Ayala-led electronics firm nets $5.4M in 2012

MANILA, Philippines—Ayala-led electronics manufacturing services provider Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. grew its net profit last year by 63.6 percent to $5.4 million but sluggish global economic growth, lower capacity utilization and higher labor costs gnawed at profit margins.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, IMI said it booked $661.8 million in consolidated sales revenues in 2012, up by 15 percent year-on-year, due to acquisitions as well as business expansion of key customers.

The reported net profit, however, stood at less than 1 percent of revenues as margins came under pressure from the weak global operating environment and rising cost of inputs.

“IMI generally performed much better last year than it did in the previous year in spite of the very daunting global economic scenario. More important, we have begun to see the synergies we were expecting from our acquired entities,” IMI president and chief executive officer Arthur Tan said.

Tan said last year’s performance would augur well for future business, with IMI’s European sites posting historical highs in monthly sales in the second half of 2012.  He added that 12 new customer programs commenced mass manufacturing last year.

“That’s a sign that the confidence level for the economy in general, and IMI in particular, is on the upswing,” Tan said. “We see this continuing into the first quarter of 2013, so this year we will optimize our capacity utilization to match our global customers’ requirements.”

Subsidiaries in Europe and Mexico posted $182.2 million in combined revenues in 2012, while another subsidiary, PSi Technologies Inc., contributed $45.6 million.

The company’s operations in China and Singapore posted $276.7 million in combined revenues in 2012, marking a slight decline of 1 percent due to delay in transition to new models.

The Philippine operations generated $159.1 million in revenues, 3 percent higher from a year ago from 2011 on the back of strong programs in the automotive, industrial, and storage device sectors. The company had a cash balance of $56.2 million in its balance sheet as of end-2012. For every P1 of equity, IMI only had 46-centavos in debt.