ALMERE, The Netherlands - April 24, 2012 - ASM International N.V. (NASDAQ: ASMI and Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) reports today its first quarter (unaudited) operating results in accordance with US GAAP.
Highlights
Net sales for the first quarter 2012 were EUR 311 million, a decrease of 12% quarter-to-quarter and 28% year-on-year. Net sales of our Front-end segment decreased 17% quarter-to-quarter while Back-end sales decreased by 9%.

Result from operations for Q1 2012 was EUR 22 million. Result from operations in Q4 2011 was EUR 27 million (including special items EUR 19 million) while the first quarter of 2011 showed a profit of EUR 94 million.

The Front-end segment's operating profit was EUR 2.9 million compared to EUR 9.5 million quarter-to-quarter. Q1 2011 showed an operating profit of EUR 18.7 million;
The Back-end segment operating profit was EUR 19.0 compared to EUR 17.7 million (including special items EUR 9.5 million). The first quarter of 2011 showed an operating profit of EUR 75.0 million.

First quarter 2012 net earnings were EUR 6 million compared to net earnings of EUR 15 million for the fourth quarter of 2011 (EUR 30 million excluding special items) and EUR 40 million for the first quarter of 2011 (EUR 45 million excluding special items).

Book to bill in the first quarter was 1.2. For the Front-end the book to bill was 0.8 and for the Back-end segment 1.3. The Backlog increased from Euro 331 million at the end of the fourth quarter 2011 to EUR 373 million per March 31, 2012.

Comment
Commenting on the results, Chuck del Prado, President and Chief Executive Officer of ASM International, said: "While sales showed a decrease in Q1 as compared to the previous quarter, order intake for the company improved. For the first time since early 2011 we again recorded a book to bill ratio above 1. This is especially related to the Back-end operations where we saw, after Chinese New year, a strong increase in the activity level. The Q1-results, both in Front-end and Back-end reflect the lower sales level whereby our Front-end results were also impacted by efficiency issues. These efficiency issues are currently being addressed and expected to show clear improvements in the second half of the year".

Outlook
In the current quarter we expect our Front-end segment to show a single digit sales decrease and a strong order intake. In our Back-end segment we foresee, based upon the current backlog, a sales increase in the current quarter.