IMI strengthens foothold in Bulgaria

AYALA-led Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) has strengthened its foothold in Bulgaria, where its local manufacturing arm is among the largest corporations, with the acquisition of a property vital to its existing production hub.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, 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 situated 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 sqms.

“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 officer Arthur Tan said in a press statement.

The property was previously leased by IMI Bulgaria from MB, with an area of 7,293 sqm. being used by IMI BG as part of its production facilities and 4,900 sqm leased to a third party.

“The acquisition reinforces IMI BG’s strong position in winning new businesses enhancing IMI’s strategy of providing long lasting partnerships to its customers,” Tan said.

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 this annual list. This IMI unit was the 65th largest company in Bulgaria in 2014 in terms of revenues, up up from the previous year’s 87th place.

In 2014, IMI BG generated revenues of $188.3 million, higher by 29 percent year-on-year. It has built 3,150 sqm. of manufacturing space from scratch in the last two years. Another 6,900 sqms 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. The list of top 50 EMS providers in the world was based on the 2014 EMS-related revenues of companies.

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. is currently valued by the market at around P11.1 billion.