IMI doubles profit to $3.1 million in H1

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala-led chipmaker Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) posted a net profit of $3.1 million in the first half of the year, more than double the $1.1 million recorded the previous year, due to its expansion in Europe and Mexico and increased business at home alongside the reduction in operating expenses.

IMI, a leading worldwide provider of electronics manufacturing services (EMS) and power semiconductor assembly and test services (SATS), registered sales revenue of $325.7 million, up 24 percent from the year earlier.

“Given the unstable state of developed economies and the slowdown in China, we managed to grow both revenues and income on demand from core customers and acquisitions,” Arthur Tan, IMI president and chief executive officer said.

Subsidiaries in Europe and Mexico chalked up $85.7 million in revenues while PSi Technologies raked in $25 million in revenues.

On the other hand, IMI’s operations in China and Singapore contributed $134.9 million in combined revenues, down six percent year on year largely due to reduced volume in a telecommunication infrastructure program and delay in the production of new models for an industrial electronics program.

Revenues from Philippine operations, meanwhile, improved three percent, driven by strong programs in the computing and consumer segments.

Tan said the company’s balance sheet as of end-June 2012 remains healthy, shielding IMI against volatilities in the operating environment and positioning the firm to seize growth opportunities.”

In the second quarter alone, IMI’s net earnings surged 164 percent as revenues climbed 14 percent.

Tan maintained that the general outlook for the global electronics industry is one of cautious optimism. “There is a positive trend of sequential growth, which is expected to linger for the rest of the year.” The optimism is, however, tempered by shaky macroeconomic factors. Thus our company cannot be complacent with the performance it has recorded so far,” he said.

“With a constant drive to innovate, we continue to invest in process improvements and research and development initiatives to ride the trends that include increasing automotive electronic content, emerging applications of electronics for the industrial and medical fields, and the rising demand for solar panels,” Tan added.

He cited IMI’s manufacturing facility in Jiaxing, China, which is ramping up production of solar panels and automotive electronic parts in the second half of the year.

IMI, consistently ranked among the top 30 EMS providers in the world, serves diversified markets that include those in the automotive, industrial, medical, solar energy, telecommunications infrastructure, storage device and consumer electronics industries.