UMS Holdings

[Boon]

Tokyo Electron: merger with Applied Materials could be delayed to next year

Wed Oct 29, 2014

Oct 29 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electron Ltd, which is expected to be acquired by the world's largest chipmaking equipment maker, Applied Materials Inc, said completion of the merger could take until next year due to delays in regulatory approvals.

"We cannot deny the possibility of a delay in the merger completion until next year," Yoshiteru Harada, corporate director at Tokyo Electron, said on Wednesday.

In September last year U.S.-based Applied Materials agreed to buy Tokyo Electron in an all-stock deal worth more than $10 billion, combining the two makers of chip-making gear as demand for their products slowed.

Tokyo Electron is seeking regulatory approvals for the deal from eight countries and regions, including the United States, Japan, China, South Korea, Germany and Taiwan.

Of the eight, only Singapore and Israel have approved the two companies merging their operations, said Harada................

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/2...ergersNews

[Boon]

Worldwide Smartphone Shipments Increase 25.2% in the Third Quarter with Heightened Competition and Growth Beyond Samsung and Apple, Says IDC

29 Oct 2014

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. October 29, 2014 – New smartphone releases and an increased emphasis on emerging markets drove global smartphone shipments above 300 million units for the second consecutive quarter. According to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 327.6 million units during the third quarter of 2014 (3Q14), resulting in 25.2% growth when compared to the 261.7 million units shipped in 3Q13 and 8.7% sequential growth above the 301.3 million units shipped in 2Q14.

"Despite rumors of a slowing market, smartphone shipments continue to see record-setting volumes," said Ryan Reith, Program Director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. "We've finally reached a point where most developed markets are experiencing single-digit growth while emerging markets are still growing at more than 30% collectively. In these markets, smartphone price points are making mobile computing possible where we once expected feature phones to remain dominant. This is great news for overall volumes, but the challenge has now become how to make money on devices that are quickly becoming commodity products. Outside of Apple, many are struggling to do this."

A driving force behind the record smartphone volume was the combined effort of the vendors trailing market leaders Samsung and Apple. "The next three vendors – Xiaomi, Lenovo, and LG Electronics – all posted market-beating growth and with markedly different strategies," said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team. "This shows that there is still room to compete in this market, whether it be in the low end as Lenovo has done, at the high end where Xiaomi competes, or in both as LG Electronics has shown. Beyond the top five, there are a number of other vendors achieving similar results."....................................................................

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25224914
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Global semiconductor revenues to reach over US$400 billion in 2017, says GSA

Josephine Lien, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 29 October 2014]

The global semiconductor industry was responsible for generating US$290 billion in annual revenues in 2012 with expectations that this number will exceed US$400 billion in 2017, according to the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA).

The semiconductor industry currently also makes a direct contribution to global GDP of US$202 billion while sustaining 1.3 million high-value jobs, and these numbers are expected to continue their rapid growth into the years ahead, the GSA said in a report entitled "Enabling the Hyper-connected Age: The role of semiconductors" consigned to Oxford Economics.

The GSA has chosen Taiwan to be the first leg to release the research report given that the production value of Taiwan's semiconductor industry currently ranks as the second-largest globally and with strong earnings.

The release of the research paper aims to let governments involved better understand the semiconductor industry and therefore will help the industry create a more healthy ecosystem, said Nicky Lu, chairman of Taiwan-based Etron Technology and concurrently chairman of GSA Asia-Pacific Leadership Council.

The number of employees hired by the semiconductor industry in the US currently total about 240,000, and the numbers are higher than 100,000 in Japan, Korea and Europe each, and about 180,000 in Taiwan and 220,000 in China, GSA said.

The semiconductor industry needs to constantly invest in R&D, and depends in turn on the education system to develop future scientists and engineers, said GSA.

To help ensure the industry's future as a driver of competitiveness and prosperity, governments must ensure vigorous funding and scholarships for students in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math), and programs to expand and diversify the talent pipeline, GSA urged.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20141029PD206.html
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TSMC to trail Samsung by 14pp in FinFET in 2015, says Barclays

Josephine Lien, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Thursday 30 October 2014]

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will have a 39% share in the FinFET process segment in 2015 compared to Samsung Electronics' 53%, according to an estimate of Barclays Capital Securities Taiwan.

