Interesting semiconductor play: VAT Group AG ($VACN.SW)
Founded in 1965, this company is based in Switzerland and has locations in Europe, United States, and Asia.
Their primary product sold are vacuum valves.
In simple terms, vacuum valves are designed to isolate, control, and regulate ultra-high vacuum (UHV) environments and gas flows.
VAT is located in the semi supply chain where they supply OEMs/toolmakers like Lam Research, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, and ASML that sell their WFE to chipmakers.
This is important since both Applied Materials and Lam Research mentioned strong outlook for the WFE market for 2027, due to demand from memory and advanced chipmakers.
In 2024, they had 71% market share in vacuum valves, effectively a monopoly.
They expect to grow from 71% to 85% by 2029.
Control valves and transfer valves are two of their highest market share components sold, and they expect semi-related valves to be the core product of their business beyond 2030.
The risk? Iran conflict had lowered their Q1 guidance.
"However, due to conflict-related and temporary disruptions in its supply chain and adjustments to customer specifications, VAT now expects sales for the first quarter of 2026 of around CHF 215 million and below the guidance given at the beginning of March of CHF 240–260 million. The book-to-bill ratio is expected to be around 1.6x for the first quarter."
"The outbreak of the Middle East conflict in late February led to partial and temporary disruptions in VAT’s supply chain. Furthermore, late delivery of certain components and materials resulted in shortterm adjustments to existing orders. In total, the negative impact on sales is estimated at approximately CHF 25 to 30 million in the first quarter. The situation has since been mitigated, and the reconfigured orders are expected to be delivered during the second quarter"
However, they have confirmed positive outlook for 2026 and expect that order intake, revenue, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, net profit, and free cash flow for the full year 2026 will exceed the 2025 levels.
