Fabrinet Acquires UK's Exception EMS

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Fabrinet today announced its entry into the European EMS market through the acquisition of Exception Global CEM Solutions Ltd. (Exception EMS), located in Wiltshire, United Kingdom, which was completed today.

Exception EMS, founded in 2005, provides contract electronics manufacturing services to the global electronics industry with innovative solutions, adding value to the design, manufacture and testing of printed circuit board assemblies. Its customers include industrial, energy, aerospace and defense companies, with approximately 80% of its revenue derived from customers in Europe.

“Fabrinet has enjoyed exceptional growth over the past several years, primarily with customers in the U.S. and Japan, and there are tremendous opportunities for growing our business in Europe,” noted Tom Mitchell, Chairman and CEO of Fabrinet. “With this acquisition, we are establishing a strong foothold in Europe, which will allow us to grow our business with European customers, and give them access to our advanced low-cost manufacturing services in Thailand, particularly in our new facility in Chonburi that is coming on-line and ramping in the next several months.”

In February 2015, Fabrinet established Fabrinet West, Inc., a new product introduction (NPI) center in Santa Clara, California, to better serve its U.S. customers with advanced NPI services, particularly those in Silicon Valley. With the acquisition of Exception EMS, Fabrinet will now provide the same advanced NPI services to European customers, along with the low-volume manufacturing services Exception EMS provided historically. Going forward, as NPI projects in Fabrinet West and Exceptions EMS transition to volume manufacturing, these intra-company relationships will facilitate the transfer of the volume manufacturing to Fabrinet’s Thailand facilities.

Total consideration for the transaction was approximately $13.5 million in cash. Fabrinet anticipates that the transaction will have an immaterial impact on revenue and net income in the first quarter of fiscal 2017. The Company will provide additional details on the transaction’s financial impact during its first quarter fiscal 2017 conference call.

About Fabrinet

Fabrinet is a leading provider of advanced optical packaging and precision optical, electro-mechanical, and electronic manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers of complex products, such as optical communication components, modules and subsystems, industrial lasers and sensors. Fabrinet offers a broad range of advanced optical and electro-mechanical capabilities across the entire manufacturing process, including process design and engineering, supply chain management, manufacturing, advanced packaging, integration, final assembly and test. Fabrinet focuses on production of high complexity products in any mix and volume. Fabrinet maintains engineering and manufacturing resources and facilities in Thailand, the United States of America, the People’s Republic of China, and now in the United Kingdom.