ALMERE, The Netherlands - July 25, 2012 - ASM International N.V. (NASDAQ: ASMI and Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) reports today its second quarter (unaudited) operating results in accordance with US GAAP.
Highlights
Net sales for the second quarter 2012 were EUR 378 million, an increase of 21% quarter-to-quarter and a decrease of 20% year-on-year. Net sales of our Front-end segment decreased 9% quarter-to-quarter while Back-end sales increased by 35%.

Result from operations for Q2 2012 was EUR 39 million. Result from operations in Q1 2012 was EUR 22 million while the second quarter of 2011 showed a profit of EUR 104 million.

The Front-end segment's operating loss was EUR 1.9 million compared to profit of EUR 2.9 million quarter-to-quarter. Q2 2011 showed an operating profit of EUR 20.8 million;
The Back-end segment operating profit was EUR 40.5 compared to EUR 19.0 million quarter-to-quarter. Q2 2011 showed an operating profit of EUR 83.2 million.

Second quarter 2012 net earnings were EUR 18 million compared to net earnings of EUR 6 million for the first quarter of 2012 and EUR 50 million for the second quarter of 2011, both Front-end (EUR 1 million) and Back-end (EUR 17 million) showed positive net earnings.

Book to bill in the second quarter was 1.1. For the Front-end the book to bill was 1.0 and for the Back-end segment 1.1. The Backlog increased from Euro 373 million at the end of the first quarter 2012 to EUR 439 million at the end of the second quarter 2012.

Comment
Commenting on the results, Chuck del Prado, President and Chief Executive Officer of ASM International, said: "Sales in Q2 are showing a growth as compared to Q1, this is driven by the Back-end operations. The sales decrease in the Front-end operations is in line with our previous guidance. Bookings improved both in the Front-end and Back-end. While total results in Q2 showed an improvement as compared to Q1, Front-end efficiency issues were still strongly impacting the results. We expect that improvements will become visible in the second half of the year."

Outlook
For the current quarter we expect a sales increase in our Front-end operations. For our Back-end operations, based upon the actual backlog, a sound quarter is expected.