TSMC will move into the FinFET segment with its 16nm process, while Samsung will take the lead by entering 14nm node.

However, TSMC's share in the sector is expected to soar to 61% in 2016, whereas Samsung and Globalfoundries combined are expected to account for 39%, Barclays noted. Clients for TSMC's 16nm process will include Xilinx, MediaTek and Qualcomm.

The projection endorsed a recently comment made by TSMC chairman Morris Chang, who said TSMC will recapture its market leadership in the FinFET segment in 2016 after losing out to Samsung slightly in 2015.

(vested)

[Boon]

Global Semiconductor Industry Posts Highest-Ever Quarterly Sales

Sales in September increase by 8 percent over last year and 1.9 percent compared to the previous month

Published Monday, November 3, 2014 4:30 pm

by Dan Rosso

WASHINGTON—Nov. 3, 2014—The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and design, today announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $87 billion during the third quarter of 2014, an increase of 5.7 percent over the previous quarter and a jump of 8 percent compared to the third quarter of 2013. Third quarter sales outperformed the latest World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) industry forecast. Global sales for the month of September 2014 reached $29 billion, 8 percent higher than the September 2013 total of $26.9 billion and 1.9 percent more than last month’s total of $28.5 billion. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by WSTS and represent a three-month moving average.

“Through the third quarter of 2014, global semiconductor sales remain strong and well ahead of last year’s pace,” said Brian Toohey, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “The industry has now posted seven consecutive months of sequential monthly growth, and year-to-year growth has been strong across nearly all semiconductor product categories, with DRAM and Analog leading the way.”

Regionally, sales were up compared to last month in the Americas (2.8 percent) and Asia Pacific (2.5 percent), but down slightly in Europe (-0.1 percent) and Japan (-1.3 percent). Compared to September 2013, sales increased in Asia Pacific (12 percent), Europe (7.9 percent) and the Americas (3.7 percent), but decreased in Japan (-3.7 percent). All four regional markets have posted better year-to-date sales through September than they did through the same point last year.

http://www.semiconductors.org/news/2014/...rly_sales/

http://www.semiconductors.org/clientuplo...elease.pdf

(vested)

[Boon]

STAMFORD, Conn., November 3, 2014 View All Press Releases

Gartner Says the Processing, Sensing and Communications Semiconductor Device Portion of the IoT Is Set for Rapid Growth

Automotive, LED Lighting and Home Consumer Segments to Drive a Huge Portion of Overall Semiconductor Growth Through 2020

The processing, sensing and communications semiconductor device portion of the Internet of Things (IoT) will be a rapidly growing segment of the total semiconductor market, growing 36.2 percent in 2015, compared with the overall semiconductor market growth of 5.7 percent, according to Gartner, Inc. Processing will be the largest revenue contributor to the IoT "things" semiconductor device forecast, at $7.58 billion in 2015, while sensors will see the strongest growth, with 47.5 percent growth in 2015.

The processing semiconductor device segment consists of microcontrollers and embedded processors, while the sensing semiconductor segment includes optical and nonoptical sensors.

"The demand for billions of things will ripple throughout the entire value chain, from software and services to semiconductor devices," said Alfonso Velosa, research director at Gartner. "These 'things' will drive huge demand for individual chips. IoT semiconductor growth will come from industries spanning consumer, industrial, medical, automotive and others.” (see Figure 1).........................

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2895917

(vested)

[Boon]

Nine of the Top 20 Semiconductor Suppliers are Forecast to Register Double-Digit Growth in 2014!

TSMC, MediaTek, and SK Hynix’s sales are each expected to jump by >20% this year.

NOVEMBER 6, 2014 By IC Insights

Later this month, IC Insights’ November Update to The 2014 McClean Report will show a forecast ranking of the 2014 top 25 semiconductor suppliers with the companies’ sales broken down on a quarterly basis. A preview of the forecast for the top 20 companies’ total 2014 sales results is presented in Figure 1. The top 20 worldwide semiconductor (IC and O-S-D— optoelectronic, sensor, and discrete) sales ranking for 2014 includes eight suppliers headquartered in the U.S., three in Japan, three in Europe, three in Taiwan, two in South Korea, and one in Singapore, a relatively broad representation of geographic regions.

