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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

 


 

FORM 10-K

 


 

x ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2004

 

OR

 

¨ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

For the transition period from                      to                     .

 

Commission file number: 000-50812

 

MULTI-FINELINE ELECTRONIX, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

Delaware   95-3947402

(State or other jurisdiction

of incorporation or organization)

 

(I.R.S. Employer

Identification No.)

 

3140 East Coronado Street, Suite A

Anaheim, California 92806

(Address of principal executive offices, Zip code)

 

(714) 238-1488

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

 

Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share

 


 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  x    No  ¨

 

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.    ¨

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).    Yes  ¨    No  x

 

The aggregate market value of Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant (based upon the closing sale price of the NASDAQ National Market on December 1, 2004) was $286,338,543. The registrant’s common stock was not publicly traded as of the last business day of its most recently completed second fiscal quarter (March 31, 2004). Shares held by each executive officer, director and by each person that owns 10% or more of the outstanding Common Stock have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

 

The number of outstanding shares of the registrant’s Common Stock, $0.0001 par value, as of December 1, 2004 was 23,264,835.

 

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

 

Items 10 (as to directors and Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance), 11, 12 (as to Beneficial Ownership), 13 and 14 of Part III incorporate by reference information from the registrant’s proxy statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the solicitation of proxies for the registrant’s 2005 Annual Meeting of Stockholders expected to be held on February 2, 2005.

 



Table of Contents

Multi-Fineline Electronix, Inc.

 

Index

 

     PART I     

Item 1.

  

Business

   1

Item 2.

  

Properties

   10

Item 3.

  

Legal Proceedings

   11

Item 4.

  

Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders

   11
     PART II     

Item 5.

  

Market for Registrant’s Common Equity and Related Stockholder Matters

   13

Item 6.

  

Selected Consolidated Financial Data

   14

Item 7.

  

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

   15

Item 7A.

  

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

   36

Item 8.

  

Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

   37

Item 9.

  

Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

   63

Item 9A.

  

Controls and Procedures

   63
     PART III     

Item 10.

  

Directors and Executive Officers of the Registrant

   63

Item 11.

  

Executive Compensation

   64

Item 12.

  

Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters

   64

Item 13.

  

Certain Relationships and Related Transactions

   64

Item 14.

  

Principal Accountant Fees and Services

   64
     PART IV     

Item 15.

  

Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules

   64
    

Signatures

   66

 

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Part. I

 

Item 1.    Business

 

Overview

 

This Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report”) contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements and predictions as to our expectations regarding our operating expenses, sales and operations, anticipated cash needs, capital requirements and capital expenditures, needs for additional financing, use of working capital, the benefits of our China operations, plans for future products and services and for enhancements of existing products and services, anticipated growth strategies, ability to attract customers, sources of net sales, anticipated trends and challenges in our business and the markets in which we operate, the adequacy of our facilities, the impact of economic and industry conditions on our customers and our business, customer demand, our competitive position, critical accounting policies and the impact of recent accounting pronouncements. Additional forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements pertaining to other financial items, plans, strategies or objectives of management for future operations, our financial condition or prospects, and any other statement that is not historical fact, including any statement which is preceded by the word “may,” “might,” “will,” “intend,” “should,” “could,” “can,” “would,” “expect,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “plan,” or similar words. For all of the foregoing forward-looking statements, we claim the protection of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual events or results may differ materially from our expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the impact of changes in demand for our products, our effectiveness in managing manufacturing processes and costs and expansion of our operations, the degree to which we are able to utilize available manufacturing capacity, the impact of competition and of technological advances, and the risks set forth below under Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Factors That May Affect Future Operating Results.” These forward-looking statements represent our judgment as of the date hereof. We disclaim any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

 

We are a global provider of high-quality, technologically advanced flexible printed circuits and value-added component assembly solutions to the electronics industry. We believe that we are one of a limited number of manufacturers that has the ability to offer a seamless, integrated flexible printed circuit and assembly solution from design and application engineering and prototyping through high-volume fabrication, component assembly and testing. We target our solutions within the electronics market and, in particular, we focus on applications where flexible printed circuits facilitate human interaction with an electronic device and are the enabling technology in achieving a desired size, shape, weight or functionality of the device. Current applications for our products include mobile phones and smart mobile devices, portable bar code scanners, personal digital assistants, power supplies and consumable medical sensors. We provide our solutions to original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, such as Motorola, Inc., Symbol Technologies, Inc. and EMC Corporation, to electronic manufacturing services, or EMS, providers such as Foxconn Electronics, Inc. and Flextronics International Ltd. and to display manufacturers such as Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV, Hosiden F.D. Corporation, Sharp Electronics Corporation and Optrex Corporation Japan.

