Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

CHICAGO, Nov. 17 -- EMS merger and acquisition activity rose in the third quarter, according to an investment bank that tracks the sector.

There were 14 M&A deals finalized in Q3, reports Lincoln Partners, a Chicago-based investment bank. This exceeds the 13 deals completed in the June quarter and 12 in the March quarter.

It was the most third-quarter transactions since 2000, when 28 deals were completed, Lincoln Partners said. There were 10 deals done in Q3 2003.

Companies of over $3 billion in annual revenues accounted for half the completed transactions. The other half were conducted by firms with revenues under $400 million, Lincoln Partners said.

Among the major deals:

Flextronics agreed to buy Nortel's manufacturing operations.
Creation Technologies acquired EMS firm Second Source System.
SigmaTron bought the remaining 57.5% of SMT Unlimited.
Celestica sold its Power Syetems business.
Neways Electronics acquired Stork Electronics.
Flextronics purchased Sheldahl, a maker of flex laminate and PCBs.

MILWAUKEE, Nov. 17 -- Perhaps the best-known analyst and proponent of the EMS sector on Wall Street is calling it quits. After 16 years of recommending stocks of contract assemblers, J. Keith Dunne is retiring at year-end to spend more time with his wife and young sons.

For the past three years Dunne has been a sell-side analyst with RBC Capital, an investment banking firm. He came to fame as a managing director of Robertson Stephens in the 1990s, a firm that fueled scores of high-tech companies and handled dozens of mergers and acquisitions. Robertson Stephens later collapsed and was sold.

Often cited by Wall Street publications for his accuracy, Dunne was in 2001 voted an Atomic Giant by PC FAB magazine (now PCD&M) in recognition of his influence on the industry.

In a statement today, Dunne said thanked the industry. "I immensely enjoyed watching the electronics manufacturing products and services industry take shape and am thankful for the opportunity I had to participate in its growth and development through strategic talks with many of you, and by educating investors on the investment merits of the EMPS industry."

Dunne gave a promising forecast for the future. "I believe the EMPS industry should continue to outperform the overall Nasdaq and a group of leading technology hardware companies for several more years.

Since Dunne initiated coverage in mid 1996:

Quarterly sales have grown from $4 billion to $15.2 billion, a CAGR of 36%.
Over 400 OEM asset divestitures and business acquisitions have been completed.
Market capitalization has increased from $6.5 billion to $30.5 billion, a CAGR of 20% vs. 7% for the Nasdaq..

Amit Daryanani will take over Dunne's practice at RBC.

RADFELD, Austria, Nov. 17 - A pair of leading semiconductor gear makers, BE Semiconductor Industries and Datacon Technology, will merge in January, the firms jointly announced today.

Besi will assume 100% of Datacon's shares. Datacon shareholders will receive 90% cash and shares in Besi. The purchase price was 3 million euros and includes net financial liabilities.

Negotiations are in the final stages, the companies said, and the merger is scheduled to close in January, pending antitrust and other reviews. Besi is listed on Nasdaq and Euronext. After the close, Datacon will become an wholly owned subsidiary of Besi.

Datacon makes microchip assembly platforms (die bonders), while Besia manufactures semiconductor assembly equipment.

Huntington Beach, CA, Nov. 17 -- SolderMask Inc. will become the first North American licensee of DEK's VectorGuard stencils.

Under the agreement, SolderMask will manufacture VectorGuard stencils from foil blanks supplied by DEK and will also provide complementary frames.

CHANDLER, Ariz., Nov. 8 — Microchip Technology, a provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, will in January convert its product packaging to lead-free plating, to comply with pending government regulations.

The company has selected matte tin as its plating material. The finish makes the company's products compatible with tin-lead soldering processes and higher-temperature lead-free processes.

The company has been shipping parts with matte tin plating in volume for over a year, Microchip said.

A number of semiconductor suppliers have announced plans to convert their line cards by the end of the first quarter 2005. See the story in the December issue of Circuits Assembly, coming soon.

