ICHOR HOLDINGS, LTD. - Annual Report: 2019 (Form 10-K)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D. C. 20549

FORM 10‑K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 27, 2019

or

For the transition period from            to           

Commission File Number 001‑37961

ICHOR HOLDINGS, LTD.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

3185 Laurelview Ct.

Fremont, California 94538

(Address of principal executive offices, including Zip Code)

(510) 897-5200

(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)

Not Applicable

(Former name or former address, if changed since last report)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well‑known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.  Yes  ☐    No  ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.  Yes  ☐    No  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S‑T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non‑accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b‑2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.     ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b‑2 of the Act).    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

There were 22,805,443 ordinary shares, $0.0001 par value, outstanding as of March 4, 2020. The aggregate market value of voting ordinary shares held by non-affiliates was $526,288,000 as of June 28, 2019, the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

The information required by Part III of Form 10‑K is incorporated herein by reference to the registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement relating to its 2020 General Meeting, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the registrant’s fiscal year.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT CONCERNING FORWARD‑LOOKING STATEMENTS

This report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this report are forward-looking statements. These statements relate to analyses and other information, which are based on forecasts of future results and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. These statements also relate to our future prospects, developments and business strategies. These forward-looking statements are identified by the use of terms and phrases such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “will” and similar terms and phrases, including references to assumptions. However, these words are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. These statements are contained in many sections of this report, including those entitled “Business” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” Although we believe that our plans, intentions and expectations reflected in or suggested by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that we will achieve those plans, intentions or expectations. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those that we expected.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations, or cautionary statements, are disclosed under the sections entitled “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in this report. All written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us, or persons acting on our behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained in this report under the heading “Risk Factors,” as well as other cautionary statements that are made from time to time in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and public communications. You should evaluate all forward-looking statements made in this report in the context of these risks and uncertainties.

We caution you that the important factors referenced above may not contain all of the factors that are important to you. In addition, we cannot assure you that we will realize the results or developments we expect or anticipate or, even if substantially realized, that they will result in the consequences or affect us or our operations in the way we expect. The forward-looking statements included in this report are made only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.

PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

Unless expressly indicated or the context requires otherwise, the terms “Ichor,” “Company,” “we,” “us,” “our,” and similar terms in this report refer to Ichor Holdings, Ltd. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

We use a 52 or 53 week fiscal year ending on the last Friday in December. The following table details our fiscal periods included elsewhere in this report. All references to fiscal years or quarters relate to our fiscal period as so detailed.

Company Overview

We are a leader in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of critical fluid delivery subsystems and components for semiconductor capital equipment. Our product offerings include gas and chemical delivery systems and subsystems, collectively known as fluid delivery systems and subsystems, which are key elements of the process tools used in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. Our gas delivery subsystems deliver, monitor, and control precise quantities of the specialized gases used in semiconductor manufacturing processes such as etch and deposition. Our chemical delivery systems and subsystems precisely blend and dispense the reactive liquid chemistries used in semiconductor manufacturing processes such as chemical-mechanical planarization, electroplating, and cleaning. We also manufacture precision machined components, weldments, and proprietary products for use in fluid delivery systems for direct sales to our customers. This vertically integrated portion of our business is primarily focused on metal and plastic parts that are used in gas and chemical systems, respectively.

Fluid delivery subsystems ensure accurate measurement and uniform delivery of specialty gases and chemicals at critical steps in the semiconductor manufacturing processes. Any malfunction or material degradation in fluid delivery reduces yields and increases the likelihood of manufacturing defects in these processes. Most OEMs outsource all or a portion of the design, engineering, and manufacturing of their gas delivery subsystems to a few specialized suppliers, including us. Additionally, many OEMs are also increasingly outsourcing the design, engineering, and manufacturing of their chemical delivery subsystems due to the increased fluid expertise required to manufacture these subsystems. Outsourcing these subsystems has allowed OEMs to leverage the suppliers’ highly specialized engineering, design, and production skills while focusing their internal resources on their own value-added processes. We believe that this outsourcing trend has enabled OEMs to reduce their costs and development time, as well as provide growth opportunities for specialized subsystems suppliers like us.

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Our goal is to be a leading supplier of fluid delivery subsystems and components to OEMs engaged in manufacturing capital equipment to produce semiconductors and to leverage our technology and products to expand the share of our addressable markets. To achieve this goal, we engage with our customers early in their design and development processes and utilize our deep engineering resources and operating expertise, as well as our expanded product portfolio, to jointly create innovative and advanced solutions that meet the current and future needs of our customers. These collaborations frequently involve our engineers working at our customers’ sites and serving as an extension of our customers’ product design teams. We employ this approach with three of the largest manufacturers of semiconductor capital equipment in the world. We believe this approach enables us to design products that meet the precise specifications our customers demand, allows us to often be the sole supplier of these subsystems during the initial production ramp, and positions us to be the preferred supplier for the full five to ten-year lifespan of the process tool.

The broad technical expertise of our engineering team, coupled with our early customer engagement approach, enables us to offer innovative and reliable solutions to complex fluid delivery challenges. With two decades of experience developing complex fluid delivery subsystems and meeting the constantly changing production requirements of leading semiconductor OEMs, we have developed expertise in fluid delivery that we offer to our OEM customers. In addition, our capital efficient model and the integration of our business systems with those of our customers provides us the flexibility to fulfill increased demand and meet changing customer requirements with relatively low levels of capital expenditures. With an aim to provide superior customer service, we have a global footprint with many facilities strategically located in close proximity to our customers. We have long standing relationships with top tier OEM customers, including Lam Research, Applied Materials, and ASML, which were our three largest customers by sales in 2019.

We generated revenue from continuing operations of $620.8 million, $823.6 million, and $655.9 million in 2019, 2018, and 2017, respectively (hereinafter, all references to “sales” or “revenue” relates to net sales from continuing operations, unless explicitly stated otherwise). We generated net income from continuing operations of $10.7 million, $57.9 million, and $56.9 million in 2019, 2018, and 2017, respectively. We generated non-GAAP adjusted net income from continuing operations of $28.3 million, $75.1 million, and $65.1 million in 2019, 2018, and 2017, respectively. See Item 7 – Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, Non-GAAP Results for a discussion of non-GAAP adjusted net income from continuing operations, an accompanying presentation of the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, net income from continuing operations, and a reconciliation of the differences between non-GAAP adjusted net income from continuing operations and net income from continuing operations.

Our Competitive Strengths

As a leader in the fluid delivery industry, we believe that our key competitive strengths include the following:

Deep Fluids Engineering Expertise

We believe that our engineering team, comprised of chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, and software and systems engineers, has positioned us to expand the scope of our solutions, provide innovative products and subsystems, and strengthen our incumbent position at our OEM customers. Many of our engineers are industry veterans and have spent a significant portion of their careers at our customers, bringing first-hand expertise and a heightened understanding of our customers’ needs. Our engineering team acts as an extension of our customers’ product development teams, providing our customers with technical expertise that is outside of their core competencies.

Early Engagement with Customers on Product Development

We seek to engage with our customers and potential customers very early in their process for new product development. We believe this approach enables us to collaborate on product design, qualification, manufacturing, and testing in order to provide a comprehensive, customized solution. Through early engagement during the complex design stages, our engineering team gains early insight into our customers’ technology roadmaps which enables us to pioneer innovative and advanced solutions. In many cases our early engagement with our customers enables us to be the sole source supplier when the product is initially introduced.

Long History and Strong Relationships with Top Tier Customers

We have established deep relationships with top tier OEMs such as Lam Research, Applied Materials, and ASML, which were our three largest customers by sales in 2019. Our customers are global leaders by sales in the semiconductor capital equipment industry. Our existing relationships with our customers have enabled us to effectively compete for new fluid delivery subsystems for our customers’ next generation products in development. We leverage our deep rooted existing customer relationships with these market leaders to penetrate new business opportunities created through industry consolidation. Our close collaboration with them has contributed to our established market position and several key supplier awards.

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Operational Excellence with Scale to Support the Largest Customers

Over our 20 year experience in designing and building gas delivery systems, we have developed deep capabilities in operations. We have strategically located our manufacturing facilities near our customers’ locations in order to provide fast and efficient responses to new product introductions and accommodate configuration or design changes late in the manufacturing process. We will continue to add capacity as needed to support future growth. In addition to providing high quality and reliable fluid delivery subsystems, one of our principal strategies is delivering the lead-times that provide our customers the required flexibility needed in their production processes. We have accomplished this by investing in manufacturing systems and processes and an efficient supply chain. Our focus on operational efficiency and flexibility allows us to reduce manufacturing cycle times in order to respond quickly to customer requests and lead-times that are often less than four weeks.

Capital Efficient and Scalable Business Model

In general, our business is not capital intensive and we are able to grow sales with a low investment in property, plant, and equipment. In 2019, 2018, and 2017, our total capital expenditures were $12.3 million, $13.9 million, and $8.2 million, respectively, representing only 2.0%, 1.7%, and 1.3% of sales, respectively. The semiconductor capital equipment market has historically been cyclical. We have structured our business to minimize fixed manufacturing overhead and operating expenses to enable us to grow net income at a higher rate than sales during periods of growth. Conversely, our low fixed cost approach allows us to minimize the impact of cyclical downturns on our net income, but results in a lower level of gross margin leverage or improvement as a percentage of sales in times of increased demand.

Our Growth Strategy

Our objective is to enhance our position as a leader in providing fluid delivery solutions, including subsystems, components, and tool refurbishment, to our customers by leveraging our core strengths. The key elements of our growth strategy are:

Grow Our Market Share within Existing Customer Base

We intend to grow our position within our existing customers by continuing to leverage our specialized engineering talent, early collaboration approach with OEMs to foster long-term relationships, and expanded product offerings. Each of our customers produces many different process tools for various process steps. At each customer, we are an outsourced supplier of fluid delivery subsystems and components for a subset of their entire process tool offerings. We are constantly looking to expand our market share at our existing customers. We believe that our early collaborative approach with customers positions us to deliver innovative and dynamic solutions, offer timely deployment and meet competitive cost targets, further increasing our market share. Through our intellectual property (“IP”) purchase of developed flow controller technology in May 2019 and our acquisitions of a Korean gas panel supplier in April 2018, a weldment company and a precision machining company in July and December 2017, respectively, and a plastic machining & fabrication company in April 2016, we significantly expanded our served market and also entered the market for chemical delivery subsystems for wet process tools where we had only limited engagement in the past. Using this and our existing engineering capability, we developed a liquid delivery module and was qualified on a wet process equipment system at one of our largest customers who is a market leader in this space.

Grow Our Total Available Market at Existing Customers with Expanded Product Offerings

We continue to work with our existing core customers on additional opportunities, including chemical delivery, one of our important potential growth areas. We believe that wet processes, including clean and electro chemical deposition (“ECD”), that require precise chemical delivery are currently an underpenetrated market opportunity for us. By leveraging our existing customer relationships and strong reputation in fluid mechanics, we intend to increase our chemical delivery module market share and introduce additional related products. Through our IP purchase of developed flow controller technology in May 2019 and our acquisitions of a Korean gas panel supplier in April 2018, a weldment company and a precision machining company in July and December 2017, respectively, and a plastic machining & fabrication company in April 2016, we significantly expanded our served market and entered the market for chemical delivery subsystems. The acquisitions allow us to manufacture and assemble the complex plastic and metal products and precision machined components for the semiconductor equipment, aerospace, and general-industrial industries, as well as provide us exposure to and growth opportunities in the Korean semiconductor capital equipment market.

Expand Our Total Customer Base within Fluid Delivery Market

We have expanded our customer base and are currently a supplier of gas delivery systems for a leading lithography system manufacturer, a leading ALD system manufacturer, and Korean process tool OEMs. We continue to actively engage with new customers that are considering outsourcing their gas and chemical delivery needs as well as expanding our components business.

