The main Russian processor manufacturer, Zelenograd "Micron" showed a net profit at the end of the year for the first time in the last 12 years. It amounted to 258 million rubles. The previous 11 years brought him losses of more than 19 billion rubles.
As CNews found out, the main domestic manufacturer of microchips, the Zelenograd enterprise "Micron" (part of the group of the same name) demonstrated a net profit of 257.7 million rubles by the end of 2021. Thus, the organization has reached a plus in this indicator for the first time in 12 years.
The last time "Micron" finished the year without a net loss in 2009, showing a net profit of 262 million rubles (a year earlier — 98.7 million rubles). In 2020, the company's net loss amounted to 2.51 billion rubles. Only 2018 ended worse for the company, when the net loss reached 4.41 billion rubles. In total, over the previous 11 years, Micron accumulated net losses in the amount of 19.27 billion rubles.
This follows from the comparison of the data of the accounting statements of JSC "Micron", compiled according to Russian standards — RAS.
As for revenue, by the end of 2021 it reached 5.69 billion rubles, exceeding the previous year's figure by 725 million rubles. However, 2019 turned out to be a record for Micron in this parameter in recent years, when revenue grew to 7.95 billion rubles.
Of the other reporting financial indicators, we note the gross profit of Micron. By the end of 2021, it amounted to 452 million rubles, while a year earlier it had a negative value of 553.5 million rubles.
Gross profit means revenue (turnover) less the cost of sales of products or services, taking into account depreciation. As for net profit, it is determined by the difference between gross profit and operating expenses of the company, which may include the cost of renting premises, wages, transportation, etc., as well as when deducting the amount of taxes, penalties, fines and interest on loans.
Representatives of Micron declined to comment on the company's first net profit for the first time in many years, without explaining the reasons that led to such a breakthrough.
The accounting statements considered here practically do not contain any qualitative details about the structure of the Micron business. They should appear in the company's general annual report, which, based on the experience of previous years, will be published in June — early July 2022.
At the same time, the accounting report nevertheless notes that in the total 5.69 billion revenue of the company, 4.41 billion rubles are accounted for "electronic equipment elements", 326.4 million rubles for R&D, 730.8 million rubles for "resale of goods", 17 million rubles for "other products" and 204.2 million rubles for "other services".
It should be noted that Micron itself prefers to publicly demonstrate and comment on reporting on the entire group of companies, although the company of the same name plays a key role in it. At the same time, Micron forms such consolidated financial statements according to slightly different international standards (IFRS). In particular, in 2019, according to IFRS, the group demonstrated profit for the first time in several years — in the amount of 584 million rubles.
That is, the discrepancy with the data regarding only the "Micron" according to RAS amounted to almost 5 billion rubles. In principle, the company explained such a delta by writing off costs related to the project of a single universal electronic citizen card (UEC) that had not taken off earlier.
Speaking about the financial performance of Micron, it is impossible not to note that the importance of this enterprise for Russia as the most advanced domestic chip manufacturer with the beginning of well-known events on Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions by the United States and The EU has increased significantly. However, on April 1, 2022, Micron is among some other Russian organizations I found myself under American sanctions personally.
Until recently, all advanced domestic processor developers (MCST with the Elbrus line, Baikal Electronics with the Baikal line, Elvis SPC with the Multicore line) ordered their production at the Taiwanese TSMC factory. On February 26, 2022, Taiwan officially announced its accession to Western sanctions against Russia, that is, had to stop cooperating with a lot of our technology companies. They hide exactly how Russian chipmakers interact with TSMC right now (they all have orders placed, but not executed). Reformatting developments and transferring them to factories in third countries, such as China, is a matter of two or three years.
On the one hand, TSMC "Micron" will not be able to fully replace itself. The company has mastered the production of chips with a topology of 65 nm, but only for individual batches — engineering samples. Mass production is established only for the topology of 90 nm, which by modern standards is the "last century" (however, as well as 65 nm).
Nevertheless, according to a source in the microelectronic market, at least one of the above-mentioned companies has already held talks with Micron at which the possibility of releasing its "adapted" modern chips at the enterprise's facilities was discussed. The results of these negotiations are not known to the source.