I looked back at the 1996 10K report for FSII to try and quantify the amount of international business conducted. The following is a quote:
"International sales, primarily in Europe and Asia accounted for
approximately 35%, 33% and 26% of total sales for fiscal years 1996, 1995 and 1994 respectively."
Another quote is:
"A portion of the Company's international sales have been to semiconductor device manufacturers located in Korea. The Korean market is extremely competitive and the semiconductor device manufacturers located there have been very aggressive in seeking price concessions from suppliers. FSI does not believe that there are any existing government trade restrictions that would materially limit FSI's ability to compete in the Japanese or Korean markets."
And finally another quote:
"The significant majority of the Company's international sales are made to its affiliated distributors for resale to end users of the Company's products. However, in some cases, the Company may also sell directly to an international customer, in which case the Company will pay a commission to one of its affiliated distributors in connection with the sale."
Based on the above, along with other information presented in the Form 10K, I get the impression that their primary business market in Asia is Korea and Japan - not so much with Singapore, Taiwan, etc. Also they do a fair share of business in Europe. With roughly 1/3 of their business in the international market, and a fair share of business in Europe, maybe it is fair to say that approximately 1/6 of their business is in Asia with most of that in Japan and Korea.
While a sharp drop-off of the Asia market is important, I can't believe it is a disaster.
Does anyone else have any comments on the analysis or would like to put a different spin on the recent financial events in Asia? I am trying to understand how severe an impact this will be to FSII.
Don W. |
