Unaxis ups stake in Nextral unit to 100 per cent

Unaxis expands interest in French operation Keystone Archive

The technology group, Unaxis, has increased its share in French-based Unaxis-Nextral from 51.4 per cent to 100 per cent.

Unaxis-Nextral, which is based in Grenoble, is a provider of deposition and etching systems to the semiconductor industry, particularly in the telecommunications sector and for failure analysis applications.

According to a statement by Zurich-based Unaxis, Nextral has tripled its turnover since Unaxis took a majority stake in 1996. With 47 employees Unaxis-Nextral achieved a turnover of SFr16 million ($9million) in 2000.

The acquisition of 100 per cent of the shares allows further harmonisation of the Unaxis Semiconductors Front End production portfolio and integrates well into the division’s overall strategy, the Zurich-based group added.

“The outright acquisition of Unaxis-Nextral will enable us to completely integrate the company into our global organization and to continually expand our business. Most importantly for our customers all sales and services contacts remain unchanged,” said Martin Bader, division head of Unaxis Semiconductors Front End.

swissinfo with agencies