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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

or

Commission file number 1-13828

MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code

(636) 474-5000

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

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

(Title of Class)

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 þ No ¨

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2) Yes þ No ¨

The aggregate market value of the voting stock held by nonaffiliates of the registrant, based upon the closing price of such stock on June 28, 2002, as reported by the New York Stock Exchange, was approximately $100,557,006 million.

The number of shares outstanding of the registrant’s Common Stock as of February 28, 2003, was 195,759,508 shares.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

1. Portions of the registrant’s 2002 Annual Report (Part II)

2. Portions of the registrant’s 2003 Proxy Statement (Part III)

PART I

Item 1. Business

Overview

We are a leading worldwide producer of wafers for the semiconductor industry. We operate manufacturing facilities in every major semiconductor manufacturing region throughout the world, including Europe, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and the United States and through an unconsolidated joint venture in Taiwan. Our customers include virtually all of the major semiconductor device manufacturers in the world, including the major memory, microprocessor and applications specific integrated circuit, or ASIC, manufacturers, as well as the world’s largest foundries. We provide wafers in sizes ranging from 100 millimeters (4 inch) to 300 millimeters (12 inch) and in three general categories: prime polished, epitaxial and test/monitor.

We were formed in 1984 as a Delaware corporation and completed our initial public stock offering in 1995. Our corporate structure includes, in addition to our wholly owned subsidiaries, a 45%-owned unconsolidated joint venture in Taiwan (Taisil Electronic Materials Corporation, or Taisil), an 80%-owned consolidated joint venture in South Korea (MEMC Korea Company or MKC) and an 80%-owned consolidated joint venture in Sherman, Texas (MEMC Southwest Inc.). On November 13, 2001, an investor group led by Texas Pacific Group and including TPG Wafer Holdings LLC and funds managed by Leonard Green & Partners, L.P. and TCW/Crescent Mezzanine Management LLC (collectively, TPG) acquired beneficial ownership of approximately 72% of our outstanding common stock and approximately $910 million of our debt from E.ON AG. TPG currently beneficially owns approximately 90.2% of our outstanding common stock, and most of the debt acquired from E.ON has been restructured.

We are engaged in one reportable industry segment — the design, manufacture and sale of electronic grade silicon wafers for the semiconductor industry. Financial information regarding this industry segment is contained in our 2002 Annual Report, which information is incorporated herein by reference.

Industry Background

Almost all semiconductors are manufactured from wafers, and thus the performance of the wafer industry is highly correlated to the performance of the semiconductor device industry. The worldwide semiconductor device industry grew at a compound annual growth rate of 12% from $24 billion in revenues in 1985 to $153 billion in 2002 according to Gartner Dataquest estimates. Throughout this period, the industry has been characterized by cyclicality. In 2000, semiconductor revenues grew by 33%, according to Gartner Dataquest estimates. In 2001, semiconductor industry revenues declined by 32%, according to Gartner Dataquest estimates, as a result of weakened demand and a broad-based inventory correction. However, the semiconductor industry has begun to recover with modest annual revenue growth of 1% in 2002 and projected annual revenue growth of approximately 8.9% in 2003, according to Gartner Dataquest estimates.

Similar to the semiconductor device industry, the silicon wafer market is characterized as a cyclical industry. The silicon wafer industry grew at a compound annual growth rate of 9% from 1,177 million square inches in 1985 to 4,784 million square inches in 2002, according to Gartner Dataquest estimates. In 2000, due to the increased demand for semiconductor devices, silicon wafer consumption increased 23.7% from 1999, according to Gartner Dataquest. In 2001, as a result of the decline in the semiconductor industry, silicon wafer consumption decreased 29% from 2000, according to Gartner Dataquest estimates. The decline in silicon wafer demand resulted in excess supply in the wafer industry, which caused increased downward pressure on average selling prices. However, in 2002, silicon wafer volumes increased 19%, according to Gartner Dataquest. The increased demand resulted in higher capacity utilization in the silicon wafer industry and in a stable pricing environment through most of 2002, according to Gartner Dataquest.