 

We were incorporated as Multi-Fineline Electronix, Inc. in California in October 1984. In connection with our initial public offering, we reincorporated as Multi-Fineline Electronix, Inc. in Delaware on June 4, 2004. References in this Annual Report to “we,” “our,” “us” and “M-Flex” refer to Multi-Fineline Electronix, Inc. and our consolidated subsidiaries, Multi-Fineline Electronix (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., or MFC1, and Multi-Fineline Electronix (Suzhou No. 2) Co., Ltd., or MFC2, except where it is made clear that the term means only the parent company.

 

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Industry Background

 

We believe that the global market for flexible printed circuits will continue to grow over the coming years as consumers continue to demand smaller, more functional devices. Given inherent design and cost advantages of flexible printed circuits, they quickly are becoming a favored solution for electronics manufacturers who are striving to increase the features and functionality of electronic devices while reducing the size, shape and weight of such devices. Asia is the largest and fastest growing market for flexible printed circuits largely because of two trends that occurred in the early 1990s—the outsourcing by OEMs of their manufacturing needs and the shift of manufacturing facilities in the United States to Asian countries.

 

Historically, electronics manufacturers have relied upon rigid printed circuit boards to provide the electrical interconnections between the components in electronics devices. Rigid printed circuit boards consist of a board that contains multiple transistors, microprocessors and other components that are connected by copper wires embedded on the circuit board. Given that the rigid printed circuit boards cannot bend or twist, they inherently limit the design options available to engineers. For example, in order to design and build “flip-phone” style mobile phones, engineers had to create a method to connect the rigid printed circuit board in the base of the phone with the rigid printed circuit board in the screen. Copper wires could not be used because they are subject to failure as a result of stress from the constant bending and flexing of the wires; therefore, design engineers had to look to new materials to provide a means of electrical interconnection between the various components of the device.

 

To address this need, companies such as M-Flex began to design flexible printed circuits and flexible printed circuits containing components, which we refer to as component assemblies, to serve as electrical interconnections. These flexible printed circuits can twist, bend and flex in a device with less risk of failure while connecting the components of the device. In addition to these functionality advantages, flexible printed circuits and component assemblies enable OEMs, EMS providers and display manufacturers to design and construct modular components that can be incorporated into the final product, which in turn reduces the complexity of the assembly of the final product and manufacturing costs and facilitates human interaction with the electronic device. As a result, manufacturers can reduce the number of assembly operations required for a product and improve the efficiency of their supply chains.

 

We believe that the overall market for flexible printed circuits and component assemblies is poised for substantial growth over the next several years as a result of favorable technological and market developments, including:

 

  Miniaturization, Portability and Complexity of Electronic Devices.    As electronic devices become more powerful, complex and compact, product size becomes a principal design limitation. From an engineering standpoint, flexible printed circuits possess enhanced heat dissipation properties because they are thinner than rigid printed circuit boards, provide higher signal integrity interconnection and enable faster operating speeds because the components can be placed closer together and can serve as a medium for analog and digital devices. As a result, the electronics industry has relied increasingly upon flexible printed circuits and component assemblies. For example, the placement of chips and liquid crystal displays directly on the flexible printed circuit enables OEMs to increase functionality and improve packaging characteristics while managing time-to-market for their products in an overall cost-effective manner. Moreover, as electronics companies develop increased functionality for semiconductors, the traditional packaging and mounting technologies are becoming more obsolete. For example, designs of electronics devices that incorporate camera modules require the performance and flexibility characteristics offered by flexible printed circuits.

 

  Outsourcing.    Electronics companies increasingly are relying upon outsourcing to technically qualified, strategically located manufacturing partners that provide integrated, end-to-end flexible printed circuit and component assembly solutions comprised of design and application engineering, prototyping and competitive high-volume production services. By employing these end-to-end manufacturers, electronics companies are able to reduce time-to-market, avoid product delays, reduce manufacturing costs, avoid logistical problems and focus on their core competencies.

