Ionics shuts down US subsidiary

Ionics Inc., one of the leading publicly-listed technology firms at the Philippine Stock Exchange, will close down its US-based subsidiary "due to uncertain economic conditions in the industry and to stop continuing losses."

In a disclosure to the PSE, Ionics corporate secretary Manuel R. Roxas said the company’s board has decided to shut down the operations of Ionics USA Inc. and continue efforts to sell the company and/or its assets.

Ionics, among the top 50 listed companies in terms of market capitalization with P4.62 billion, and emerging as one of the country’s flagships in the global technology explosion, has a full turnkey printed circuit board and box-build assembly operations in the Silicon Valley through its wholly-owned subsidiary Ionics Circuits USA.

The company also has investments in IT companies also in the US – Newmoon Software Inc., SiRF Technologies Inc., Stream Machine Inc., Wireless Link Corp. and Softbook Inc.

But with the global slowdown in the IT business, particularly in the electronics and semiconductor industry, Ionic’s overseas operations suffered, leading the company to refocus on its business strategy.

Roxas said part of this plan would involve the sale of its land and manufacturing plant known as Ionics II as the same is "no longer necessary for the operations of the corporation."

Two other units, Ionics V and VI, will be transferred to its wholly-owned subsidiary Ionics Properties Inc. in order to consolidate all real estate properties of the group in one company. – Conrado Diaz Jr.