Life anew for Aemulus 

AFTER being knocked off course by the decline of its once-dominant radio frequency (RF) business, Aemulus Holdings Bhd is now reinventing itself.

Aemulus has found renewed life in semiconductor-testing opportunities.

The automated test-equipment manufacturer now supplies to five principal product lines, spanning artificial intelligence (AI), data centres, automotive complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, silicon capacitors and its original RF market.

For managing director Ng Sang Beng, this diversification marks a significant departure from the Aemulus of several years ago, when RF generated more than half of group revenue and left it heavily exposed to China’s smartphone market.

“Radio frequency used to contribute more than 50% of our revenue.

“Last year, it had shrunk to slightly above 30%, while CMOS image sensors contributed 29.5%. You can see that another product is already coming up to replace it,” Ng tells StarBiz 7.

Aemulus’ earlier RF expansion in China initially appeared promising, but the Covid-19 pandemic prevented its Malaysian team from travelling there to support the business.

Its former Chinese joint-venture partner was also more familiar with semiconductor assembly equipment than test equipment, while Aemulus lacked an experienced local sales team capable of defending its position.

This was compounded by the deterioration in China’s smartphone semiconductor market following the tightening of United States technology restrictions against Chinese companies.

“We really tumbled because RF was our main product back then.

“We were unable to travel to China, while the entire RF market in China was also dropping significantly,” Ng says.

The impact was severe.

Aemulus’ revenue plunged from RM73.04mil in the financial year ended Sept 30, 2022 (FY22) to RM25.10mil in FY23, leaving it with a net loss of RM54.66mil.

Revenue recovered to RM40.90mil in FY24, although the group remained in the red with a net loss of RM21.81mil.

By FY25, revenue had more than doubled to RM83.08mil and surpassed its previous FY22 high, while Aemulus returned to the black with a RM4.04mil net profit.

Its first-half FY26 revenue has risen 13.6% year-on-year to RM49.67mil, although it recorded a marginal net loss of RM270,000 as delayed shipments and increased research and development (R&D) expenditure weighed on profitability.

“This year, we want to spend a little bit more on R&D for AI-related products because we see huge potential in the technology roadmaps of our customers.

“That is eating into our profitability but we have to bite the bullet,” Ng says.

The company is counting on the enlarged product portfolio to provide the revenue growth needed to absorb these costs from FY27.

Among the new pillars of growth is Aemulus’ automotive CMOS image-sensor testing business, which supports the cameras used in electric vehicles.

Ng says Aemulus has narrowed what was previously a field of seven or eight competing test-equipment suppliers in China into a “two-horse race”, with nearly 170 of its testers installed at the country’s largest CMOS image-sensor manufacturer.

Its acquisition of intellectual property, technology and assets related to CMOS image sensors and light sources from China-based Revotronix was completed in June for RMB32.46mil, further strengthening this product line.

Another pillar is its AMB4600 testing platform, which tests chips used in enterprise-storage hard disk drives for data centres.

Aemulus also supplies its AMB1831 and AMB1832 platforms for testing large, high-pin-count processors and other AI-related chips, while its AMB4200 tester is positioned for the emerging silicon-capacitor market.

These products provide Aemulus with exposure to several stages of the AI investment cycle instead of depending entirely on the construction of data centres alone.

It appears to be bearing some fruit, based on the company’s recent announcements.

Aemulus had an order book of RM104mil as at early June, before it secured another RM17.68mil of automotive test-system orders from Malaysia and RM8.24mil of AI and data-centre orders from Singapore. There was also RM15.11mil of AI and data-centre test-system orders from a South Korean customer.

The additional orders are scheduled for delivery across FY26 and FY27, according to the company’s Bursa filings in July.

Aemulus is also targeting approximately RM90mil of order-book replenishment over the next 12 months from what Ng describes as high-potential opportunities.

These are not secured orders, but Ng says they involve customers that have already evaluated or designed Aemulus’ equipment into their applications.

“These are deals that we have been working on with customers for a long time.

“We have already been designed in, and now we are waiting for the orders, if everything goes well,” he says.

The expanding sales pipeline has prompted Aemulus to increase its production capacity.

Its recently commissioned Suzhou East Lake factory, together with its Penang operations, raises the group’s combined annual revenue capacity from RM130mil to RM180mil.

“Penang and the Suzhou East Lake will be able to support up to RM180mil in revenue capacity,” he says.

“We are planning to extend this combined capacity to RM280mil, hopefully by the end of 2027 or early 2028,” Ng adds.

The additional RM100mil of capacity is expected to require less than RM3mil in capital expenditure because Aemulus outsources about 80% of the work involved in building its testers and conducts only the final 20% internally.

However, the reinvention has come with higher leverage on its balance sheet.

Borrowings more than doubled from RM44.04mil at end-FY24 to RM94.16mil at end-FY25 before rising further to RM101.99mil as at March 31, 2026.

RHB Research estimated Aemulus’ net gearing at 51.5% in FY25 and expects it to peak at about 55.6% in FY26 before moderating as earnings recover.

The elevated gearing leaves the group with less room for delays if orders are postponed or the expected FY27 revenue growth fails to materialise.

Nevertheless, Ng believes Aemulus’ dual supply chains in China and outside the country have transformed geopolitical tensions from a liability into a potential advantage.

“We are one of the big beneficiaries of these geopolitical tensions. First of all, we have a dual supply chain, and that is something very useful,” he says.

Aemulus’ reinvention is therefore supported by a more diverse product portfolio, larger order book and higher production capacity.

The remaining test is whether these investments can produce sustained profits while bringing their elevated gearing under control.