€7.4m profit, €30m turnover for Xsil
The company, which develops laser machines for use in the semiconductor industry, reversed the €8.65 million loss it made in 2002 and made a healthy profit for the first time.
Xsil is considered by many in the hi-tech industry to be one of Ireland's cutting-edge firms and has won numerous awards.
Turnover for the year to the end of December 2003 rocketed from just €2.2m in 2002 to almost €30m last year. Xsil has a number of deals with several major corporations in America and the Far East and its products sell for about €2m.
Research and development expenditure during the year was flat at €5.3m, though short-term debt halved to €11.5m. Accounts for Xsil, filed recently at the Companies Registration Office, show that it received €2.8m in short-term funding from an Isle of Man-based company called Morgan Ventures, which is the ultimate parent of Xsil.
Xsil designs and builds precision laser systems and robotics that can be used to build micro-machines that facilitate the more efficient manufacture of silicon chips by semiconductor firms.
The company was set up by its chairman Peter Conlon four years ago. Though not as high-profile as some entrepreneurs, he is one of the most successful, having sold another company he established to US firm Agilent for €105m in early 2001. That deal netted Mr Conlon and another of his Xsil directors, Brian Farrell, tens of millions of euro.
Mr Conlon and another business partner, Patrick Rainsford, have invested around €25m in Xsil, which employs about 130 people. Xsil has offices in Ireland, the US, Japan and Taiwan.
The company is expected to have sales of around €55m this year with profit nearly doubling to €11m.
It is also tipped as the next Irish tech firm to list on the stock market.
Mr Conlon made the headlines last year when he purchased a €5.1m mansion on St Mary's Road in Ballsbridge, Dublin, one of the city's most sought-after areas.
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