Richard Blickman, Besi's Chief Executive Officer, commented: "In recent weeks, we have experienced a reduction in mainstream orders vs. expectations as well as push-outs of orders into the next two quarters previously scheduled for delivery in Q3-15 consistent with broad based weakness in the semiconductor assembly equipment market. The current downturn reflects excess semiconductor inventory and production capacity primarily related to reduced demand for retail oriented consumer applications such as smart phones, tablets and PCs.

Given the downward shift in industry conditions, Besi has initiated actions to align its cost structure with current revenue trends. Fixed and temporary headcount will be reduced by approximately 10% by year end 2015. Additional operating expense initiatives are also underway to reduce quarterly break even revenue levels further. We anticipate annualized cost savings of approximately € 12-14 million from such actions, of which € 6.5 million relates to the previously announced transfer of certain software engineering, logistics and related administrative functions and personnel from our Swiss die attach operations to our Singapore die attach applications engineering facility. Incremental restructuring charges related to the overhead re-alignment are anticipated to be less than € 1 million and are expected to be recorded in Q3-15 and Q4-15."

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