NanoPhotonics now part of the growing Ricmar Group

September 30^th, 2008 – Kramsach, AUSTRIA – Mainz, GERMANY  ---

Ricmar Beteiligungs GmbH, with  Gerhard Zeindl as its CEO announces today that it has finalized the purchase of a majority stake in NanoPhotonics GmbH, Mainz from ASM International N.V., to be integrated into the Ricmar Group.

Ricmar Beteiligungs GmbH is proud to announce that as of today it holds a majority interest in NanoPhotonics GmbH, which was purchased from ASM International N.V. The Ricmar group enterprises design and manufacture equipment and material for the semiconductor industry (Front- and Back end) and the NanoPhotonics defect inspection tools will complement the existing Ricmar group product portfolio.

“We are excited to welcome NanoPhotonics as member of the growing Ricmar group. With NanoPhotonics GmbH we are able to increase customer value by integrating defect inspection metrology into the wafer handling platform of Ricmar Technology GmbH. The idea of the Ricmar group “We connect technologies” is again exemplified through this technology combination. Very important for my decision to integrate NanoPhotonics into the Ricmar group was the long-term experience of NP within the metrology segment which fits perfectly into the product portfolio of the Ricmar group enterprises. The innovative team of NanoPhotonics employees, will also be the basis for the future development of new product lines,” says Gerhard Zeindl, CEO of Ricmar Group.

Commenting on the transition Dr. Michael Abraham, founder and President of NanoPhotonics GmbH said: “The NanoPhotonics team is happy to join the Ricmar Group. Within the Ricmar group we will continue to operate as independent company. By using multiple synergies within the Ricmar group we will be able to better focus on our core business, improve our efficiency and our products. The combination of NanoPhotonics field proven modular defect inspection product line for wafer front side, edge and back side defect inspection with Ricmar’s toolset of wafer handling solutions allows to offer a wide range of automated defect inspection solutions for different market segments of the semiconductor industry. Moreover we expect a significant improvement of market penetration by sharing the potential of Ricmar’s worldwide Sales & Service organization.”

About Ricmar

The Ricmar group is an innovative collection of successful technology enterprises, making a real difference in selected high technology/high growth markets that include automation, wafer handling, metrology, vacuum coating and dispensing, creating truly unique, highly competitive solutions in a close partnership with its customers. Each enterprise works independently utilizing synergies within the Ricmar group network.
For more information visit www.ricmar.com

About NanoPhotonics

Since foundation in 1997, NanoPhotonics stands for compact modular wafer defect inspection for various applications in the semiconductor industry. The state-of-the-art tools are applied in process development, tool classification, R&D, and for yield improvement.

About ASMI

ASM International N.V. and its subsidiaries design and manufacture equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices. The company provides production solutions for wafer processing (Front-end segment) as well as assembly and packaging (Back-end segment) through facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. ASM International’s common stock trades on NASDAQ (symbol ASMI) and the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange (symbol ASM).
For more information, visit ASMI’s web site at www.asm.com

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