Asyst acquires JV interest for
$65.7 M

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 17 October 2002, 19:30 IST
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Asyst Technologies Thursday announced the acquisition of 51 percent of Asyst-Shinko Inc., a Japanese joint venture company for an aggregate consideration of 8.16 billion Yen or $65.7 million. The purchase was funded in part by a $25 million credit facility that the company availed off.

FREMONT: The purchase was also funded a $20 million payment for certain inventory related to its previously announced outsourcing of manufacturing, and available balances of cash and short-term investments, the company said in a press release. Following funding of the JV transaction, Asyst (Nasdaq:ASYT) has approximately $55 million of cash and short-term investments. The company's cash burn over each of its past two quarters has been less than $5 million, and its objective is to manage cash burn during the downturn to approximately these levels, the company said. The cash being paid for the Asyst-Shinko JV interest will compensate Shinko Electric and its shareholders for the transfer of AMHS assets into the JV. These assets include cash and other working capital, and the JV will have no debt. The company expects Asyst-Shinko to be self-funding for working capital and capital expenditures. Asyst-Shinko has the world's largest installed base of 300mm AMHS, having won five of the ten installations awarded to date, including the first 300mm fab for TSMC and the first 300mm fab for a large North American chip manufacturer. Asyst-Shinko's current annualized sales are approximately $100 million. "300mm AMHS represents a $45 to $60 million opportunity per fab, and Asyst-Shinko provides the premier platform for building Asyst's presence in this significant new market," said Steve Schwartz, president and CEO of Asyst. "Our AMHS strategy is three-fold. First, to maximize the sales, margin and customer satisfaction performance of Asyst-Shinko, which has a substantial backlog of 300mm, 200mm and flat panel AMHS projects as well as what we believe is the best customer satisfaction record in the industry. Second, to leverage our respective customer relationships and business infrastructures, with Asyst helping the JV penetrate Europe and other underserved markets and the JV providing the proven system design, installation, integration and support that will accelerate market acceptance of Asyst's next-generation FasTrack AMHS. Third and most exciting, we have the opportunity to expand on Asyst-Shinko's leading market share as we bring to market a unique solution for the high-throughput bottleneck bays in fabs, combining our FasTrack continuous flow technology with Asyst-Shinko's field-proven OHS, OHT and stocker product lines." Josui Nashimoto, president of Asyst Japan, Inc. and CEO of Asyst-Shinko, said, "Asyst-Shinko retains all of the management and engineering talent that made Shinko the success story of 300mm AMHS, including the former general manager of the AMHS division, Hitoshi Kawano, who will be president of Asyst-Shinko. We are very pleased to complete formation of the JV and to move ahead with this strong team."