 

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  Expanding Markets and Flexible Component Demand.    The global demand for wireless communication products and the complexity of wireless devices, including those supporting products with digital cameras and personal digital assistants, increasingly are driving the demand for more complex flexible printed circuits and component assemblies. Electronics companies have discovered that they can increase the functionality of flexible printed circuits and reduce the number of required interconnects by mounting components, such as connectors, switches, resistors, capacitors, light emitting devices, integrated circuits and optical sensors, to the flexible printed circuits. While the wireless telecommunications industry in general is expanding rapidly, we believe that the number of flexible printed circuits and component assemblies incorporated into these wireless devices will grow even more rapidly, requiring significantly more flexible components per device than have been used in previous-generation wireless applications.

 

An example of an industry where demand for flexible printed circuits and component assemblies is increasing rapidly is mobile phones and smart mobile devices. While the mobile phone and smart mobile device industry in general is expanding rapidly, the number of flexible printed circuits and component assemblies incorporated into these mobile devices is growing even more rapidly. For example, the number of circuit layers per part that we manufactured increased 23% for fiscal year 2004 as compared to fiscal year 2003. We expect that this number will continue to increase as OEMs, such as Motorola, strive to increase the features and functionality and reduce the size, shape and weight of such devices in response to consumer demand.

 

Competitive Strengths

 

We are a leading global provider of high-quality, technologically advanced flexible printed circuit and component assembly solutions to the electronics industry. We believe our competitive strengths include:

 

  Our Seamless and Efficient End-to-End Solution for Flexible Printed Circuit Applications.    We provide a seamless, integrated end-to-end flexible printed circuit solution for our customers, ranging from design and application engineering, prototyping and high-volume manufacturing to turnkey component assembly and testing. By relying on a single provider for their flexible printed circuit requirements, our customers can benefit from opportunities for more robust product designs and process optimization during the development phase. This, in turn, frequently leads to production cost savings and quicker time-to-market. Our operations in the United States and China each possess the expertise and capabilities to provide a seamless, integrated end-to-end solution that provides our customers with the ability to leverage any one or more of our facilities to meet their global requirements.

 

  Our Design and Application Engineering Expertise Supports Our Strong Customer Relationships.    Our expertise in designing and manufacturing flexible printed circuits and component assemblies has enabled us to become a partner to our customers at the earliest stages of product development. We employ our design and application engineers as part of our sales process; therefore, our customers rely on us to assist them in the early design phase of their products. Early design participation enables us to gain intricate knowledge of our customers’ products and thereby provide value-added engineering support to them. Early design participation also enables our customers to achieve lower production costs through better product design and utilization of our flexible printed circuit assembly expertise. In addition, this process fosters strong relationships with our customers, often resulting in their reliance on our products and engineering support for the life of the specific application and subsequent generations of similar applications. We believe these strong customer relationships with leading OEMs represent entry barriers for our competitors.

 

 

Our Manufacturing Capabilities.    We maintain manufacturing facilities in the United States and China. Our U.S. operations provide design and application engineering and manufacturing, while our Chinese operations are organized to duplicate the processes and tooling designed in the United States for automation while allowing us to consolidate the labor intensive aspects of high-volume manufacturing in a cost-efficient environment. We also are continuing to enhance our design and application engineering capabilities in China to best position us to provide an integrated end-to-end solution to the

 

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emerging domestic electronics markets in China and other parts of Asia. Since 2000, we have expanded our manufacturing capacity in China by acquiring additional and technologically advanced machinery and by expanding our manufacturing facilities. Our ongoing attention to integrating the manufacturing processes between our facilities allows us to improve our product yields, shorten our customers’ supply chains and lower the overall costs of our products. Furthermore, the capital equipment addition at our second manufacturing facility in China, MFC2, which we expect to be completed in January 2005, will increase substantially our manufacturing capacities in China and enable us to take on additional high-volume manufacturing programs. While we believe our Chinese manufacturing facilities benefit the company, they do subject us to additional risks inherent in international business, including those detailed on pages 30 to 33 under Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Factors That May Affect Future Operating Results.”

