AMSTERDAM -ASML has approved the appointment of Christophe Fouquet as the company's new CEO.

Fouquet, 50, took up his new role as chief of Europe's largest technology company at ASML's annual meeting in Veldhoven, Netherlands, on Wednesday.

"I'm very happy ... to be able to write the next chapter of ASML and to continue to build significant value for our shareholders," Fouquet said.

No vote was required and chairman Nils Andersen announced the appointment had been approved.

Fouquet, tapped for the job in November, is a 15-year veteran at the company who had previously overseen its top "EUV" product lines.

He replaces retiring CEO Peter Wennink, who had led the company since 2014, a period in which its share price increased more than tenfold and it became Europe's largest tech company with a market value above 300 billion euros ($320 billion).

"People have been telling me the last couple of months 'you're retiring at the height of the company's form'," Wennink said. "No. we're not even in the middle."

  - Reuters