Ayala unit buys Bulgaria lot

Ayala-led Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) has strengthened its foothold in Bulgaria, where its local manufacturing arm is among the biggest corporations, with the acquisition of a strategic property partly used as its production hub.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, IMI said its wholly owned and indirect subsidiary Integrated Micro-Electronics Bulgaria EOOD (IMI BG) had executed a deal to acquire a parcel of land and the building in Botevgrad, Bulgaria, for 1.14 million euros. The property, which was acquired from Melexis Bulgaria EOOD (MB), has a total land area of 16,275 square meters (sqm) and a total built-up area of 12,193 sqm.

“This new development augurs well for IMI BG. With additional capacity, IMI BG can service more OEM (original equipment manufacturer) requirements, especially in its fast-growing target markets of automotive and industrial electronics,” IMI president and chief executive Arthur Tan said in a statement.

IMI Bulgaria, which has been on an expansion mode since 2013, made it to the list of Bulgaria’s top 100 companies based on a roster drawn up by Capital Bulgaria, a widely read business newspaper that comes out with the annual list. The IMI unit was the 65th biggest company in Bulgaria in 2014 in terms of revenues, up from the previous year’s 87th place.

In 2014, IMI BG generated revenues of $188.3 million, an increase of 29 percent year-on-year. It has built 3,150 sqm of manufacturing space from scratch in the last two years. Another 6,900 sqm of working space will be completed by end of the first quarter of 2016.

IMI is one of the leading worldwide providers of electronics manufacturing services (EMS) and power semiconductor assembly and test services. This Filipino-owned multinational corporation now ranks 18th among EMS providers globally, moving up from its previous rank of 21st, based on the latest list of Manufacturing Market Insider.

With manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America, IMI serves diversified markets that include those in the automotive, industrial, medical, telecommunications infrastructure, storage device, and consumer electronics industries. This subsidiary of Ayala Corp. was valued by the market at P11.1 billion.