This year’s top-20 ranking includes two pure-play foundries (TSMC and UMC) and six fabless companies. Pure-play IC foundry GlobalFoundries is forecast to be replaced in this year’s top 20 ranking by fabless IC supplier Nvidia. It is interesting to note that the top four semiconductor suppliers all have different business models. Intel is essentially a pure-play IDM, Samsung a vertically integrated IC supplier, TSMC a pure-play foundry, and Qualcomm a fabless company.......................................................

http://www.icinsights.com/data/articles/...ts/731.pdf

(vested)

[Boon]

Barcelona, Spain, November 11, 2014 View All Press Releases

Gartner Says 4.9 Billion Connected "Things" Will Be in Use in 2015

In 2020, 25 Billion Connected "Things" Will Be in Use

Analysts to Explore the Disruptive Impact of IoT on Business at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2014, November 9-13 in Barcelona, Spain

Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 4.9 billion connected things will be in use in 2015, up 30 percent from 2014, and will reach 25 billion by 2020. The Internet of Things (IoT)* has become a powerful force for business transformation, and its disruptive impact will be felt across all industries and all areas of society.

“The digital shift instigated by the Nexus of Forces (cloud, mobile, social and information), and boosted by IoT, threatens many existing businesses. They have no choice but to pursue IoT, like they’ve done with the consumerization of IT,” said Jim Tully, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

This sudden expansion will boost the economic impact of the IoT as consumers, businesses, city authorities, hospitals and many other entities find new ways in which to exploit the technology. Gartner estimates that IoT will support total services spending of $69.5 billion in 2015 and $263 billion by 2020.

Consumer applications will drive the number of connected things, while enterprise will account for most of the revenue. Gartner estimates that 2.9 billion connected things will be in use in the consumer sector in 2015 and will reach over 13 billion in 2020 (see Table 1). The automotive sector will show the highest growth rate at 96 percent in 2015.................................................

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2905717

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TSMC sales top NT$80 billion in October

Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Monday 10 November 2014]

Monthly sales at contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) exceeded NT$80 billion (US$2.62 billion) for the first time in October 2014.

TSMC has reported consolidated revenues of NT$80.74 billion for October 2014, up 55.9% on year and hitting a monthly record. The foundry's cumulative 2014 sales came to NT$621.02 billion, rising 23.5% from a year earlier.

TSMC guided previously that consolidated sales for the current fourth quarter would reach NT$217-220 billion, representing growth of 4-5% sequentially. Revenues generated from 20nm products are set to account for more than 20% of TSMC's overall sales in the fourth quarter compared to 10% in the third, the company noted..............

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20141110VL201.html

(vested)

[Boon]

3Q2014 Results:

Revenue (SGD million）:
1Q2013 = 27.845
2Q2013 = 32.821
3Q2013 = 25.357 (9M2013 = 86.041)
4Q2013 = 34.445
1Q2014 = 34.309
2Q2014 = 28.689
3Q2014 = 24.771 (9M2014 = 87.769)

NPAT (SGD million):
1Q2013 = 5.256
2Q2013 = 7.837
3Q2013 = 4.809 (9M2013 = 17.902)
4Q2013 = 10.978
1Q2014 = 8.558
2Q2014 = 7.229
3Q2014 = 6,465 (9M2014 = 21.252)

Gross Profit Margin :
1Q2013 = 49%
2Q2013 = 50%
3Q2013 = 53%
4Q2013 = 63%
1Q2013 = 53%
2Q2014 = 57%
3Q2014 = 54%

Net Profit Margin :
1Q2013 = 19%
2Q2013 = 24%
3Q2013 = 19%
4Q2013 = 32%
1Q2014 = 24.9%
2Q2014 = 25.2%
3Q2014 = 22.1%

