Barco and IPTE sign Letter of Intent concerning the sale of the Electronic Manufacturing activity of the division Barco Manufacturing Services
Kortrijk, 22 August 2006. Barco and IPTE announce that they have signed a Letter of Intent concerning the possible sale by Barco of the Electronic Manufacturing activity of the division Barco Manufacturing Services.
Electronic Manufacturing is the surface mounting activity of Barco Manufacturing Services and generates 60 million euro sales per year. The activity has manufacturing sites in Belgium (Poperinge) and the Czech Republic (Kladno) and employs approximately 400 people.The possible sale fits within Barco’s strategy not to invest any further in the subcontracting activity, as was announced earlier, and is in line with the strategy of IPTE to expand its Connect Systems activity.
For the time being, no further details are made public as the discussions following the signing of the Letter of Intent are not finished yet. Both parties expect a final decision regarding this transaction by the end of September 2006.
About IPTE
IPTE is a market leader in the supply of production equipment for the electronics industry. The company develops turnkey automation systems for the production, testing and treatment of printed circuit boards and for final assembly work, and is also active as a contract manufacturer of printed circuit boards and in board assembly, off-the shelf cabling and product assembly.
In October 2003 IPTE acquired the French automation group Prodel.
For fiscal year 2005, IPTE posted net sales of 127 million euro, of which 78 million euro for the Contract Manufacturing activity.
IPTE’s references include companies such as Alcatel, Blaupunkt, Bosch, Ericsson, Flextronics, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nokia, Philips, Sanmina, Siemens and Solectron.
The company presently employs over 1,300 people in facilities in Europe, the United States and Asia. (www.ipte.com)
About Barco
Barco, a global technology company headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium, designs and develops visualization products for a variety of professional markets. Barco has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
For fiscal year 2005, Barco posted net sales of euro 712.0 million.
Barco’s ordinary shares are listed on the Brussels/Euronext stock exchange. Barco is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company. Share information may be accessed on Bloomberg under the symbol BAR BB and on Reuters under BARBt.BR.
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