Ayala’s IMI nearly doubles earnings

MANILA, Philippines - Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) of the Ayala conglomerate nearly doubled its earnings last year, driven by the strong business expansion in Europe and the Philippines.

The recovery in the global manufacturing sector is expected to benefit the electronics industry and IMI in the next few years, a company official said.

IMI, a provider of electronics manufacturing services and power semiconductor assembly and tests services, said its net income jumped 87.5 percent to $10.5 million in 2013 from $5.6 million a year ago. Revenues grew 12.6 percent to $745 million in 2013 from $662 million in 2012.

IMI said the robust performance last year was attributed “to the company’s strong business expansion in Europe and the Philippines.”

“Our diversification strategy has afforded us extensive global footprint, amplified technical capabilities, and wide-ranging customers, so that despite several challenges we realized higher revenues with corresponding profitability,” said IMI president and CEO Arthur Tan.

IMI said it still posted growth despite the decline in worldwide electronic equipment production and the global electronics outsourcing industry.

Operations in China and Singapore contributed $277 million in sales, accounting for 37 percent of total revenues for 2013.

“Improvements in China’s telecommunications market in the fourth quarter proved favorable to IMI’s assembly operations of communication infrastructure devices,” the firm said.

IMI’s operations in Europe and Mexico posted $235 million in consolidated revenues, up 28.9 percent year-on-year “due to the continued expansion of their automotive business.”

Local operations of IMI recorded $189 million in revenues, higher by 20.9 percent from a year ago “mainly because of increased business in the storage device market following consolidation of outsourced production of storage technology products from Japan,” the company said.

However, revenues of IMI subsidiary PSi Technologies Inc. fell 5.5 percent to $43 million amid the shutdown of non-profitable businesses.

So far, the automotive electronics business accounts for 37 percent of IMI’s total revenues compared with 32 percent in 2012.