FEI announced that it has purchased certain assets of AP Tech of Suwon, South Korea for $12 million. AP Tech has over 40 employees primarily engaged in sales and service and has been FEI’s agent in Korea for over 10 years. AP Tech has helped to make Korea one of FEI’s major geographic markets, with over $60 million in product revenue in 2011. In addition, AP Tech had incremental service and spare parts revenue related to FEI products in 2011. FEI expects the acquisition to be slightly accretive to earnings per share in the second half of 2012.
"This transition from an agent sales and service model to a direct presence in Korea is a natural evolution that fits both FEI’s strategic objectives as well as the plans of AP Tech management," noted Benjamin Loh, executive vice president, global business operations of FEI. "Our success in Korea has been an important part of our growth in Asia in recent years. We look forward to developing even closer relationships with our important Korean customers."
"We have been proud of our successful association with FEI for many years," commented H.Y. Lee, president of AP Tech. "I and my team look forward to building the business further and even closer integration with the company’s worldwide operations."
Safe Harbor Statement
This news release contains forward-looking statements that include statements regarding the potential benefits and expectations and the impact on earnings per share of the acquisition by FEI of certain assets of AP Tech. Factors that could affect these forward-looking statements include but are not limited to: the ability of FEI to successfully integrate AP Tech’s operations; unplanned negative responses from Korean customers to the transition; unexpected employee turnover in AP Tech employees and unexpected additional expenses in the acquired sales and service business. Please also refer to our Form 10-K, Forms 10-Q, Forms 8-K and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for additional information on these factors and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. FEI assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements.