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ASMI 15.09 +2.09
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Tuesday July 30, 11:38 am Eastern Time
Dow Jones Business News
Dutch ASMI/Sales-2: Gave Vague Growth Forecast Monday
AMSTERDAM -(Dow Jones)- Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASM International NV Tuesday wouldn't say when it might break even or how steep its anticipated revenue growth in coming quarters will be.
The company also said it may need additional financing. However, officials wouldn't say how much, when and whether the funding will come from existing credit lines or via the issuance of shares.
In a telephone conference call with investors, ASM Chief Financial Officer Robert de Bakker declined to elaborate on the company's statement Monday that its revenue and bottom line would improve in the second half of 2002 and continue improving in 2003.
The company Monday said it swung to a EUR6.4 million net loss in the second quarter from a profit of EUR9.3 million a year earlier. Revenue tumbled to EUR140.9 million from EUR153.1 million. That loss was expected.
ASMI also didn't say Monday whether the anticipated improvements would be over year-earlier levels. In 2001, the company had EUR6.1 million of net profit on $ 561.1 million of sales, but the company suffered a net loss of EUR9 million in the fourth quarter last year and has been losing money since.
De Bakker said the company doesn't intend to give a specific indication of trends in its bottom line for 2002 or 2003, and said he won't comment on how steep he expects its revenue growth to be in coming quarters.
In the telephone conference call, ASMI Chairman Arthur del Prado forecast " reasonable growth" in orders in 2003 in most of the company's product lines.
He said orders in the company's front-end products may outstrip growth of those in the back end in percentage terms.
The general order trend in the next two quarters is for improved rates over first two quarters, and this improvement will continue over early quarters in 2003. Again, the company didn't say whether that growth will be quarter to quarter or year on year.
Del Prado said the company hasn't felt the recent slowing of capital spending by the semiconductor industry, since cutbacks in general haven't impacted producers of leading-edge technologies, like ASM.
However, company officials on the conference call weren't specific about order trends in the remainder of the year.
-By A.H. Mooradian, Dow Jones Newswires; 31 20 626 0770; art.mooradian@
dowjones.com
