Yest

YEST was founded in 2000 as a specialist in heat treatment and pressure control equipment for semiconductors and displays, and listed on KOSDAQ in 2015.

Its consolidated subsidiaries include YES Heating Technics and YDI, and the company operates manufacturing sites in Pyeongtaek and Incheon in South Korea along with a customer service base in Vietnam.

Main products span chillers, furnaces, pressure cure equipment, and laminators for semiconductor and display processes, along with heating jackets, clean hoods, and other semiconductor process infrastructure parts.

According to one brokerage report, the revenue mix as of the third quarter of 2025 was 79% semiconductor equipment, 20% display equipment, and 1% other, with the semiconductor segment accounting for the vast majority of revenue.

Recent growth drivers are pressure cure equipment used in HBM packaging processes and the newly entered high-pressure hydrogen annealing (HPA) equipment line. Rising demand for high-reliability semiconductors to maximize AI computing performance is said to be highlighting the importance of pressure cure equipment.

The HPA market has long been dominated by HPSP, and YEST, as a later entrant, achieved the world's first single-batch 125-wafer processing technology in 2023.

In March 2026, the company shipped its first 75-wafer HPA unit to a foundry customer, and a 125-wafer HPA unit ordered in December 2025 is set to be supplied to a global memory company.

Consolidated revenue rose from KRW 76.0 billion in 2022 to KRW 79.8 billion in 2023 and KRW 100.1 billion in 2024, before declining again to KRW 87.1 billion in 2025.

Operating profit was a loss of KRW 16.9 billion in 2022 and a loss of KRW 0.4 billion in 2023, before swinging to a profit of KRW 11.3 billion in 2024, then shrinking to KRW 3.8 billion in 2025.

The operating margin moved from -22.2% in 2022 and -0.5% in 2023 to a sharp improvement of 11.3% in 2024, before falling back to 4.4% in 2025. Net income attributable to owners was a profit of KRW 10.4 billion in 2024 but swung back to a loss of KRW 0.6 billion in 2025.

On a quarterly basis, the second quarter of 2025 posted revenue of KRW 23.8 billion and operating profit of KRW 2.8 billion, yet owners' net income was a loss of KRW 3.6 billion, and results remained uneven through the third quarter (KRW 18.7 billion revenue, KRW 1.1 billion operating profit) and fourth quarter (KRW 19.5 billion revenue, an operating loss of KRW 2.4 billion).

The trend shifted in 2026: first-quarter revenue of KRW 27.5 billion, operating profit of KRW 3.1 billion, and owners' net income of KRW 2.9 billion were followed by second-quarter revenue of KRW 41.9 billion, operating profit of KRW 4.6 billion, and owners' net income of KRW 1.8 billion, marking two consecutive quarters of expanding revenue and operating profit.

On the cash flow side, operating cash flow was a weak negative KRW 7.4 billion in 2025, compared with a positive KRW 8.5 billion in 2024. The debt ratio, which had spiked to 170.7% in 2023, stabilized at 62.5% in 2024 and 66.5% in 2025.

The HPA equipment market has long been dominated by HPSP, and the equipment is used in processes that replace surface defects in semiconductor silicon oxide with high-pressure hydrogen or deuterium to improve device characteristics.

This equipment has mainly been used in leading-edge foundry processes, but the market is expanding as memory makers such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix plan to broaden its application to memory processes.

Semiconductor device makers tend to prefer multi-vendor strategies for supply chain stability and cost efficiency, which works in favor of memory companies uncomfortable with HPSP's monopoly.

Rising demand for high-reliability semiconductors such as HBM is also said to be increasing the importance of pressure cure equipment used in underfill processes. In the display segment, expanding foldable device launches are cited as a variable for a recovery in related equipment demand.

Yuanta Securities assessed that as patent litigation risk with HPSP has moved into a largely resolved phase, full-scale sales of YEST's HPA equipment have become possible.

In December 2025, the company secured the world's first order for a 125-wafer HPA machine from a global memory semiconductor company, with delivery scheduled for the second half of 2026. In March 2026, it shipped its first 75-wafer HPA unit to a foundry customer and delivered it to a production line.

A company representative said the first mass-production unit delivery this August would mark the start of full-scale customer diversification and revenue growth.

The company is currently conducting wafer testing for DRAM, NAND, and foundry process applications with multiple global semiconductor companies, along with a joint development project (JDP) for next-generation DRAM processes.

Its next-generation equipment, the high-pressure oxidation (HPO) machine, has completed alpha-unit production and is under evaluation by global customers, and the company has also been selected as the lead institution for an HPO government-funded development project.

On the patent dispute, the Patent Court ruled in June 2026 that YEST's locking mechanism does not fall within the scope of HPSP's core '027 patent,' marking a second consecutive win for YEST.

However, the patent infringement lawsuit filed by HPSP remains undecided at the Seoul Central District Court, and HPSP is also reviewing whether to appeal the Patent Court ruling to the Supreme Court, meaning legal uncertainty has not been fully resolved.

Yuanta Securities said in a report dated June 5 that three events deserve attention: HPA's entry into the memory market, growing demand for NEOCON equipment, and the possibility of resolving patent dispute risk.