IMI appoints new president

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala owned Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI), is beefing up its international operations with the appointment of Gilles Bernard as its new president.

Bernard has been with the company as global chief operating officer.

He will replace Arthur Tan as president but Tan remains as the chief executive officer and would also be overseeing other businesses at Ayala, insiders said.

Tan was recently appointed vice chairman of Ayala Automotive.

“Tan will continue to be our CEO and chairman of the Executive Committee, taking care of long-term strategy formulation and overall direction setting. Tan’s role in the Ayala Group has been expanded to include overseeing the automotive manufacturing, dealership and distributorship businesses of Ayala Corp. and, in this connection, he was recently appointed as the vice chairman of Ayala Automotive Holdings Corp.,” IMI corporate secretary Solomon Hermosura said.

Bernard, on the other hand, will be more involved in the day-to-day operations as IMI grows its international business.

AC Energy president and CEO John Eric Francia also stepped down as director of IMI to focus on the energy and infrastructure group, which is expanding as it nears its goal of assembling 1,000 megawatts (MW) of attributable power capacity by the end of the year.

At present, Ayala’s energy arm has approximately 650 MW in capacity across its coal and renewable power projects.

Francia also stepped down as IMI director to give way to Bernard’s seat in the board.

IMI reported a flat net income of $28.8 million (or 1.3 billion) in 2015 owing to the volatility in the foreign currency markets and weakness in China’s economy, one of its largest markets.

Revenues of $814.4 million (or 37 billion) dropped four percent from a year ago mainly due to a weak euro and downturn in the computing and telecommunications segments.

Ayala is currently evaluating opportunities in the automotive distribution and manufacturing sector for potential mergers and acquisitions.

One possibility is to expand into the automotive manufacturing business, which can be across the value chain and not just vehicles.

Manufacturing, officials said, translates to more jobs, which Ayala Corp. believes are the solutions to achieve inclusive growth.

If this happens, this would be an expansion of the manufacturing capabilities of IMI, which at present has facilities in Asia, Europe and North America. It serves various markets such as electronics, automotive, industrial, medical, telecommunications, infrastructure, storage device and consumer electronics industries.