LEOBEN, Austria – AT&S has completed the sale of AT&S Korea, including its PCB manufacturing plant in Ansan, South Korea, to Somacis for around €405 million ($452.8 million).

“With the sale of the plant in Ansan we aim to further sharpen the group’s strategic profile,” said AT&S CFO Petra Preining. “We strongly believe that with the Italian technology group Somacis as its new owner, the Ansan site will unleash its full potential and continue pursuing an attractive journey of strong growth.”

“Ansan is an AT&S success story,” said CEO Andreas Gerstenmayer. “When AT&S acquired the plant in 2006, all revenue was generated locally, and its performance was far below the expectations of AT&S. The development of new applications, strong investment in technology and capabilities, as well as the strong commitment of the responsible team resulted in strong revenue growth and a significant improvement in performance. Within only a few years, revenue quadrupled.”

The Ansan plant focuses on the production of flexible circuit boards for electronic systems across several industries.

“As flexible microelectronic applications are growing and will open up entirely new technological opportunities in the years to come, we were looking for a buyer who recognizes the full potential and that will purposefully lead the organization into the future,” said Peter Schneider, member of AT&S' board and EVP of its Electronics Solutions business unit.

“We were highly impressed with the management team and technological capabilities of the Ansan plant and are very excited about its future potential. We plan to continue to serve its existing customer base with the highest reliability and strong technological competencies that Ansan is currently well-known for, while at the same time maintaining its proven track record of growth through strong additional investments in its existing team and technical capabilities,” added Giovanni Tridenti, CEO, Somacis.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be completed in the next few months.

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