financial position in order to
stand stronger when the economic downturn ends. We're still seeing good demand
from several sectors, including the energy sector where investments are being
made to expand the business. The market's demand to produce more products,
models and versions at an increased pace benefits the company, which means that
we predict good business opportunities when the global financial crisis finally
ends,” Kjell Nilsson concludes.


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For more information, please contact: 
Kjell Nilsson, CEO Semcon AB, +46 (0)702 60 01 21
Anders Atterling, IR manager Semcon AB, +46 (0)704 47 28 19



The information is such that Semcon AB must publish according to the law
concerning the equities market and/or the law concerning trading in financial
instruments. The information was made available for publication at 4.30 p.m. on
21 January 2009.

Semcon is a global technology development company with business at 40 sites on
three continents. The Group is active in product development and technical
information and is organised into three business areas: Automotive R&D, Design &
Development and Informatic. The Group has around 3,300 employees and annual
sales of around SEK 3.3 billion pro forma in 2007. Semcon's shares are listed on
OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm under the SEMC ticker