UMS Holdings

[Drizzt]

it looks like the bookings are consistently rising. good times indeed.

[Nick]

North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts May 2013 Book-to-Bill Ratio of 1.08

SAN JOSE, Calif. — June 20, 2013 — North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.32 billion in orders worldwide in May 2013 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.08, according to the May EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI. A book-to-bill of 1.08 means that $108 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in May 2013 was $1.32 billion. The bookings figure is 12.5 percent higher than the final April 2013 level of $1.17 billion, and is 18.1 percent lower than the May 2012 order level of $1.61 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in May 2013 was $1.22 billion. The billings figure is 12.6 percent higher than the final April 2013 level of $1.09 billion, and is 20.5 percent lower than the May 2012 billings level of $1.54 billion.

“The SEMI Book-to-Bill continues to show steady improvement as the ratio remains at or above parity for the fifth consecutive month,” said Daniel P. Tracy, senior director of Industry Research and Statistics at SEMI. “The spending outlook for the year is improving as foundries continue to invest in advanced technologies and NAND manufacturers plan to increase spending on equipment.”.......................................

http://www.semi.org/en/node/46011?id=highlights

Good news indeed. Recovery continues to strengthen. Probably the reason why the share price rose significantly to 52.5 cents today.

The monthly booking for May stood at US$1.3 billion and this is a very healthy level. In general, months with bookings exceeding US$1.4 billion tend to coincide with strong quarterly results from UMS and months with bookings < US$1 billion will have weak results. I expect UMS to maintain its quarterly payout of 1 cent dividend in 2Q 2013. The past 6 months has been a period of weak results from UMS and I think the recovery will carry on. But we should remember that the cycle is very volatile - in the past 2 years, we have seen strong 1H and weaker 2H.

There is an interesting article from Gartner forecasting semiconductor capex spending over the next few years.

http://www.electroiq.com/articles/sst/20...rtner.html

UMS is currently trading at 52.5 cents and its 1Q 2013 dividend of 1 cent will XD on 9 July 2013 and payable of 26 July 2013.

(Vested)

[BlueKelah]

SIAN, Yield hungry investors starting to pile in.

[lanoitar]

Probably the reason why the share price rose significantly to 52.5 cents today.

I wouldn't read too much into this. It's the same pre-close run-up observed in quite a few counters on Fri:

K1, Saizen, StmfdLand, Pan United, HPL, UMS, CSE.

GG commented in this StmfdLand post.

I was on the sell-side during the pre-close in one of these, and the counter party was Morgan Stanley as well.

[KopiKat]

Probably the reason why the share price rose significantly to 52.5 cents today.

I wouldn't read too much into this. It's the same pre-close run-up observed in quite a few counters on Fri:

K1, Saizen, StmfdLand, Pan United, HPL, UMS, CSE.

GG commented in this StmfdLand post.

I was on the sell-side during the pre-close in one of these, and the counter party was Morgan Stanley as well.

Interesting.... I rx an alert fm my bro at 5pm that Saizen was matching at $0.195, with 5Mil+ shares in the Buy Q. IIRC, it was last done @ $0.186 at 5pm, after hovering closer to $0.183 for most of the day. I sold some of mine and the CP (just went to chk after reading this post) was '82' - MS, as well...

[Nick]

APPOINTMENT OF NON-EXECUTIVE, INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR AND CHANGES IN THE COMPOSITION OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND BOARD COMMITTEES

http://info.sgx.com/webcoranncatth.nsf/V...800366F52/$file/UMSApptDir.pdf?openelement

http://info.sgx.com/webcorannc.nsf/Annou...endocument

The appointment of a new director was expected due to the retirement of Independent Director Mr Sreenivasan a few months ago. There are now 6 Directors of which 4 are independent.

The new ID would have some experience dealing with UMS:

Mr Chay Yiowmin was a member of the Moore Stephens LLP's audit team since January 2009 and subsequently the audit engagement partner for UMS Holdings Limited for the financial year ended 31 December 2011 prior to leaving the firm in May 2012. In addition, Moore Stephens LLP had confirmed that they are not aware of any independent issue which would preclude Mr Chay from being nominated as a Director of the Company and a member of Audit and Remuneration Committees.

UMS closed at 50.5 cents which implies a historic dividend yield of 9.9%.

(Vested)

[Boon]

Global semiconductor sales jump by largest margin in over three years

07/01/2013

http://www.electroiq.com/articles/sst/20...april.html

[BlueKelah]

My contrarian alarm bell is starting to go off a bit.

Wonder how long can this be sustained.

[Nick]

DMG has initiated coverage with a 21 pg report on UMS titled - Dividend Proxy To Looming Sector Revival (BUY: 71 cents TP)

https://groups.google.com/group/brokerag...authuser=0 [Download Report]

(Vested)

[Boon]

DMG has initiated coverage with a 21 pg report on UMS titled - Dividend Proxy To Looming Sector Revival (BUY: 71 cents TP)

https://groups.google.com/group/brokerag...authuser=0 [Download Report]

(Vested)

Nick,

Thanks for the link. It seems like DMG is more bullish than CIMB (June 03 report ) in its projections. However, none of them is "bullish" enough to project a dividend payout of more than 5 cents. Ha-ha !

Also, both houses did not even mention the potential benefits of the wafer size transition from 300 mm to 450 mm, expected to happen around 2016/2017.

(vested)