Ayala’s IMI to expand in medical market

MANILA, Philippines - Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) of the Ayala conglomerate intends to expand its footprint in the medical market as it seeks to further boost revenues.

IMI, the electronics manufacturing services unit of the Ayala Group, is seeking to become the first Filipino-owned electronics manufacturer to earn billions of dollars in revenues in the near term.

“Now, we are already embedded in the markets that we want. We can start focusing and expanding into some other markets like medical,” IMI president and chief executive officer Arthur Tan said.

As one of the largest electronics manufacturing services, power semiconductor assembly and test services company in the world, the firm serves diversified markets that include those in the automotive, industrial, medical, telecommunications infrastructure, storage device, and consumer electronics industries.

The medical market’s contribution, however, currently accounts for only three percent of IMI’s total revenues.

The firm’s biggest market is the automotive sector, accounting for 37 percent, followed by telecom at 18 percent, industrial at 15 percent, consumer at 14 percent, and computing at five percent.

 “We are already in medical but we can start focusing more on that in order to make it bigger. We are focusing on other markets that we said is strategically important to us although we still have a very small percentage such as medical,” Tan said.

IMI is currently selling 215 million shares at P7.50 each, lower than the initial offer price of P10 each.

Tan said demand has so far been very good given that the company priced the shares on the cheaper end.

 “Most of the stocks are already taken up. Indication is very good because we priced it very low,” he said.

IMI has five manufacturing plants in the Philippines to date. As of the first nine months of the year, IMI continued to post strong earnings growth on the back of higher revenues.

The firm’s consolidated revenues for the period ending September already grew 19 percent to $650.1 million from $547.1 million a year ago.