Friday 29 Mar 2024
By
main news image

KUALA LUMPUR: ACE Market-bound Aemulus Corp Bhd, which is on the lookout for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to expedite the company’s growth, aims to up its revenue by more than 50% for the financial year ending Sept 30, 2015 (FY15), with the introduction of a new flagship product.

In an interview with The Edge Financial Daily, Ng Sang Beng (pic), the chief executive officer of the Penang-based automated test equipment (ATE) designer and manufacturer, said the Amoeba 4600, a tester for data centre semiconductor components, will be joining its two other flagships, the Amoeba 4200 and Amoeba 7600, this year.

“We strongly believe these three flagship products will continue to expand [the company’s business] in the coming years. We expect the three products to contribute at least one-third of our revenue this year,” he said.

The three products are for the company’s data centre testing segment, under which it designs and supplies testers for data centre semiconductor components. Ng described the segment as a “truly new” venture for the company.

Aemulus is involved in the design, engineering and development of ATE. Most of its customers are large multinational semiconductor manufacturers and semiconductor test and assembly companies.

In FY14, Aemulus’s net profit went up eightfold to RM8.03 million on-year from RM1 million, as its revenue more than doubled to RM23.31 million compared with RM10 million previously.

Ng attributed the big improvement in the company’s performance to the maturing of its flagship products, the Amoeba 4200 and 7600, as Aemulus started investing more in the research and development (R&D) of its products in 2012 and 2013.

“In 2011, we hit a peak. We had record revenue of about RM13 million. [But] at the end of that year, we realised that the products we had before were not going to get us to the next level,” Ng said. That was when the company ramped up its R&D and came up with Amoeba 4300 and Amoeba 7600, which it used to penetrate the data centre testing segment.

“By the end of 2013, the two products were fully matured and we went all out in selling them. In 2014, as you can see, these two products brought us the [over] 100% jump in revenue,” he said.

Currently, exports make up about 65% of the company’s bottom line. Its main markets include China, the United States, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and South Korea.

The company intends to make further inroads into China and the US, its two largest export markets. It is also looking to explore the Taiwanese and Japanese markets.

“In terms of marketing, Taiwan is the next market we are going after. Slowly, maybe in the next nine months, we will start to look at the Japanese market as well,” he said.

As for M&A, Ng said the company had identified a few acquisition targets, such as other ATE businesses, but that nothing is concrete yet.

“Organic growth will be strong, but we want to grow a lot faster. A quantum leap is what we are looking at and the easiest way to do this is through M&As, locally and internationally,” he said.

“The ATE segment encompasses not just testers. It also includes test handler companies and wafer probers, among others. These are all the aspects of things that we will get into sooner or later,” he said.

Overall, Ng hopes the company’s upcoming ACE Market initial public offering (IPO) will expedite its expansion plans, not only because of the funding to be raised from the listing exercise — which it intends to use for R&D and working capital — but also in terms of improving the visibility of the company.

According to its draft prospectus, Aemulus’ IPO involves the public issue of 87.79 million new shares, of which 21.94 million shares are for the Malaysian public, 13.17 million for eligible directors, employees and business associates, and the remainder 52.68 million for private placement.

There will also be an offer for sale of 43.89 million shares via public placement.

Ng added that Aemulus is eyeing to be listed on the Main Market in 2016, depending on whether the company meets its targets.

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 5, 2015.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share