Let C be an irreducible
plane algebroid curve singularity over an algebraically closed field K, defined by a
power series f ∈ K[[X,Y ]]. In this paper, we study those power series h ∈ K[[X,Y ]]
for which the intersection multiplicity (f ⋅h) =dimK(K[[X,Y ]]∕(f,y)) is an element
of the Apéry basis of the value semigroup for C. We prove a factorization theorem
for these power series, obtaining strong properties of their irreducible factors. In
particular we show that some results by M. Merle and R. Ephraim are a special case
of this theorem.