PUR.L Regulatory News (PUR)

15 Nov 2005 07:02

Pure Wafer PLC15 November 2005 15 NOVEMBER 2005 PURE WAFER PLC ("Pure Wafer" or "the company") AGM STATEMENT At today's Annual General Meeting, Giles Clarke, Chairman of Pure Wafer, willmake the following statement: "Since announcing our full year results in September, I am pleased to reportthat trading has continued to be highly satisfactory. "Utilisation of existing capacity is running at very high levels. As previouslyindicated, and in line with our planned programme of capital investment, newequipment will be installed at our wafer reclaim facility during December andwill be fully operational by January 2006, which will thus significantlyincrease capacity. "Market conditions remain favourable, with the continued progression towards useof 300mm wafers by semiconductor manufacturers underpinning demand for reclaimservices. These factors, together with the steady increase in the company'scapacity, give us confidence in our ability to continue our pattern of growthand to achieve a favourable outcome for the current financial year. "We look forward to providing a further update when we report our interimresults, which are expected to be announced in the early part of 2006." ENQUIRIES Pure Wafer plc (www.purewafer.com) Tel. +44 (0) 1792 311 200Keith Baker, Chief ExecutiveJames Dearing, Group Finance Director ICIS Tel. +44 (0) 20 7651 8688Archie Berens NOTES FOR EDITORS About Wafer Reclaim During the many stages of the manufacturing process of semiconductors, largequantities of test wafers are used to check the accurate calibration ofequipment. Once used, these test wafers have no further use, unless they can bereclaimed. Reclaiming them for re-use thus represents a substantial cost savingfor semiconductor manufacturers. The semiconductor industry is currently seeing a rapid transition to 300mmwafers. In order for manufacturers to continue to increase functionality at areduced cost, the industry has sought to increase the size of wafers on whichsemiconductors are manufactured. 300mm wafer processing now represents thefastest growing area of the semiconductor industry. However, wafer reclaim is a highly specialised and technically sophisticatedprocess. Only a few companies worldwide are able to meet the exacting standardsrequired by semiconductor manufacturers for the reclaim of 300mm wafers, ofwhich Pure Wafer is one. About Pure Wafer Pure Wafer is an industry leading provider of silicon wafer reclaim services.Pure Wafer cleans and polishes silicon wafers sent for reclaim by many of theworld's largest semiconductor manufacturers. Pure Wafer operates a state of theart foundry that has received over £40m of investment to meet the stringentstandards of purity and flatness required by its customers. Pure Wafer is listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London StockExchange. Headquartered in the UK, it operates on a global basis through aninternational sales force throughout Europe, United States and South East Asia. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange