QualiTau receives large order from Asian semiconductor co

chips  photo: Shutterstock
chips photo: Shutterstock

Meanwhile, shareholders are at odds over the company's future.

Technology company Qualitau (TASE: QLTU) gave investors another reason yesterday to keep last year's boom in its share price going. The company reported receiving an order of just over $1 million, but it was enough to push QualiTau's share price up sharply.

QualiTau did not provide many details about the order, which it described as a "multi-system order, but noted that it had been made by a "leading semiconductor manufacturer in Asia," and would be filled in the second half of 2018. The order is equal to 5% of QualiTau's $23 million in revenue in 2017.

QualiTau's share price has risen by about 200% in a year, pushing its market cap up to NIS 95 million. A large part of this gain took place in late March, when the share price soared 70% in just two days, reaching a new record and pushing the company's market cap over NIS 100 million for the first time. This surge followed good financial statements published by the company, with over 40% growth in revenue and profit quintupling to $4 million.

CEO opposes sale

The positive sentiment towards the share, however, has apparently resulted mainly from reports of an internal struggle for control of the company, led by Guy Equity, a fund controlled Oded Gal and Danny Saar (both formerly of investment house IBI). Gal and Saar want to take advantage of the upturn in QualiTau's business and the potential future value they see in the company to sell it.

As a first step in this direction, in late 2016, the fund, which is believed to own only a small stake in QualiTau, managed to change the company's board of directors. Against them stands QualiTau founder, chairperson, and CEO Dr. Gadi Krieger, who opposes a sale.

Meanwhile, whether Gal and Saar's plans are realized or thwarted by Krieger, QualiTau's current shareholders are benefitting from a rise in the value of their holdings.

Other than Krieger, who holds 12% of QualiTau, the largest shareholders in the company are Yelin Lapidot with 17%, the Alpha Value 1 fund, headed by Gabi Dishi and Michael Weiss, with 10%, and the Forest investment fund with 6%. The public's holdings in QualiTau's shares amount to 55%.

QualiTau develops, manufactures, and markets testing equipment for the semiconductor industry, and provides turnkey solutions for "testing and specification of certain physical phenomena that detract from the reliability of an integrated circuit's performance" according to the company's description. In QualiTau's reports, its management states that its technological know-how, range of products, and the services it can offer are superior to those of its competitors, in addition to better distribution, marketing and specification of the applications included in its products.

QualiTau has 26 registered patents in the US. It develops the hardware, operating and analysis software, and various accessories and integrates the various elements in its system through its subsidiaries in the US, Japan, and Germany. Its customers are private and public companies that either produce or design semiconductors. QualiTau has 55 employees.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 23, 2018

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018

chips  photo: Shutterstock
chips photo: Shutterstock
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