The fabrication of semiconductor devices requires a large number of complex and repetitive processing steps, including deposition, photolithography and etch, to layer different materials and imprint various features on a single wafer. Wafers are becoming increasingly differentiated by specific physical and electrical characteristics such as flatness, silicon purity and uniform crystal structures. As markets for semiconductor devices continue to evolve and become more

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specialized, we believe device manufacturers recognize the enhanced role that wafers and other materials play in improving device performance and reducing their production costs.

Semiconductor device manufacturers focus on improving their efficiency and lowering their cost per device. Because larger wafers allow for an increased number of semiconductor devices per wafer, moving to larger wafers can provide semiconductor device manufacturers with higher productivity and reduced cost per device. Thus, semiconductor device manufacturers continue to move to larger diameter wafers, with the 200 millimeter wafer being the primary wafer used today. Though semiconductor manufacturers are beginning to use 300 millimeter wafers for volume production, the 200 millimeter wafer is expected to be the primary wafer size through 2007, according to Gartner Dataquest.

Over the past decade, we believe the wafer industry has consolidated from approximately twenty suppliers, with the six top wafer suppliers each having more than a 10% share of the overall market, to approximately ten suppliers, with the four top wafer suppliers each having more than a 10% share of the overall market. We believe this change in the competitive landscape is causing segmentation between larger and smaller producers with larger manufacturers gaining an increasing share of the overall wafer market. Semiconductor device manufacturers seek suppliers with whom they can better align wafer technology development with their own product development efforts. We believe these manufacturers will continue to select wafer suppliers that offer advanced technology capabilities, a broad product portfolio and superior service to satisfy their exacting device requirements.

Strategy

Our objective is to maintain and enhance our position as a leading worldwide producer of wafers for the semiconductor device industry. Our strategies to achieve this objective include:

Focus solely on providing wafers

Throughout our history, we have focused on developing innovative products and process technologies within the wafer industry. Because we are focused exclusively on wafers, we have the ability to respond rapidly to changing technology requirements and to develop close relationships with our customers. Our customers, who represent the leading semiconductor device manufacturers in the world, are the primary source in determining where we channel our financial and human resources and focus our technological efforts. We believe that our deep level of collaboration with our customers enhances our ability to align our business practices with our customers’ requirements. A key component of our customers’ requirements is the continual development of new products and refinement of existing products to meet their needs. We offer a broad range of high-quality wafers and give our customers choices from thousands of unique combinations of wafer specifications.

Maintain and enhance our technology leadership position

We have been a pioneer in the design and development of wafer technologies over the past four decades and have recently adopted a new model for our research and development group that combines engineering innovation with specific commercialization strategies. We will continue to use and develop our portfolio of technologies to provide a combination of product features that fulfills the exacting specifications of our customers’ manufacturing requirements for increasingly complex wafers. Two of our more recent innovations are Magic Denuded Zone^®, or MDZ^®, wafer technology and defect-free crystal, both of which we have incorporated in our OPTIA^™ product. These two innovations are designed to help our customers improve the yield and capability of their semiconductor fabrication processes.

Focus on continuous cost reduction and return on invested capital

Continuous cost reduction and a disciplined capital expenditure program are key components of our long-term financial strategy. During the past few years, we have taken significant steps to reduce our cost structure and improve the efficiency of our global manufacturing processes. These steps have included headcount reductions, process improvements, streamlining of material flows and working with our suppliers to reduce the total cost of ownership of our materials and supplies. These actions in aggregate have improved our cycle times by 25% over the last two fiscal years and increased our productivity by nearly 60% in 2002, as compared to 2001, with productivity measured by volume produced divided by

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headcount. With our reduced cost structure, we believe we have substantially reduced the annual sales we need to generate in order to achieve operating income.

Leverage our scalable infrastructure

We operate manufacturing facilities in every major semiconductor manufacturing region throughout the world, including Europe, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and the United States and through an unconsolidated joint venture in Taiwan. We have made significant investments in our manufacturing facilities and equipment and research and development in order to expand our production capacity for 200 millimeter wafers and to develop 300 millimeter and other advanced wafer technologies. With available manufacturing infrastructure already in place, we believe we can obtain additional production capacity incrementally with capital expenditures consisting primarily of equipment purchases and installation.

Products

We offer wafers with a wide variety of features satisfying numerous product specifications to meet our customers’ exacting requirements. Our wafers vary in diameter, surface features, composition, purity levels, crystal properties and electrical properties. We provide our customers with a reliable supply of high-quality wafers with consistent characteristics. These wafers range from 100 millimeter to 300 millimeter in diameter.

