SLM Solutions – one of the best known and longest-operating 3D metal printer manufacturers in the world, is experiencing serious financial problems. In the first quarter of this year recorded a decrease in sales of as much as 51%, while recording a loss of -7.7 million EUR, which resulted in the need to recapitalize the company for an amount of up to 13 million EUR. Changes took place in the company’s top management – Meddah Hadjar – former general manager of Additive Laser Products at GE Additive, and previously Concept Laser became the CEO, while Magnus René – former CEO of the Swedish 3D printer manufacturer for metal Arcam AB, also belonging to GE, joined the Board of Directors.
Unfortunately, all this has not worked much so far… SLM Solutions has just announced that due to the lower number of orders for 3D printing systems that were obtained in the first half of 2019, the company will not meet the revenue and EBITDA guidelines set by new board. The new guidelines will not be presented to shareholders for the time being – a thorough assessment of activities aimed at improving income and profitability is currently underway, and the new strategy is to be presented on August 8, 2019, during the presentation of Q2 financial results.
Last year, SLM Solutions recorded a year-on-year decline in sales for the first time in seven years. As can be seen from the official infographic, 2017 was a record year, however, the company experienced a real boom in its 3D printing systems in 2015-2016, when sales revenues increased from € 33.6 million in 2014 to € 80.7 million in in 2016.
Although the case is still relatively new, not everyone can remember that in autumn 2016 SLM Solutions was on the verge of being taken over by GE. During the several-month-long epic, the transaction was suspended by one of the shareholders of SLM Solutions – Paul Singer, a stock speculator who tried to force GE to raise the stake. To the widespread surprise, GE broke off the already advanced talks with SLM Solutions to announce the takeover of the competing Concept Laser after a while. This initiated a series of turmoil in the company’s management (in January 2017 the then CEO Markus Rechlin lost his job), which in the long term affected its financial results.
It is difficult to say how the fate of the manufacturer of Lubeck distinguished for the industry will unfold?