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To: Cymeed who wrote (1425)2/6/1998 1:50:00 PM
From: David Aegis  Respond to of 2946
 
SVGI presented at the Wall Street Forum conference in NYC on 2/5. Replay on the internet at:

wallstreetforum.com

You need to register first and have a RealAudio plug in (a download button for RealAudio is available on the Wall Street Forum site).

From my notes of comments made by Russ Weinstock, CFO:

Lithography is projected to have higher growth rates than the overall industry, paced by a dramatic shift to DUV.

Korea and Japan are continue to invest in technology, but have cut back on bricks and mortar.

The 200APS (Track) system is close to [finally] being shipped. Weinstock thought the 200APS would be a "big winner".

Thermco is shipping an RVP300 to a major European manufacturer [my sources say this is Seimens/Motorola, with the next RVP300 scheduled to ship to Samsung].

The aspheric lens technology aquired through Tinsley Labs is "the wave of the future for DUV and EUV". Weinstock characterized lens technology as a key competitive advantage, downplaying the competitive threat from Canon and ASML on this basis. Nikon was characterized as the closest and most capable competitor due to Nikon's capabilities with optics.

Weinstock reiterated SVG Lithography's ability to grow sales to $1 billion per year. Adding the potential in Track and Thermco, he said SVGI could do $2 billion in sales in the upcoming cycle. He said visibility was unclear, and gave a time frame of '00-01 to get to this run rate.

On the downside, Weinstock indicated that the cycle times on the Micrascans were not coming down as fast as he would like.

Generally, it was a positive presentation. From what I think I know about SVG's prospects, Weinstock was holding back and trying to be conservative. My impression of SVG is that there is still concern by the market that the potential for the Micrascans will be realized. This concern is now two-fold. Will SVGL be able to get the cycle times down before its competitors close the technology gap, and will the backlog expand to absorb even the currently constricted production capacity given the conservative cap ex plans of many semicond. manufacturers? Time will tell.

--David