 

  Our Forward Integration in the Value Chain.    We have implemented a strategy of forward integration focusing on the value-added services that we provide to our customers—design and application engineering and component assembly—rather than only concentrating on acquiring the capabilities to produce the materials used to manufacture flexible printed circuits. By employing suppliers to provide us with raw materials, we have avoided unnecessary capital equipment and research and development costs and have focused more intensely on the integral steps in the manufacturing process, from design and prototyping to high-volume manufacturing and component assembly. The result of this strategy has been superior design and application engineering expertise, strong customer relationships and sequential net sales growth.

 

  Our Management Experience and Expertise.    All of our executive officers have been with us for between 12 and 18 years. During that time, our executive management has made a number of critical, strategic decisions that successfully managed our growth and profitability, including pursuing a strategy of deploying our design and application engineers at the early stages of a customer’s product designs, responding to the trend of OEM outsourcing, identifying China’s manufacturing capabilities, creating a seamless, integrated end-to-end solution in each of our U.S. and Chinese operations to serve the needs of multinational OEMs, EMS providers and display manufacturers and adopting a forward integration strategy in order to focus on the engineering and assembly needs of our customers.

 

Business Strategy

 

Our objective is to continue to expand our product offering to become a global provider of electronic products packaging technology and manufacturing by using our core technologies of high-quality, technologically advanced flexible printed circuits and assemblies as the essential ingredients. To achieve our objective, we intend to pursue the following strategies:

 

  Provide an Integrated Solution to Our Customers.    We intend to maintain our leadership in providing a complete end-to-end solution to our customers that includes design and application engineering, prototyping, high-volume manufacturing, material acquisition, component assembly and testing. In addition, we intend to leverage our value-added services—design and application engineering and turnkey component assembly—to help solve our customers’ product design challenges and to provide our customers with flexible printed circuit solutions designed and manufactured to maximize the reliability and functionality of their end products. By focusing on customers’ product applications and providing them with a seamless, integrated and cost-efficient flexible printed circuit and component assembly solution, we believe that we can continue to grow our market share by eliminating the need of our customers to negotiate with multiple vendors and reducing the time-to-market for their products.

 

 

Support the Development of Applications for Flexible Printed Circuit Technology in New Markets.    We believe that flexible printed circuit technology provides a cost-effective solution to improving the functionality and packaging of electronic devices. We believe that the trend towards miniaturization will continue to drive the growth of flexible printed circuits in many industries that we currently do not serve. To address these new market opportunities, we will continue our efforts to research, develop and market new applications for flexible printed circuits and component assemblies. We believe that our

 

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design and application engineering and manufacturing capabilities, coupled with our flexible printed circuit assembly expertise, will enable us to effectively target additional high-volume flexible printed circuit applications in various markets of the electronics industry where size, shape and weight are primary drivers of product development.

 

  Expand Our Existing Expertise in the Design and Manufacture of Flexible Printed Circuit Technology.    By expanding our market share in existing markets, penetrating new markets and partnering with customers in the early stage design of their products, we will continue to expand our engineering and manufacturing expertise and capabilities for applications and functionality for electronic product packaging technology and assist our customers in developing more efficient manufacturing processes for their products. We believe that we will be able to continue to capture additional market share in the sectors we serve and attract companies from other markets of the electronics industry by utilizing our expertise in design and application engineering to expand product designs and applications for flexible printed circuit solutions in conjunction with our high-volume, cost-effective manufacturing capabilities.

 

  Diversify Our End Customers.    We primarily serve the wireless telecommunications sector. We plan to leverage our internal sales force comprised entirely of design and application engineers with our existing outside non-exclusive sales representatives to attract new customers in the wireless telecommunications sector, as well as in other sectors of the electronics industry where functionality and packaging size dictate the need for flexible printed circuits and component assemblies.

 

  Increase Manufacturing Capacity and Capabilities.    We intend to continue to improve our manufacturing capabilities and cost reduction efforts through increased integration of our engineering and manufacturing facilities in the United States and China. When our new capital expansion at MFC2 is complete, we will increase substantially our manufacturing capacity and still possess additional land for future expansion of MFC2. In addition, MFC2 has been specifically designed and equipped for fine-line programs, which are flexible printed circuits with smaller features and a high density of components and interconnection. Fine-line programming allows us to offer our customers an efficient, technologically advanced manufacturing process for complex flexible printed circuit fabrication.

