Entegris (ENTG) Risk Analysis

Uncertain and volatile economic conditions, including uncertain and volatile financial markets, inflation, fluctuating interest rates, economic slowdowns and/or recessions, national debt and bank failures, could materially and adversely impact our operating results. Such uncertain and volatile conditions in any of our key sales or manufacturing regions can cause or exacerbate negative trends in business and consumer spending, which, in turn, have historically had a negative impact on customer demand for our products and costs of manufacturing and delivering our products. These uncertain and volatile economic conditions can cause material adverse changes in our results of operations and financial condition, including: - a decline in demand for our products, which would have an immediate and potentially long-lasting negative impact on our revenues;- an increase in reserves for accounts receivable due to our customers' inability to pay us;- lower utilization of our manufacturing facilities, which could lead to lower margins;- an increase in write-offs for excess or obsolete inventory that we cannot sell;- potential impairment charges relating to goodwill, intangible assets, manufacturing equipment or other long-lived assets, to the extent that any downturn indicates that the carrying amount of the asset may not be recoverable;- limiting our suppliers' ability to deliver parts and raw materials, which would negatively affect our ability to manage operations, manage our costs and sell our products;- consolidation or strategic alliances among other suppliers to semiconductor manufacturers, which could adversely affect our ability to compete effectively;- greater challenges in forecasting operating results, making business decisions and identifying and prioritizing business risks;- additional cost reduction efforts, including additional restructuring activities, which may adversely affect our ability to capitalize on opportunities; and - limitations on our ability to access cash maintained in our bank accounts as a result of bank failures, which could affect our ability to manage our operations.

Sales to customers outside the U.S. accounted for approximately 79%, 75% and 76% of our net sales in 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. We anticipate that international sales will continue to account for a majority of our net sales. In addition, a number of our key domestic customers derive a significant portion of their revenues from sales in international markets. We also develop and manufacture a significant portion of our products outside the U.S. and depend on international suppliers for many of our parts and raw materials. We intend to continue to maintain extensive sales, product development and manufacturing operations internationally, which are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and potential costs that could adversely affect our revenue, profitability and reputation, including: - changes and uncertainties with respect to trade and export regulations (including new and changing regulations for exports of certain technologies to China), trade policies and sanctions, tariffs, international trade disputes and any retaliatory measures, which impact countries in which we conduct significant business, which could (1) impose additional costs on our operations, (2) limit our ability to operate our business and (3) adversely impact us, our customers or our suppliers;- positions taken by governments or governmental agencies regarding national, commercial and/or security issues posed by the development, sale or export of certain raw materials, products and technologies;- geopolitical tensions or conflicts, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and increasing tensions between China and Taiwan and between China and the U.S., and other political and economic instability and uncertainty;- cybersecurity incidents;- challenges in hiring and integrating workers in different countries;- challenges in managing a diverse workforce with different experience levels, languages, cultures, customs, business practices and worker expectations, along with differing employment practices and labor issues;- challenges of maintaining appropriate business processes, procedures and internal controls and complying with legal, environmental, health and safety, anti-bribery, anti-corruption, trade compliance, data privacy, cybersecurity and other regulatory requirements that vary by jurisdiction;- challenges in developing relationships with local customers, suppliers and governments;- fluctuating pricing and availability of raw materials and supply chain interruptions or slowdowns, including as a result of difficulties, financial or otherwise, faced by segments of the transportation industry;- public health crises;- expense and complexity of complying with U.S. and foreign import and export regulations, including the ability to obtain and renew required import and export licenses;- fluctuations in interest rates and currency exchange rates, including the relative strength or weakness of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies that are important to our business;- liability for foreign taxes assessed at rates higher than those applicable to our domestic operations;- imposition of a global minimum tax rate, including by the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development ("OECD");- challenges and costs associated with the protection of our intellectual property throughout the world;- challenges associated with managing global and regional third-party service providers, including certain engineering, software development, manufacturing, IT and other functions;- customer or government efforts to encourage operations and sourcing in a particular country, such as Korea or China, including efforts to develop and grow local competitors, require local manufacturing, and provide special incentives to government-backed local customers to buy from local competitors; and - impacts of natural disasters and extreme and chronic weather events on our operations and those of our customers and suppliers, which may be exacerbated by climate change. In the past, these factors have disrupted our operations and increased our costs, and we expect that these factors will continue to do so in the future. Furthermore, there is inherent risk, based on the complex relationships among China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the U.S., that political, diplomatic and national security influences could lead to trade disputes, impacts and/or disruptions, in particular those affecting the semiconductor industry. This can adversely affect our business with China, Japan, Korea, and/or Taiwan and potentially the entire Asia Pacific region or global economy. A significant trade dispute, impact and/or disruption in any area where we do business could have a materially adverse impact on our future revenue and profits.

