ATLANTA – With expected attendance at record levels, the ECIA Executive Conference Committee urges attendees to make reservations now to ensure a seat at the conference. This year Cliff Waldman’s very popular Global Economic Update, will be on Tuesday morning at 10:00 am.

A highly rated speaker at past ECIA conferences, Cliff Waldman is a rising voice in the D.C. policy research community. Cliff has made appearances at events on Capitol Hill and in major think tanks. He is the host of Manufacturing Talk Radio’s “Cliff Notes on the Global Manufacturing Picture." Cliff has served two years as Chairman of the Board of the National Economists Club. In 2019, he served as co-chair of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) manufacturing roundtable. In 2018, he was awarded the Certified Business Economist (CBE) designation by NABE. He received his M.A. in economics from Rutgers University.

“October is just around the corner, and our attendance numbers are already exceeding last year’s,” cautioned Stephanie Tierney, ECIA Director Marketing Communications and Member Engagement. “Book your hotel and register before it’s too late and don't miss this engaging session!”

The ECIA Executive Conference is a senior management level conference for the electronics industry’s leading companies, representing the entire component supply chain. The dates for the 2023 Executive Conference are October 22-24 at the Lowe’s Chicago O’Hare Hotel.

Registration is now open. View the conference website.

SUZHOU, CHINA – Ventec International Group Co., Ltd. (6672 TT), has announced a cooperative agreement with UK-based Giga Solutions Ltd. By leveraging Ventec’s purchasing, finance and sales resources, the new ‘Ventec Giga Solutions’ division provides a sustainable, cost-effective platform and organisation to offer full workflow solutions to our PCB and related industry customer base globally. These include factory design, equipment selection, sales, installation, and commissioning.

The agreement lets Ventec Europe and Ventec USA deliver a one-stop-shop for PCB manufacturers, OEMs and manufacturing services companies to establish and expand their PCB manufacturing facilities, leveraging Giga Solutions’ expertise and connections with leading equipment suppliers.

Henceforth trading as Ventec Giga Solutions, the UK-based team is led by Giga Solutions founder Ramesh Dhokia. The new division will offer project management, equipment suitability consulting, sourcing, and sales. Ventec Giga Solutions can also supply bespoke equipment and solutions.

Dhokia has successfully delivered projects for well-known brands and manufacturing organisations, setting up manufacturing of high-quality PCBs. He commented, “This agreement strengthens our ability to conceive and deliver high-quality solutions for our customers, leveraging the complementary technical, logistics and financial resources and supply-chain expertise of the Ventec Group.”

Mark Goodwin, COO EMEA & America at Ventec, said, “The creation of Ventec Giga Solutions expands the range of services Ventec offers to the global PCB manufacturing and related sectors and is expected to bring new customers and provide a solid base for revenue growth going forwards. With this new agreement, we have truly become the industry’s one-stop-shop to serve all our customers’ PCB needs, with the ability to offer customers discrete items through to turn-key packages of materials and process equipment.

The new cooperation builds on Giga Solutions’ 25 years of project experience in setting up production lines to build PCBs for equipment such as smart sensors, smart home devices, mobiles, industrial controls, and complex boards and backplanes for high-speed computing and communications.

Ventec’s range of laminates and prepregs include product lines optimized for superior signal integrity and high-speed digital applications, RF and analog circuits, thermally enhanced materials including insulated metal substrate (IMS) technology, and an advanced range of thermal management solutions. The company also offers a range of distribution materials and consumables and serves customers across the globe, active in industries including automotive, communication, aerospace, and defense. Further information about Ventec’s solutions and the company’s wide variety of products is available at www.venteclaminates.com 

WALTHAM, MA – Nano Dimension Ltd. (Nasdaq: NNDM, “Nano Dimension”, “Nano”, “NANO” or the “Company”), a leading supplier of Additively Manufactured Electronics (“AME”) and multi-dimensional polymer, metal & ceramic Additive Manufacturing (“AM”) 3D printers, today announced the following actions that highlight a clear path to maximizing value for shareholders of Stratasys Ltd. (Nasdaq: SSYS) (“Stratasys”):

Nano Dimension has increased its special tender offer price (the “Offer”) to $25.00 per share from $24.00, in cash, less any required withholding taxes and without interest, to purchase between 31.9% and 36.9% of the outstanding ordinary shares of Stratasys.

