IQE annual sales dip as soft Wireless revenue offsets Photonics growth

(Alliance News) - IQE PLC on Thursday forecast strong sales growth in the current year despite posting lower sales and increased losses in 2025.

The Cardiff-based supplier of advanced compound semiconductor wafer products and material solutions said its pretax loss widened to GBP37.0 million in 2025 from GBP36.9 million the year prior.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation declined 60% to GBP3.2 million from GBP8.1 million.

Revenue fell 18% to GBP97.3 million from GBP118.0 million, with a 15% increase in Photonics sales offset by a 40% drop in Wireless revenue.

Photonics was driven by funding releases for certain US military and defence programmes and continued growth in AI and data centre-related markets. But Wireless was hit by softness in mobile handset demand with some end customer requirements being met from existing inventory.

Trading in the first quarter of 2026 has been in line with management expectations, with strong demand across all core segments, IQE said.

In particular, IQE is seeing accelerated demand for InP solutions, which support optical photonics products for data centre and AI infrastructure, and it expects this to be a material growth driver throughout 2026 and beyond.

Alongside this, IQE is seeing ongoing strength in aerospace and defence markets, as well as vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser and wireless products supporting the consumer smartphone industry.

Revenue for 2026 is expected to exceed 20% growth year-on-year, with strong order book visibility into the second half. This is expected to result in high-single digit to low double-digit adjusted Ebitda.

IQE also on Thursday said it has completed a GBP81 million fundraise, announced last month.

The fundraise from "key partners is a transformational investment for IQE," said Chief Executive Jutta Meier, "giving us the balance sheet strength to invest in our future growth, while maintaining our global asset base."

Shares in IQE were down 4.0% at 48.65 pence each in London on Thursday.

By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter

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