There are inherent climate-related risks wherever our business is conducted. Changes in market dynamics, stakeholder expectations, local, national and international climate change policies, and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events on critical infrastructure in the U.S. and abroad, all have the potential to disrupt our business and operations. Such events could result in a significant increase in our costs and expenses and harm our future revenue, cash flows and financial performance. Global climate change is resulting in, and may continue to result, in certain natural disasters and adverse weather events, such as drought, wildfires, severe storms, sea-level rise and flooding, occurring more frequently or with greater intensity, which could cause business disruptions and adverse impacts where we operate.

Tariffs, additional taxes, trade barriers and other measures may increase raw material and manufacturing costs, decrease margins, affect customer ordering patterns, reduce the competitiveness of our products or inhibit our ability to sell products or purchase necessary equipment and supplies, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition. While significant attention has been paid to protectionist actions between the U.S. and China in recent years, some of which have impacted certain raw materials we use, it is anticipated that the U.S. will employ tariffs and other countermeasures broadly in pursuit of its political and economic strategies and that other countries may take similar or related actions.

We operate in the semiconductor industry, which is subject to rapid technological change, changing customer requirements and frequent new product introductions. In our industry, the first company to introduce an innovative product that addresses an identified market need will often have a significant advantage over competing products. Following development, it may take several years for sales of a new product to reach a substantial level, if ever. If a product concept does not progress beyond the development stage or only achieves limited acceptance in the marketplace, we may not receive a direct return on our expenditures, which may be significant, we may lose market share and our revenue, and profitability may decline. In the past, we incurred significant impairment charges for capital expenditures related to developing the capability to manufacture shippers and FOUPs for 450 millimeter wafers, which major semiconductor manufacturers announced that they would not initiate manufacturing for the foreseeable future. We believe that our future success will depend upon our ability to continue to develop novel, mission-critical solutions to maximize our customers' manufacturing yields and enable higher performance semiconductor devices. A failure to successfully anticipate and respond to technological changes by developing, marketing and manufacturing new products or enhancements to our existing products could harm our business prospects, limit our market share, result in unanticipated costs and significantly reduce our sales. The new products and technology we choose to develop and market may also not be successful. In addition, if new products have reliability or quality problems, we may experience reduced orders, higher manufacturing costs, delays in acceptance and payment, additional service and warranty expense and damage to our reputation.

Our future success and competitive position depend in part upon our ability to obtain, maintain and enforce intellectual property rights. We rely on patent, trade secret and trademark laws as well as confidentiality agreements to protect many of our major product platforms. Even if patents are issued in respect of our patent applications, these patents may nonetheless (1) expire; (2) be challenged, invalidated, circumvented, rendered unenforceable or otherwise compromised by third parties; or (3) fail to provide us with any competitive advantage. We may lose trade secret protections as a result of actions or omissions by us, our employees, or third parties. Our confidentiality agreements (including confidentiality agreements entered into between us and our employees) may be breached and the remedies for any such breach may be inadequate. Our confidential and proprietary information and technology may also be replicated or obtained through lawful means. Replication of our intellectual property or the infringement or misappropriation of our intellectual property rights could result in uncompensated lost market and revenue opportunities, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition. Our failure to monitor and ensure the proper use of our data, confidential information, and intellectual property in the training and operation of generative artificial intelligence products may result in the loss of intellectual property and raise complex compliance, intellectual property and other issues. We have initiated, and may initiate in the future, litigation in order to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets, and determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. From time to time, third parties have also asserted, and may continue to assert, intellectual property claims against us and our products. In the past, intellectual property-related litigation has caused us to expend significant financial and other resources. In the future, such litigation could (1) impose substantial costs and cause the diversion of resources and the attention of management; (2) require us to pay damages or royalties; (3) require us to alter our products or processes, or obtain a license to continue selling the impacted product, which we may be unable to do on commercially acceptable terms, or at all; (4) severely harm our reputation and competitive position; and (5) negatively affect our sales, profitability and prospects.