1. The expiration date of the offer period has been extended to 5:00 p.m., New York Time, on July 31st, 2023 (unless further extended or earlier terminated).

• Tendering shares to Nano will deliver 233% more cash to Stratasys shareholders in the near-term than any currently available alternative and preserves the ability to generate future value creation through strategic M&A opportunities.
• The increased price represents a significant premium to all relevant Stratasys historical trading levels, including a 93% premium to the unaffected 60-day average share price4. Nano’s special tender offer is the most compelling offer for Stratasys shareholders and remains the only alternative available that provides certain, near-term cash value at a significant premium and the quickest path for Stratasys shareholders to realize value.
• The successful completion of the special tender offer would increase Nano Dimension’s beneficial ownership of Stratasys to between 46% and 51% of the outstanding ordinary shares, inclusive of the approximately 14.1% of Stratasys’ outstanding ordinary shares that Nano Dimension currently owns.
• Nano offer provides guaranteed cash and more certainty than any other option available to Stratasys shareholders.
• Nano also announced yesterday that the required waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (“HSR”) in connection with its proposed special tender offer of Stratasys had expired and no further regulatory review by U.S. antitrust authorities is required in connection with the Offer.

2. Nano believes the current terms of 3D Systems, Inc. (NYSE: DDD) (“3D Systems”) offer is misleading, not in the best interests of Stratasys’ shareholders, and present significant Share PRICE uncertainty and transaction closing risk.

• Nano believes that the latest 3D Systems offer’s value is inflated by an unsustainable 3D Systems share price.
• On a 30- , 60-, 90- and 180-day VWAP basis, 3D Systems offer is worth barely $22 per share, substantially below Nano’s $25.00 all-cash offer.
• Additionally, since 3D Systems’ latest offer on July 13th, 2023, its share price has declined 6%5, further highlighting the significant value uncertainty of the majority stock consideration of 3D Systems’ offer.
• Actually, 3D Systems’ Proposal is worth Only $7.50 per share in cash. The rest is an uncertain value as $14.50 in 3D Systems shares is not necessarily a realistic value:
• Since the price of 3D Systems’ shares may sink before, during and long after the 3D/Stratasys transaction, as a result of the huge expected dilution (doubling the amount of 3D Systems shares in order to acquire Stratasys), as described below:
• 3D Systems’ offer will nearly fully deplete its cash position and the combined company will need to raise capital promptly (as indicated by 3D Systems’ recent shelf registration filing). The capital will likely be raised at a share price discount, which will create additional pressure on 3D Systems’ stock price and result in further dilution and value destruction to 3D Systems and Stratasys shareholders.
• 3D Systems’ offer has execution risk as it will require shareholder votes from both companies and regulatory review.

3. As Stratasys’ largest shareholder, Nano Dimension OPPOSES Stratasys’ proposed combination with Desktop Metal, Inc. (NYSE: DM) (“Desktop Metal”), which, as structured, is highly dilutive and greatly overvalues Desktop Metal’s cash-burning business.

Following the successful completion of the special tender offer, as the largest shareholder of Stratasys, Nano Dimension intends to support a review of strategic alternatives for Stratasys to further enhance shareholder value, including through industry consolidation, possibly through a negotiated combination with 3D Systems OR: increasing Nano’s ownership of Stratasys to 100%.

• Following the successful consummation of Nano’s Special Tender Offer, Nano intends to explore various strategic alternatives, including but not limited to:
  1. pursuing a negotiated combination of Stratasys with 3D Systems at appropriate terms, and/or
  2. purchasing the remaining portion of Stratasys to reach 100% ownership as soon as practical and permissible by U.S. and Israeli law.
• Completing a transaction for all of Stratasys is a step in NANO’s broader industry consolidation strategy, focused on profitability and cash generation to drive value for all shareholders.