MOORPARK, CA, Nov. 17 -- CTS Corp., a manufacturer of components and provider of electronics manufacturing services, will acquire SMTEK International in a cash and stock deal worth about $107 million.

CTS will pay between $14.20 and $15 per share, 75% in cash and 25% in CTS common stock, for SMTEK. CTS will also assume about $15 million in outstanding debt of SMTEK. Shares of SMTEK closed yesterday at $2.41 and the company's 52-week high is $7.50.

The acquisition is subject to shareholder approval and is expected to close in the first quarter 2005.

Upon completion of the deal, SMTEK will merge with CTS' EMS business unit, Interconnect Systems. The combination is expected to significantly expand the operational footprint, customer base, and capabilities of both businesses in the EMS market. The companies had combined revenues of about $625 million over the past 12 months.

In a press statement SMTEK chairman James Burgess said, "This acquisition ... recognizes [SMTEK's] achievement in emerging as a successful, effectively managed business with a strong competitive presence in the EMS industry. We feel the result will be significant business and financial benefits for both companies."

Elkhart, IN based CTS had revenues of $521 million over the past 12 months. SMTEK had sales of $102.4 million and operating earnings of $4 million

The companies will hold a conference call today at 1:30 p.m. Eastern: 800-762-6067 (480-629-9566, if calling from outside the U.S.). No access code is needed.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 10 -- The Wall Street outlook for Sanmina-SCI is improving but the EMS firm has a long way to go before convincing analysts that it has turned the corner.

In a research report released today, Deutsche Bank said, "We have become more optimistic about Sanmina`s longer-term strategy, but believe the company must clear several near- and long-term hurdles before it warrants a premium valuation to its peers. Most importantly, we believe Sanmina`s short-term margin targets will prove aggressive."

Sanmina-SCI has set a goal of 10% revenue growth for fiscal 2005, a target DB calls "achievable." The investment bank "continues to question" Sanmina-SCI's margin forecasts, however, saying "management`s forecasts for its components business are particularly aggressive."

Sanmina-SCI cut its revenue estimates from original design manufacturing (ODM) services to $150 million to $200 million next year. Last year, the company forecast ODM sales would be $500 million by 2005.

HERNDON, VA, Nov. 12 — Makers of consumer electronics are planning full compliance to new environmental mandates from Europe by the third quarter of 2005, with some early adopters ready by this year. The supply chain is prepared to support this schedule, NEMI said today.

The trade group is basing its findings on a recent RoHS/lead-free summit at which scores of company's traded insights on the European Union's Restriction on Use of Certain Hazardous Substances and Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directives.

The meetings were held October 18-20 and drew close to 190 people.

One primary concern: how companies will be able to prove compliance -- to regulatory bodies and to their customers. The directives are not explicit on this point, and the EU's Technical Adaptation Committee, responsible for providing guidance on RoHS implementation, has not yet made recommendations, NEMI said in a press statement.

Among the attendees' recommendations:

Executive support is required for a successful company program.
Each firm should appoint a project manager and develop an implementation plan that includes in-house efforts as well as supply base.
Many major OEMs plan to convert to Pb-free solder and components during the first three quarters of 2005 for their consumer products (some are targeting the end of this year.)
Much of the supply chain is prepared to support this conversion schedule.
Many producers of high-end exempt products will convert to Pb-free components at the same time, and then convert to Pb-free solder at a later date.
All major OEMs are requiring new part numbers for Pb-free components (in order to clearly differentiate "leaded" parts from Pb-free).

Breakout groups then explored potential areas of industry collaboration. Among the ideas:

A 10-step "best practices" program that would help companies demonstrate due diligence to remove RoHS-banned substances from products.
An industry-wide depository of component material data.
Coordination between parallel efforts, and education on approaches/best practices.
Processing and reliability of Pb-free and mixed-metal technology for high-end electronics (which are exempt from some of the directives' requirements).