We are continually advancing our products’ capabilities. In addition to other new product offerings, we offer wafers with the Magic Denuded Zone^®, or MDZ^®, product feature. As compared to traditional techniques, this patented product feature increases our customers’ yields in both prime polished and epitaxial wafers by drawing impurities away from the surface of the wafer in a manner that is efficient and reliable, with results that are reproducible.

Our products include three general categories of wafers:

Prime Polished Wafers

Our prime polished wafer is a highly refined, pure wafer with an ultraflat and ultraclean surface. Our prime polished wafers are manufactured with a sophisticated chemical-mechanical polishing process that removes defects and leaves an extremely smooth surface. As devices become more complex, wafer flatness and cleanliness requirements, along with crystal perfection, become increasingly important because these properties have a significant impact on our customers’ processes and yields.

Our ADVANTA^™ product allows our customers to make more complex semiconductor devices at acceptable yield levels by reducing the number of defects in the crystal structure in the wafer. The ADVANTA^™ product, which may include the MDZ^® feature, offers higher performance than our standard polished wafer. We are currently shipping significant volumes of ADVANTA^™ wafers to our customers.

Our OPTIA^™ wafer is a 100% defect-free crystalline structure based on our patented technologies and processes, including MDZ^®. We believe the OPTIA^™ wafer is the most technically advanced polished wafer available today. We are shipping commercial volumes of OPTIA^™ wafers to some customers, and we are in the process of qualifying OPTIA^™ wafers with other customers.

Epitaxial Wafers

Our epitaxial, or EPI, wafers consist of a thin, single-crystal silicon layer grown on the polished surface of the wafer. Typically, the epitaxial layer has different electrical properties from the underlying wafer. This provides our customers with better isolation between circuit elements than a polished wafer, and the ability to tailor the wafer to the specific demands of the device. Without sufficient isolation of the various elements, the elements could communicate electrically with each other, which could render the device useless. Epitaxial wafers provide improved isolation, thereby allowing for increased reliability of the finished semiconductor device and greater efficiencies during the semiconductor manufacturing process, which ultimately allows for more complex semiconductor devices.

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Our AEGIS^™ product is designed as a replacement for many polished, annealed, and other epitaxial wafers. The AEGIS^™ wafer includes a thin epitaxial layer grown on a standard substrate and also incorporates our MDZ^® product feature. The AEGIS^™ wafer’s thin epitaxial layer eliminates harmful defects on the surface of the wafer, thereby allowing device manufacturers to increase yields and improve process reliability. We are currently shipping significant volumes of AEGIS^™ wafers to some customers, and we are in the process of qualifying AEGIS^™ wafers with other customers.

Test/Monitor Wafers

We supply test/monitor wafers to our customers for their use in testing semiconductor fabrication lines and processes. Although test/monitor wafers are substantially the same as prime polished wafers with respect to cleanliness, and in some cases flatness, other specifications are generally less rigorous. This allows us to produce test/monitor wafers from the portion of the silicon ingot that does not meet customer specifications for wafers to be used in the manufacture of semiconductors. Therefore, sales of test/monitor wafers allow us to experience a higher overall yield.

The table below summarizes our key products and corresponding applications:

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Sales, Marketing and Customers

We market our products primarily through a global direct sales force. We and our unconsolidated joint venture have customer service and support centers globally, including in China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. A key element of our marketing strategy is establishing and maintaining close relationships with our customers. We accomplish this through multi-functional teams of technical, sales and marketing, and manufacturing personnel. These teams work closely with our customers to continually optimize our products for their production processes in their current and future facilities. Our close relationships with our customers are further developed through lengthy qualification processes by which customers qualify wafer manufacturing facilities and products. We monitor changing customer needs and target our research and development and manufacturing to produce wafers adapted to each customer’s process and requirements. We complete sales principally through indicative-only contracts of one year or less, which indicate expected volumes and specify price.

We sell our products to virtually all major semiconductor device manufacturers, including the major memory, microprocessor and ASIC manufacturers as well as the world’s largest foundries. We made approximately 63% of our sales to ten customers in 2002. Samsung and STMicroelectronics each accounted for more than 10% of our sales in 2002. No other customers represented 10% or more of our 2002 sales. See “Risk Factors – We have a limited number of principal customers and a loss of one or several of those customers would hurt our business.”