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Continue to Improve Our Manufacturing Process Efficiency

We continually strive to improve our processes to reduce our manufacturing process cycle time, improve our ability to respond to short lead-time and last minute configuration changes, reduce our manufacturing costs, and improve our inventory efficiency requirements in order to improve profitability and make our product offerings more attractive to new and existing customers.

Our Products and Services

We are a leader in the design, engineering and manufacturing of critical fluid delivery subsystems. Our product and service offerings are classified in the following categories:

Gas Delivery Subsystems

Gas delivery is among the most technologically complex functions in semiconductor capital equipment and is used to deliver, monitor and control precise quantities of the vapors and gases critical to the manufacturing process. Our gas delivery systems consist of a number of gas lines, each controlled by a series of mass flow controllers, regulators, pressure transducers, and valves, and an integrated electronic control system. Our gas delivery subsystems are primarily used in equipment for “dry” manufacturing processes, such as etch, chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, epitaxy, and strip.

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Chemical Delivery Products and Subsystems

Our chemical delivery products and subsystems are used to precisely blend and dispense reactive chemistries and colloidal slurries critical to the specific “wet” front-end process, such as wet clean, electro chemical deposition, and chemical-mechanical planarization (“CMP”). In addition to the chemical delivery subsystem, we also manufacture the process modules that apply the various chemicals directly to the wafer in a process and application-unique manner to create the desired chemical reaction.

The image below shows a typical wet-process front end semiconductor tool, with a chemical delivery subsystem and corresponding application process module highlighted:

Weldments

Our complete offering of weldments support the delivery of gases through the process tool. We have developed both automated and manual welding processes to support world class workmanship on all types of metals needed to support fluid delivery within the semiconductor market. The welded assemblies are used in both wet and dry processes.

Precision Machining

Precision machining provides us the ability to supply our customers with components used in our gas delivery systems and weldments, while also providing custom machined solutions throughout customers’ equipment. Many of these items are used downstream of the gas system and in process critical applications. Our precision machined products can be used in both wet and dry applications.

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History

We were originally incorporated as Celerity, Inc. (“Celerity”) in 1999. Our business of designing and manufacturing critical systems for semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers operated as a stand-alone business until 2009 when Celerity sold the business to a private equity fund. Francisco Partners (“FP”) acquired the business in December 2011 and formed Ichor Holdings, Ltd., an exempt company incorporated in the Cayman Islands, in March 2012 to serve as the parent company as part of a restructuring to accommodate the expansion of our business in Singapore and Malaysia. In April 2012, we acquired Semi Scenic UK Limited to provide refurbishment services for legacy tools. In April 2016, we purchased Ajax-United Patterns & Molds, Inc. (“Ajax”) for $17.6 million to add chemical delivery subsystem capabilities with existing customers. We completed the initial public offering of our ordinary shares in December 2016. In July 2017 we acquired Cal‑Weld, Inc. (“Cal‑Weld”) for $56.2 million to add to our gas delivery subsystem and weldment capabilities. In December 2017 we acquired Talon Innovations Corporation (“Talon”) for $137.8 million to add to our gas delivery subsystem, precision machining, and component manufacturing capabilities. In April 2018, we acquired IAN Engineering Co., Ltd. (“IAN”) for $6.5 million to provide us exposure to and growth opportunities in the Korean semiconductor capital equipment market. We intend to continue to evaluate opportunistic acquisitions to supplement our organic growth.

Customers, Sales and Marketing

We primarily market and sell our products directly to equipment OEMs in the semiconductor equipment market. In Japan, we utilize a value added reseller to market and sell our chemical delivery system. We are dependent upon a small number of customers, as the semiconductor equipment manufacturer market is highly concentrated with four companies accounting for over 80% of all process tool revenues. For 2019, our two largest customers were Lam Research and Applied Materials, which accounted for 51% and 33% of sales, respectively. We do not have long-term contracts that require customers to place orders with us in fixed or minimum volumes, and we generally operate on a purchase order basis with customers.

Our sales and marketing efforts focus on fostering close business relationships with our customers. As a result, we locate many of our account managers near the customer they support. Our sales process involves close collaboration between our account managers and engineering and operations teams. Account managers and engineers work together with customers and in certain cases provide on-site support, including attending customers’ internal meetings related to production and engineering design. Each customer project is supported by our account managers and customer support team who ensure we are aligned with all of the customer’s quality, cost, and delivery expectations.

Operations, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management

We have developed a highly flexible manufacturing model with cost-effective locations situated nearby the manufacturing facilities of our largest customers. We have facilities in the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and Korea.

Operations

Our product cycle engagements begin by working closely with our customers to outline the solution specifications before design and prototyping even begin. Our design and manufacturing process is highly flexible, enabling our customers to make alterations to their final requirements throughout the design, engineering, and manufacturing process. This flexibility results in significantly decreased order-to-delivery cycle times for our customers. For instance, it can take as little as 20 to 30 days for us to manufacture a gas delivery system with fully evaluated performance metrics after receiving an order.

Manufacturing

We are ISO 9001 certified or compliant at each of our manufacturing locations, and our manufactured subsystems and modules adhere to strict design tolerances and specifications. We operate Class 100 and Class 10,000 clean room facilities for customer-specified testing, assembly, and integration of high-purity gas and chemical delivery systems at our locations in Singapore, Oregon, Texas, and Korea. We operate additional facilities in Malaysia, Oregon, and California for weldments and related components used in our gas delivery subsystems, and we operate a separate facility in California for critical components used in our chemical delivery subsystems. We operate facilities in Minnesota and Florida for precision machining of components for sale to our customers and internal use. Many of our facilities are located in close proximity to our largest customers to allow us to collaborate with them on a regular basis and to enable us to deliver our products on a just-in-time basis, regardless of order size or the degree of changes in the applicable configuration or specifications.

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We qualify and test key components that are integrated into our subsystems and test our fluid delivery subsystems during the design process and again prior to shipping. Our quality management system allows us to access real-time corrective action reports, non-conformance reports, customer complaints, and controlled documentation. In addition, our senior management conducts quarterly reviews of our quality control system to evaluate effectiveness. Our customers also complete quarterly surveys which allow us to measure satisfaction.

Supply Chain Management

We use a wide range of components and materials in the production of our gas and chemical delivery systems, including filters, mass flow controllers, regulators, pressure transducers, and valves. We obtain components and materials from a large number or sources, including single source and sole source suppliers.

We use consignment material and just-in-time stocking programs to better manage our component inventories and better respond to changing customer requirements. These approaches enable us to significantly reduce our inventory levels and maintain flexibility in responding to changes in product demand. A key part of our strategy is to identify multiple suppliers with a strong global reach that are located within close proximity to our manufacturing locations.

Technology Development and Engineering

We have a long history of engineering innovation and development. We continue to transition from being an integration engineering and components company into a gas and chemical delivery system and subsystem leader with product development and systems engineering, as well as integration expertise. Our industry continues to experience rapid technological change, requiring us to continuously invest in technology and product development and regularly introduce new products and features that meet our customers’ evolving requirements.

We have built a team of fluid delivery experts. As of December 27, 2019, our engineering team consisted of approximately 95 engineers and designers with mechanical, electrical, chemical, systems, and software expertise. Our engineers are closely connected with our customers and typically work at our customers’ sites and operate as an extension of our customers’ design team. We engineer within our customers’ processes, design vaults, drawing standards, and part numbering systems. These development efforts are designed to meet specific customer requirements in the areas of subsystem design, materials, component selection, and functionality. The majority of our sales are generated from projects during which our engineers cooperated with our customer early in the design cycle. Through this early collaborative process, we become an integral part of our customers’ design and development processes, and we are able to quickly anticipate and respond to our customers’ changing requirements.

Our engineering team also works directly with our suppliers to help them identify new component technologies and make necessary changes in, and enhancements to, the components that we integrate into our products. Our analytical and testing capabilities enable us to evaluate multiple supplier component technologies and provide customers with a wide range of appropriate component and design choices for their gas and chemical delivery systems and other critical subsystems. Our analytical and testing capabilities also help us anticipate technological changes and the requirements in component features for next-generation gas delivery systems and other critical subsystems.

Competition

The markets for our products are very competitive. When we compete for new business, we face competition from other suppliers of gas or chemical delivery subsystems, and in some cases with the internal manufacturing groups of OEMs. While many OEMs have outsourced the design and manufacturing of their gas and chemical delivery systems, we would face additional competition if in the future these OEMs elected to develop these systems internally.

The fluid delivery subsystem market is concentrated and we face competition primarily from Ultra Clean Technology, with additional competition from regional suppliers. The chemical delivery subsystem, weldments, and precision machining industries are fragmented and we face competition from numerous smaller suppliers. In addition, the market for tool refurbishment is fragmented and we compete with many regional competitors. The primary competitive factors we emphasize include:

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We expect our competitors to continue to improve the performance of their current products and to introduce new products or new technologies that could adversely affect sales of our current and future products. In addition, the limited number of potential customers in our industry further intensifies competition. We anticipate that increased competitive pressures may cause intensified price-based competition and we may have to reduce the prices of our products. In addition, we expect to face new competitors as we enter new markets.

Intellectual Property

Our success depends, in part, upon our ability to develop, maintain, and protect our technology and products and to conduct our business without infringing the proprietary rights of others. We continue to invest in securing intellectual property protection for our technology and products and protect our technology by, among other things, filing patent applications. We also rely on a combination of trade secrets and confidentiality provisions, and to a much lesser extent, copyrights and trademarks, to protect our proprietary rights. We have historically focused our patent protection efforts in the United States. As of December 27, 2019, we held 47 patents, 21 of which were U.S. patents and 17 of which were acquired as part of our IP purchase of developed flow controller technology in May 2019. While we consider our patents to be valuable assets, we do not believe the success of our business or our overall operations are dependent upon any single patent or group of related patents. In addition, we do not believe that the loss or expiration of any single patent or group of related patents would materially affect our business.

Intellectual property that we develop on behalf of our customers is generally owned exclusively by those customers. In addition, we have agreed to indemnify certain of our customers against claims of infringement of the intellectual property rights of others with respect to our products. Historically, we have not paid any claims under these indemnification obligations, and we do not have any pending indemnification claims against us.

Employees and Labor Relations

As of December 27, 2019, we had approximately 1,355 full‑time employees and 360 contract or temporary workers, which allow flexibility as business conditions and geographic demand change. Of our total employees, approximately 95 are engineers, 70 are engaged in sales and marketing, 1,440 are engaged in manufacturing, and 110 perform executive and administrative functions. None of our employees are unionized, but in various countries, local law requires our participation in works councils. We have not experienced any material work stoppages at any of our facilities. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good.

Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulations

Our operations and facilities are subject to federal, state, and local regulatory requirements and foreign laws and regulations, relating to environmental, waste management, and health and safety matters, including those relating to the release, use, storage, treatment, transportation, discharge, disposal, and remediation of contaminants, hazardous substances, and wastes, as well as practices and procedures applicable to the construction and operation of our facilities. We believe that our business is operated in substantial compliance with applicable regulations. However, in the future we could incur substantial costs, including cleanup costs, fines or civil or criminal sanctions, or third-party property damage, or personal injury claims, in the event of violations or liabilities under these laws and regulations, or non-compliance with the environmental permits required at our facilities. Potentially significant expenditures could be required in order to comply with environmental laws that may be adopted or imposed in the future. We are not aware of any threatened or pending environmental investigations, lawsuits, or claims involving us, our operations, or our current or former facilities.

Available Information

Our internet address is ichorsystems.com. We make a variety of information available, free of charge, at our Investor Relations website, ir.ichorsystems.com. This information includes our Annual Reports on Form 10‑K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10‑Q, our Current Reports on Form 8‑K, and any amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file those reports with or furnish them to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), as well as our Code of Business Ethics and Conduct and other governance documents.

The SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file documents electronically with the SEC at sec.gov.

The contents of these websites, or the information connected to those websites, are not incorporated into this report. References to websites in this report are provided as a convenience and do not constitute, and should not be viewed as, incorporation by reference of the information contained on, or available through, the website.

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

There are many factors that affect our business and the results of operations, some of which are beyond our control. The following is a description of some important factors that may cause the actual results of operations in future periods to differ materially from those currently expected or desired.

Risks Related to Our Business

Our business depends significantly on expenditures by manufacturers in the semiconductor capital equipment industry, which, in turn, is dependent upon the semiconductor device industry. When that industry experiences cyclical downturns, demand for our products and services is likely to decrease, which would likely result in decreased sales. We may also be forced to reduce our prices during cyclical downturns without being able to proportionally reduce costs.

Our business, financial condition and results of operations depend significantly on expenditures by manufacturers in the semiconductor capital equipment industry. In turn, the semiconductor capital equipment industry depends upon the current and anticipated market demand for semiconductor devices. The semiconductor device industry is subject to cyclical and volatile fluctuations in supply and demand and in the past has periodically experienced significant downturns, which often occur in connection with declines in general economic conditions, and which have resulted in significant volatility in the semiconductor capital equipment industry. The semiconductor device industry has also experienced recurring periods of over-supply of products that have had a severe negative effect on the demand for capital equipment used to manufacture such products. We have experienced, and anticipate that we will continue to experience, significant fluctuations in customer orders for our products and services as a result of such fluctuations and cycles. Any downturns in the semiconductor device industry could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, we must be able to appropriately align our cost structure with prevailing market conditions, effectively manage our supply chain and motivate and retain employees, particularly during periods of decreasing demand for our products. We may be forced to reduce our prices during periods of decreasing demand. While we operate under a low fixed cost model, we may not be able to proportionally reduce all of our costs if we are required to reduce our prices. If we are not able to timely and appropriately adapt to the changes in our business environment, our business, financial condition and results of operations will be materially adversely affected. The cyclical and volatile nature of the semiconductor device industry and the absence of long-term fixed or minimum volume contracts make any effort to project a material reduction in future sales volume difficult.

We rely on a very small number of OEM customers for a significant portion of our sales. Any adverse change in our relationships with these customers could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The semiconductor capital equipment industry is highly concentrated and has experienced significant consolidation in recent years. As a result, a relatively small number of OEM customers have historically accounted for a significant portion of our sales, and we expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future. For 2019, our top two customers accounted for approximately 51% and 33%, respectively, of sales, and we expect that our sales will continue to be concentrated among a very small number of customers. We do not have any long-term contracts that require customers to place orders with us in fixed or minimum volumes. Accordingly, the success of our business depends on the success of our customers and those customers and other OEMs continuing to outsource the manufacturing of critical subsystems and process solutions to us. Because of the small number of OEMs in the markets we serve, a number of which are already our customers, it would be difficult to replace lost sales resulting from the loss of, or the reduction, cancellation or delay in purchase orders by, any one of these customers, whether due to a reduction in the amount of outsourcing they do, their giving orders to our competitors, their acquisition by an OEM who is not a customer or with whom we do less business, or otherwise. We have in the past lost business from customers for a number of these reasons. If we are unable to replace sales from customers who reduce the volume of products and services they purchase from us or terminate their relationship with us entirely, such events could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Additionally, if one or more of the largest OEMs were to decide to single- or sole-source all or a significant portion of manufacturing and assembly work to a single equipment manufacturer, such a development would heighten the risks discussed above.

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Our customers exert a significant amount of negotiating leverage over us, which may require us to accept lower prices and gross margins or increased liability risk in order to retain or expand our market share with them.

By virtue of our largest customers’ size and the significant portion of our sales that is derived from them, as well as the competitive landscape, our customers are able to exert significant influence and pricing pressure in the negotiation of our commercial arrangements and the conduct of our business with them. Our customers often require reduced prices or other pricing, quality or delivery commitments as a condition to their purchasing from us in any given period or increasing their purchase volume, which can, among other things, result in reduced gross margins in order to maintain or expand our market share. Our customers’ negotiating leverage also can result in customer arrangements that may contain significant liability risk to us. For example, some of our customers require that we provide them indemnification against certain liabilities in our arrangements with them, including claims of losses by their customers caused by our products. Any increase in our customers’ negotiating leverage may expose us to increased liability risk in our arrangements with them, which, if realized, may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, new products often carry lower gross margins than existing products for several quarters following their introduction. If we are unable to retain and expand our business with our customers on favorable terms, or if we are unable to achieve gross margins on new products that are similar to or more favorable than the gross margins we have historically achieved, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

The industries in which we participate are highly competitive and rapidly evolving, and if we are unable to compete effectively, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

We face intense competition from other suppliers of gas or chemical delivery subsystems, as well as the internal manufacturing groups of OEMs. Increased competition has in the past resulted, and could in the future result, in price reductions, reduced gross margins or loss of market share, any of which would materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We are subject to significant pricing pressure as we attempt to maintain and increase market share with our existing customers. Our competitors may offer reduced prices or introduce new products or services for the markets currently served by our products and services. These products may have better performance, lower prices and achieve broader market acceptance than our products. OEMs also typically own the design rights to their products. Further, if our competitors obtain proprietary rights to these designs such that we are unable to obtain the designs necessary to manufacture products for our OEM customers, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

Certain of our competitors may have or may develop greater financial, technical, manufacturing and marketing resources than we do. As a result, they may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements, devote greater resources to the development, promotion, sale and support of their products and services, and reduce prices to increase market share. In addition to organic growth by our competitors, there may be merger and acquisition activity among our competitors and potential competitors that may provide our competitors and potential competitors with an advantage over us by enabling them to expand their product offerings and service capabilities to meet a broader range of customer needs. The introduction of new technologies and new market entrants may also increase competitive pressures.

We are exposed to risks associated with weakness in the global economy and geopolitical instability.

Our business is dependent upon manufacturers of semiconductor capital equipment, whose businesses in turn ultimately depend largely on consumer spending on semiconductor devices. Continuing uncertainty regarding the global economy continues to pose challenges to our business. Economic uncertainty and related factors, including current unemployment levels, uncertainty in European debt markets, geopolitical instability in various parts of the world, fiscal uncertainty in the U.S. economy, market volatility and the slow rate of recovery of many countries from recent recessions, exacerbate negative trends in business and consumer spending and may cause certain of our customers to push out, cancel or refrain from placing orders for products or services, which may reduce sales and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Difficulties in obtaining capital, uncertain market conditions or reduced profitability may also cause some customers to scale back operations, exit businesses, merge with other manufacturers, or file for bankruptcy protection and potentially cease operations, leading to customers’ reduced research and development funding and/or capital expenditures and, in turn, lower orders from our customers and/or additional slow moving or obsolete inventory or bad debt expense for us. These conditions may also similarly affect our key suppliers, which could impair their ability to deliver parts and result in delays for our products or require us to either procure products from higher-cost suppliers, or if no additional suppliers exist, to reconfigure the design and manufacture of our products, and we may be unable to fulfill some customer orders. Any of these conditions or events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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In 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union (“EU”) (commonly referred to as “Brexit”). As a result of the referendum, a complex and uncertain process of negotiation has taken place which to date has not resulted in a definitive agreement to establish the future terms of the UK’s relationship with the EU or other countries. Notwithstanding, the UK exited the EU on January 31, 2020 under a transitional arrangement scheduled to remain in place until the end of 2020. The transitional arrangement is intended primarily to maintain the status quo with respect to UK-EU trade and adherence to EU rules while a definitive exit agreement is negotiated. The long-term nature of the UK’s relationship with the EU is unclear and there is considerable uncertainty when, or if, any withdrawal agreement or long-term relationship strategy, including trade deals, will be agreed to and implemented by the UK and the EU. Brexit could adversely affect European or worldwide political, regulatory, economic or market conditions and could contribute to instability in political institutions and regulatory agencies. Brexit could also have the effect of disrupting the free movement of goods, services, and people between the UK, the EU and elsewhere. There can be no assurance that any or all of these events, or others that we cannot anticipate at this time, will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

An outbreak of disease, global or localized health pandemic or epidemic or a similar public health threat, or the fear of such an event may impact economic activity, including, but not limited to demand for our products, workforce availability, and costs to manufacture our products.

In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus (“COVID‑19”) was reported in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization has declared COVID‑19 to constitute a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” On January 30, 2020, the U.S. Department of State issued a Level 4 “do not travel” advisory for China. The U.S. government has also implemented enhanced screenings, quarantine requirements, and travel restrictions in connection with the COVID‑19 outbreak. The disruption to global markets that has occurred due to the epidemic has increased uncertainty for semi-conductor demand. In addition, many suppliers in the semi-conductor industry have had work forces disrupted due to the quarantine requirements and restricted travel. The extent of the impact of COVID‑19 on our operational and financial performance will depend on future developments, including, but not limited to, the duration and spread of the outbreak and related travel advisories and restrictions, all of which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted. Preventing the effects from and responding to this market disruption if any other public health threat, related or otherwise, may further increase costs of our business and may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

If we do not keep pace with developments in the industries we serve and with technological innovation generally, our products and services may not be competitive.

Rapid technological innovation in the markets we serve requires us to anticipate and respond quickly to evolving customer requirements and could render our current product offerings, services and technologies obsolete. In particular, the design and manufacturing of semiconductors is constantly evolving and becoming more complex in order to achieve greater power, performance and efficiency with smaller devices. Capital equipment manufacturers need to keep pace with these changes by refining their existing products and developing new products.

We believe that our future success will depend upon our ability to design, engineer and manufacture products that meet the changing needs of our customers. This requires that we successfully anticipate and respond to technological changes in design, engineering and manufacturing processes in a cost-effective and timely manner. If we are unable to integrate new technical specifications into competitive product designs, develop the technical capabilities necessary to manufacture new products or make necessary modifications or enhancements to existing products, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

The timely development of new or enhanced products is a complex and uncertain process which requires that we:

If we are unsuccessful in keeping pace with technological developments for the reasons above or other reasons, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

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We must design, develop and introduce new products that are accepted by OEMs in order to retain our existing customers and obtain new customers.

The introduction of new products is inherently risky because it is difficult to foresee the adoption of new standards, coordinate our technical personnel and strategic relationships and win acceptance of new products by OEMs. We attempt to mitigate this risk by collaborating with our customers during their design and development processes. We cannot, however, assure you that we will be able to successfully introduce, market and cost-effectively manufacture new products, or that we will be able to develop new or enhanced products and processes that satisfy customer needs. In addition, new capital equipment typically has a lifespan of five to ten years, and OEMs frequently specify which systems, subsystems, components and instruments are to be used in their equipment. Once a specific system, subsystem, component or instrument is incorporated into a piece of capital equipment, it will often continue to be purchased for that piece of equipment on an exclusive basis for 18 to 24 months before the OEM generates enough sales volume to consider adding alternative suppliers. Accordingly, it is important that our products are designed into the new systems introduced by the OEMs. If any of the new products we develop are not launched or successful in the market, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

The manufacturing of our products is highly complex, and if we are not able to manage our manufacturing and procurement process effectively, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

The manufacturing of our products is a highly complex process that involves the integration of multiple components and requires effective management of our supply chain while meeting our customers’ design-to-delivery cycle time requirements. Through the course of the manufacturing process, our customers may modify design and system configurations in response to changes in their own customers’ requirements. In order to rapidly respond to these modifications and deliver our products to our customers in a timely manner, we must effectively manage our manufacturing and procurement process. If we fail to manage this process effectively, we risk losing customers and damaging our reputation. We may also be subject to liability under our agreements with our customers if we or our suppliers fail to re- configure manufacturing processes or components in response to these modifications. In addition, if we acquire inventory in excess of demand or that does not meet customer specifications, we could incur excess or obsolete inventory charges. We have from time to time experienced bottlenecks and production difficulties that have caused delivery delays and quality control problems. These risks are even greater as we seek to expand our business into new subsystems. In addition, certain of our suppliers have been, and may in the future be, forced out of business as a result of the economic environment. In such cases, we may be required to procure products from higher-cost suppliers or, if no additional suppliers exist, reconfigure the design and manufacture of our products. This could materially limit our growth, adversely impact our ability to win future business and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Defects in our products could damage our reputation, decrease market acceptance of our products and result in potentially costly litigation.