 

Products

 

Our design and application engineering expertise enable us to offer flexible printed circuit and value-added component assembly solutions for a wide range of electronic applications. We offer products in a broad range of markets, including mobile phones and smart mobile devices, portable bar code scanners, personal digital assistants, power supplies and consumable medical sensors. Representative OEM customers and their end products that incorporate our flexible printed circuit products include the following:

 

OEM Customer


  

Product Category


  

Representative Application


Motorola, Inc.

   Mobile phone and smart mobile devices    Keypad, camera, hinge and display flexible printed circuit component assemblies

Symbol Technologies Inc.

   Bar code scanners    Rotating scanner flexible printed circuit component assemblies

palmOne, Inc.

   Personal digital assistants    Communicator flexible printed circuit component assemblies

Tyco Amp and Power Systems

   Power supplies    Transformer and computer chip connector flexible printed circuits

Research In Motion Ltd.

   Smart mobile devices    Track wheel flexible printed circuit component assemblies

Masimo Corporation

   Blood oxygen sensor    Disposable flexible printed circuit contained in bandage

 

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Flexible Printed Circuits.    Flexible printed circuits, which consist of copper conductive patterns that have been etched or printed while affixed to flexible substrate materials such as polyimide or polyester, are used to provide connections between electronic components and as a substrate to support these electronic devices. The circuits are manufactured by subjecting the base materials to multiple processes, such as drilling, screening, photo imaging, etching, plating and finishing. We produce a wide range of flexible printed circuits, including single-sided, double-sided, multi-layer (with and without gaps between layers) and rigid-flex. Single-sided flexible printed circuits, which have an etched conductive pattern on one side of the substrate, are normally less costly and more flexible than double-sided flexible printed circuits because their construction consists of a single patterned conductor layer. Double-sided flexible printed circuits, which have conductive patterns or materials on both sides of the substrate that are interconnected by a drilled or copper-plated hole, can provide either more functionality than a single-sided flexible printed circuit by containing conductive patterns on both sides or greater shielding of components against electromagnetic interference than a single-sided flexible printed circuit by covering one side of the circuit with a shielding material rather than a circuit pattern. Multi-layer and rigid-flex printed circuits, which consist of layers of circuitry that are stacked and then laminated, are used where the complexity of the design demands multiple layers of flexible printed circuitry. If some of the layers of circuitry are rigid printed circuit material, the product is known as a rigid-flex printed circuit. Gapped flexible printed circuits, which consist of layers of circuitry that are stacked and separated in some parts of the circuit and laminated in other parts of the circuit, are used where the complexity of the design demands multiple layers of flexible printed circuitry but the flexibility of a single-sided flexible printed circuit in some parts of the circuit.

 

Flexible Printed Circuit Assemblies.    Flexible printed circuits can be enhanced by attaching electronic components, such as connectors, switches, resistors, capacitors, light emitting devices, integrated circuits, cameras and optical sensors, to the circuit. The reliability of flexible printed circuit component assemblies is dependent upon proper assembly design and the use of appropriate fixtures to protect the flex-to-connector interface. Connector selection is also important in determining the signal integrity of the overall assembly—a factor which is very important to devices that rely upon high system speed to function properly. We are one of the pioneers in attaching connectors and components to flexible printed circuits and have developed the expertise and technology to mount a full range of electronic devices, from passive components to computing devices.

 

Customers

 

Our customers include leading OEMs, EMS providers and display manufacturers in a variety of sectors of the electronics industry. These sectors include mobile phones and smart mobile devices, portable bar code scanners, personal digital assistants, power supplies and consumable medical sensors. Our expertise in flexible printed circuit design and component assembly enables us to assist our customers in resolving their design challenges through our design and assembly techniques, which results frequently in the customer placing our product designs on the customers’ design specifications and enhances our likelihood of becoming the main provider for flexible printed circuits and component assembly included in that product. Achieving status as a main provider, or sole provider, to an OEM for a high-volume program enables us to build strong customer relationships with respect to existing products and any future product that requires the use of flexible printed circuits and component assemblies.

