Capital Group Sold ASMPT at HK$173.11 Into a Record Book That Converts in 2027
ASMPT booked a record US$1.63 billion of first-half orders in July while its own chief executive said memory makers were deferring HBM tool purchases. On 22 September an HKEX filing shows Capital Group sold 961,700 shares at HK$173.11; the stock closed seven days later at HK$162.60, with Q3 results due 30 October.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
A seller put a price on a record that had none
On 22 September, The Capital Group Companies sold 961,700 ASMPT shares on the Hong Kong exchange at an average of HK$173.1101, roughly HK$166 million, taking a 6.09% stake down to 5.86%; the HKEX disclosure surfaced on 24 September 1. The same day, in Seoul, Hanmi Semiconductor announced the first shipment of its FC Bonder 75 packaging tool and named no buyer, no unit count and no value 23. ASMPT closed at HK$162.60 on 29 September, so the seller cleared its whole tranche above the market 7.
One tool family, two clocks
The half ASMPT reported on 29 July was its best ever for orders. Revenue reached US$1.14 billion, up 42.5% year on year, and bookings US$1.63 billion, up 85.1%, for a 1.43 book-to-bill, the highest since the first half of 2021 4. Net profit from continuing operations rose 183.8% to HK$741.6 million 6.
The engine was chip-to-substrate TCB, the step that bonds AI accelerators and their HBM onto a package: more than 50 tools ordered by OSAT customers in July, after 19 in early December and 15 more three weeks later 45. Management said the July tranche mostly delivers in Q1 2027, with some possibly pulled into the second half of 2026 4.
The twin line, which stacks DRAM dies into HBM, is waiting. Outgoing chief executive Robin Ng said HBM3E "continues to be able to meet current requirements" for GPU packaging, that customers need more time to hit HBM4 specifications, and that this "has an impact on customers' purchase decisions" for HBM tools, with 2027 the possible year chip-to-wafer demand picks up 4. Q3 guidance of US$630 million to US$690 million came despite longer lead times for certain materials, and management flagged a longer walk from bookings to revenue 47.
At least 84 chip-to-substrate tools booked since December; the 10 chip-to-wafer orders serve logic
- Chip-to-substrate (logic and HBM onto package)
- Chip-to-wafer (logic/chiplet side)
Data
| Chip-to-substrate (logic and HBM onto package) | Chip-to-wafer (logic/chiplet side) | |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Dec 2025 | 19 | — |
| 22 Dec 2025 | 15 | — |
| 5 Feb 2026 | — | 2 |
| 8 Jun 2026 | — | 8 |
| 29 Jul 2026 | 50 | — |
Korea farms the lane that is waiting
Hanmi owns that lane for now: record Q2 sales of 251.1 billion won, a 51.9% operating margin no peer matches, and Micron at 46% of revenue 6. It is committing about 130 billion won to an eighth factory targeting Q2 2027 output even as Korean press reports it dropped its 2 trillion won 2026 revenue target 6.
The FC Bonder 75 is its first shipment toward the foundry and OSAT territory where ASMPT is process of record, and the disclosure gap marks the distance: June's Griffin order came with SK Hynix's name, 44.2 billion won and a site; September's came with none of the three 236. ASMPT, meanwhile, has an exclusive joint evaluation with a key memory player for HBM5 packaging 4.
The 30 October print
Buyers at HK$162.60 are underwriting a 2027 conversion. The Futu broker target of HK$233 sits 43% above the tape, against a 52-week high of HK$244.40 7. Morningstar's company report is titled "ASMPT Powering AI Semiconductor Growth" 8.
The broker target sits 43% above the tape, just below the 52-week high
- Estimate
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| 52-week high | HK$244.4 |
| Futu broker target (estimate) | HK$233 |
| 29 September close | HK$162.6 |
Bassel Haddad took over as group CEO on 11 August, so the 30 October results are his first, and they settle three things: whether bookings rose by the guided high single digits, whether the 50-plus tools pull into 2026, and whether the HBM tranche finally moves 457.
Capital Group kept 24.57 million shares; it trimmed above the market rather than left 1. The order book runs on 2027; the seller priced 2026.
How this brief was made
01Gathered & sourced311 channels · 1,353 articles▾
Agents swept 311 channels and ingested 1,353 articles, then de-duplicated and ranked them for signal.
02Verified & cross-validated8 claims · 11 data feeds▾
Every one of 8 load-bearing claims was checked against primary sources, with 11 live data feeds reconciling the figures and charts.
- 1Gelonghui via gmg.9fzt.com, "ASMPT (00522.HK) suffers The Capital Group reduction of 961,700 shares", 24 September 2026
- 2Nemothia, "Hanmi Semiconductor's FC Bonder 75 Shipped Without a Named Buyer", 25 September 2026
- 3Semiconductor Digest, "HANMI Semiconductor Ships First 'FC Bonder 75' for AI System Semiconductors", 25 September 2026
- 4Yahoo Finance (Quartr transcript), "ASMPT LTD. (ASMVY) Q2 FY2026 earnings call transcript", 28 July 2026
- 5ASMPT corporate press-release log (19-tool and 15-tool C2S releases, 3 and 22 December 2025; C2W repeat order, 8 June 2026; 50-plus-tool win and interim results, 29 July 2026; CEO handover, 11 August 2026)
- 6Korean Tech Texas, "ASMPT's Record Half Hides a Fork in the Road", 25 September 2026
- 7ad-hoc-news.de, "Die ASM-Pacific-Aktie meldet 42,50 Prozent Umsatzplus", 30 September 2026
- 8Morningstar, "ASMPT Powering AI Semiconductor Growth" (company report; title only retrievable)
03Reviewed & edited2 human editors▾
2 editors read the draft against the evidence, tuned the framing, and signed off before it shipped.
Become a contributor
Reporting on the business of AI and want it read? We take pitches from outside contributors who bring primary sources and a number worth arguing about.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