In conducting our business, we use, collect and store sensitive data, including our financial information, intellectual property, confidential information, proprietary business information and personally identifiable information of our employees and others, as well as similar information of our customers, suppliers and business partners. We maintain this information in our data centers, on our networks and on IT systems owned and maintained by third parties. The secure processing, maintenance and transmission of this information is critical to our operations. All IT systems are subject to disruptions, security breaches, outages and failures, which may be caused by a variety of internal and external factors. We and our third-party suppliers have experienced, and expect to continue to be subject to, cybersecurity threats and incidents ranging from employee or contractor error or misuse to individual attempts to gain unauthorized access to systems, to sophisticated and targeted measures known as advanced persistent threats. Cybersecurity threats may target us directly or indirectly through our third-party providers and global supply chain. Cybersecurity attacks are increasing in number and the attackers are increasingly organized and well-financed, or at times supported by state actors. Geopolitical tensions or conflicts, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and increasing tensions with China, have created a heightened risk of cybersecurity attacks. Artificial intelligence capabilities are and will be used by threat actors to identify vulnerabilities and craft increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity attacks, making them even more difficult to defend against by creating more effective phishing emails or social engineering and by exploiting vulnerabilities in electronic security programs utilizing false image or voice recognition. The use of artificial intelligence by us, our customers, suppliers and other business partners and third-party providers may introduce vulnerabilities onto our IT systems. We may be unable to anticipate, prevent or remediate future attacks, vulnerabilities, breaches or incidents and in some instances we may be unaware of vulnerabilities or cybersecurity breaches or incidents or their magnitude and effects, particularly as attackers are increasingly able to circumvent controls and remove forensic evidence. We continue to devote significant resources to network security, threat monitoring and other measures to protect our systems and data from unauthorized access or misuse, and we may be required to expend greater resources in the future, especially in the face of evolving and increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats and laws, regulations, contractual and other actual and asserted obligations to which we are or may become subject relating to privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity. IT system failures, network disruptions and breaches of data security could (1) cause disruption in our operations, issues with customer communication and order management, the unauthorized or unintentional disclosure of sensitive information, or disruptions in our transaction processing or (2) undermine the integrity of our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal control over financial reporting, which could affect our reputation, result in significant liabilities and expenses, adversely affect our ability to report our financial results in a timely manner and could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Our efforts to comply with current and evolving laws, regulations and other obligations, such as contractual or commercial obligations from our customers or other third parties, concerning privacy, cybersecurity, and data protection, increase our compliance costs and could result in significant additional expenses. Any actual or alleged failure to comply with these obligations could result in inquiries, investigations, and other proceedings against us by regulatory authorities or other third parties.

Our manufacturing processes are complex and require the use of expensive and technologically sophisticated equipment and materials. We have, on occasion, experienced manufacturing difficulties, such as critical equipment breakdowns, delayed ramp up of newly constructed or expanded manufacturing facilities or the introduction of impurities in the manufacturing process. Any future difficulties could cause lower yields, make our products unmarketable and/or delay deliveries to customers. In addition, any modification to the manufacturing process of a product, including changes designed to improve manufacturing yields, process stability and product quality, could require that the product be re-qualified by customers, which can increase our costs and delay or prevent our ability to sell this product to our customers. We have moved, and we may in the future move, the manufacture of certain products from one plant to another. If we fail to transfer and re-establish the manufacturing processes in the destination plant efficiently and effectively, we may not be able to meet customer demand, we may lose credibility with our customers and our business may be harmed. Even if we successfully move our manufacturing processes, we may not achieve the anticipated levels of cost savings or efficiencies, if any. These and other manufacturing difficulties may result in the loss of sales and exposure to warranty and product liability claims. Disruptions to our operations may be caused by factors outside of our control, including severe weather events and natural catastrophes, civil unrest, outbreaks of disease, and terrorist actions. Our continuity plans may be insufficient to mitigate the impact of disruptions to our operations, and any prolonged disruption may impede our ability to manufacture and deliver products to our customers, resulting in an adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

Many of our key personnel have significant experience in the semiconductor industry and deep technical expertise. The loss of our key employees or an inability to attract, hire, train, motivate and retain qualified and skilled employees, particularly research and development and engineering personnel, could cause business interruptions and inhibit our ability to operate and grow our business. As the semiconductor industry has grown in recent years, competition for qualified talent, particularly those with significant industry experience, has intensified. Other factors impacting our ability to attract and retain key employees include the attractiveness of our compensation and benefit programs, global economic or political conditions, the ability to obtain necessary authorizations for workers to provide services outside their home countries and our ability to continue to foster a challenging and rewarding work environment. We have experienced in the past, and may in the future continue to experience, an increasingly competitive and constrained labor market, which may limit our ability to add headcount required to meet our customers' demand, decrease our productivity due to an influx of inexperienced workers and cause our labor costs to increase and our profitability to decline. As a result, the difficulty and costs associated with attracting and retaining employees has risen and may continue to rise.

