The meeting will please come to order. I am Garrett Pierce, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and I'd like to Welcome you to the 58th shareholders meeting as a public company. Before proceeding with the business of the meeting, I need to make a few administrative announcements. I'd like to point out that our audio portion of this meeting is being broadcast live over the internet at our website, www.kns.com. To help our listeners, if anyone should have a question during the question and answer session later in the meeting, please use the microphone which will be available in the audience. In addition, our audio recording will be made of the entire meeting, including any questions and comments that you may have. The audio recording will be available at our website for a limited time following this meeting.
I want to point out that in addition to our historical statements, remarks, and comments today may include forward-looking statements which are covered under the safe harbor provisions of the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Actual results may turn out to be significantly better or worse than indicated by any forward-looking statements made this afternoon. For a complete discussion of the risks associated with the operations of KNS, please refer to the company's SEC filings, especially the 10-K for the year ended September 28, 2019. Now I'd like to introduce the other members of the board of directors of the company. Mr. Brian R. Bachman, Dr. Fusen Chen, who is also the President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Peter T. Kong, Mr. Chin Hu Lim, and Gregory F. Milzcik, and Ms. Mui Sung Yeo.
I now call on Ms. Waters, the Secretary of the company, for the required formal announcements.
Mr. Chairman, I present a copy of the notice of internet availability of the notice of meeting and proxy statement, the proxy card, and the annual report. I also present an affidavit as to the mailing on January 4, 2020, of the notice of internet availability to each person who was a stockholder of record on November 22, 2019, the record date for the meeting. The notice of meeting called this meeting for 4:30 P.M. on February 18, 2020, at Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc., 23A Serangoon North Avenue 5, Singapore, for the purposes of electing directors, ratifying the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as independent registered public accountants for the 2020 fiscal year, a non-binding vote on executive compensation, and transacting such other business as may properly come before the meeting. I have a complete list of stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting.
The list is available for inspection by the stockholders during the meeting for the purposes of the meeting.
The affidavit of mailing and the attachments thereto will be filed with the minutes of the meeting. As chairman of the meeting, I appoint Peter Deskovic as the judge of election. If you are acting as a proxy for a shareholder, please file your written proxy with the secretary if you have not already done so. If you desire to speak at the meeting, when I recognize you, please rise and give your name and state whether you are a stockholder or hold a proxy. If you hold a proxy, please give the name of your principal. The judge of elections has informed me that there is a quorum present. Our custom has been to dispense with the reading of the minutes of the last annual meeting.
Unless there is a request that the minutes of the last meeting be read, I will now move on to the three matters submitted to a vote of the shareholders as outlined by Ms. Waters. We will defer voting until all matters are properly before the meeting and ready for voting. The board of directors has nominated Mui Sung Yeo for re-election at the annual meeting to serve until the 2024 annual meeting, and until her successor has been duly elected and qualified. The second order of business is the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent registered public accountants. The audit committee of the board appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent registered public accountants for fiscal year 2020. As you know, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has served as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the last fiscal year. I'd like to introduce Hans Koopmans of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
If any shareholder has any questions for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, they can be raised during the question and answer period. The third order of business is the advisory vote to approve, on a non-binding basis, the overall compensation of the company's named executive officers. If there's no discussion, we can now proceed to the voting on matters before the meeting. As has been customary, we will vote on all matters by ballot. I now ask any stockholder who has not voted online, via telephone, or has not mailed in or delivered a proxy, or who wishes to change a previous proxy vote, or wishes to vote in person, to raise his or her hand so that the Secretary can provide you with a ballot. While we're waiting for the report of the Judge of Election, I would like to ask Dr. Fusen.
Fusen Chen, our President and CEO, to make a few comments and remarks.
While all industry cycles are unique, fiscal 2019 was distinct. Great tensions, the shifting global supply chain, and the general softness in the broader semiconductor industry create challenges. Despite a challenging environment, we expand our serve market and gain traction on several new growth prospects. In operations, ongoing development of an aggressive shareholder return philosophy have allowed us to end the fiscal 2020 as a more adaptive and a diversified organization with significantly enhanced growth potential. Over the past few years, organizational refinements, new partnership engagement, and an increased focus on market expansion have transformed our value creation process. While this change may seem subtle, they have allowed us to better leverage our core market positions, rapidly develop innovative and competitive solutions, and better identify new and promising growth initiatives.
Over the past two years, we released seven new capital equipment offerings, which are expected to contribute to operating leverage meaningfully, fundamentally enhancing our potential for shareholder value creation. Despite recent challenge emerging in Asia, it remains a very exciting time for the company. We believe the tougher period of demand is largely behind us, and the broader semiconductor space is entering a period of sustained market expansion. While a core market recovery provides improved prospects for our unit-driven business, we are also aggressively driving adoption of our new offerings. The growing install base and the increased pace of customer engagement for our Palma thermal compression and the Katalyst high accuracy flip chip offering demonstrate the market evolving need and the longer-term potential for these innovative systems.
In addition to these new advanced IC packaging offerings over the past years, enter the growing mini and micro LED applications with our disruptive PIXALUX system, which has the potential to revolutionize the display market. Our ability to identify this new market and rapidly develop this unique high-accuracy solution is a testament to our organizational effectiveness and development capabilities. Over the coming years, we believe PIXALUX has tremendous potential for significant corporate-level financial performance improvement. As we collectively execute this diversified market expansion strategy and further enhance value creation, we continue to deliver a lot of value to shareholders. Over the preceding five fiscal years, we generate approximately $408 million free cash flow and reduce share outstanding by over 17%.
Total shareholder returns during this period through shareholder repurchases and dividends totaled $342 million, of which approximately $133 million, nearly 40%, was deployed in fiscal 2019 alone. We believe the best path to long-term value delivery is through fundamental valuation expansion, especially through enhanced free cash flow generated by our new market opportunities. We also believe our current business model generates adequate profit to support these new growth prospects, while also providing the opportunity for direct shareholder returns through a meaningful dividend and through ongoing and opportunistic open market share repurchases. Over the long term, through the market expansion, executive new product development, and the direct shareholder returns provide a powerful combination of value creation and delivery. We appreciate your support as we continue our path toward this fundamentally enhanced multifaceted growth strategy. Thank you.
Thanks, Fusen Chen. Now, as has been customary, we're happy to entertain any questions you may have. I ask that each person who has a question to please use the microphone and give his or her name, and state whether he or she is a stockholder or a proxy holder. If there are no further questions, I'm advised that the Judge of Election has completed the count of votes and delivered the report to the Secretary. The Secretary will now announce the results as reflected in the Judge's report.
The Judge's report shows 58,138,692 shares of common stock present in person and/or present by proxy, which the Judge has certified to be a quorum of the outstanding common stock on all matters presented to the meeting. The Judge's report further shows that sufficient votes were cast for the election of Mui Sung Yeo, for the ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and for approval, on a non-binding basis, the overall compensation of the company's named executive officers.
In accordance with the results certified by the Judge of Election, I hereby declare that Mui Sung Yeo has been elected Director for the term for which she was nominated. The appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as independent registered public accountants for the 2020 fiscal year has been ratified. That the shareholders have approved, on a non-binding basis, the overall compensation of the company's named executives. I order the report of the Judge of Election to be filed with the minutes of the meeting. Meeting is now adjourned. On behalf of all the directors, officers, and employees, I want to thank all of you for attending the meeting. There are light refreshments in the back of the room, which I invite you to share with us.