AT&S publishes annual financial report for 2012/13 and pursues its entry into the IC substrates market

AT & S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik Aktiengesellschaft (AT&S) has presented its annual financial report for the financial year 2012/13 and pursues its entry into the IC substrates market.

AT&S finished the financial year 2012/2013 with sales of around EUR 542m – about 5% higher than in the previous financial year. The audited annual financial statements and the 2012/13 annual report can be downloaded from the Investor Relations section of the group website (http://www.ats.net/investors/downloadcentre/).

During the reporting period just ended AT&S announced its intention to enter the integrated circuit (IC) substrates market. In the present and subsequent financial years there will be a strong focus on building up the requisite expertise for the production of IC substrates and to prepare for the entry into the market. In connection with the planned manufacture of IC substrates, AT&S entered into a Corporate Purchase Agreement and a Master Collaboration and Intellectual Property Agreement with Intel Corporation in January 2013. The production plant for IC substrates is currently under construction in Chongqing, China. As previously announced, this new line of business is expected to start generating revenue in 2016. Entry into the IC substrates market marks a decisive step in AT&S’s growth strategy in the high-tech interconnection solutions segment of the global electronics market.

At the same time as building up the IC substrates business, the AT&S group will focus on developing its core business by extending its technological leadership in the printed circuit boards market. AT&S pursues a strategy of diversification in all of its Business Units, allowing it to quickly identify those market segments that offer the strongest profit potential. For example, the trend towards increasingly high-end solutions in the automotive sector is reflected in the rising demand for HDI printed circuit boards. The AT&S group’s Advanced Packaging Business Unit is one of the first manufacturers worldwide to offer patented chip embedding technology (ECP®), giving AT&S a privileged platform to benefit from the increasing trend towards miniaturisation.