 

We generally work with OEMs in the design of their products, and the OEMs subsequently either purchase our products directly or instruct the EMS providers and display manufacturers to purchase our products to be incorporated into the OEM’s product. EMS providers and display manufacturers that we sell to include Foxconn, Flextronics, Philips, Hosiden, Optrex and Sharp Electronics. Our relationships with EMS providers and display manufacturers normally are directed by the OEMs; therefore, it is the OEMs that negotiate product pricing and volumes directly with us, even though the purchase orders come from the EMS providers and display manufacturers. For the past several years, Motorola and its subcontractors have been our largest customers. In the fiscal years ended September 30, 2004, 2003 and 2002, we sold products to be incorporated into Motorola’s products to 40, 35 and 32 Motorola subcontractors, which aggregated 80%, 71% and 70% of our net sales (including direct sales to Motorola).

 

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Several subcontractors of Motorola also constitute significant customers of the company. In the fiscal year ended September 30, 2004, sales to Hosiden and its affiliates, Optrex and its affiliates and Philips and its affiliates accounted for 11%, 10% and 7% of our net sales. In the fiscal year ended September 30, 2003, sales to Hosiden and its affiliates, Optrex and its affiliates and Philips and its affiliates accounted for 14%, 12% and 21% of our net sales. In the fiscal year ended September 30, 2002, sales to Hosiden and its affiliates, Optrex and its affiliates and Philips and its affiliates accounted for 14%, 7% and 24% of our net sales.

 

Our net sales fluctuate from quarter to quarter as a result of changes in demand for our product. Historically, we have experienced a strong first fiscal quarter, followed by reduced net sales in the second fiscal quarter, as a result of partial seasonality of our major customers and the markets that we serve. Our major customers provide consumer-related products that generally experience their highest sales activity during the calendar year-end holiday season; therefore, we typically experience a decline in our second quarter sales as this holiday period ends. We anticipate that this seasonal impact on our net sales is likely to continue. As a result, our net sales and operating results have fluctuated significantly from period-to-period in the past and are likely to do so in the future.

 

Our facilities in the United States and China enable us to manufacture products for shipment anywhere in the world. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2004, we derived 13% of our net sales in North America and 83% of our net sales outside the United States. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2003, we derived 22% of our net sales in North America and 78% of our net sales outside the United States. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2002, we derived 29% of our net sales in North America and 71% of our net sales outside the United States.

 

For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2004, 16% of our net sales were attributed to Hong Kong, 46% of our net sales were attributed to China, 11% of our net sales were attributable to Japan, and 13% of our net sales were attributed to North America. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2003, 18% of our net sales were attributable to Hong Kong, 33% of our net sales were attributable to China, 13% of our net sales were attributable to Japan, and 22% of our net sales were attributable to North America. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2002, 16% of our net sales were attributable to Hong Kong, 37% of our net sales were attributable to China and 29% of our net sales were attributable to North America.

 

For the fiscal years ended September 30, 2004, 2003 and 2002, we had long-lived assets of $17.9 million, $17.9 million and $7.5 million, respectively, in the United States and $46 million, $30.3 million and $16.4 million, respectively, in China.

 

Sales and Marketing

 

We sell our products primarily through our in-house design and application engineers, who meet regularly with our customers and potential customers to assist in the initial design of the proposed products and to provide suggestions on how our flexible printed circuit solutions can enhance product design. By utilizing market and product teams in each sector of the electronics industry that we target, we have successfully expanded our market penetration by leveraging our design and application engineers within each of these teams. In particular, these engineers apply the principal of concurrent engineering to our customers’ engineers in the early phases of the product development cycle.

 

We engage the services of 18 non-exclusive sales representatives to interact with customers and potential customers on our behalf. Thirteen of these sales representatives are located throughout the United States. We also have one sales representative in each of Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. We rely on these sales representatives to initiate contact with potential customers and provide leads to our internal sales and marketing teams, as well as to create, build and maintain our customer relationships and assist in the resolution of contractual disputes.

 

As of September 30, 2004, our backlog, which constitutes customer orders placed with us but not yet shipped, believed to be firm was $90.9 million. We expect to ship this entire backlog during the current fiscal year. We

 

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cannot guarantee that our customers will not cancel any or all of the orders in our backlog. Our current backlog also is not indicative of our future operating results. As of September 30, 2003, our backlog believed to be firm was $50.2 million.