Manufacturing

To meet our customers’ needs worldwide, we have established a global manufacturing network consisting of nine manufacturing facilities, including the manufacturing facility of our unconsolidated joint venture in Taiwan.

Our wafer manufacturing process begins with high purity electronic grade polysilicon. The polysilicon is melted in a quartz crucible along with minute amounts of electrically active elements such as arsenic, boron, phosphorous or antimony. We then lower a silicon seed crystal into the melt and slowly extract it from the melt. The resultant body of silicon is called an ingot. The temperature of the melt, speed of extraction and rotation of the crucible govern the diameter of the ingot, while the concentration of the electrically active element in the melt governs the electrical properties of the wafers to be made from the ingot. This is a complex, proprietary process requiring many control features on the crystal-growing equipment.

We then grind the ingots to the specified diameter and slice the ingots into thin wafers. Next, we prepare the wafers for surface polishing with a multi-step process using precision lapping machines, edge contour machines and chemical etchers. Final polishing and cleaning processes give the wafers the clean and ultraflat mirror polished surfaces required for the fabrication of semiconductor devices. We further process some of our products into epitaxial wafers by utilizing a chemical vapor deposition process to deposit a single crystal silicon layer on the polished surface.

In certain of our manufacturing facilities, we have fully integrated manufacturing capabilities that encompass the full range of wafer manufacturing process steps, including ingot growth, wafer slicing, wafer polishing and epitaxial deposition. We conduct certain of our processes in state-of-the-art Class 1 cleanroom environments.

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Raw Materials

We obtain substantially all of our requirements for several raw materials, equipment, parts and supplies from sole suppliers. The main raw material in our production process is polysilicon. In 2002, we produced over three-fourths of our total polysilicon requirements and purchased the remainder of our requirements from others. We use two types of polysilicon: granular polysilicon and chunk polysilicon. We produce all of our requirements for granular polysilicon at our facility in Pasadena, Texas. We do not believe there are other sources of electronic grade granular polysilicon. Chunk polysilicon can be substituted for granular polysilicon, although our manufacturing throughput and yields could be adversely affected and, in some cases, we might be required to obtain new qualifications from our customers for the substitution. The availability of chunk polysilicon currently significantly exceeds demand. We believe that an adequate supply of chunk polysilicon will be available internally or from others for the foreseeable future. See “Risk Factors – Our dependence on single and limited source suppliers could require us to obtain new qualifications from customers and adversely affect our manufacturing throughput and yield.”

Research and Development

The wafer market is characterized by continuous technological development and product innovation. We believe that continued and timely development of new products and enhancements to existing products are necessary to maintain our competitive position. Our goal in research and development is to maintain a close working relationship with our customers to continually develop new products and refine existing products to meet the needs of the marketplace. We have recently adopted a new model for our research and development group that combines engineering innovation with specific commercialization strategies. Our new model closely aligns our technology efforts with our customers’ requirements.

In addition, in order to strengthen our customer relationships and interaction and to better target our research and development efforts, we assign research and development engineers to key customers worldwide. We do this through our Applications Engineering Group, in four of our laboratories located in the U.S., Italy, Japan and South Korea, as well as field and resident engineers located at strategic locations throughout the world. Certain resident engineers are dedicated to specific accounts. The primary purpose of the Applications Engineering Group is to establish a close, technical working relationship with our customers to obtain a better knowledge of our customers’ material requirements.

We devote a portion of our research and development resources to enhance our position in the crystal technology area. We have dedicated engineers and scientists, located in our St. Peters, Missouri, Merano, Italy and Chonan, South Korea facilities, to further our understanding of defect control, cost reduction and the use of granular polysilicon. In conjunction with these efforts, we are developing wafering technologies to meet advanced flatness and particle requirements of our customers. In addition, we continue to focus on the development of our advanced epitaxial wafer technology with a dedicated staff of scientists located primarily in our St. Peters, Missouri facility and in our Novara, Italy and Utsunomiya, Japan facilities, who focus on the development of new epitaxial wafer products and cost reduction processes.

