Just like how Venture Corporation dominated this industry sector for the Billion Dollar Club, AEM Holdings similarly held sway in the Centurion Club. It is being ranked top for returns to shareholders and for weighted return on equity, and is overall sector winner. Valuetronics Holdings’ win in growth in profit after tax was the only obstacle to AEM’s clean sweep.
AEM’s strong showing can be attributed to its years of focused execution on behalf of its main customer, a top-tier semiconductor giant. The company, led by executive chairman Loke Wai San, is a leading player in the sprawling semiconductor support ecosystem, offering application-specific intelligent system test and handling solutions for its customers. These customers, in turn, serve advanced computing, 5G and AI markets. It operates out of five plants: one each in Singapore, Penang, Suzhou (China), Finland and France.
FY2019, which ended on Dec 31, was a record year for AEM. In the previous few years, the company made several significant strategic steps to build up its capabilities in advanced testing solutions. That placed AEM in an advantageous position to tap the growth of system-level testing from wafer level to package level, panels and interconnects.
SEE: AEM Holdings 1H20 earnings surge 149.9% to $55.3 mil
In FY2019, as its key customer introduced new products based on advanced semiconductor nodes, the sales momentum for AEM picked up in tandem. Revenue was up 23% y-o-y to $323.1 million, exceeding its guidance, which had been revised higher. Earnings were up 50% y-o-y to $52.8 million. Even with such robust numbers, the company has taken steps to build sustained growth. In March 2020, AEM completed the 100% acquisition of MuTEST, a French company with complementary capabilities to what AEM already had.
Vauetronics Holdings, which took top spot for the growth in profit after tax category, is an integrated electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, offering design, engineering and manufacturing services to multi-national customers and mid-sized companies in the automotive, telecommunications & networking, medical, industrial, commercial, en- ergy saving and consumer sectors.
It was started back in 1992 and while its headquarters is in Hong Kong, its plants are in China and Vietnam. During the evaluation period, its earnings grew at a CAGR of 18.3%. Its earnings amounted to HK$120.4 million for the year ended March 31, 2017, and HK$199.5 million ($34.6 million) for the year ended March 31, 2020.
See also: A market worth your time and participation
