Short Sellers Pile Into LPKF Laser as CEO Buys In and Board Gains Chip Expertise

The battle over LPKF Laser’s future is playing out in plain sight. On one side, hedge fund Voleon Capital Management has pushed its net short position above 2% for the first time, raising it from 2.02% to 2.13% of shares outstanding. On the other, chief executive Dr. Klaus Fiedler spent €21.00 per share buying his own company’s stock in May. And to further complicate the picture, the laser-equipment maker is proposing to add the head of Elmos Semiconductor, Dr. Arne Schneider, to its supervisory board — a move designed to reinforce its semiconductor packaging credentials.

The market is absorbing these cross-currents with increasing volatility. LPKF shares slumped 9.17% on Friday to close at €21.80, though rival sources put the day’s drop at 7.92% to €22.10 during the session. Even after that shakeout, the stock has surged 262.73% since the start of the year. The relative strength index has fallen to 20.3, a level that technically signals oversold conditions.

Why the bears are circling

The short thesis rests on weak recent operating numbers. In the first quarter, LPKF generated revenue of just €17.1 million, down sharply from €25.3 million a year earlier, as the solar business disappointed. The EBIT loss deepened to minus €6.9 million, while the adjusted figure — minus €5.7 million — was worse than the minus €3.9 million recorded in the prior-year period. Restructuring costs tied to the North Star transformation program, expected to run at 3-4% of revenue this year, continue to weigh on profitability.

Voleon is not alone in betting against the rally. Marshall Wace also holds a net short position in the stock, giving the bears two institutional voices. What gives them ammunition is that the company’s 2025 guidance — revenue between €105 million and €120 million and an adjusted EBIT margin ranging from minus 3% to plus 4.5% — does not yet include any meaningful volume from advanced packaging.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying LPKF Laser?

The counter-argument: orders and insider conviction

But the narrative has a more bullish side. Order intake jumped to €24.1 million, up from €20.5 million last year, pushing the book-to-bill ratio to a healthy 1.4. The Development segment benefited from delayed investments following the U.S. government shutdown, along with demand from research, defence and electronics. The Electronics segment also saw a noticeable uptick in new orders.

Fiedler’s insider purchase at €21.00 is no guarantee of future success, but it signals that management sees value at current levels. And the technology story that has driven the rally — LIDE, a laser-based process for structuring glass substrates used in advanced semiconductor packaging — continues to attract interest. Multiple customers are testing LIDE in development environments, and the company expects first production orders in the second quarter of 2026. That timeline, however, depends on customers qualifying their own downstream processes.

Supervisory board refresh and activist pushback

The annual general meeting, scheduled for early June, will be a defining moment. LPKF’s supervisory board proposes electing Dr. Arne Schneider, CEO of Elmos Semiconductor, to replace outgoing deputy chairman Dr. Dirk Michael Rothweiler. Schneider brings deep experience in semiconductors, finance, M&A and innovation — precisely the skill set that aligns with LPKF’s push into glass-based advanced packaging and co-packaged optics. The board regards him as independent, and no business relationships with the company have been disclosed.

Yet not all shareholders are on board. An opposition motion demands that the management board be denied discharge and calls for an immediate capital increase to fund a more aggressive expansion into semiconductor packaging. The supervisory board recommends rejecting both demands. Also on the AGM agenda are the appropriation of retained earnings, approval of the remuneration report, and a change to the articles of association regarding the venue of future meetings.

The missing link: production orders

LIDE remains the strategic fulcrum. LPKF is broadening its offering beyond pure glass structuring to include singulation of glass-based packages and laser-based bonding of multilayer glass stacks. The company is also working on co-packaged optics that combine electrical and optical functions on glass substrates — a technology that could be critical for next-generation chips.

LPKF Laser at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.

But for all the progress in development, no large-volume advanced packaging orders are yet baked into the outlook. Without signed contracts for production-scale equipment, LIDE remains a powerful narrative rather than a proven earnings driver. The North Star restructuring, which has consolidated production in Suhl and closed the Fürth facility, is designed to lower costs over time, but it will keep the income statement under pressure in the near term.

As LPKF heads into its AGM and the SdK investor forum in June, the question is whether the company can translate its LIDE story into binding purchase orders. The half-year report due in July will offer the next real test. Until then, the rally looks vulnerable to further short-selling attacks — even as the CEO puts his own skin in the game and a semiconductor veteran prepares to join the board.

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