A number of factors, including design flaws, material and component failures, contamination in the manufacturing environment, impurities in the materials used and unknown sensitivities to process conditions, such as temperature and humidity, as well as equipment failures, may cause our products to contain undetected errors or defects. Errors, defects or other problems with our products may:

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If any of our products contain defects or have reliability, quality or compatibility problems, our reputation may be damaged and customers may be reluctant to buy our products. We may also face a higher rate of product defects as we increase our production levels in periods of significant growth. Product defects could result in warranty and indemnification liability or the loss of existing customers or impair our ability to attract new customers. In addition, we may not find defects or failures in our products until after they are installed in a manufacturer’s fabrication facility. We may have to invest significant capital and other resources to correct these problems. Our current or potential customers also might seek to recover from us any losses resulting from defects or failures in our products. In addition, hazardous materials flow through and are controlled by certain of our products and an unintended release of these materials could result in serious injury or death. Liability claims could require us to spend significant time and money in litigation or pay significant damages.

We may incur unexpected warranty and performance guarantee claims that could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In connection with our products and services, we provide various product warranties, performance guarantees and indemnification rights. Warranty or other performance guarantee or indemnification claims against us could cause us to incur significant expense to repair or replace defective products or indemnify the affected customer for losses. In addition, quality issues can have various other ramifications, including delays in the recognition of sales, loss of sales, loss of future sales opportunities, increased costs associated with repairing or replacing products, and a negative impact on our reputation, all of which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our dependence on a limited number of suppliers may harm our production output and increase our costs, and may prevent us from delivering acceptable products on a timely basis.

Our ability to meet our customers’ demand for our products depends upon obtaining adequate supplies of quality components and other raw materials on a timely basis. In addition, our customers often specify components from particular suppliers that we must incorporate into our products. We also use consignment and just-in-time stocking programs, which means we carry very little inventory of components or other raw materials, and we rely on our suppliers to deliver necessary components and raw materials in a timely manner. However, our suppliers are under no obligation to provide us with components or other raw materials. As a result, the loss of or failure to perform by any of our key suppliers could materially adversely affect our ability to deliver products on a timely basis. In addition, if a supplier was unable to provide the volume of components we require on a timely basis and at acceptable prices and quality, we would have to identify and qualify replacements from alternative sources of supply. However, the process of qualifying new suppliers for complex components is also lengthy and could delay our production. We may also experience difficulty in obtaining sufficient supplies of components and raw materials in times of significant growth in our business. If we are unable to procure sufficient quantities of components or raw materials from suppliers, our customers may elect to delay or cancel existing orders or not place future orders, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to order and shipment uncertainties, and any significant reductions, cancellations or delays in customer orders could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our sales are difficult to forecast because we generally do not have a material backlog of unfilled orders and because of the short time frame within which we are often required to manufacture and deliver products to our customers. Most of our sales for a particular quarter depend on customer orders placed during that quarter or shortly before it commences. Our contracts generally do not require our customers to commit to minimum purchase volumes. While most of our customers provide periodic rolling forecasts for product orders, those forecasts do not become binding until a formal purchase order is submitted, which generally occurs only a short time prior to shipment. As a result of the foregoing and the cyclicality and volatility of the industries we serve, it is difficult to predict future orders with precision. Occasionally, we order component inventory and build products in advance of the receipt of actual customer orders. Customers may cancel order forecasts, change production quantities from forecasted volumes or delay production for reasons beyond our control. Furthermore, reductions, cancellations or delays in customer order forecasts usually occur without penalty to, or compensation from, the customer. Reductions, cancellations or delays in forecasted orders could cause us to hold inventory longer than anticipated, which could reduce our gross profit, restrict our ability to fund our operations and result in unanticipated reductions or delays in sales. If we do not obtain orders as we anticipate, we could have excess components for a specific product and/or finished goods inventory that we would not be able to sell to another customer, likely resulting in inventory write-offs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Because our customers generally require that they qualify our engineering, documentation, manufacturing and quality control procedures, our ability to add new customers quickly is limited.

We are generally required to qualify and maintain our status as a supplier for each of our customers. This is a time-consuming process that involves the inspection and approval by a customer of our engineering, documentation, manufacturing and quality control procedures before that customer will place orders with us. Our ability to lessen the adverse effect of any loss of, or reduction in sales to, an existing customer through the rapid addition of one or more new customers is limited in part because of these qualification requirements. Consequently, the risk that our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially adversely affected by the loss of, or any reduction in orders by, any of our significant customers is increased. Moreover, if we lost our existing status as a qualified supplier to any of our customers, such customer could cancel its orders from us or otherwise terminate its relationship with us, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may be subject to interruptions or failures in our information technology systems.

We rely on our information technology systems to process transactions, summarize our operating results and manage our business. Our information technology systems are subject to damage or interruption from power outages, computer and telecommunications failures, computer viruses, cyber-attack or other security breaches, catastrophic events, such as fires, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, acts of war or terrorism, and usage errors by our employees. If our information technology systems are damaged or cease to function properly, we may have to make a significant investment to fix or replace them, and we may suffer loss of critical data and interruptions or delays in our operations.

We may be the target of attempted cyber-attacks, computer viruses, malicious code, phishing attacks, denial of service attacks and other information security threats. To date, cyber-attacks have not had a material impact on our financial condition, results or business; however, we could suffer material financial or other losses in the future and we are not able to predict the severity of these attacks. Our risk and exposure to these matters remains heightened because of, among other things, the evolving nature of these threats, the current global economic and political environment, our prominent size and scale and our role in the financial services industry, the outsourcing of some of our business operations, the ongoing shortage of qualified cyber-security professionals, and the interconnectivity and interdependence of third parties to our systems. The occurrence of a cyber-attack, breach, unauthorized access, misuse, computer virus or other malicious code or other cyber-security event could jeopardize or result in the unauthorized disclosure, gathering, monitoring, misuse, corruption, loss or destruction of confidential and other information that belongs to us, our customers, our counterparties, third-party service providers or borrowers that is processed and stored in, and transmitted through, our computer systems and networks. The occurrence of such an event could also result in damage to our software, computers or systems, or otherwise cause interruptions or malfunctions in our, our customers’, our counterparties’ or third parties’ operations. This could result in significant losses, loss of customers and business opportunities, reputational damage, litigation, regulatory fines, penalties or intervention, reimbursement or other compensatory costs, or otherwise adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

The reliability and capacity of our information technology systems is critical to our operations and the implementation of our growth initiatives. Any material disruption in our information technology systems, or delays or difficulties in implementing or integrating new systems or enhancing current systems, could have an adverse effect on our business, and results of operations.

Our business is subject to a variety of U.S. and international laws, rules, policies, and other obligations regarding privacy, data protection, and other matters.

We are subject to federal, state, and international laws relating to the collection, use, retention, security, and transfer of customer, employee, and business partner personally identifiable information (“PII”), including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which came into effect in May 2018 and the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which came into effect on January 1, 2020. In many cases, these laws apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between one company and its subsidiaries, and among the subsidiaries and other parties with which we have commercial relations. The introduction of new products or expansion of our activities in certain jurisdictions may subject us to additional laws and regulations. Foreign data protection, privacy, and other laws and regulations, including GDPR, can be more restrictive than those in the United States. These U.S. federal and state and foreign laws and regulations, including GDPR which can be enforced by private parties or government entities, are constantly evolving and can be subject to significant change. In addition, the application and interpretation of these laws and regulations, including GDPR, are often uncertain, particularly in the new and rapidly evolving industry in which we operate, and may be interpreted and applied inconsistently from country to country and inconsistently with our current policies and practices. These existing and proposed laws and regulations can be costly to comply with and can delay or impede the development of new products, result in negative publicity, increase our operating costs, require significant management time and attention, and subject us to inquiries or investigations, claims or other remedies, including fines, which may be significant, or demands that we modify or cease existing business practices.

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A failure by us, our suppliers, or other parties with whom we do business to comply with posted privacy policies or with other federal, state, or international privacy-related or data protection laws and regulations, including GDPR and CCPA, could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or others, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Restrictive covenants under our Credit Facilities may limit our current and future operations. If we fail to comply with those covenants, the lenders could cause outstanding amounts, which are currently substantial, to become immediately due and payable, and we might not have sufficient funds and assets to pay such loans.

As of December 27, 2019, we had $161.9 million of indebtedness outstanding under our term loan facility and $19.2 million of indebtedness outstanding under our revolving credit facility (our “Credit Facilities”). The outstanding amount of our Credit Facilities reflected in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report is net of $3.0 million of debt issuance costs. We may incur additional indebtedness in the future. Our Credit Facilities contain certain restrictive covenants and conditions, including limitations on our ability to, among other things:

As a result of these covenants, we may be restricted in our ability to pursue new business opportunities or strategies or to respond quickly to changes in the industries that we serve. A violation of any of these covenants would be deemed an event of default under our Credit Facilities. In such event, upon the election of the lenders, the loan commitments under our Credit Facilities would terminate and the principal amount of the loans and accrued interest then outstanding would be due and payable immediately. A default may also result in the acceleration of any other debt to which a cross-acceleration or cross-default provision applies. In the event our lenders accelerate the repayment of our borrowings, we cannot assure you that we and our subsidiaries would have sufficient funds to repay such indebtedness or be able to obtain replacement financing on a timely basis or at all. These events could force us into bankruptcy or liquidation, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We also may need to negotiate changes to the covenants in the agreements governing our Credit Facilities in the future if there are material changes in our business, financial condition or results of operations, but we cannot assure you that we will be able to do so on terms favorable to us or at all.

The interest rates on our credit agreement might change based on changes to the method in which LIBOR or its replacement rate is determined.

In July 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) that regulates LIBOR announced it intends to stop compelling banks to submit rates for the calculation of LIBOR after 2021. As a result, the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York organized the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (“ARRC”) which identified the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) as its preferred alternative to USD-LIBOR in derivatives and other financial contracts. We are not able to predict when LIBOR will cease to be available or when there will be sufficient liquidity in the SOFR markets. Any changes adopted by FCA or other governing bodies in the method used for determining LIBOR may result in a sudden or prolonged increase or decrease in reported LIBOR. If that were to occur, our interest payments could change. In addition, uncertainty about the extent and manner of future changes may result in interest rates and/or payments that are higher or lower than if LIBOR were to remain available in its current form.

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We have agreements that are indexed to LIBOR, including our credit agreement. We are monitoring and evaluating the related risks that arise in connection with transitioning contracts to a new alternative rate, including any resulting value transfer that may occur. The value of loans, securities, or derivative instruments tied to LIBOR could also be impacted if LIBOR is limited or discontinued. For some instruments, the method of transitioning to an alternative rate may be challenging, as they may require negotiation with the respective counterparty.

If an agreement is not transitioned to an alternative rate and LIBOR is discontinued, the impact is likely to vary by agreement. If LIBOR is discontinued or if the methods of calculating LIBOR change from their current form, interest rates on our current or future indebtedness and related interest rate swaps may be adversely affected.

