PUR.L Regulatory News (PUR)

PURE WAFER PLC

(AIM: PUR)

Trading Update

Strong trading momentum maintained

30 July 2013

Pure Wafer plc ('Pure Wafer' or the 'Company'), the provider of high quality silicon wafer reclaim services for many of the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers, is pleased to provide the following trading update in advance of the announcement of the Company's preliminary results for the year ended 30 June 2013.

Trading during the second half of the financial year has remained strong, building on the run rate achieved in the first half as reported in the interim results statement.

Pure Wafer has continued to see increased demand for its wafer reclaim services, mainly from the Asian markets and particularly from the foundry sector, but also from the stable US and European regions, and is currently running at record levels of production.

The semiconductor market continues to show positive signs of further growth for the remainder of 2013 and beyond, which gives confidence that current levels of business will be sustainable into the next financial year.

Our Markets

With industry analysts forecasting growth through to 2015 and beyond, based on the ever increasing demand for hand held devices from the world's emerging economies, many of our major customers have committed and commenced substantial new investment in 300mm silicon chip manufacturing facilities amounting to tens of billions of US dollars. Many of these are at or nearing completion and we believe this level of financial commitment demonstrates our customers' confidence in sustainable growth, giving rise to further substantial wafer reclaim opportunities for us in the near future and subsequent years.

Our Operations

Pure Wafer's operations are currently running at high levels of utilisation and whilst current demand can be accommodated within the existing facilities in Swansea and Prescott, with the market continuing to grow, forecast demand will exceed current capacity. Pure Wafer's Board has therefore agreed a programme for increasing 300mm capacity by up to 40% across both manufacturing sites in order to supplement the existing 300mm production lines and to enable us to meet continued and foreseeable demand. This additional capacity will be installed during the current financial year.

Following the £4.5 million ($7.2 million) Placing and Open Offer in October 2012, which enabled the Company's debt to be substantially reduced and allowed the successful re-banking of our facilities at commercially competitive rates, Pure Wafer will be funding the capital expenditure for the increased capacity programme from our cash generation.

With both manufacturing sites in Swansea and Prescott running at record levels of productivity and with overall levels of costs being tightly managed, Pure Wafer's cost per unit is currently running at an all time low, giving further confidence in the strength and profitability of the business going forward. With our lower cost of manufacture and planned increase in capacity we are well placed to take advantage of the current increasing activity and the forecast long term growth in the industry.

Solar pv

Notwithstanding the challenges facing the solar pv industry, which have been compounded by the Government's indecision regarding levels of feed-in-tariffs and the influx of Chinese imports, the re-focusing of Pure Wafer's Solar Division marketing strategy of targeting commercial, local authority and clients with multiple buildings has shown a level of success. Whilst the order book was slow during the second half of the financial year we are optimistic in our expectations for the next period.

Cancellation of Share Premium Account

Following the announcement on 23rd May 2013 regarding the proposed cancellation of the Share Premium Account, the Board is pleased to confirm that the High Court in London passed a Court Order on 27th June 2013 granting the cancellation of the Share Premium account and the Court Order was duly registered by the Registrar of Companies on 28th June 2013.

The cancellation of the Share Premium Account will eliminate the deficit on the Company's Profit and Loss reserves and so enable the payment of distributable reserves should the Board decide to declare or recommend the payment of dividends in due course.

Results Announcement

The Company's preliminary results for the financial year ended 30 June 2013 are expected to be released during week commencing 30 September 2013.

Financial PR

The Company is also pleased to announce that it is embarking upon an on-going programme of pro-active engagement with existing and potential institutional and private investors and the financial media, following the appointment of Winningtons Financial PR Limited (contact details below).

Notes to Editors:

Global market demand for semi-conductors is rising and with it the demand for "test wafers". Semi-conductor/silicon chips are manufactured on silicon wafers in highly advanced, specialist fabrication facilities. Such facilities, which require huge capital investment, use large quantities of "test" wafers for the purpose of testing, maintenance and calibration of semi-conductor manufacturing equipment. Wafer reclaim is an essential and highly specialised industrial process enabling the multiple re-use of these silicon test wafers.

Pure Wafer plc. is one of the world's leading providers of these wafer reclaim services. They enable semi-conductor manufacturers to gain further efficiencies through the increased re-use of silicon test wafers which are an integral part of the extremely demanding and technically advanced production process.

Pure Wafer operates from two "State-of-the-Art" manufacturing facilities, in Swansea, South Wales and Prescott, Arizona, USA and following a period of consolidation within the industry, is now the leading European and US provider of 300mm wafer reclaim services.

Pure Wafer has an established track record, technological expertise and one of the world's most advanced wafer reclaim facilities. It has a "blue-chip" customer base that includes most of the world's largest semi-conductor manufacturers and independent foundries. It has longstanding relationships with its customers and works closely with them to design and develop a service that delivers reclaimed wafers to exact specification.