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Technology Stocks : ASML Holding NV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: niek who wrote (1161)	7/19/2006 12:22:51 PM
From: niek	Respond to of 42746

ASML benefits from immersion litho demand Christoph Hammerschmidt EETimes Germany 07/19/2006 MUNICH, Germany — Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML increased sales and profits in the second quarter. Reflecting the overall excellent market situation for semiconductor equipment, the company managed to grow sales by 23 percent year-over-year. Sequentially, sales grew 49.7 percent to €942 million (about $1.2 billion) while operating profit boosted 109 percent to €114 million (about $140 million). Net earnings climbed equally strong, more than doubling from €80 million (about $100 million) in Q1 to €167 million (about $209 million) in Q2. Net bookings were valued at €1.08 billion (about $1.35 billion) with 93 systems including 78 new and 15 refurbished systems. This was a significant increase from 62 systems ordered in Q1. Of those, 15 were refurbished and 47 were new, indicating a trend towards ordering more new machines. Average selling price for new systems climbed from €13.5 million (about $16.9 million) to €13.7 million (about $17.1 million). Order Backlog was 127 systems, equaling a value of €1.83 billion (about $2.3 billion). In April, order backlog was only 106 systems with a total value of €1.6 billion (about $2.0 billion). The company's gross margin was 40.4 percent in Q2, compared to 40.0 percent in Q1. R&D expenses climbed 5.7 percent to €92 million (about $115 million). For Q3, the company posts a very optimistic outlook. "ASML expects unit bookings to be higher than shipments", explained president and chief executive officer Eric Meurice in a statement. The company expects that the new 40-nanometer immersion product XT:1900i contributes significantly to sales, being sought especially by memory chip manufacturers. "Our robust QQ2 backlog and Q3 order expectations are supported by the need for additional semiconductor production capacity, consistent with industry analyst estimates of 2006 semiconductor growth of 10 percent in value and 15 percent in units overall, and capacity build-up for strong flash memory growth in 2007", Meurice said. Along with 20 to 25 immersion systems, the company expects to ship two Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) Alpha Tools in Q3.