While we expect LIBOR to be available in substantially its current form until the end of 2021, it is possible that LIBOR will become unavailable prior to that point. This could result, for example, if sufficient banks decline to make submissions to the LIBOR administrator. In that case, the risks associated with the transition to an alternative reference rate will be accelerated and magnified.

Certain of our customers require that we consult with them in connection with specified fundamental changes in our business, and address any concerns or requests such customer may have in connection with a fundamental change. While those customers do not have contractual approval or veto rights with respect to fundamental changes, our failure to consult with such customers or to satisfactorily respond to their requests in connection with any such fundamental change could constitute a breach of contract or otherwise be detrimental to our relationships with such customers.

Certain of our key customers require that we consult with them in connection with specified fundamental changes in our business, including, among other things:

These customers do not have contractual approval or veto rights with respect to any fundamental changes in our business. However, our failure to consult with such customers or to satisfactorily respond to their requests in connection with any such fundamental change could constitute a breach of contract or otherwise be detrimental to our relationships with such customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness, including under our Credit Facilities, and may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness, which may not be successful.

Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our indebtedness, including under our Credit Facilities, depends on our financial condition and results of operations, which are subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and other factors beyond our control. We may be unable to maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to fund our day-to-day operations or to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness. If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we could face substantial liquidity problems and could be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures or to sell assets or operations, seek additional capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. If we cannot make scheduled payments on our debt, we will be in default and, as a result, the lenders under our Credit Facilities could terminate their commitments to loan money, or foreclose against the assets securing such borrowings, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation, in each case, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Our business is largely dependent on the know-how of our employees, and we generally do not have an intellectual property position that is protected by patents.

We believe that the success of our business depends in part on our proprietary technology, information, processes and know-how and on our ability to operate without infringing on the proprietary rights of third parties. We rely on a combination of trade secrets and contractual confidentiality provisions and, to a much lesser extent, patents, copyrights and trademarks to protect our proprietary rights. Accordingly, our intellectual property position is more vulnerable than it would be if it were protected primarily by patents. We cannot assure you that we have adequately protected or will be able to adequately protect our technology, that our competitors will not be able to utilize our existing technology or develop similar technology independently, that the claims allowed with respect to any patents held by us will be broad enough to protect our technology or that foreign intellectual property laws will adequately protect our intellectual property rights. If we fail to protect our proprietary rights successfully, our competitive position could suffer. Any future litigation to enforce patents issued to us, to protect trade secrets or know-how possessed by us or to defend ourselves or to indemnify others against claimed infringement of the rights of others could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Third parties have claimed and may in the future claim we are infringing their intellectual property, which could subject us to litigation or licensing expenses, and we may be prevented from selling our products if any such claims prove successful.

We may in the future receive claims that our products, processes or technologies infringe the patents or other proprietary rights of third parties. In addition, we may be unaware of intellectual property rights of others that may be applicable to our products. Any litigation regarding our patents or other intellectual property could be costly and time-consuming and divert our management and key personnel from our business operations, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. The complexity of the technology involved in our products and the uncertainty of intellectual property litigation increase these risks. Claims of intellectual property infringement may also require us to enter into costly license agreements. However, we may not be able to obtain licenses on terms acceptable to us, or at all. We also may be subject to significant damages or injunctions against the development, manufacture and sale of certain of our products if any such claims prove successful. We also rely on design specifications and other intellectual property of our customers in the manufacture of products for such customers. While our customer agreements generally provide for indemnification of us by a customer if we are subjected to litigation for third-party claims of infringement of such customer’s intellectual property, such indemnification provisions may not be sufficient to fully protect us from such claims, or our customers may breach such indemnification obligations to us, which could result in costly litigation to defend against such claims or enforce our contractual rights to such indemnification.

From time to time, we may become involved in other litigation and regulatory proceedings, which could require significant attention from our management and result in significant expense to us and disruptions in our business.

In addition to any litigation related to our intellectual property rights, we may in the future be named as a defendant from time to time in other lawsuits and regulatory actions relating to our business, such as commercial contract claims, employment claims and tax examinations, some of which may claim significant damages or cause us reputational harm. Due to the inherent uncertainties of litigation and regulatory proceedings, we cannot predict the ultimate outcome of any such proceeding. An unfavorable outcome could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations or limit our ability to engage in certain of our business activities. In addition, regardless of the outcome of any litigation or regulatory proceeding, such proceedings are often expensive, time-consuming and disruptive to normal business operations and require significant attention from our management. As a result, any such lawsuits or proceedings could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The technology labor market is very competitive, and our business will suffer if we are unable to hire and retain key personnel.

Our future success depends in part on the continued service of our key executive officers, as well as our research, engineering, sales and manufacturing personnel, most of whom are not subject to employment or non-competition agreements. Competition for qualified personnel in the technology industry is particularly intense, and we operate in geographic locations in which labor markets are competitive. Our management team has significant industry experience and deep customer relationships, and therefore would be difficult to replace. In addition, our business is dependent to a significant degree on the expertise and relationships which only a limited number of engineers possess. Many of these engineers often work at our customers’ sites and serve as an extension of our customers’ product design teams. The loss of any of our key executive officers or key engineers and other personnel, including our engineers working at our customers’ sites, or the failure to attract additional personnel as needed, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and could lead to higher labor costs, the use of less-qualified personnel and the loss of customers. In addition, if any of our key executive officers or other key employees were to join a competitor or form a competing company, we could lose customers, suppliers, know-how and key personnel.

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We do not maintain key-man life insurance with respect to any of our employees. Our business will suffer if we are unable to attract, employ and retain highly skilled personnel.

Future acquisitions may present integration challenges, and if the goodwill, indefinite-lived intangible assets and other long-term assets recorded in connection with such acquisitions become impaired, we would be required to record impairment charges, which may be significant.

We have acquired strategic businesses in the past and if we find appropriate opportunities in the future, we may acquire businesses, products or technologies that we believe are strategic. The process of integrating an acquired business, product or technology may produce unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures, fail to result in expected synergies or other benefits and absorb significant attention of our management that would otherwise be available for the ongoing development of our business. In addition, we may record a portion of the assets we acquire as goodwill, other indefinite-lived intangible assets or finite-lived intangible assets. We do not amortize goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets, but rather review them for impairment on an annual basis or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that their carrying value may not be recoverable. The recoverability of goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets is dependent on our ability to generate sufficient future earnings and cash flows. Changes in estimates, circumstances or conditions, resulting from both internal and external factors, could have a significant impact on our fair valuation determination, which could then have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our quarterly sales and operating results fluctuate significantly from period to period, and this may cause volatility in our share price.

Our quarterly sales and operating results have fluctuated significantly in the past, and we expect them to continue to fluctuate in the future for a variety of reasons, including the following:

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As a result of the foregoing, we believe that quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our sales and results of operations may not be meaningful and that these comparisons may not be an accurate indicator of our future performance. Changes in the timing or terms of a small number of transactions could disproportionately affect our results of operations in any particular quarter. Moreover, our results of operations in one or more future quarters may fail to meet our guidance or the expectations of securities analysts or investors. If this occurs, we would expect to experience an immediate and significant decline in the trading price of our ordinary shares.

Labor disruptions could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

As of December 27, 2019, we had approximately 1,355 full time employees and 360 contract or temporary workers worldwide. None of our employees are unionized, but in various countries, local law requires our participation in works councils. While we have not experienced any material work stoppages at any of our facilities, any stoppage or slowdown could cause material interruptions in manufacturing, and we cannot assure you that alternate qualified capacity would be available on a timely basis, or at all. As a result, labor disruptions at any of our facilities could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

As a global company, we are subject to the risks of doing business internationally, including periodic foreign economic downturns and political instability, which may adversely affect our sales and cost of doing business in those regions of the world.

Foreign economic downturns have adversely affected our business and results of operations in the past and could adversely affect our business and results of operations in the future. In addition, other factors relating to the operation of our business outside of the United States may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations in the future, including:

In the future, we may seek to expand our presence in certain foreign markets or enter emerging markets. Evaluating or entering into an emerging market may require considerable management time, as well as start-up expenses for market development before any significant sales and earnings are generated. Operations in new foreign markets may achieve low margins or may be unprofitable, and expansion in existing markets may be affected by local political, economic and market conditions. As we continue to operate our business globally, our success will depend, in part, on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these and the other risks noted above. The impact of any one or more of these factors could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Changes in U.S. trade policy, tariff and import/export regulations may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our international operations and transactions also depend upon favorable trade relations between the United States and the foreign countries in which our customers and suppliers have operations. Changes in U.S. or international social, political, regulatory and economic conditions or in laws and policies governing foreign trade, manufacturing, development and investment in the territories or countries where we currently sell our products or conduct our business, as well as any negative sentiment toward the U.S. as a result of such changes, could adversely affect our business. The current U.S. presidential administration has instituted or proposed changes in trade policies that include the negotiation or termination of trade agreements, the imposition of higher tariffs on imports into the U.S., economic sanctions on individuals, corporations or countries, and other government regulations affecting trade between the U.S. and other countries where we conduct our business. It may be time-consuming and expensive for us to alter our business operations in order to adapt to or comply with any such changes.

As a result of recent policy changes of the U.S. presidential administration and recent U.S. government proposals, there may be greater restrictions and economic disincentives on international trade. The new tariffs and other changes in U.S. trade policy could trigger retaliatory actions by affected countries, and certain foreign governments have instituted or are considering imposing trade sanctions on certain U.S. goods. We do a significant amount of business that would be impacted by changes to the trade policies of the U.S. and foreign countries (including governmental action related to tariffs, international trade agreements, or economic sanctions). Such changes have the potential to adversely impact the U.S. economy or certain sectors thereof, our industry and the global demand for our products. We may not succeed in developing and implementing policies and strategies to counter the foregoing factors effectively in each location where we do business and the foregoing factors may cause a reduction in our sales, profitability or cash flows, or cause an increase in our liabilities.

We are subject to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates which could cause operating results and reported financial results to vary significantly from period to period.

The vast majority of our sales are denominated in U.S. Dollars. Many of the costs and expenses associated with our Singapore, Malaysian and U.K. operations are paid in Singapore Dollars, Malaysian Ringgit or British Pounds (or Euros), respectively, and we expect our exposure to these currencies to increase as we increase our operations in those countries. As a result, our risk exposure from transactions denominated in non-U.S. currencies is primarily related to the Singapore Dollar, Malaysian Ringgit, British Pound and Euro. In addition, because the majority of our sales are denominated in the U.S. Dollar, if one or more of our competitors sells to our customers in a different currency than the U.S. Dollar, we are subject to the risk that the competitors’ products will be relatively less expensive than our products due to exchange rate effects. We have not historically established transaction-based hedging programs. Foreign currency exchange risks inherent in doing business in foreign countries could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to numerous environmental laws and regulations, which could require us to incur environmental liabilities, increase our manufacturing and related compliance costs or otherwise adversely affect our business.

We are subject to a variety of federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations governing the protection of the environment. These environmental laws and regulations include those relating to the use, storage, handling, discharge, emission, disposal and reporting of toxic, volatile or otherwise hazardous materials used in our manufacturing processes. These materials may have been or could be released into the environment at properties currently or previously owned or operated by us, at other locations during the transport of materials or at properties to which we send substances for treatment or disposal. In addition, we may not be aware of all environmental laws or regulations that could subject us to liability in the United States or internationally. If we were to violate or become liable under environmental laws and regulations or become non-compliant with permits required at some of our facilities, we could be held financially responsible and incur substantial costs, including cleanup costs, fines and civil or criminal sanctions, third-party property damage or personal injury claims.

Failure to maintain effective internal controls in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.

