Kulicke & Soffa Reports Fourth Quarter & Fiscal Year 2017 Results

Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: KLIC) ("Kulicke & Soffa”, "K&S” or the "Company”) today announced results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30, 2017.

Dr. Fusen Chen, Kulicke & Soffa's President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We have made many tactical and organizational improvements throughout fiscal year 2017 that enhance our collective ability to deliver long-term shareholder value. Broad industry expansion combined with our strong market positions and sizable new opportunities resulted in a dramatic demand increase over the same period in the prior year."

During the September quarter the Company introduced newly defined "Capital Equipment" and "Aftermarket Products and Services" segments and refined its global R&D organization to enhance business unit accountability and market responsiveness. The Company did not incur any restructuring related charges due to these changes.

Fiscal Year 2017 Financial Highlights

• Net revenue of $809.0 million.
• Gross margin of 46.4%.
• Net income was $112.0 million or $1.55 per diluted share.
• Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments were $608.9 million as at September 30, 2017.
• The Company repurchased a total of 0.9 million shares of common stock at a cost of $18.2 million.

First Quarter Fiscal 2018 Outlook

The Company currently expects net revenue in the first fiscal quarter of 2018 ending December 30, 2017 to be approximately $185 million to $195 million, an increase of 27% over the same period in the prior year.

Looking forward, Dr. Fusen Chen commented, "We continue to seek out meaningful new growth opportunities while extending existing market positions. Our ability to deliver value is further enhanced by our expanding portfolio, meaningful partnerships, and refinements to our sales and R&D organizations."

Semiconductor unit production, a proxy for equipment demand, is expected to grow at 11.8% sequentially in calendar year 2017. The Company anticipates that in the longer-term, semiconductor unit production will grow at an 8.9% CAGR through calendar 2021, materially higher than the previously completed four-year period CAGR of 3.4%. Looking ahead, the Company's products continue to be aligned with several of the fastest growing end-applications, including sensors, LED and NAND flash memory.

Earnings Conference Call Details

A conference call to discuss these results will be held today, November 14, 2017, beginning at 8:00am (EST). To access the conference call, interested parties may call +1-877-407-8037 or internationally +1-201-689-8037. The call will also be available by live webcast at investor.kns.com.

A replay will be available from approximately one hour after the completion of the call through November 21, 2017 by calling toll-free +1-877-660-6853 or internationally +1-201-612-7415 and using the replay ID number of 13672443. A webcast replay will also be available at investor.kns.com.

About Kulicke & Soffa

Kulicke & Soffa (NASDAQ: KLIC) is a leading provider of semiconductor packaging and electronic assembly solutions supporting the global automotive, consumer, communications, computing, and industrial segments. As a pioneer in the semiconductor space, K&S has provided customers with market leading packaging solutions for decades. In recent years, K&S has expanded its product offerings through strategic acquisitions and organic development, adding advanced packaging, electronics assembly, wedge bonding and a broader range of expendable tools to its core offerings. Combined with its extensive expertise in process technology and focus on development, K&S is well positioned to help customers meet the challenges of packaging and assembling the next-generation of electronic devices (www.kns.com).

Caution Concerning Results and Forward Looking Statements

In addition to historical statements, this press release contains statements relating to future events and our future results. These statements are "forward-looking” statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and include, but are not limited to, statements that relate to our future revenue, sustained, increasing, continuing or strengthening demand for our products, replacement demand, future growth opportunities, our research and development efforts, our ability to control costs, and our ability to identify and realize new growth opportunities within segments, such as automotive and industrial as well as surrounding technology adoption such as system in package and advanced packaging techniques. While these forward-looking statements represent our judgments and future expectations concerning our business, a number of risks, uncertainties and other important factors could cause actual developments and results to differ materially from our expectations. These factors include, but are not limited to: the risk that customer orders already received may be postponed or canceled, generally without charges; the risk that anticipated customer orders may not materialize; the risk that our suppliers may not be able to meet our demands on a timely basis; the volatility in the demand for semiconductors and our products and services; the risk that identified market opportunities may not grow or developed as we anticipated; volatile global economic conditions, which could result in, among other things, sharply lower demand for products containing semiconductors and for the Company’s products, and disruption of capital and credit markets; the risk of failure to successfully manage our operations; the possibility that we may need to impair the carrying value of goodwill and/or intangibles established in connection with one or more of our prior acquisitions; acts of terrorism and violence; risks, such as changes in trade regulations, currency fluctuations, political instability and war, which may be associated with a substantial non-U.S. customer and supplier base and substantial non-U.S. manufacturing operations; and the factors listed or discussed in Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. is under no obligation to (and expressly disclaims any obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

1. Represents customer purchase commitments. While the Company believes these orders will proceed, they are generally cancellable by customers without penalty.

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