In addition to our focus on advancements in wafer material properties, we also continue to invest in research and development associated with larger wafer diameters. We produced our first 300 millimeter diameter wafer in 1991 and continue to enhance our 300 millimeter technology program using our staff of research and development scientists, engineers and technicians located primarily in our St. Peters, Missouri and Utsunomiya, Japan facilities. In addition, we continue to focus on process design advancements to drive cost and productivity improvements.

Research and development expenses were $27.4 million in 2002, $65.7 million in 2001, and $72.2 million in 2000, or 4.0%, 10.6% and 8.3% of our net sales for those periods, respectively.

Competition

The market for wafers is highly competitive. We compete in all the major semiconductor-producing regions of the world and face intense competition from established manufacturers. Our major competitors include Shin-Etsu Handotai, Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon and Wacker Siltronic. Our wafers compete with wafers manufactured by others on the basis of product quality, consistency, price, technical innovation, customer service and product availability. We believe we are competitive on the basis of these factors. See “Risk Factors – We experience intense competition in the wafer industry,

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which may have an adverse effect on our business.”

Proprietary Information and Intellectual Property

We believe that the success of our business depends in part on our proprietary technology, information, processes and know how. We try to protect our intellectual property rights based on patents and trade secrets as part of our ongoing research, development and manufacturing activities. As of December 31, 2002, we owned of record or beneficially approximately 220 U.S. patents, of which approximately 10 will expire by 2005, approximately 20 will expire between 2006 and 2010 and approximately 190 will expire after 2010. As of December 31, 2002, we owned of record or beneficially approximately 430 foreign patents, of which approximately 20 will expire by 2005, approximately 65 will expire between 2006 and 2010 and approximately 345 will expire after 2010. These foreign patents are generally counterparts of our U.S. patents. As of December 31, 2002, we had approximately 90 pending U.S. patent applications and approximately 800 pending foreign patent applications.

We have agreed to indemnify some of our customers against claims of infringement of the intellectual property rights of others in our sales contracts with these customers. In addition, we have entered into a technology transfer agreement among us, Texas Instruments Incorporated and MEMC Southwest under which we have agreed to indemnify MEMC Southwest and Texas Instruments Incorporated against certain claims of infringement of the intellectual property rights of others.

Employees

At December 31, 2002, we had approximately 4,600 full time employees and 100 temporary workers worldwide. We have approximately 2,000 unionized employees in our St. Peters, Missouri, Pasadena, Texas, South Korea and Italy facilities. We have not experienced any material work stoppages at any of our facilities during the last several years.

Geographic Information

Information regarding our foreign and domestic operations is contained in Note 19 on page 52 of our 2002 Annual Report, which information is incorporated herein by reference.

Risk Factors

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including those set forth under “Item 1. Business” and “Item 3. Legal Proceedings” and those incorporated herein by reference from our 2002 Annual Report. In addition to the business risks and uncertainties discussed elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the following are important risk factors which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement made by us.

Our business depends on the semiconductor device industry and may be adversely affected if that industry experiences future downturns.

Our business depends in large part upon the market demand for our customers’ semiconductors and products utilizing semiconductors. The semiconductor device industry experiences:

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From time to time, the semiconductor device industry has experienced significant downturns. These downturns often occur in connection with declines in general economic conditions. Some of these downturns have lasted for more than a year and have resulted in a substantial decrease in demand for our products. If the semiconductor device industry experiences future downturns, we will face pressure to reduce prices and we may need to further rationalize capacity and reduce fixed costs. At the same time, our ability to reduce expenditures for capital, research and development and global infrastructure during an industry downturn is limited because of the need to maintain our competitive position. If we are unable to reduce our expenses sufficiently to offset reductions in price and volume, our operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

Our loan instruments contain certain highly restrictive covenants any of which, if violated, would, upon election of the lenders, cause outstanding amounts under each of our loan instruments to become immediately due and payable.