As a publicly traded company, we are required to comply with the SEC’s rules implementing Section 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which require management to certify financial and other information in our quarterly and annual reports and provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of controls over financial reporting. Pursuant to the JOBS Act, our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until the later of the year following our first annual report required to be filed with the SEC or the date we are no longer an emerging growth company, which may be up to five full fiscal years following our initial public offering in December 2016.

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If we identify weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner or to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our common stock could be negatively affected, and we could become subject to investigations by NASDAQ, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.

In the third quarter of 2019, we identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and may identify additional material weaknesses in the future that may cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations or result in material misstatements of our financial statements. If our internal control over financial reporting or our disclosure controls and procedures are not effective, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results, prevent fraud or file our periodic reports in a timely manner, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and may lead to a decline in our share price.

During the third quarter of 2019, we identified a material weakness in our controls related to the prevention and timely detection of funds transfers to unauthorized accounts. We were the target of criminal fraud by persons impersonating one of our suppliers, which resulted in the transfer of funds to unauthorized bank accounts. The fraud did not represent a breach of our information systems, as confirmed by an external forensic examination, but rather it was a targeted phishing scam. Although our internal controls were not properly designed to prevent and timely detect the transfer of funds to unauthorized accounts, a secondary control was properly designed and operated effectively, which aided in a full recovery of all funds that were transferred. Accordingly, there was no financial loss to record in our financial statements.

We determined that certain internal controls required for safeguarding our cash assets were not properly designed due to insufficient specificity regarding our policies and procedures surrounding supplier banking information changes, not identifying segregation of duties, and insufficient training on exercising professional skepticism.

We initiated a remediation plan during the third quarter of 2019 and have completed the following actions:

We consider the material weakness remediated as of December 27, 2019, as the remedial controls have operated for a sufficient period of time and we have concluded, through testing, that these controls are operating effectively.

There are limitations on the effectiveness of controls, and the failure of our control systems may materially and adversely impact us.

We do not expect that disclosure controls or internal controls over financial reporting will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. Failure of our control systems to prevent error or fraud could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Compliance with SEC rules relating to “conflict minerals” may require us and our suppliers to incur substantial expense and may result in disclosure by us that certain minerals used in products we manufacture are not “DRC conflict free.”

Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the Dodd-Frank Act, required the SEC to promulgate rules requiring disclosure by a public company of any “conflict minerals” (tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold) necessary to the functionality or production of a product manufactured or contracted to be manufactured by such company. The SEC adopted final rules in 2012 which took effect at the end of January 2013. Because we manufacture products which may contain tin, tungsten, tantalum or gold, we will be required under these rules to determine whether those minerals are necessary to the functionality or production of our products and, if so, conduct a country of origin inquiry with respect to all such minerals. If any such minerals may have originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or the DRC, or any of its adjoining countries, or the “covered countries,” then we and our suppliers must conduct diligence on the source and chain of custody of the conflict minerals to determine if they did originate in one of the covered countries and, if so, whether they financed or benefited armed groups in the covered countries. Disclosures relating to the products which may contain conflict minerals, the country of origin of those minerals and whether they are “DRC conflict free” must be provided in a Form SD (and accompanying conflict minerals report if one is required to disclose the diligence undertaken by us in sourcing the minerals and our conclusions relating to such diligence). If we are required to submit a conflict minerals report, that report must be audited by an independent auditor pursuant to existing government auditing standards, unless (for the first two years) we are unable to determine whether the minerals are “DRC conflict free.” Compliance with this disclosure rule may be very time consuming for management and our supply chain personnel (as well as time consuming for our suppliers) and could involve the expenditure of significant amounts of money and resources by us and them. Disclosures by us mandated by the rules which are perceived by the market to be “negative” may cause customers to refuse to purchase our products. We are currently unable to assess the cost of compliance with this rule, and we cannot assure you that such cost will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, power outages, floods, and other catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made disruptions, such as terrorism.

Our facilities could be subject to a catastrophic loss caused by natural disasters, including fires and earthquakes. If any of our facilities were to experience a catastrophic loss, it could disrupt our operations, delay production and shipments, reduce sales and result in large expenses to repair or replace the facility. In addition, we may experience extended power outages at our facilities. Disruption in supply resulting from natural disasters or other causalities or catastrophic events may result in certain of our suppliers being unable to deliver sufficient quantities of components or raw materials at all or in a timely manner, disruptions in our operations or disruptions in our customers’ operations. To the extent that natural disasters or other calamities or causalities should result in delays or cancellations of customer orders, or the delay in the manufacture or shipment of our products, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.

Changes in tax laws, tax rates or tax assets and liabilities could materially adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

As a global company, we are subject to taxation in the United States and various other countries. Significant judgment is required to determine and estimate worldwide tax liabilities. Our future annual and quarterly tax rates could be affected by numerous factors, including changes in applicable tax laws, the amount and composition of pre-tax income in countries with differing tax rates or valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities. We have significant operations in the United States and our holding company structure includes entities organized in the Cayman Islands, Netherlands, Singapore and Scotland. As a result, changes in applicable tax laws in these jurisdictions could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

We are also subject to regular examination by the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities, and from time to time we initiate amendments to previously filed tax returns. We regularly assess the likelihood of favorable or unfavorable outcomes resulting from these examinations and amendments to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes, which requires estimates and judgments. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, we cannot assure you that the tax authorities will agree with such estimates. We may have to engage in litigation to achieve the results reflected in the estimates, which may be time- consuming and expensive. We cannot assure you that we will be successful or that any final determination will not be materially different from the treatment reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals, which could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

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Our operations might be affected by the occurrence of a natural disaster or other catastrophic event.

We depend on our customers and facilities for the continued operation of our business. While we maintain disaster recovery plans, they might not adequately protect us. Despite any precautions we take for natural disasters or other catastrophic events, these events, including terrorist attack, a pandemic, epidemic or outbreak of a disease (including the COVID-19 coronavirus), hurricanes, fire, floods and ice and snow storms, could result in damage to and closure of our or our customers’ facilities or the infrastructure on which such facilities rely. Such disruptions could significant delays in the shipments of our products, reduce our capacity to provide services, eradicate unique manufacturing capabilities, result in our customers’ inability to pay for our products or services and, ultimately, result in the loss of revenue and clients. Although we carry business interruption insurance policies and typically have provisions in our contracts that protect us in certain events, our coverage might not be adequate to compensate us for all losses that may occur. Any natural disaster or catastrophic event affecting us or our customers could have a significant negative impact on our operations and financial performance.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Ordinary Shares

The price of our ordinary shares may fluctuate substantially.

You should consider an investment in our ordinary shares to be risky, and you should invest in our ordinary shares only if you can withstand a significant loss and wide fluctuations in the market value of your investment. Some factors that may cause the market price of our ordinary shares to fluctuate, in addition to the other risks mentioned in this report, are:

In addition, if the market for stocks in our industry or industries related to our industry, or the stock market in general, experiences a loss of investor confidence, the trading price of our ordinary shares could decline for reasons unrelated to our business, financial condition and results of operations. If any of the foregoing occurs, it could cause our share price to fall and may expose us to lawsuits that, even if unsuccessful, could be costly to defend and a distraction to management.

Future sales of our ordinary shares, or the perception in the public markets that these sales may occur, may depress our share price.

We may seek to raise additional capital from time to time in the future, which may involve the issuance of additional ordinary shares, or securities convertible into ordinary shares. Sales of substantial amounts of our ordinary shares in the public market, or the perception that these sales could occur, could adversely affect the price of our ordinary shares and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional shares.

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We are an “emerging growth company” and have elected to comply with reduced public company reporting requirements, which could make our ordinary shares less attractive to investors.

We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may choose to take advantage of exemptions from various public company reporting requirements. These exemptions include, but are not limited to, (i) not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes‑Oxley Act, (ii) reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports, proxy statements and registration statements, and (iii) exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years after the first sale of our ordinary shares pursuant to an effective registration statement under the Securities Act, which fifth anniversary will occur in December 2021. However, if certain events occur prior to the end of such five‑year period, including if we become a “large accelerated filer,” our annual gross revenue exceeds $1.0 billion or we issue more than $1.0 billion of non‑convertible debt in any three‑year period, we would cease to be an emerging growth company prior to the end of such five‑year period. We have taken advantage of certain of the reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation and may elect to take advantage of other reduced disclosure obligations in our SEC filings. As a result, the information that we provide to holders of our ordinary shares may be different than you might receive from other public reporting companies in which you hold equity interests. We cannot predict if investors will find our ordinary shares less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions. If some investors find our ordinary shares less attractive as a result of any choice we make to reduce disclosure, there may be a less active trading market for our ordinary shares and the price for our ordinary shares may be more volatile.

Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies may also elect to delay adoption of new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected not to avail ourselves of this extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, we will be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies.

We do not expect to pay any cash dividends for the foreseeable future.

We do not anticipate that we will pay any cash dividends on our ordinary shares for the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon our financial condition, results of operations, contractual restrictions (including those under our Credit Facilities and any potential indebtedness we may incur in the future), restrictions imposed by applicable law, tax considerations and other factors our Board of Directors deems relevant. There can be no assurance that we will pay a dividend in the future or continue to pay any dividend if we do commence paying dividends. Accordingly, realization of a gain on an investment in our ordinary shares will depend on the appreciation of the price of our ordinary shares, which may never occur. Investors seeking cash dividends in the foreseeable future should not purchase our ordinary shares.

Our articles of association contain anti-takeover provisions that could adversely affect the rights of our shareholders.

Our articles of association contain provisions to limit the ability of others to acquire control of our company or cause us to engage in change-of control transactions, including, among other things:

These provisions could have the effect of depriving our shareholders of an opportunity to sell their shares at a premium over prevailing market prices by discouraging third parties from seeking to obtain control of our company in a tender offer or similar transaction. With our staggered Board of Directors, at least two annual meetings of shareholders are generally required in order to effect a change in a majority of our directors. Our staggered Board of Directors can discourage proxy contests for the election of our directors and purchases of substantial blocks of our shares by making it more difficult for a potential acquirer to gain control of our Board of Directors in a relatively short period of time.

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The issuance of preferred shares could adversely affect holders of ordinary shares.

Our Board of Directors is authorized to issue preferred shares without any action on the part of holders of our ordinary shares. Our Board of Directors also has the power, without shareholder approval, to set the terms of any such preferred shares that may be issued, including voting rights, dividend rights, and preferences over our ordinary shares with respect to dividends or if we liquidate, dissolve or wind up our business and other terms. If we issue preferred shares in the future that have preference over our ordinary shares with respect to the payment of dividends or upon our liquidation, dissolution or winding up, or if we issue preferred shares with voting rights that dilute the voting power of our ordinary shares, the rights of holders of our ordinary shares or the price of our ordinary shares could be adversely affected.

You may face difficulties in protecting your interests as a shareholder, as Cayman Islands law provides substantially less protection when compared to the laws of the United States.

Our corporate affairs are governed by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and by the Companies Law (2013 Revision) and common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take legal action against our directors and us, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from English common law, which has persuasive, but not binding, authority on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedents in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands have a less exhaustive body of securities laws as compared to the United States. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholder derivative action before the United States federal courts.

As a result of all of the above, our shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests through actions against us or our officers, directors or major shareholders than would shareholders of a corporation incorporated in a jurisdiction in the United States.

Certain judgments obtained against us by our shareholders may not be enforceable.

We are a Cayman Islands company and a portion our assets are located outside of the United States. As a result, it may be difficult or impossible for you to bring an action against us in the United States in the event that you believe that your rights have been infringed under U.S. federal securities laws or otherwise. Even if you are successful in bringing an action of this kind, the laws of the Cayman Islands may render you unable to enforce a judgment against our assets. There is no statutory recognition in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, although the courts of the Cayman Islands will generally recognize and enforce a non-penal judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits.

