SEMICONDUCTOR solutions provider AEM Holdings suffered a recent IT breach that resulted in unauthorised access to its network, the company disclosed in a Monday (Sep 5) bourse filing. It did not elaborate when the breach occurred.

 

AEM has since contained the incident and prevented further unauthorised access, it said, adding that the business remains operational. The company has engaged incident response consultants and external counsel to assess and manage the incident.

 

The breach is not expected to have a material adverse impact on AEM&rsquo s earnings per share for FY2022 ending December.

 

&ldquo The company takes IT security risks seriously and is conducting a rigorous review of the Incident and its IT systems to ensure that they remain robust, and the data it is entrusted with remains safe and secure,&rdquo AEM said.

 

The Employees Provident Fund Board&rsquo s (EPF) deemed substantial shareholding in AEM Holdings : AWX -0.73% crossed above the 7.00 per cent threshold on Jul 4. The EPF&rsquo s interest in AEM Holdings crossed back above the 5.00 per cent substantial shareholder threshold on Jun 9, then above the 6.00 per cent threshold on Jun 21.

 

new development between UTAC and AEM

MAINBOARD-LISTED AEM Holdings : AWX +0.41% on Thursday (May 5) reported S$40.8 million in net profit for its first quarter ended Mar 31, 2022, more than tripling from its S$13.3 million profit recorded for the year-ago period.

 

The increase in net profit comes on the back of a record quarterly revenue of S$261.9 million, which the electronic-services provider said was the highest in the group&rsquo s history, up from S$80.2 million a year ago.

 

Revenue growth was mainly driven by the strong uptake in the group&rsquo s new-generation equipment and tools, and the consolidation of its subsidiary CEI, which the group acquired in H1 2021, AEM said.

 

Earnings per share stood at 13.1 Singapore cents in Q1 2022, a 172.9 per cent year-on-year increase from 4.8 cents in Q1 2021. 

 

AEM said it has raised the group&rsquo s revenue guidance for the full financial year to between S$700 million and S$750 million. 

 

The group highlighted that today&rsquo s new normal continues to create a &ldquo strong demand environment&rdquo for semiconductor chips for mission-critical applications. It intends to leverage industry trends and strengthen its capabilities to support next-generation applications through &ldquo superior&rdquo testing solutions, on top of investing in research and development. 

 

AEM&rsquo s chief executive officer Chandran Nair said: &ldquo We remain optimistic about our business prospects and strive to expand our market presence globally. While the growth in semiconductor test content provides positive momentum, we continue to remain mindful of the supply chain challenges and the geopolitical situation."

 

Temasek Holdings' stake in semiconductor play AEM Holdings has been on the rise following purchases by Temasek subsidiary Venezio investments.

 

An Apr 11 filing showed that Venezio had on Apr 7 acquired 344,100 shares in AEM.

 

This was followed by another filing on Apr 14, showing Venezio had on Apr 12 bought 403,100 shares of AEM.

 

This should take Temasek' s total deemed interest in AEM to over 12.3 per cent, from less than 12 per cent before.

 

In addition to the stake held through Venezio, Temasek is also deemed interested in a stake of around 0.3 per cent held through SeaTown - an independently managed Temasek portfolio company. Temasek became AEM' s largest shareholder following a private placement completed on Aug 31, 2021.

 

AEM has recently bought back some of its shares. On Apr 11, the company purchased 26,900 shares at S$4.70 per share for a total consideration of S$127,755.05.

 

In January this year, AEM announced revenue guidance of in the range of S$670 million to S$720 million for FY2022.

 

But the company also sounded a warning about margin compression due to higher supply chain costs and an increase in research and development spending as it engages customers on new projects.

 

The group is expecting capital expenditure for the fiscal year to come in at around S$10 million.

Temasek Holdings, the largest shareholder of AEM Holdings, has increased its stake in the semiconductor testing services provider.

 

On April 7, Temasek, via a subsidiary Venezio, paid $1.63 million for 344,100 AEM shares, which works out to an average of $4.74 each.

 

This brings Temasek&rsquo s total stake to just over 37.2 million shares, or 12.03%, up from 11.91% earlier.

 

Separately, AEM bought back 26,900 shares on April 11, paying $4.7 each. This brings the total number of shares bought back under the current mandate to around 1.77 million.

 

Temasek became AEM&rsquo s largest shareholder following a placement announced last August where it paid $3.8477 each for 26.8 million new shares for a 9.5% stake.

 

See also: Hong Fok continues with share buybacks as joint CEO Cheong raises stake

 

It has since increased its stake gradually with open market buying like that on April 7.

 

Prior to this, on March 9, Temasek paid around $5.65 million for around 1.42 million shares, or around $4 each.

Temasek Holdings, AEM Holding&rsquo s largest shareholder, has increased its stake after an indirect subsidiary bought more shares in the market.

As indicated via an SGX filing on March 9, Temasek&rsquo s indirect subsidiary Venezio Investments, paid $5,647,480.02 for 1,416,900 shares. That works out to an average of $3.9858 each.

With that Venezio has increased the number of AEM shares held to 30,998,500, or 10.02%, from 9.56%.

Temasek has a deemed interest in additional AEM shares held via another entity SeaTown Holdings, which is run separately. Its total deemed interest is now 31,814,600 shares, or 10.29%, up from 9.83%.