FCF Generated (SGD million):
1Q2013 = 6.4
2Q2013 = 7.3
3Q2013 = 6.3 (9M 2013 = 20.0)
4Q2013 = 5.8
1Q2014 = 10.3
2Q2014 = 3.9
3Q2014 = 5.7 (9M 2014 = 19.9)

Cash & Cash Equivalent (SGD million)
1Q2013 = 28.448 (debt = 2.035)
2Q2013 = 27.406
3Q2013 = 30.134
4Q2013 = 29.236
1Q2014 = 39.511
2Q2014 = 36.113 (debt = 5.000) ; Net Cash = 31.113
3Q2014 = 32.947

Comments:
1) Mediocre quarterly results.
2) 3Q is a period of low orders.
2) Quarterly Gross and Net Margin still remain relatively healthy.
3) FCF generated in 3Q2014 improved compared to 2Q2014.
4) Net cash of 32.947 (equivalent to SGD 7.6 cents per share)
5) Has spent 5.457 million on PPE in 9M2014.
6) “Typically, the Group’s customer demand in the last quarter of the year is higher than the cyclical low experienced in the third quarter. The improvement that the Group is witnessing now appears to be a little subdued as some end users of our customer has pushed back their deliveries. As such, the Group expects the performance in 4Q2014 to be relatively flat sequentially.
7) Paying quarterly DPS of 1 cent.
8) FY 2014 DPS of 5 cents should not be a problem IMO. To better that of FY2013, adjusted for bonus issue, it would have to pay 5.2 cent which is still possible.

(vested)

[CityFarmer]

The company 3Q result is announced today. The dividend remains the same for Q3, and the Q3 isn't as bad as expected...

(vested)

----------
UMS’ NET PROFIT AFTER TAX INCREASES 19%
TO S$21.3 MILLION IN 9M2014 AND CONTINUES
INTERIM DIVIDEND OF S$0.01 PER SHARE
Highlights
• Revenue increased 2% to S$87.8 million in 9M2014 from S$86.0 million a
year ago
• UMS continues to demonstrate strong cash generation ability for the period
under review. The Group posted a healthy net cash level of S$32.9 million
and declared an interim dividend of S$0.01 per share

http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/UMS%20_S...eID=324410

[Boon]

AMAT has just reported results for its fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 ended Oct 26, 2014.

Performance of SSG is consistent with that of UMS - mediocre results.

SSG : Revenue (USD million):
1Q2013 = 969
2Q2013 = 1,291
3Q2013 = 1,272
4Q2013 = 1,243
1Q2014 = 1,484
2Q2014 = 1,584
3Q2014 = 1,476
4Q2014 = 1,434

SSG : New Orders (USD million)
1Q2013 = 1,363
2Q2013 = 1,551
3Q2013 = 1,203
4Q2013 = 1,390
1Q2014 = 1,569
2Q2014 = 1,664
3Q2014 = 1,565
4Q2014 = 1,334

SSG : Backlog (USD million):
1Q2013 = 1,071
2Q2013 = 1,265
3Q2013 = 1,173
4Q2013 = 1,320
1Q2014 = 1,366
2Q2014 = 1,452
3Q2014 = 1,515
4Q2014 = 1,401

(vested)

[valuebuddies]

3Q2014 Results:

Revenue (SGD million）:
3Q2013 = 25.357 (9M2013 = 86.041)
3Q2014 = 24.771 (9M2014 = 87.769)

NPAT (SGD million):
3Q2013 = 4.809 (9M2013 = 17.902)
3Q2014 = 6,465 (9M2014 = 21.252)

Gross Profit Margin :
3Q2013 = 53%
3Q2014 = 54%

Net Profit Margin :
3Q2013 = 19%
3Q2014 = 22.1%

FCF Generated (SGD million):
3Q2013 = 6.3 (9M 2013 = 20.0)
3Q2014 = 5.7 (9M 2014 = 19.9)

Cash & Cash Equivalent (SGD million)
3Q2013 = 30.134
3Q2014 = 32.947

(vested)

I would think that the results is in fact quite good if we compare against Q3 last year. What come to my surprise is that the net profit is indeed significantly higher.