There can be no assurance that we will not be a passive foreign investment company for any taxable year, which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. Holders of our ordinary shares.

A non-U.S. corporation will be a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for any taxable year if either (i) at least 75% of its gross income for such year is passive income or (ii) at least 50% of the value of its assets (generally based on an average of the quarterly values of the assets) during such year is attributable to assets that produce or are held for the production of passive income. Our PFIC status for any taxable year can be determined only after the close of that year.

Based on the value of our assets and the composition of our income and assets, we do not believe we were treated as a PFIC for U.S. federal income purposes for our taxable year ending December 27, 2019. However, the determination of PFIC status is based on an annual determination that cannot be made until the close of a taxable year, involves extensive factual investigation, including ascertaining the fair market value of all of our assets on a quarterly basis and the character of each item of income that we earn, and is subject to uncertainty in several respects. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that we were not treated as a PFIC for our taxable year ending December 27, 2019 or any prior taxable year, or that we will not be treated as a PFIC for any future taxable year or that the IRS will not take a contrary position.

If we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. person holds ordinary shares, certain adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences could apply to such U.S. person. You are strongly urged to consult your tax advisors as to whether or not we will be a PFIC.

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If a U.S. person is treated as owning at least 10% of our shares, such person may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences.

If a U.S. person is treated as owning (directly, indirectly, or constructively) at least 10% of the value or voting power of our shares, such person may be treated as a “United States shareholder” with respect to each “controlled foreign corporation” in our group (if any). Because our group includes one or more U.S. subsidiaries, certain of our non-U.S. subsidiaries could be treated as controlled foreign corporations (regardless of whether we are or are not treated as a controlled foreign corporation).

A United States shareholder of a controlled foreign corporation may be required to annually report and include in its U.S. taxable income its pro rata share of “Subpart F income,” “global intangible low-taxed income” and investments in United States property by controlled foreign corporations, whether or not we make any distributions. An individual that is a United States shareholder with respect to a controlled foreign corporation generally would not be allowed certain tax deductions or foreign tax credits that would be allowed to a United States shareholder that is a U.S. corporation. A failure to comply with these reporting obligations may subject a United States shareholder to significant monetary penalties and may prevent starting of the statute of limitations with respect to such shareholder’s U.S. federal income tax return for the year for which reporting was due.  We cannot provide any assurances that we will assist investors in determining whether we are or any of our current or future non-U.S. subsidiaries is treated as a controlled foreign corporation or whether such investor is treated as a United States shareholder with respect to any such controlled foreign corporation. In addition, we cannot provide assurances we will furnish to any United States shareholders information that may be necessary to comply with the aforementioned reporting and tax paying obligations.

A U.S. investor should consult its tax advisors regarding the potential application of these rules to its investment in our shares.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

Our principal executive office is located at 3185 Laurelview Ct., Fremont, California 94538. As of December 27, 2019, our principal manufacturing and administrative facilities, including our executive offices, comprises approximately 595,700 square feet. All of our facilities are leased, which allows for flexibility as business conditions and geographic demand change. The table below sets forth the approximate square footage of each of our facilities.

We believe that our existing facilities and equipment are well maintained, in good operating condition, and are adequate to meet our currently anticipated requirements.

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

We are currently not a party to any material legal proceedings. However, in the future we may be subject to various legal claims and proceedings which arise in the ordinary course of our business involving claims incidental to our business, including employment-related claims.

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

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PART II

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR THE REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED SHAREHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Holders of Record

On March 4, 2020, other than ordinary shares held in “nominee” or “street” name and those in our treasury account, we had 2 holders of record.

Dividends

We do not anticipate that we will pay any cash dividends on our ordinary shares for the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon our financial condition, results of operations, contractual restrictions (including those under our Credit Facilities and any potential indebtedness we may incur in the future), restrictions imposed by applicable law, tax considerations, and other factors our Board of Directors deems relevant.

Share Repurchase Program

Information related to repurchases of our ordinary shares during 2019 is as follows:

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Stock Performance Graph

The information included under the heading “Stock Performance Graph” is “furnished” and not “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section, nor shall it be deemed to be “soliciting material” subject to Regulation 14A or incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act.

Our ordinary shares are listed for trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol “ICHR.” The Stock Price Performance Graph set forth below plots the cumulative total shareholder return on a quarterly basis of our ordinary shares from December 9, 2016, the date on which our shares began trading, through December 27, 2019, with the cumulative total return of the Nasdaq Composite Index and the PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index over the same period. The comparison assumes $100 was invested on December 9, 2016 in the ordinary shares of Ichor Holdings, Ltd., in the Nasdaq Composite Index, and in the PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index and assumes reinvestment of dividends, if any.

The stock price performance shown on the graph above is not necessarily indicative of future price performance. Information used in the graph was obtained from the Nasdaq Stock Market, a source believed to be reliable, but we are not responsible for any errors or omissions in such information.

ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

The following tables present our historical selected consolidated financial data. The selected consolidated statement of operations data for 2019, 2018, and 2017, and the selected balance sheet data as of December 27, 2019 and December 28, 2018, are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements that are included elsewhere in this report. The selected statement of operations data for 2016 and 2015 and balance sheet data as of December 29, 2017, December 30, 2016, and December 25, 2015 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements not included in this report.

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Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future. You should read the selected historical financial data below in conjunction with the section titled Item 7 – Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and the financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this report.

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this report. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements based upon our current plans, expectations and beliefs that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include those discussed below and elsewhere in this report, particularly in “Risk Factors”.

Overview

We are a leader in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of critical fluid delivery subsystems and components for semiconductor capital equipment. Our product offerings include gas and chemical delivery systems and subsystems, collectively known as fluid delivery systems and subsystems, which are key elements of the process tools used in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. Our gas delivery subsystems deliver, monitor, and control precise quantities of the specialized gases used in semiconductor manufacturing processes such as etch and deposition. Our chemical delivery systems and subsystems precisely blend and dispense the reactive liquid chemistries used in semiconductor manufacturing processes such as chemical-mechanical planarization, electroplating, and cleaning. We also manufacture precision machined components, weldments, and proprietary products for use in fluid delivery systems for direct sales to our customers. This vertically integrated portion of our business is primarily focused on metal and plastic parts that are used in gas and chemical systems, respectively.

Fluid delivery subsystems ensure accurate measurement and uniform delivery of specialty gases and chemicals at critical steps in the semiconductor manufacturing processes. Any malfunction or material degradation in fluid delivery reduces yields and increases the likelihood of manufacturing defects in these processes. Most OEMs outsource all or a portion of the design, engineering, and manufacturing of their gas delivery subsystems to a few specialized suppliers, including us. Additionally, many OEMs are also increasingly outsourcing the design, engineering, and manufacturing of their chemical delivery subsystems due to the increased fluid expertise required to manufacture these subsystems. Outsourcing these subsystems has allowed OEMs to leverage the suppliers’ highly specialized engineering, design, and production skills while focusing their internal resources on their own value-added processes. We believe that this outsourcing trend has enabled OEMs to reduce their costs and development time, as well as provide growth opportunities for specialized subsystems suppliers like us.

We have a global footprint with production facilities in Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, California, Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, and Texas. In 2019, 2018, and 2017, our two largest customers by revenue were Lam Research and Applied Materials.

Key Factors Affecting Our Business

Investment in Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment

The design and manufacturing of semiconductor devices is constantly evolving and becoming more complex in order to achieve greater performance and efficiency. To keep pace with these changes, OEMs need to refine their existing products and invest in developing new products. In addition, semiconductor device manufacturers will continue to invest in new wafer fabrication equipment to expand their production capacity and to support new manufacturing processes.

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Outsourcing of Subsystems by Semiconductor OEMs

Faced with increasing manufacturing complexities, more complex subsystems, shorter product lead times, shorter industry spend cycles, and significant capital requirements, outsourcing of subsystems and components by OEMs has continued to grow. In the past two decades, OEMs have outsourced most of their gas delivery systems to suppliers such as us. OEMs have also started to outsource their chemical delivery systems in recent years. Our results will be affected by the degree to which outsourcing of these fluid delivery systems by OEMs continues to grow.

Cyclicality of Semiconductor Device Industry

Our business is indirectly subject to the cyclicality of the semiconductor device industry. In 2019, we derived approximately 85% of our sales from the semiconductor device industry. Demand for semiconductor devices can fluctuate significantly based on changes in general economic conditions, including consumer spending, demand for the products that include these devices, and other factors. In the past, these fluctuations have resulted in significant variations in our results of operations. The cyclicality of the semiconductor device industries will continue to impact our results of operations in the future.

Customer Concentration

The number of capital equipment manufacturers for the semiconductor device industry is significantly consolidated, resulting in a small number of large manufacturers. Our customers are a significant component of this consolidation, resulting in our sales being concentrated in a few customers. In 2019, our top two customers were Lam Research and Applied Material, with Lam Research and Applied Materials accounting for approximately 51% and 33% of sales, respectively. The sales we generated from these customers in 2019 were spread across 35 different product lines utilized in 13 unique manufacturing process steps. We believe the diversity of products that we provide to these customers, combined with the fact that our customers use our products on numerous types of process equipment, lessens the impact of the inherent concentration in the industry. Our customers often require reduced prices or other pricing, quality, or delivery commitments as a condition to their purchasing from us in any given period or increasing their purchase volume, which can, among other things, result in reduced gross margins in order to maintain or expand our market share. Although we do not have any long-term contracts that require customers to place orders with us, Lam Research and Applied Materials have been our customers for over 10 years.

Acquisitions

We acquired Cal‑Weld, a California-based leader in the design and fabrication of precision, high purity industrial components, subsystems, and systems, in July 2017 for $56.2 million. We also acquired Talon, a Minnesota-based leader in the design and manufacturing of high precision machined parts used in leading edge semiconductor tools, in December 2017 for $137.8 million. On a combined basis, these acquisitions contributed approximately $57.5 million to sales in 2017. We acquired IAN, a Seoul-based leader in providing locally-sourced design and manufacturing of gas delivery systems to customers in South Korea, for $6.5 million, which contributed $7.7 million to sales in 2018. These acquisitions continue to have a significant impact on our financial position and results of operations. We intend to continue to evaluate opportunistic acquisitions to supplement our organic growth, and any such acquisitions could have a material impact on our business and results of operations.

Components of Our Results of Operations

The following discussion sets forth certain components of our statements of operations as well as significant factors that impact those items.

Sales

We generate sales primarily from the design, manufacture, and sale of subsystems and components for semiconductor capital equipment. Sales are recognized when control of promised goods or services is transferred to our customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services. Our shipping terms are generally “shipping point.” Accordingly, control transfers, and sales are recognized, at this point-in-time.

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Cost of Sales and Gross Profit

Cost of sales consists primarily of purchased materials, direct labor, indirect labor, factory overhead cost, and depreciation expense for our manufacturing facilities and equipment, as well as certain engineering costs that are related to non-recurring engineering services that we provide to, and for which we invoice, our customers in connection with their product development activities. Our business has a highly variable cost structure with a low fixed overhead structure as a percentage of cost of sales. In addition, our existing global manufacturing plant capacity is scalable and we are able to adjust to increased customer demand for our products without significant additional capital investment. We operate our business in this manner to avoid having excessive fixed costs during a cyclical downturn while retaining flexibility to expand our production volumes during periods of growth. However, this approach results in a smaller increase in gross margin as a percentage of sales in times of increased demand.

Since the gross margin on each of our products differs, our overall gross margin as a percentage of our sales changes based on the mix of products we sell in any period.

Operating Expenses

Our operating expenses primarily include research and development and sales, general, and administrative expenses. Personnel costs are the most significant component of operating expenses and consist of salaries, benefits, bonuses, share-based compensation, and, with regard to sales and marketing expense, sales commissions. Operating expenses also include overhead costs for facilities, IT, and depreciation. In addition, our operating expenses include costs related to amortization of intangible assets and restructuring costs.