Temasek become AEM&rsquo s largest shareholder in September following its investment of $103.1 million via placement of 26.8 million new shares at $3.8477 each. 

SEMICONDUCTOR equipment maker AEM Holdings AEM SGD: AWX -4.05% on Thursday (Feb 24) reported S$62.4 million in profit attributable to owners for the H2 ended Dec 31, 2021 - up 47 per cent on year from S$42.3 million the previous year.

 

Revenue for the period grew 52 per cent year on year to S$373.2 million from S$245.3 million in H2 FY2020, with the group' s test cell solutions business segment contributing to the bulk of revenue.

 

The significant improvement in topline performance was attributed to a volume ramp-up in AEM' s new generation system level testing handlers, burn-in test handlers and peripheral tools - as well as the consolidation of CEI, which the group had acquired in H1.

 

Earnings per share grew 35 per cent to S$0.2078 from S$0.1536 a year earlier.

 

The latest set of results brings AEM' s profit for the full year to S$92.1 million, down 6 per cent from its FY2020 profit of S$97.6 million mainly due to increased research and development expenses as well as higher income tax provision.

 

Revenue for the full year stood at a record S$565.5 million, up 9 per cent from S$519 million the year before.

 

A final dividend of S$0.05 per share has been proposed, bringing the total dividend per share for the fiscal year to S$0.076 as opposed to S$0.09 the year before.

 

AEM expects demand for its products and solutions to remain strong, and for the adoption of its new platforms to continue in FY2022 and into FY2023.

AEM' s system levels test allows millions of chips to be tested in parallel at high speeds, allowing customers to get maximum test coverage. BY CLAUDIA TAN

 

INVESTORS are starting to realise that the semiconductor industry is a key driving force behind the pandemic-led tech boom and will continue to grow in an environment where manufacturers are turning to more complex chips amid the rapid adoption of technology.

 

Mainboard-listed AEM Holdings is confident about " leading the charge in dealing with that complexity" , said non-executive chairman Loke Wai San in an interview with The Business Times.

 

Shares of AEM were up nearly 50 per cent last year, reaching a high of S$5.35 in Dec 2021 on the back of a global chip shortage as chip buyers rushed to secure inventory to cope with the surge in demand for electronics. The stock closed at S$4.94 on Jan 21.

 

In early January, AEM announced a revenue guidance of between S$670 million and S$720 million for FY2022, up from S$525 million to S$550 million for FY2021.

 

" A year and a half ago, the semiconductor industry wasn' t that interesting - everything was software," said Loke, who also runs technology buyout fund Novo Tellus Capital.

 

People were paying attention to tech companies like food delivery apps, for instance, rather than the chips they run on, he said.

 

But the world is starting to realise that semiconductors lie at the heart of innovation and technology.

 

After all, no matter how sophisticated a software is, it would not be able to run on a personal computer made in the 90s, Loke said.

 

" Your metaverse isn' t going to happen if you have outdated chips. . ." he said.

 

Chips are now more complex than they were before, as manufacturers seek more compact and powerful semiconductor devices for remote working, 5G, Internet of Things and electric vehicles, among others.

 

Electronic devices today, for instance, are expected to handle multiple applications simultaneously, adding to the challenge of developing test patterns.

 

" They (chips) are getting more complex because they are handling more advanced nodes, they' re handling more instruction sets, and they' re doing a lot more," said Loke. " All sorts of processing units are required so that you get artificial intelligence and you get some other machine learning capabilities or data analytics," he added.

 

Industry giants are also starting to develop their own chips, which further complicates testing processes.

 

" I think that' s where AEM is pushing the disruption in the market - that we actually know how to test better at lower costs," said Loke.

 

" And it comes with doing a different type of systems level test," he said, explaining that this means testing the hardware with software.

 

" It comes with incorporating machine learning and AI (artificial intelligence) into the test protocols. That' s where we think the world is going to be in the next 8 years. And we hope to be one of the leaders pioneering that change," he added.

 

AEM' s system levels test allows millions of chips to be tested in parallel at high speeds, allowing customers to get maximum test coverage.

 

It will essentially be able to capture faults that functional tests may not be able to, and at a lower cost.

 

This is given that the old way of testing is simply to keep building bigger, better and more expensive testing platforms whenever testing requirements change.

 

On the outlook for the semiconductor industry, Loke said that the cycle has been " elongated" thanks to the many demand curves across consumers and businesses.

 

The demand curve for electric vehicles, for instance, is expected to increase. " The car we sell today versus the car we see in 8 years is going to have a lot more semiconductor chips in it," said Loke.

 

" There' s going to be a lot more semiconductors being used, the semiconductors that are being used are going to be higher quality and more complex," he added.

 

Last year, AEM was selected to be the system level test solutions supplier for one of the industry' s memory integrated device manufacturers.

 

Several analysts had said that this signals AEM' s ability to diversify its customer base after years of relying on its key customer - which most research reports suggest is semiconductor giant Intel Corporation - as its main revenue contributor.

 

" It shows that the market is coming towards us - where the big players and leaders of the industry are starting to recognise what we' re doing in system level tests and AEM can stand on its own and win against the best competitors in the world," said Loke.