The Japan Times WORLD EYE REPORTS SWITZERLAND
©THE JAPAN TIMES	Thursday, August 2, 2001

Semiconductor maker confident of continued growth

Micronas Semiconductor's CFO Manfred Haener looks to new technology and geographical expansion for maintaining growth

With its operational headquarters in Freiburg in southern Germany and its financial headquarters in Zurich in northern Switzerland, Micronas Semiconductor enjoys the best of both worlds. From these two strategic locations, the group develops, manufactures, and distributes integrated circuits and sensors for the consumer electronics, multimedia, and automotive industries. Established in 1989, Micronas Semiconductor has posted phenomenal growth in the past 12 years. In just seven years, the newcomer floated its stock on the Zurich bourse. In 1996, the company listed its shares in the Neuer Market of technological stocks in Frankfurt. Despite a slowdown worldwide, Micronas has posted impressive sales, which jumped by 47 percent to 490 million Swiss francs (around 272.83 million dollars) last year. Although boosted by the purchase of Infineon's multimedia division, sales have grown organically. The figure for this year is expected to reach 640 million Swiss francs (about 356.35 million dollars)

The company's CFO Manfred Haener recognizes the difficulties facing the sector but voices confidence over the growth prospects of Micronas. "We strongly believe that we are in a high growth market," he remarks. "In all the markets, we are growing between 18 and 50 percent this year. We believe we are in a very good position. We will most probably grow above the average."

Micronas Semiconductor has two main divisions - Automotive and Consumer - with the latter generating around 84 percent of total sales. The biggest earner by region is still Europe, followed by Asia and Japan.

Meanwhile, Haener has been aiming to increase the dynamics between divisions. "At the moment there are not that many synergies between the two divisions," he explains. "It is just a matter of time before the multimedia environment creates those synergies. It is only just starting."

"We don't want to be in the business of storage," he continues. "We want to be uniquely placed. We are specialized in the consumer side and you will see that more and more this technology is spilling over into the automotive side."

With its strategy of using new technology and expansion worldwide as a supplier of semiconductors for video, sound, data and sensor technology, Micronas looks set to conquer more future-oriented markets.

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