We are party to a $150 million revolving credit facility with Citibank/UBS, a $35 million revolving credit facility with TPG and an indenture for our senior subordinated secured notes. These loan instruments contain certain highly restrictive covenants, including covenants to maintain minimum quarterly consolidated EBITDA, minimum monthly consolidated backlog, minimum monthly consolidated revenues, maximum annual capital expenditures and other covenants customary for revolving loans and indentures of this type and size. A continuing violation of any of these covenants, which in our highly cyclical industry could occur in a sudden or sustained downturn, would be deemed an event of default under all of these loan instruments. In such event, upon election of the lenders or noteholders, the loan commitments under the revolving credit facilities would terminate and the loans and accrued interest then outstanding under the credit facilities and the senior subordinated secured notes and related accrued interest would be due and payable immediately. We may not have sufficient funds and assets to cover any such required payments and may not be able to obtain replacement financing on a timely basis or at all. This would have a material adverse effect on us.

We would be required to immediately repay outstanding loans and accrued interest under our credit facilities and to repurchase our senior subordinated secured notes upon election of the lenders or noteholders in the event TPG does not continue to own a substantial portion of our stock.

If (1) TPG’s ownership interest in us is reduced below 15% (or, in the case of the indenture, 30%) of our total outstanding equity interests, (2) another person or group acquires ownership of a greater percentage of our outstanding equity than TPG, or (3) a majority of our Board of Directors is neither nominated by our Board of Directors nor appointed by directors so nominated, then, upon election of the lenders or noteholders:

We may not have sufficient funds to make the required payments or repurchases and may not be able to obtain replacement financing on a timely basis or at all. This would have a material adverse effect on us.

Outstanding borrowings under the $150 million Citibank/UBS revolving credit facility would become immediately due and payable upon election of the lenders in the event any guarantor does not renew its guaranty, terminates its guaranty or defaults under its guaranty.

The $150 million Citibank/UBS revolving credit facility is guaranteed by certain of the TPG entities. The terms of the guaranties are shorter than the term of the revolving credit facility, and each guarantor may terminate its guaranty. In the event a guarantor does not renew its guaranty through the term of the revolving credit facility and the lenders have not received cash collateral or a replacement guaranty executed by a replacement guarantor satisfactory to the lenders, a guarantor terminates its guaranty, or a guarantor defaults under its guaranty, then, upon election of the lenders, the loan commitments under the revolving credit facility would terminate and the loans and accrued interest under the facility would

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be due and payable immediately. In any of these events, the guarantors have severally agreed to make new revolving credit loans available to us on terms and conditions substantially similar to the $150 million Citibank/UBS revolving credit facility except with 2% higher interest rates. The guarantors may not have sufficient funds and assets to provide this replacement financing, and we may not be able to obtain the replacement financing on a timely basis or at all. This would have a material adverse effect on us.

We have had significant operating and net losses, and we may have future losses.

Prior to 2002, we had not reported an annual operating profit since 1996. We have not reported annual net earnings since 1996. In 2002, we had operating income of $65 million and a net loss allocable to common stockholders of $22 million. We cannot predict whether we will experience operating losses and net losses in the future.

We are subject to periodic fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates.

Approximately 64% of our sales in 2002 were made outside North America. We expect that international sales will continue to represent a significant percentage of our total sales. In addition, a significant portion of our manufacturing operations is located outside of the United States. Sales outside of the United States expose us to currency exchange rate fluctuations. Our risk exposure from these sales is primarily limited to Euro currencies, Japanese yen and Korean won. Our risk exposure from expenses at international manufacturing facilities is concentrated in Euro currencies, Japanese yen, Korean won and Malaysian ringgit. To the extent that our sales in foreign currencies occur at foreign sites which incur expenses in those currencies, our net exposure is reduced. We generally hedge receivables denominated in foreign currencies at the time of sale.

Our foreign subsidiaries have debt denominated in Euro currencies, Japanese yen, Korean won and U.S. dollars. We generally do not hedge these net foreign currency exposures.

Taisil, our unconsolidated joint venture in Taiwan, has sales denominated primarily in the U.S. dollar and operating expenses primarily denominated in the New Taiwanese dollar and U.S. dollar. Taisil has debt denominated in the New Taiwanese dollar and U.S. dollar. For U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, Taisil uses the U.S. dollar as its functional currency and does not hedge net New Taiwanese dollar exposures. To date, we have not hedged our net New Taiwanese dollar exposure related to our investment in Taisil.

We cannot predict whether these foreign currency exchange risks inherent in doing business in foreign countries will have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial results in the future.

We experience intense competition in the wafer industry, which may have an adverse effect on our business.