Research and development – Research and development expense consists primarily of activities related to product design and other development activities, new component testing and evaluation, and test equipment and fixture development. Research and development expense does not include engineering costs that are related to non-recurring engineering services that we provide to, and for which we invoice, our customers as part of sales, which are reflected as cost of sales. We expect research and development expense will increase in absolute dollars as our customers continue to increase their demand for new product designs and as we invest in our research and product development efforts to enhance our product capabilities and access new customer markets.

Selling, general, and administrative – Selling expense consists primarily of salaries and commissions paid to our sales and sales support employees and other costs related to the sales of our products. General and administrative expense consists primarily of salaries and overhead associated with our administrative staff, professional fees, and depreciation and other allocated facility related costs. We expect selling expenses to increase in absolute dollars as we continue to invest in expanding our markets and as we expand our international operations. We expect general and administrative expenses to also increase in absolute dollars due to an increase in costs related to being a public company, including higher legal, corporate insurance, and accounting expenses.

Amortization of intangibles – Amortization of intangible assets is related to our finite-lived intangible assets and is computed using the straight-line method over the estimated economic life of the asset.

Interest Expense

Interest expense consists of interest on our outstanding debt under our Credit Facilities and any other indebtedness we may incur in the future.

Other Expense (Income), Net

The functional currency of our international subsidiaries located in the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Malaysia is the U.S. dollar. Transactions denominated in currencies other than the functional currency generate foreign exchange gains and losses that are included in other expense (income), net on the accompanying consolidated statements of operations. Substantially all of our sales and agreements with third party suppliers provide for pricing and payments in U.S. dollars and, therefore, are not subject to material exchange rate fluctuations.

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Income Tax Benefit

During 2019, income tax benefit consists primarily of taxable loss incurred in the United States, the benefit from our tax holiday in Singapore, as well as the impacts of withholding taxes, stock option exercises, credit generation, and the release of tax reserves established in purchase accounting. During 2018, income tax benefit consists primarily of the impact of U.S. operations, offset by discrete tax benefits, including the release of a valuation allowance against our foreign tax credit carryforwards we now expect to realize as a result of additional analysis of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and stock option exercises. During 2017, income tax benefit from continuing operations consisted primarily of the impact of foreign operations, including withholding taxes, offset by a $7.6 million tax benefit as a result of our acquisitions (see Note 2 – Acquisitions of our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report), a $5.9 million tax benefit from revaluing our deferred taxes from 35% to 21% due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and a $1.6 million benefit from re-characterizing intercompany debt to equity between our U.S. and Singapore entities related to the reversal of previously accrued withholding taxes.

Results of Operations

The following table sets forth our results of operations for the periods presented. The period-to-period comparison of results is not necessarily indicative of results for future periods.

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The following table sets forth our results of operations as a percentage of our total sales for the periods presented.

Comparison of Fiscal Years 2019 and 2018

Sales

The decrease in net sales from 2018 to 2019 was primarily related to the reduced demand for semiconductor capital equipment during much of 2019, partially offset by market share gains. We refer to the volume of purchases from us by a customer of ours relative to its other suppliers as our market share of that customer. On a geographic basis, sales in the U.S. decreased by $173.7 million to $329.0 million, and foreign sales decreased by $29.1 million to $291.8 million.

Cost of Sales and Gross Margin

The decrease in cost of sales and gross profit from 2018 to 2019 was primarily due to decreased sales volume.

The 260 basis point decrease in our gross margin was primarily due to lower factory utilization, resulting from reduced demand for semiconductor capital equipment during much of 2019, and product mix.

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Research and Development

The increase in research and development expenses from 2018 to 2019 was primarily due to incremental expenses from our IP purchase of developed flow controller technology assets in May 2019, in which we assumed an engineering team.

Selling, General, and Administrative

The decrease in selling, general, and administrative expense from 2018 to 2019 was primarily due a $1.0 million reduction in employee-related expenses as a result of leadership and management restructuring that was completed in 2019 and a combined $0.9 million reduction in professional, consulting, and other corporate overhead expenses as a result of successful cost-management policies enacted during 2019, partially offset by a $1.1 million separation benefit charge in January 2018 that did not repeat in 2019 and increased share-based compensation expense of $0.6 million.

Amortization of Intangible Assets

The decrease in amortization expense from 2018 to 2019 was due certain intangible assets being fully amortized as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2018.

Interest Expense

The increase in interest expense from 2018 to 2019 was primarily due to an increase in our weighted average interest rate, from 4.36% to 4.78%, partially offset by a $2.7 million reduction in the average amount borrowed during the year as a result of quarterly term loan payments which were partially offset by a net draw on our revolving facility.

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Other Expense (Income), Net

The change in other income, net for 2019 was primarily due to exchange rate fluctuations on transactions denominated in the local currencies of our foreign operations, principally the Singapore Dollar, Malaysian Ringgit, and British Pound.

Income Tax Benefit from Continuing Operations

The increase in income tax benefit from 2018 to 2019 was primarily due to the decrease in taxable income in the U.S. in 2019 and the release of tax reserves in 2019 previously established in purchase accounting, offset in part by the release of the valuation allowance related to foreign tax credits in 2018 that did not repeat in 2019.

Comparison of Fiscal Years 2018 and 2017

Sales

The increase in net sales from 2017 to 2018 was primarily related to an increase in volume resulting from industry growth, our acquisitions of Cal‑Weld, Talon, and IAN, and market share gains. We refer to the volume of purchases from us by a customer of ours relative to its other suppliers as our market share of that customer. On a geographic basis, sales in the U.S. increased by $116.1 million to $502.8 million, and foreign sales increased by $51.6 million to $320.9 million.

Cost of Sales and Gross Margin

The increase in cost of sales and gross profit from 2017 to 2018 was primarily due to increased sales volume and our acquisitions of Cal‑Weld and Talon in the third and fourth quarters of 2017, respectively.

The 110 basis point increase in our gross margin was primarily due to the accretive impact of our acquisitions of Cal‑Weld and Talon. The increase was due to the following: (1) 70 basis points from sales accretive to gross margin, primarily from our acquisitions of Cal‑Weld and Talon; (2) 20 basis points from a charge to cost of sales of $4.8 million (0.6% of revenue) and $5.2 million (0.8% of revenue) in 2018 and 2017, respectively, due to recording acquired inventory at fair value; and (3) 20 basis points from a $1.8 million charge to cost of sales in the second quarter of 2017 from an error correction relating to translated inventory balances at our Malaysia and Singapore subsidiaries using an incorrect foreign currency rate.

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Research and Development

The increase in research and development expenses from 2017 to 2018 was primarily due to incremental expenses from our acquisition of Talon, increased share-based compensation expense, and an increase in headcount and other program expenses to support additional new product developments.

Selling, General, and Administrative

The increase in selling, general, and administrative expense from 2017 to 2018 was primarily due to $8.6 million in incremental operating expenses from our acquisitions of Cal‑Weld, Talon, and IAN, a $4.5 million increase in share-based compensation expense (inclusive of $2.9 million associated with modifying our former CFO’s equity awards), $1.1 million in non-equity separation benefits for former CFO, and $1.1 million in various costs to support growth, partially offset by a $2.2 million decrease in acquisition-related expenses, a $1.3 million credit from derecognizing our IAN earn-out liability, a $1.0 million charge in the third quarter of 2017 from a final arbitration ruling on our working capital claim with the sellers of Ajax, and $1.0 million in expense incurred in 2017 associated with the secondary offerings of our shares by affiliates of our former principal shareholder, FP.

Amortization of Intangible Assets

The increase in amortization expense from 2017 to 2018 was due to incremental amortization expense from intangible assets acquired in connection with our acquisitions of Cal‑Weld and Talon in the second half of 2017 and IAN in the second quarter of 2018. The fair value assigned to intangible assets acquired in connection with our acquisition IAN is still preliminary.

Interest Expense

The increase in interest expense from 2017 to 2018 was primarily due to an increase in the average amount borrowed, which was primarily due to our acquisition of Talon in December 2017, resulting in an additional $120.0 million borrowed. Our average amount borrowed in 2018 was $196.6 million compared to $58.9 million in 2017. Our weighted average interest rate was 4.36% in 2018 compared to 4.30% in 2017.

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Other Income, Net

The change in other income, net for 2018 was primarily due to exchange rate fluctuations on transactions denominated in the local currencies of our foreign operations, principally the Singapore Dollar, Malaysian Ringgit, and British Pound, and a gain of $0.2 million on the sale of our cost method investment, CHawk Technology International, Inc. (“CHawk”) in the first quarter of 2017 that did not repeat in the first quarter of 2018.

Income Tax Benefit from Continuing Operations

The decrease in income tax benefit from 2017 to 2018 was primarily due to $12.7 million in discrete tax benefits recognized in 2017 relating to the reversal of previously accrued withholding taxes from our re-characterization of intercompany debt to equity, our acquisitions of Talon and Cal‑Weld, and the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that did not repeat in 2018, a $4.2 million decrease in excess tax benefits from share-based compensation from 2017 to 2018, and a $2.4 million decrease in permanently disallowed expenses in 2018, partially offset by a $4.1 million tax benefit recognized due to the release of a valuation allowance against foreign tax credit carryforwards in the second quarter of 2018.

Non-GAAP Results

Management uses non-GAAP adjusted net income and non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS to evaluate our operating and financial results. We believe the presentation of non-GAAP results is useful to investors for analyzing business trends and comparing performance to prior periods, along with enhancing investors’ ability to view our results from management’s perspective. Non-GAAP adjusted net income excludes amortization of intangible assets, share-based compensation expense, non-recurring expenses including adjustments to the cost of goods sold, tax adjustments related to those non-GAAP adjustments, and non-recurring discrete tax items including tax impacts from releasing a valuation allowance related to foreign tax credits. Non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS is defined as non-GAAP adjusted net income from continuing operations divided by weighted average diluted ordinary shares outstanding during the period.

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The following table presents our unaudited non‑GAAP adjusted net income from continuing operations and a reconciliation from net income from continuing operations, the most comparable GAAP measure, for the periods indicated:

Included in this amount for fiscal year 2018 are (i) expenses associated with separation benefits for a former officer that became effective in January 2018, (ii) a gain on the extinguishment of the IAN earn-out liability, and (iii) acquisition-related expenses, comprised primarily of expense associated with the IAN retention agreement.

Included in this amount for 2017 are (i) acquisition-related expenses, (ii) expenses incurred in connection with sales or other dispositions of our ordinary shares by affiliates of FP, (iii) executive search expenses incurred in connection with replacing the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, (iv) a refund of previously paid consulting fees from FP Consulting (“FPC”), and (v) a gain on sale of our investment in CHawk.

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Non-GAAP adjusted net income from continuing operations has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for net income or any of our other operating results reported under GAAP. Other companies may calculate adjusted net income differently or may use other measures to evaluate their performance, both of which could reduce the usefulness of our adjusted net income as a tool for comparison.

Because of these limitations, you should consider non-GAAP adjusted net income from continuing operations alongside other financial performance measures, including net income from continuing operations and other financial results presented in accordance with GAAP. In addition, in evaluating non-GAAP adjusted net income, you should be aware that in the future we will incur expenses such as those that are the subject of adjustments in deriving adjusted net income and you should not infer from our presentation of adjusted net income that our future results will not be affected by these expenses or any unusual or non-recurring items.

Unaudited Quarterly Financial Results

The following table set forth statement of operations data for the periods indicated. The information for each of these periods is unaudited and has been prepared on the same basis as our audited consolidated financial statements included herein and includes all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments that we consider necessary for a fair presentation of our unaudited operations data for the periods presented. Historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected in the future.