QES Group to ride on rising demand for semiconductors

KUALA LUMPUR: Global demand for semiconductors is expected to provide a strong boost for QES Group Bhd as major multinational companies increase their investments in automated handling equipment.

QES managing director and president Chew Ne Weng said he expected the company’s automatic vision inspection and automated handling equipment manufacturing business to ride on this growth.

“We believe the semiconductor industry is still riding on the upcycle. Hence, we do not foresee any letdown in global semiconductor sales in the immediate term,” he said after the listing of the company on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia.

At the close, QES share price ended the day at 22 sen, up three sen from its offer price of 19 sen. It was actively traded with 123 million shares done. It had opened at 24.5 sen.

QES’s core business is the distribution of inspection, test and measurement equipment, materials and engineering solutions.

QES also manufactures optical inspection equipment, automated handling equipment and advanced wafer measurement system.

Chew said QES intends to develop three key products.

They are the fully automated vision inspection system; automatic wafer packing system and automatic wafer ID.

On the cards are to expand its recurring income segment by implementing a customer relationship management software as well as diversifying its market segments and products.

“We plan to purchase demonstration equipment under our distribution division to enhance support to our customers throughout our subsidiaries in the Asean region,” he added.

QES plans to penetrate the higher education, petrochemical and pharmaceutical market segments.

Under the listing exercise, QES raised RM28.82mil from its public issue of 151.66 million new shares at 19 sen per share.

Its public offer of 37.92 million new shares to the public under its proposed listing on the Ace Market was oversubscribed by more than 19 times.