We face intense competition in the wafer industry from established manufacturers throughout the world. If we cannot compete effectively with other wafer manufacturers, our operating results could be materially adversely affected. Some of our competitors have substantial financial, technical, engineering and manufacturing resources to develop products that currently, and may in the future, compete favorably against our products.

We compete on the basis of product quality, consistency, price, technical innovation, customer service and product availability. We expect that our competitors will continue to improve the design and performance of their products and to introduce new products with competitive price and performance characteristics. We may need to reduce our prices to retain market share, which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

If we fail to meet changing customer demands, we may lose customers.

The wafer industry changes rapidly. Changes in our customers’ requirements result in new and more demanding technology, product specifications and diameters, and manufacturing processes. Our ability to remain competitive will depend upon our ability to develop technologically advanced products and processes. We must continue to meet the increasingly demanding requirements of our customers on a cost-effective basis. As a result, we expect to continue to make significant investments in research and development and equipment. We cannot be certain that we will be able to

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successfully introduce, market and cost effectively manufacture any new products, or that we will be able to develop new or enhanced products and processes that satisfy customer needs or achieve market acceptance.

We are subject to periodic foreign economic downturns and political instability, which may adversely affect our business.

Economic downturns in the Asia Pacific region and Japan have affected our operating results in the past, and economic downturns in those and other regions in which we operate could affect our operating results in the future. Additionally, other factors may have a material adverse effect on our operations in the future, including:

We cannot predict whether these economic risks inherent in doing business in foreign countries will have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial results in the future.

We may acquire other businesses, products or technologies; if we do, we may be unable to integrate them with our business, which may impair our financial performance.

If we find appropriate opportunities, we may acquire businesses, products or technologies that we believe are strategic. If we acquire a business, product or technology, the process of integration may produce unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures and may absorb significant attention of our management that would otherwise be available for the ongoing development of our business. If we make future acquisitions, we may issue shares of stock that dilute other stockholders, expend cash, incur debt, assume contingent liabilities or create additional expenses related to amortizing other intangible assets with estimated useful lives, any of which might harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Our loan instruments restrict our borrowings and use of proceeds.

Under the terms of the $150 million Citibank/UBS revolving credit facility, the $35 million TPG revolving credit facility and the indenture for our senior subordinated secured notes, we generally cannot borrow from third parties or pledge assets without the consent of the lenders or note holders, as the case may be. Under these instruments, we are also generally required to use 75% of the net proceeds from the issuance of debt or equity as follows:

Because we cannot easily transfer production of specific products from one of our manufacturing facilities to another, manufacturing delays at a single facility could result in a loss of product volume.

It typically takes three to six months for our customers to qualify a manufacturing facility to produce a specific product, but it can take longer depending upon a customer’s requirements and market conditions. Interruption of operations at any of our primary wafer manufacturing facilities could result in delays or cancellations of shipments of wafers and a loss

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of product volume. Likewise, interruption of operations at our granular polysilicon manufacturing facility could adversely affect our wafer manufacturing throughput and yields and could result in our inability to produce certain qualified wafer products, delays or cancellations of shipments of wafers and a loss of product volume. A number of factors could cause interruptions, including labor disputes, equipment failures, or shortages of raw materials or supplies. Unions represent employees at our wafer facilities in St. Peters, Missouri, Italy and South Korea and our granular polysilicon facility in Pasadena, Texas. A strike at any of these facilities could cause interruptions in manufacturing. We cannot be certain that alternate qualified capacity would be available on a timely basis or at all.

Our dependence on single and limited source suppliers could require us to obtain new qualifications from customers and adversely affect our manufacturing throughput and yield.

We obtain substantially all of our requirements for several raw materials, equipment, parts and supplies from sole suppliers. Likewise, we obtain all of our requirements for granular polysilicon from our facility in Pasadena, Texas. We believe that we could find adequate alternative sources of supply for these raw materials, equipment, parts and supplies. In the case of granular polysilicon, we believe that we could substitute chunk polysilicon for granular polysilicon. However, in either case, it may take us several months to transition to a new supplier and we may be required to obtain new qualifications from our customers in order to change or substitute materials or sources of supply. We cannot predict whether we would be successful or how long the qualification process would take. In addition, our manufacturing process could be interrupted and our manufacturing throughput and yields could be adversely affected. A failure to obtain a new qualification or a decrease in our manufacturing throughput or yields could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

From time to time we have experienced limited supplies of certain raw materials, equipment, parts and supplies. Because of the cyclical nature of our industry, we may experience shortages of our key raw materials, equipment, parts and supplies in the future. Increases in prices resulting from these shortages could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

If we do not continue to reduce our manufacturing costs and operating expenses, we may not be able to compete effectively in our industry.