 

Technology

 

We are a global provider of single, double-sided, multi-layer and gapped flexible printed circuit technology and component assemblies. Our process technology includes proprietary processes and chemical recipes, which coupled with our design expertise, unique customized fixtures and tooling and manufacturing experience, enables us to deliver high unit volumes of complex flexible printed circuits and component assemblies at cost-effective yields.

 

Design Technology.    The flexible printed circuits we manufacture are designed specifically for each application, frequently requiring significant joint design activities with the customer at the start of a project. We have developed design methodologies that solve difficult interconnection problems and save our customers time and money. We design and mass produce flexible printed circuits that range from single-sided circuits to more complex double-sided, multi-layer (with and without gaps between layers) and rigid-flex. We continually are investing in and improving our computer-based design tools to more quickly design new flexible printed circuits, enhance cooperative design and communication with our customers and more closely integrate design and application engineering to our prototyping and manufacturing process.

 

Circuit Fabrication Technology.    We have extensive experience producing fine-line flexible printed circuits and have developed manufacturing processes that are designed to deliver high-unit volumes at cost-effective yields. In the flexible printed circuit industry, fine-line flexible printed circuits are easier to construct as the thickness of the copper decreases; however, as the thickness of the copper decreases, the cost of fabrication increases. We have developed a manufacturing process to pattern plate in selective regions of the circuitry pattern, such as around the holes used to connect the two sides of a double-sided flexible printed circuit. In addition, the normal manufacturing technology, by itself, has been improved with new equipment which enables thicker, less expensive copper to be etched down precisely enough to form fine-line circuitry. The combination of these two processes allows us to achieve finer patterns without a substantial increase in costs and with acceptable yields.

 

In addition to fine-line techniques, we have developed a proprietary process using ultraviolet lasers to drill 0.003 inch diameter holes, known as micro-vias, for the connection of circuits on the reverse side of the substrate. The combination of the fine-lines and micro-vias are part of the new high density interconnect technology that is one of our primary marketing and engineering competitive strengths.

 

Component Assembly and Test Technology.    Our component assembly and test technology involve the arrangement of the circuits on a panel to minimize material waste and facilitate requirements for component assembly, such as placing tooling holes, optical locators for vision-based machines, test points and pre-cut zones to allow part removal without compromising the integrity of the components. We assemble passive electrical and various mechanical components, including capacitors, resistors, integrated circuits, connectors, stiffeners, diodes and other devices to flexible printed circuits. We also perform advanced assembly of integrated circuit devices, as well as the functional testing of these flexible printed circuit component assemblies. Assembling these components directly onto the flexible printed circuit increases performance and reduces space, weight and cost.

 

Intellectual Property

 

Our success will depend in part on our ability to protect our intellectual property. Our intellectual property relates to proprietary processes and know-how covering methods of designing and manufacturing flexible printed circuits and attaching components. We regularly require our employees to enter into confidentiality agreements and assignment of invention agreements to protect our intellectual property. In addition, we consider filing patents on our inventions that are significant to our business, although none of our existing patents or patent applications pertain to inventions that are significant to our current business. We also pursue trademarks where applicable and necessary.

 

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In the future, we may encounter disputes over rights and obligations concerning intellectual property. We believe that our design and manufacturing processes do not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party; however, we cannot assure you that we will prevail in any intellectual property dispute.

 

Suppliers

 

We purchase raw circuit materials, process chemicals and various components from a limited number of outside sources, including E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., Rogers Corporation, Molex Inc. and Supertex, Inc. For components, we normally make short-term purchasing commitments to key suppliers for specific customer programs. These commitments are usually made for three to 12-month periods. These suppliers agree to cooperate with us in engineering activities, as required, and in some cases maintain a local inventory to provide shorter lead times and reduced inventory levels for us. In most cases, suppliers are approved and often dictated by our customers. For process chemicals, certain copper and polyimide laminate materials and certain specialty chemicals used in our manufacturing process, we rely on a limited number of key suppliers. Alternate chemical products are available from other sources, but process chemical changes often require approval by our customers and requalification of the processes, which could take weeks or months to complete. We seek to mitigate these risks by identifying stable companies with leading technology and delivery capabilities and by attempting to qualify at least two suppliers for all critical raw materials and components.

