ASMPT (formerly ASM Pacific Technology) is a

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

-headquartered company listed in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

that designs and manufactures machines and tools used in

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

and electronics assembly industries. It was originally the Asia division of

ASM International ASM International N.V. (with ASM standing for Advanced Semiconductor Materials) is a Dutch-headquartered multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, sells, and services equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor devices. Its ...

(ASM).

History

In 1975, ASM founder Arthur del Prado went to Hong Kong for a business meeting with its customer

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

. During his time there, he took the opportunity to survey the prospects for the semiconductor industry in Hong Kong. Eventually he established ASM Pacific Technology (ASMPT) with Patrick Lam, an

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

that del Prado recruited during his visit. At first, the company’s business was acting as an agent for the sales of semiconductor materials and shelf production in Asia. Originally ASMPT was an Asian sales branch of ASM which derived its revenue from the sale of encapsulation equipment from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and related materials from U.S. By 1977, ASMPT had established a sizeable customer base and moved into small-scale production of mold bases. Soon it was producing custom-designed trim and form tools. In 1979, ASMPT made two landmark decisions. The first was to acquire a 10,000 square-foot industrial property to support its move into the production of lead frames. The second was the acquisition of a wire bonder manufacturing business in Hong Kong from an American company. In 1980, ASMPT looked into designing its own automated equipment. To do this, the company went on an aggressive recruitment spree to attract young engineering university graduates. In 1981, it launched a conversion kit that enabled manual aluminum wire bonder to operate semi-automatically. By 1984, it launched its fully-automatic wire bonders. In 1985, ASMPT produced its first die bonder aimed at LED manufacturers. By the end of the 1980s, the sales of leadframes and equipment provided steady profit streams for ASMPT. At the end of 1989, ASMPT opened a plant in

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

. ASMPT shifted its attention from manufacturing to

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

(R&D). Singapore was selected as its new R&D location due to tax incentives from the

Economic Development Board The Economic Development Board (EDB) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the government of Singapore that plans and executes strategies to sustain Singapore as a leading global hub for business and investment. H ...

. Former ASMPT CEO, Lee Wai-kwong stated that Hong Kong engineers would find a solution in the shortest possible time and be done with it while Singapore engineers would take longer to understand the root cause and come up with a more effective solution. ASMPT's growth was financed mainly through

retained earnings The retained earnings (also known as plowback) of a corporation is the accumulated net income of the corporation that is retained by the corporation at a particular point in time, such as at the end of the reporting period. At the end of that per ...

and bank loans. To expand further, ASMPT chose to become a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

to acquire additional funding. In January 1989, ASMPT held its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

by listing on the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...

with del Prado as chairman and Lam as managing director. In 2011, ASMPT acquired the electronics assembly systems business of

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

. In 2014, ASMPT acquired DEK Printing Machines Ltd from the

Dover Corporation Dover Corporation is an American conglomerate manufacturer of industrial products. The Downers Grove, Illinois-based company was founded in 1955. As of 2021, Dover's business was divided into five segments: Engineered Products, Clean Energy a ...

. ASMPT acquired AMICRA Microtechnologies GmbH in April 2018. In August 2018, ASMPT acquired Critical Manufacturing. ASM has reduced its stake in ASMPT over the years. In 1997, 51% of ASMPT was owned by ASM. In 2013, it sold 11.9% of ASMPT making it no longer a

majority shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the le ...

. By 2018, ASM's stake in ASMPT was at 25% and

Elliott Investment Management Elliott Investment Management L.P. is an American investment management firm. It is also one of the largest activist funds in the world. It is the management affiliate of American hedge funds Elliott Associates L.P. and Elliott International ...

was pushing for ASM to divest from ASMPT. At that time one of the potential buyers was

TCL Technology TCL Technology Group Corp. (originally an abbreviation for Telecom Corporation Limited) is a Chinese partially State-owned enterprise, state-owned electronics company headquartered in Huizhou, Guangdong province. TCL develops, manufactures, a ...

. In recent times, ASMPT has been exploring going private. It would later relist on the

Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market The Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market, officially known as the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board, is a Chinese science and technology focused equities market established on July 22, 2019. STAR has been touted as ...

where it would obtain higher valuations. ASM supported the proposal although it would not divest its stake. In February 2021, ASM and EV Group partnered to develop die-to-wafer bonding techniques for 3d-IC. In August 2022, the company changed its name from ASM Pacific Technology to ASMPT to avoid confusion with ASM International.PRESS RELEASE - ASMPT Marks Latest Milestone with Global Rebrand
/ref> In March 2023 it was reported that PAG was interested in acquiring ASMPT. In October 2024, it was reported that

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global private-equity and investment company. , the firm had completed private-equity investments in portfolio companies with approximately $710 billion of total ...

was considering acquiring ASMPT.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.asmpt.com 1975 establishments in Hong Kong Companies of Singapore Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Electronics companies established in 1975 Equipment semiconductor companies Semiconductor companies of Singapore

History

See also

References

External links