Our ability to increase sales of our products depends in part upon our ability, in a very short timeframe, to ramp up our manufacturing capacity and to mobilize our supply chain. If we are unable to do so, our customers could obtain products from our competitors, which would reduce our market share, harm our reputation as a trusted partner and impact our results of operations. Ensuring a robust and resilient supply chain is critical for us to meet the demand, quality and technological requirements of our customers. We rely on the timely delivery of parts, materials and services, including components and subassemblies, from our suppliers and contract manufacturers. The Company's strategies to limit its reliance on single, sole or limited source suppliers and utilize alternative sources are not feasible or practical in all circumstances. For example, we rely on single, sole or limited source suppliers for certain raw materials that are critical to the manufacturing of our products, such as plastic polymers, filtration membranes, abrasive particles, petroleum coke and other materials. If we were to lose any one of these or other critical sources, or there is as an industry-wide increase in demand for, or the discontinuation of, raw materials or other components used in our products, it could be difficult for us, or we may be unable, to find an alternative supplier to provide certain raw materials and components, in which case our operations could be adversely affected. Surge in demand for semiconductors and other factors outside of our control have resulted in, and may in the future result in, a shortage of raw materials and components needed to manufacture and deliver our products, higher raw materials costs, costly and time-consuming re-qualification of products manufactured with new raw materials and delays in, and unpredictability of, shipments due to transportation interruptions. These results could harm our reputation or the competitiveness of our products. Such shortages, delays and unpredictability have adversely impacted, and may impact in the future (1) our suppliers' ability to meet our demand requirements, (2) our manufacturing operations, (3) our ability to meet customer demand, (4) our gross margins and (5) our other operating results. Our actions to counteract adverse impacts to our gross margins and other operating results could be unsuccessful or reduce demand, which would adversely impact our revenue. Additionally, our suppliers may not have the capacity to meet increases in our demand for raw materials and other components, in turn, making us unable to meet customer demand for our products. If our suppliers or sub-suppliers are unable to maintain their operations, due to operational restrictions or financial hardship caused by an economic slowdown or recession, we may increase our safety stocks of raw materials or components or alter our payment terms with such suppliers, including prepaying for raw materials, which could put downward pressure on our cash flow. Further, increased restrictions imposed on a class of chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances ("PFAS"), which are used in a number of products, including parts and materials that are incorporated into our products, may negatively impact our supply chain due to the potentially decreased availability, or non-availability, of PFAS-containing products. Proposed regulations under consideration could require that we transition away from the usage of PFAS-containing products, which could adversely impact our business, operations, revenue, costs, and competitive position. Suitable replacements for PFAS-containing parts and materials may not be available at similar performance and costs, or at all.

We operate in a highly competitive, global industry. We face many domestic and international competitors, some of which have substantially greater manufacturing, financial, research and development and marketing resources than we do. In addition, some of our competitors may have better-established customer relationships than we do, which may enable them to have their products specified for use more frequently and more quickly by these customers. We also face competition from smaller, regional companies that focus on serving customers in their regions. Further, customers continually evaluate the benefits of internal manufacturing versus outsourcing, and a customer's decision to internally manufacture products that we provide may negatively impact us. If we are unable to maintain our competitive position, we could experience downward pressure on prices, fewer customer orders, reduced margins, the inability to take advantage of new business opportunities and a loss of market share, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. Further, we expect that existing and new competitors will improve their products and introduce new products with enhanced performance characteristics. The introduction of new products or more efficient production of existing products by competitors could diminish our market share and increase pricing pressure on our products. Our competitors include companies outside of the U.S., including companies in countries where foreign governments seek to build a domestic-centric semiconductor ecosystem. From time to time, governments around the world may provide incentives or make other investments that could benefit and give competitive advantages to our competitors. Government incentives may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. If our competitors can benefit from such government incentives and we cannot, it could strengthen our competitors' relative position and have a material adverse effect on our business.