AYALA-LED Integrated Micro-Electronics, Inc. (IMI) swung to a net loss in the second quarter as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, together with the lockdowns that followed it, weighed on its global operations.

The electronics manufacturer told the exchange on Thursday it recorded an attributable net loss of $16.91 million during the three months, reversing its attributable net profit of $5.45 million last year. Its revenues dropped 54% to $220.36 million.

For the six months starting January, its attributable net loss stood at $21.53 million, a turnaround from last year’s profits of $5.78 million. Revenues were slashed to $312.65 million.

The declines in its top line and bottom line are directly attributed to the shutdown of several plants across the globe, particularly in the Philippines, China and Mexico. Plants in Bulgaria and Czech Republic were on reduced work schedules as permitted by their respective governments.

While the company’s overhead costs were trimmed by about $10 million through streamlining and government incentives, its one-time inventory provisions worth $3 million pulled its bottom line to a net loss.

Despite the challenges in the first half, the company is optimistic it will start recovering in the next six months of the year.

“IMI expects a steady improvement in the second half of the year as revised customer forecasts indicate a better recovery than initially expected,” Arthur R. Tan, IMI chief executive officer, was quoted in the statement as saying.

“The project pipeline continues to be active with $175 million of new business wins despite the business constraints brought about by the pandemic,” he added.

IMI is under Ayala Corp.’s manufacturing arm AC Industrial Technology Holdings, Inc. It specializes in providing electronic products to the automotive, industrial and aerospace industries.

Shares in IMI at the stock exchange shed 17 centavos or 3.54% to P4.63 each on Thursday. — Denise A. Valdez

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