KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 2): Mi Technovation Bhd's founder and group chief executive officer (CEO) Oh Kuang Eng will be leading a new management team in the group’s semiconductor division. He will then hand over the equipment business to a new management led by executive director Teo Chee Keong.

The leadership restructuring is in accordance with the group’s structured succession plan, which saw Oh, who owns 44.8% of Mi Technovation shares, progressively reducing his involvement in the equipment business, from full participation initially in 2019, to zero involvement this year, stock exchange filing showed on Monday.

“This move is in line with Mi Group’s direction to maintain business sustainability and leadership continuity, while ensuring the group will not be facing keyman-dependent risk and potential succession crisis,” said the semiconductor equipment maker.

The group’s semiconductor equipment business involves producing wafer level chip scale packaging sorting machines, vision inspection machines, final test handlers, assembly machines, wafer fabrication tools and testing instruments. It has a business presence in Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, China and the US.

Apart from semiconductor equipment, the group had in 2021 ventured into semiconductor materials business, involving in the the manufacturing of solder spheres, which are widely used in advanced packaging such as ball grid array and wafer level packaging in the semiconductor industry.

Mi Technovation said Teo will be leading the group’s equipment business as the division’s chief executive officer and president, with Tung Chun Kang as chief technical officer, Chan Tirng Kaai as chief operations officer, Ong Tee Ni as vice-president (VP) in finance, human resources and administration, and Evelyn Ng Zhen Zhing as VP in quality assurance, information technology (IT) and sustainability.

Oh, a University Malaya mechanical engineering graduate, founded Mi Equipment (M) Sdn Bhd in 2012, and led the company to be publicly listed via Mi Technovation in June 2018.

While details are scarce about Mi Technovation’s new semiconductor venture, Oh had in the past told The Edge that the group was looking at businesses related to high-tech advanced packaging and development, advanced solutions and services, as well as specific semiconductor manufacturing processes, to be its third business unit.

For the first six months ended June 20, 2023 (1HFY2023), Mi Technovation reported a net profit of RM29.13 million, down 7.5% from RM31.5 million a year ago, while revenue declined 12% to RM160.9 million from RM182.67 million, amid softer demand from key customers in Taiwan.

Mi Technovation reported a net profit of RM68.86 million in FY2022, up 11% from RM61.85 million in FY2021, while revenue grew 3.7% to RM389.48 million from RM375.48 million during that period.

Shares of Mi Technovation closed one sen or 0.6% lower at RM1.70 on Monday, giving it a market capitalisation or RM1.53 billion.