Additional Special Tender Offer Information

Shareholders who have validly tendered and not properly withdrawn their Stratasys shares do not need to re-tender their shares or take any other action in response to the increase in price of the Offer. Shareholders who have not yet tendered their Stratasys shares or filed a notice of objection will be given the opportunity to do so in the same manner and under the same terms and conditions as set out in the Offer.

Based on information provided by Computershare Trust Company, N.A., the depositary for the tender offer, as of 5:00 p.m., New York time, on July 17th, 2023, 4,100,607 Stratasys shares had been validly tendered and not properly withdrawn pursuant to the Offer.

Nano Dimension will amend its tender offer statement on Schedule TO, and the related exhibits, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and will disseminate a supplement to the offer to purchase to Stratasys shareholders reflecting the increased offer price and extended offer period.

KEMPEN, GERMANY – Thank you and with a cheerful "Good Lack"! That's what it says in black and white on every bottle of Peters-Kölsch beer that Sven Kramer handed over to the staff of Unimicron Germany GmbH. Besides two cases of the top-fermented beer, the product manager handed over two boxes of the famous Prinzen rolls to the circuit boards producer in Geldern - a gift from the company.

"The DeBeukelaer biscuit has always been the second best product from Kempen, behind our Elpemer® solder mask," says Sven Kramer with a smile in front of the assembled team of the Unimicron solder mask department. The dousing of the great teamwork between the Kempen-based ink manufacturer and the Geldern-based PCB manufacturer is, of course, postponed until after work. Instead, many Unimicron employees take the opportunity for a bite into the sweet Prinzenroll biscuit during the shift change.

There are reasons for the convivial get-together in the Unimicron Park. For the conformal coating of their PCBs, the company relies on the quality of Peters solder resists from the Elpemer® 2467 SM-DG product family. "This resist actually meets our expectations," says Unimicron department manager Sascha van Düren, who thanks the company for the biscuits and Kölsch gesture. "You can rely on it," emphasises Jonas Poschen, process engineer from the Engineering department. Sven Kramer, Head of Application Technology at Peters, is pleased to hear this. The chemical engineer points to the simple, fast and precise processability even in the representation of finest ink structures in the direct imaging process.

The photoimageable Elpemer® solder resist is well on its way to convincing industrial customers worldwide regarding its performance. "From Kempen, you only have to drive 20 kilometres north up the Lower Rhine area to find with Unimicron a company that claims the benefits of Elpemer® for itself," says Sven Kramer who has already spent more than half of his 59 years of life working for Peters. At the Holländer See south of Geldern, it is now known that the end properties with regard to factors such as elasticity, insulation and mechanical and chemical quality stand up to any comparison with other coatings.”

The two companies from the Lower Rhine region are setting standards with their partnership. Unimicron manufactures between 2,000 and 2,500 PCB panels for the world markets every day. In addition to the automotive division, which has always been a flagship, renewable/solar energies as well as industrial applications have been added on an equal footing. The good relations between the company founded in 1945 and Peters date back to the time when Unimicron still operated under the name Ruwel. The founders Fritz Stahl in Geldern and Werner Peters in Kempen are generally regarded as pioneers of printed circuit board technology. It has been a stable axis ever since.

At that time, Ruwel mass-produced the first printed circuit board in Europe, which is considered the initial spark for rapid industrial development.This circuit board for Metz radio sets is still exhibited today in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. At the end of 2010, Ruwel was taken over by one of the largest PCB companies in the world, the Unimicron Technology Corporation, which invested in the company and thus provided a boost to innovation. "By this, Unimicron has taken a great development that we from Peters support with heart and soul, due to our shared tradition and entrepreneurial conviction," says Ralf Schwartz, CEO of Peters. "Cheers".