SiliconBeat

Asyst Technologies will pay two percentage points more in interest on $110.4 million it owes as the result of a second amendment to a credit agreement with KeyBank National Association, according to a regulatory filing this afternoon. In exchange, certain of its loan covenants were relaxed, such as the minimum level of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) and minimum liquidity. Asyst also agreed to increase its scheduled payments next year

The original $137.5 million credit agreement, signed in July 2007, was good on an $85 million loan and $52.5 million worth of revolving credit. The company first amended the agreement in April to allow its loan to be denominated in Japanese yen that would grow or shrink based on fluctuations in the foreign currency exchange rates. It also cut in half the amount of its revolving credit line, which could be in either dollars or yen.

Nearly 80 percent of the credit it now owes under these agreements is in Japanese yen, and will accrue interest at a variable rate based on the Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate (TIBOR), plus margins of 0.30 percent to 1.25 percent.

Asyst, the Fremont maker of automation equipment for the semiconductor and flat panel display industries,  used the same filing to announce that it lost a federal appeal it had lodged against a ruling by the Northern District of California that essentially invalidated the results of a federal jury trial that unanimously found in favor of Asyst in its long-pending patent lawsuit against Emtrak, Jenoptik, and others related to certain RFID technology patents. The jury had awarded $75 million in damages, which it won’t get if the current ruling stands. Asyst said it’s “considering a further appeal.”

Last week, Asyst pulled the plug on its dutiful talks with Aquest Systems, the company run by a former Asyst CEO that offered to buy Asyst for $6.50 a share back in July.