News

28 May 2004

Result of Annual General Meeting

IQE Plc ('IQE' or 'the Company') announces that all resolutions put to today's
Annual General Meeting were duly passed. Around 145m votes were cast with a 98%
acceptance rate and the majority of the remainder for use at the Chairman's
discretion.

Godfrey Ainsworth, Chairman of IQE, commenting on current trading said:

'2003 continued to be a difficult trading year for the group, reflecting the
weakness in the technology sector as a whole.

We began to see a recovery in the wireless and mobile phone sector towards
the end of the year but there was little evidence of new investment in
telecommunications infrastructure which was traditionally a key area for IQE's
optoelectronic products.

During the year, we made great strides in developing our optoelectronic product
range to service the consumer markets for products such as CD and DVD players
and recorders. Significant progress has been made in these new areas and it is a
long and arduous process to become qualified and to establish new products but
we are confident that our products and services will successfully penetrate
these markets.

Our substrate business continues to make steady progress and there are clear
signs of growth in demand for these products.

Interest also continues to grow in our proprietary strained silicon product, with
a number of wafer and device manufacturers actively engaged in discussions and
qualifications. Last month we launched a new enhanced strained silicon product -
20% Germanium that has again generated a great deal of interest. The importance
of strained silicon in future generation products cannot be stressed enough. As
component sizes on chips become smaller and smaller, new materials such as
strained silicon offer the only viable solution for overcoming many of the
physical constraints posed by the fine geometries used in manufacturing these
silicon chips. IQE has established a firm leading position in this technology.

Against a backdrop of continued volatility in the Company's markets, IQE is
making good progress and trading is in line with the Board's expectations whilst
recognising that further progress will be necessary, particularly in sales to
meet the Boards stated aim of reaching cash break even by the end of the year.'

 

For further information, please contact: 

IQE plc: 
Dr Drew Nelson

Stuart Hall

Chris Meadows 

Tel: +44 (0) 29 2083 9400 

Buchanan Communications: 
Tim Thompson

Tel: 020 7466 5000 

 

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