Crest aims to ride semiconductor momentum

PETALING JAYA: Imaging, analytical and test solutions company Crest Group Bhd expects to perform better for this year (FY26) building on the momentum in purchase orders seen in the second half of FY25 (2H25).

The company’s executive director Ethan Au said 2H25 “was strong” with momentum and a pipeline of orders built up for this year.

He noted that orders for 2H24 gave him the confidence about FY25 and FY26.

Au said the company would focus on capturing the market in more complex products such as wafer-level packaging in South-East Asia for the next two years as the region enters a promising semiconductor growth cycle and increasing adoption of artificial intelligence.

“As semiconductor packages get more complicated, the demand for high-end imaging, analytical and test systems naturally increases and we are already seeing this reflected in our numbers,” he said, adding that for the company to return to pre-listing levels, the priority lies in scaling up in the high-growth semiconductor, electrical and electronics, academia and institutes and, healthcare sectors.

“We’re broadening our portfolio of advanced inspection, analytical, and test solutions, which naturally include metrology and failure analysis tools.

“For example this year, we added new partners Czech instrument manufacturer Tescan and US electron microscopy company Gatan to our platform, strengthening our position in high-end, sub-nanometer imaging capabilities.”

Crest Group reported a net profit of RM7.81mil for the first nine months of last year, slightly less than the RM7.84mil reported for the same period in 2024 while revenue for the period stood at RM120.7mil compared to RM128.4mil.

This would be in contrast to a drop in net profit of 40% in FY24 compared with FY23.

Au said the company’s expansion of its after-sales and applications teams would support outsourced semiconductor assembly and tests, integrated device manufacturers and research and development institutions upgrading their capabilities.

At the same time, spillover from academia, healthcare, and government-funded research and development programmes creates additional demand that diversifies its revenue base and provide a more resilient foundation for the next two years.

Au said the industry has seen a gradual shift towards higher-end equipment sales that help boost margins.

To capture more business opportunities and help the regional expansion, he said the company has adopted a “one call, one stop” approach enabling customers to get everything from system integration to after-sales support through a single platform and a single team, to help build a stronger recurring revenue stream and more consistent earnings over the next couple of years.