GEORGE TOWN: Inari Bhd, a leading electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider heading for a listing on Bursa Malaysia’s ACE Market, plans to stay focused on its niche semiconductor packaging services for chips used in radio frequency (RF) mobile technology and devices in the next three years.

Speaking at Inari’s IPO prospectus launch yesterday, managing director Dr Tan Seng Chuan said the company would tap growth in RF mobile technology as the EMS sector was growing competitive globally with newer technologies and processes.

“We will have to stay focused in this market, which means doing less (of other things) would be better for us. We want to ride the growth in the global smart mobile device market in the years to come,” Tan said.

He said Inari has been able to chart commendable growth within a short span of time and is now ready to embark on its next phase of growth.

Tan said the explosive growth in smartphones offers tremendous market potential for Inari. The March 2011 International Data Corporation (IDC) worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker report predicted the smartphone market to grow by 55% this year, with vendors shipping 472 million smartphones in 2011 compared with 305 million units in 2010.

The figure is set to double to one billion in 2015, he added.

IDC also expects strong demand from emerging markets such as the Asia-Pacific region.

Tan added that the tablet PC market was also expected to chart remarkable growth on the back of strong consumer interest in the item in the past year.

“As a provider of mission-critical semiconductor packaging services for international clients that serve the rapidly growing RF industry, we want to expand our production capacity to meet the anticipated wave of consumer demand.

“In this respect, we are expanding our production capacity with a new manufacturing facility which will be ready in the first quarter of 2012 with 5,321 sq m of space housing our new manufacturing lines, expanded R&D facilities for existing and new customers,” Tan added.

Inari’s IPO entails the public issue of 83 million new ordinary shares, of which 10 million will be made available to the Malaysian public via balloting, 10.4 million shares for eligible directors, employees and business associates, 26.1 million shares for private placement to selected investors and 36.5 million shares for bumiputra investors.

At an issue price of 38 sen per share, the IPO will raise RM31.54 million for the group, of which RM17.5 million will be allocated for capital expenditure, RM7.6 million to pare down debts, RM4.5 million for working capital and RM2 million to defray listing expenses.

Inari aims to list on July 19.

Established in 2006, Inari provides services for global players in the RF mobile industry, which includes back-end wafer processing and RF testing.

Inari’s finished products are key components used in the manufacturing of a wide range of electronic products for wireless telecommunications including smartphones, 3G devices, cellular phones, computing peripherals and also for the medical sector.


This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, June 29, 2011.