The success of our business depends, in part, on our continuous reduction of manufacturing costs and operating expenses. The wafer industry has historically experienced price erosion and will likely continue to experience such price erosion. If we are not able to reduce our manufacturing costs and operating expenses sufficiently to offset future price erosion, our operating results will be adversely affected. We have recently engaged in various cost-cutting and other initiatives intended to reduce costs and increase productivity. These activities have included closure of facilities, reduction of headcount, refinement of our processes and efforts to increase yields and reduce cycle time. In addition, our 2001 financial restructuring resulted in substantially reduced depreciation expense. We cannot assure you that we will be able to continue to reduce our manufacturing costs and operating expenses. Moreover, any future closure of facilities or reduction of headcount may adversely affect our ability to manufacture wafers in required volumes to meet customer demand and may result in other production disruptions.

We have a limited number of principal customers and a loss of one or several of those customers would hurt our business.

Our operating results could materially suffer if we experience a significant reduction in, or loss of, purchases by one or more of our top customers. We made approximately 63% of our sales to ten customers in 2002. We had two customers that each accounted for more than 10% of our sales in 2002.

Our business may be harmed if we fail to properly protect our intellectual property.

We believe that the success of our business depends in part on our proprietary technology, information, processes and know how. We try to protect our intellectual property rights based on trade secrets and patents as part of our ongoing research, development and manufacturing activities. However, we cannot be certain 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

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enough to protect our technology or that foreign intellectual property laws will adequately protect our intellectual property rights. Moreover, we cannot be certain that our patents do or will provide us with a competitive advantage.

The protection of our intellectual property rights and the defense of claims of infringement against us by third parties may subject us to costly patent litigation.

Any litigation in the future to enforce patents issued to us, to protect trade secrets or know how possessed by us or to defend us or indemnify others against claimed infringement of the rights of others could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and operating results. From time to time, we receive notices from other companies that we may be infringing certain of their patents or other rights. If we are unable to resolve these matters satisfactorily, or to obtain licenses on acceptable terms, we may face litigation, which could have a material adverse effect on us. Regardless of the validity or successful outcome of any such intellectual property claims, we may need to expend significant time and expense to protect our intellectual property rights or to defend against claims of infringement by third parties, which could have a material adverse effect on us. If we lose any such litigation, we may be required to:

Any of these outcomes could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.

Our success depends on our ability to attract and retain qualified technical, sales, marketing and management personnel.

The loss of key personnel or the inability to hire and retain qualified personnel could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. We are dependent upon a limited number of key technical, sales, marketing and management personnel. Our future success will depend in part upon our ability to attract and retain these highly qualified personnel. We cannot be certain that we will be successful in hiring or retaining qualified personnel, or that any of our personnel will remain employed by us.

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

We are subject to a variety of foreign, federal, state and local 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 could be released to the environment at properties owned or operated by us, at other locations during the transport of the materials, or at properties to which we send substances for treatment or disposal. 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. Groundwater and/or soil contamination has been detected at four of our facilities and one closed facility. We believe we are taking all necessary remedial steps at these facilities and do not expect these known conditions to have a material impact on our business. However, environmental issues relating to presently known or unknown matters could require additional investigation, assessment or expenditures. In addition, new laws and regulations or stricter enforcement of existing laws and regulations could give rise to additional compliance costs and liabilities.

Future sales of shares of our common stock may depress the price of our common stock.

If we or our stockholders sell a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or investors become concerned that substantial sales might occur, the market price of our common stock could decrease. We have

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granted TPG registration rights with respect to a substantial number of shares of our common stock. Future sales of common stock by TPG in the public market, or the perception that such sales might occur, could cause such a decrease in the price of our common stock.

The market price of our common stock has fluctuated significantly and may continue to do so.

The market price of our common stock may be affected by various factors, including: