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Inari aims to breach the RM1bil-revenue mark within 3 years
BEING in the right technology at the right time has served ACE Market-listed Inari Bhd well. It has enabled the Penang-based electronic manufacturing services (EMS) company to weather the global economic uncertainties and grow steadily over the last couple of years.
Incorporated in 2006, Inari, which specialises in the production of end-to-end semiconductor packaging services for radio frequency (RF) chips for the wireless and mobile technology sectors, has been riding on the robust growth of global smart mobile devices to sustain its revenue and profitability growth.
“It's all about being in the right technology,” Inari executive chairman Dr Tan Seng Chuan tells StarBizWeek.
“There is no major risk in the smart device area (the industry in which we serve); the industry is expected to continue growing robustly for the next few years, and this bodes well for us,” he says.
At present, Inari has four manufacturing facilities in Penang that produce key components used in leading brands of smartphones and tablets. These facilities come with a combined capacity of up to 1.3 billion parts per year.
Revenue to growthree-fold
As part of its expansion plan, Inari is set to complete its acquisition of a company double its size the Philippines-based Amertron Inc (Global) Ltd by mid-June this year. And in line with this development, the company has also proposed to change its name to Inari Amertron Bhd, which if approved at an EGM to be held on Friday in the week ahead, will take effect upon completion of its acquisition of Amertron.
Amertron is Inari's second major acquisition since the latter made its Bursa Malaysia debut in July 2011. Inari had earlier bought a 51% stake in Ceedtec Sdn Bhd, which supplies electronic test and measurement equipment for Agilent Technologies Inc.
On whether the company would continue to pursue the merger and acquisition (M&A) path to grow its business, Tan says, “I think we need to take a few months to digest our acquisition of Amertron before deciding on our next step of growth.”
He, however, stresses that Inari is always on the look out for opportunities for M&A, even though it does not have any specific target at the moment.
Inari's management says the proposed acquisition of Amertron makes sense for the company. For one thing, the US$32mil (RM100.1mil) will widen Inari's reach in the EMS segment and immediately make it a significant player in the global optoelectronics market.
This represents a diversification of sorts for the company, which has for the past few years focused much on RF chips.
“The acquisition gives us immediate entry into the fast-booming Philippines market, and it will put us in a good position to compete effectively in the high-tech EMS space,” Tan explains.
The company has proposed to issue 84.2 million new ordinary shares to raise RM30.3mil and 11.52 million redeemable preference shares with 34.6 million free five-year warrants to raise about US$11.52mil to part-finance its acquisition of Amertron. This is one of the proposals the company is seeking shareholders' approval at the coming EGM.
Amertron currently has three EMS plants, producing 500 million parts such as optical sensors, infra-red sensors, light-emitting diode displays and fibre optics per year for the global aerospace and military microelectronics industries. Two of the plants are located in the Philippines and another in China.
Amertron's plants boast a combined staff strength of about 3,700 as opposed to Inari's current staff strength of around 1,350. The acquisition of Amertron, therefore, is expected to help alleviate Inari's talent and skill shortage, Tan says.
More significantly, Inari's management expects the business synergy resulting from the acquisition of Amertron to immediately boost Inari's revenue growth by three-fold.
According to Inari CEO Lau Kean Cheong, the company's target is to grow its revenue to RM600mil from around RM200mil presently in the medium term, and to breach the RM1bil revenue-mark within three years.
Steady dividends
Inari's revenue for the first half of its financial year ending June 30, 2013, stood at RM116.7mil, which represented a growth of 23% from RM95.14mil in the previous corresponding period. Its revenue growth was attributable to higher trading volumes and orders from its customers.
During the period in review, Inari's net profit saw a significant increase of 63% to RM16.51mil from RM10.15mil in the previous corresponding period. That translated into an earnings per share of 4.91 sen for the first half, compared with 3.12 sen for the same period last financial year.
The company says it expects to remain profitable through 2013, supported by sustained global demand for smartphones and tablet computers.
It has noted that the higher demand for its services has enabled the group to benefit from improved production capacity utilisation and greater economies of scale.
“The name of the game is (capacity) utilisation; it's our business objective to improve capacity utilisation to maximise operating margin and achieve better cost efficiencies,” Lau explains.
The total interim dividend declared by Inari stood at 1.7 sen per share for the six months to December 2012, which is slightly better than the 1.2 sen per share over the previous corresponding period.
Inari has a dividend policy of up to 40% of group net profits to its shareholders. Market observers says the company stands out as one of the top dividend-paying counters on the ACE Market.
As at Dec 31, 2012, Inari had RM39.17mil in cash and cash equivalents, while short-term and long-term borrowings stood at RM13.41mil.
On whether Inari has plans to upgrade its listing status to the Main Market over the medium term, the management reckons that it is only a natural progression to do so.
Inari's shares yesterday closed one sen down at 40.5 sen.
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/3/23/business/12864647&sec=business |
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发表于 2013-3-20 12:25
发表于 2013-3-26 19:33
益納利放眼3年營收增至10億
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