INTEGRATED Micro-electronics, Inc. (IMI) has been granted an income tax holiday by the Serbian government to support its investments on a production facility that will manufacture electronic goods in the country.
Incentives consist of “an income tax holiday of 10 years starting from the first profitable year and cash incentives of up to 8.5 million euros, based on the achievement of employment and revenue milestones,” IMI Chief Finance Officer Jerome S. Tan said in an email.
The 32 million-euro investment will span from 2017 to 2026.
The Council for Economic Development of Serbia on March 22 awarded the incentives for IMI’s electronics manufacturing facility in the city of Nis, the company told the stock exchange in a disclosure on Thursday.
“The facility will be set up in Serbia because it is close to our biggest European plant in Bulgaria. Nis, Serbia is one of the key engineering and technical centers in Eastern Europe. It has access to large engineering and technical labor required for our manufacturing operations,” Mr. Tan said.
“The Serbian regulation prescribes that the realization of the project will facilitate further development of the Serbian economy and will contribute to the overall improvement of the country’s competitiveness as an investment location,” read the disclosure.
IMI provides services in durable electronics for long-product life cycle segments such as automotive and industrial electronics. The automotive segment offers customized solutions for safety and security, while its industrial segment makes security and access control devices, power modules and building automation, among others.
The Ayala-controlled manufacturing services provider booked a 2.5% decrease in its earnings in 2016, to $28.1 million or P8.1 billion. Operations in the Philippines also posted a 2% increase at $221 million.
The listed firm attributed the decline to inflated costs, foreign exchange losses, and weaker economic activity.