Presentations from the summit and reports from the breakout groups are available at www.nemi.org/newsroom/Presentations/RoHS_summit.html.

Minneapolis, MN - The SMTA's Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium & Exhibit (smta.org/pan_pac/) will take place Jan. 25-27, 2005, at the Sheraton Kauai Resort in Kauai, HI. Kei Biu, of SMT Corp, will give the keynote presentation on Green Electronics in China.

The technical program will consist of sessions on 3-D Chip Stacking, System in Package (SiP), RF & Sensor Technologies, High Performance Packaging and Assembly Management Strategies.

Additional sessions will cover Pb-Free Reliability, Solder and Rework Processes, Pb-free Microstructures and Performance, Pb-free Implementation, Package Solder Joint Reliability and Electronic Adhesives, Chip Attach and Materials Technologies, Cleaning and Surface Treatments, Packaging and Assembly Trends, and Inspection and Test.

The event averages more than 100 participants annually from 15 different countries throughout Europe, the Americas and the Pacific Basin.

For more information, contact JoAnn Stromberg: 952-920-7682; joann@smta.org.

Endicott, NY -- Endicott Interconnect Technology was recently issued a patent to improve package reliability, its second since the company's formation in 2002.

In late October, EI received their first U.S. Patent (6,809,269) "Circuitized Substrate Assembly and Method of Making Same" - a multilayer printed circuit that uses conductive paste to form electrical connections between layers of the structure.

This was followed by the U.S. patent issued this week (6,815,837), "Electronic Package with Strengthened Conductive Pad" - an approach to strengthening the design of printed circuits to improve their reliability when assembled with components.

Endicott engineers have filed over 38 U.S. patent applications to date.

Las Vegas, Nov. 12 -- The mood was cautious among the 40 companies that presented at Deutsche Bank's annual semiconductor conference in Las Vegas over the past two days.

Among a generally subdued mood, most companies view the current soft patch as only a mid-cycle correction resulting from an inventory hiccup. Positive anecdotes came from Xilinx, suggesting that its business in China has improved over the past month, and Micrel, whose POS from distribution in October was flat to up month-on-month. On the other hand, National Semiconductor and Atmel were cautious (Atmel has not seen a pickup in Q4 orders).

Avnet senior VP and CFO Ray Sadowski fielded several questions after his presentation, mostly on inventory. After seeing inventory increase 12% over the past two quarters (while sales fell 1%), the company plans to reduce inventory over the next several months. Sadowski seemed confident that fundamentals would improve by the March or June quarter.

According to DB, distribution industry fundamentals will likely deteriorate in the near-term. Slowing end-market demand, deteriorating commodity prices and more aggressive pricing among distributors will make it difficult for companies to demonstrate even modest margin expansion over the next six to 12 months.

San Jose, CA -- Electronics manufacturing in China experienced another year of record growth in 2003, exceeding even optimistic expectations, according to a new report from Electronic Trend Publications. While part of the growth is attributable to a bandwagon effort to keep pace with worldwide competitors who manufacture in China or have CM/ODM partners there, the major trend is for companies to lower product cost by leveraging the outsourcing model and gaining access to the enormous, undeveloped local Chinese market.

ETP estimates the cost of goods sold for electronics products manufactured in China was $122 billion in 2002. The market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 15.4%, reaching $270 billion by 2008. Some of the fastest growing companies over this period should include TCL, Aucma, AsusTek, Jinling, Quanta, Gree and UTStarcom, all of which saw their revenues double from the previous year.

Computing and communications IT equipment will continue to grow, accounting for nearly 68% of China's total electronics production by 2008. However, the market in all industries is expanding for both domestic consumption and export.

The unanswered question is: How long can this growth be sustained without a downturn? ETP suggests that Asian companies tend to compete themselves into an unhealthy market environment from a supply and profit point of view. Yet, as long as fundamental worldwide demand for products remains strong, China is expected to expand its market share of the worldwide assembly market.