IMI’s profit softens on slow China, PH businesses

AYALA-led electronics manufacturer Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) saw a 5-percent year-on-year drop in nine-month net profit to $20.8 million on slower business out of China and the Philippines.

The decline in January to September earnings was attributed to flat revenues alongside higher depreciation from its recent expansion, IMI disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday.

“We’re constantly striking a balance between growth and profitability, while making disciplined investments in innovative growth platforms. Despite pressure on revenues in our non-core segments like consumer and computing, our productivity improvements more than made up for the volume declines and translated to an improvement in our operating income. At the same time, we spent $41.1 million or 6.7 percent of revenues on capital expenditures to fund growth initiatives,” said Gilles Bernard, IMI president and chief operating officer.

Operating income for the nine-month period rose by 4 percent year-on-year to $28.8 million despite a 0.9 percent decline in revenues to $615.7 million.

Revenues from Europe and Mexico operations climbed 12 percent year-on-year to $228.9 million in the first nine months, driven by robust sales of automotive body controls.

However, the company’s China operations posted a 9 percent drop in year-on-year revenues to $195.8 million, which IMI attributed to the strategic decision to exit a certain consumer electronics business alongside weaker demand from a telecom infrastructure customer.

Revenues from IMI’s electronics manufacturing service operations in the Philippines were down 1 percent to $166.6 million following end-of-support for computing peripherals./rga