 

Competition

 

The flexible printed circuit market is competitive with a variety of large and small companies offering design and manufacturing services. The flexible printed circuit market is differentiated by customers, applications and geography, with each niche requiring specific combinations of complex packaging and interconnection. We believe that our ability to offer an integrated, end-to-end flexible printed circuit solution has enabled us to compete favorably with respect to design capabilities; product performance, reliability and consistency; price; customer support and application support; and resources, equipment and expertise in component assembly on flexible printed circuits.

 

We compete on a global level with a number of leading Japanese providers, such as Nippon Mektron, Nitto Denko Corporation and Fujikura Ltd., and with domestic providers, such as Innovex, Inc., Sheldahl, Inc. and Parlex Corporation. Also, we expect more competition from emerging flexible printed circuit assembly producers in Taiwan, South Korea and China. We are aware of at least 20 companies in Asia with which we compete, and we expect others to enter the market in this region because of government subsidies and lower labor rates available there. We also compete with MFS Technology Ltd., or MFS, which is a subsidiary of WBL Corporation Limited, or WBL Corporation, located in Singapore. WBL Corporation owns 64% of our outstanding common stock.

 

We believe that our technology leadership and capabilities in designing and manufacturing flexible printed circuits have enabled us to build strong partnerships and customer relationships with many companies. We believe that customers typically rely upon one or two vendors’ designs for the life of specific applications and, to the extent possible, subsequent generations of similar applications. Accordingly, it is difficult to achieve significant sales to a particular customer for any application once a different vendor has been selected to design and manufacture a specific flexible printed circuit. This market paradigm may provide a barrier to our competitors in the markets in which we compete; however, it may also present an obstacle to our entry into other markets. Any expansion of existing products or services could expose us to new competition.

 

Employees

 

As of October 31, 2004, we employed approximately 6,170 full-time employees and 453 contract employees, including 597 full-time employees and 10 contract employees in the United States and 5,573 full-time employees and 443 contract employees in China. We have never had a work stoppage. We consider our employee relations to be good.

 

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We do not have employment agreements with any of our executive officers. We have entered into employment agreements with substantially all of our employees in China. In general, these employment agreements provide for either a one or two-year term.

 

In addition, we believe that less than ten of our employees in China have formed a trade union committee and thereafter proposed that we enter into a collective bargaining agreement. At this time, we are not a party to, nor do we intend to enter into, a collective bargaining agreement with these or our other employees at MFC1 or any of our other China operations. We are not aware that the committee represents any employee other than the employees who actually are members of the committee. We presently do not believe that we will experience any material harm to our business if we do not enter into a collective bargaining agreement.

 

Environmental Controls

 

Flexible printed circuit manufacturing requires the use of chemicals. As a result, we are subject to a variety of environmental laws relating to the storage, discharge, handling, emission, generation, manufacture, use and disposal of chemicals, solid and hazardous waste and other toxic and hazardous materials used to manufacture our products in the United States and China. As of September 30, 2004 and 2003, we reserved $122,000 and $121,000 of restricted cash, at the direction of the County of Orange, California, to finance estimated environmental clean-up costs in the event that we vacate our Anaheim facilities; otherwise, our review of our facilities suggests that no material remediation costs will be required. However, given the uncertainties associated with environmental contamination, there can be no assurance that such costs will not harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.

 

We believe we have been operating our facilities in substantial compliance in all material respects with existing environmental laws and regulations. However, we cannot predict the nature, scope or effect of legislation or regulatory requirements that could be imposed or how existing or future laws or regulations will be administered or interpreted with respect to products or activities to which they have not previously been applied. For this reason, we implemented procedures geared toward minimizing the negative impacts and reducing potential financial risks arising from environmental issues. Compliance with more stringent laws or regulations, or more vigorous enforcement policies of regulatory agencies could require substantial expenditures by us and could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. We do not anticipate any material amount of environmental-related capital expenditures in fiscal years 2005 or 2006.

 

Item 2.    Properties

 

Our corporate headquarters are located in Anaheim, California and our manufacturing facilities are located in Anaheim, California and Suzhou, China, as follows:

 

Function


  

Location


  

Square Feet


  

Lease Expiration Dates


Executive offices, engineering and circuit fabrication and assembly

   Anaheim, California   

Owned—105,000

Leased—57,000*

  

N/A

December 2004 to September 2006

MFC1—Engineering, circuit fabrication and assembly

   Suzhou, China   

88,000

105,600

  

March 2005 to August 2005

2043**

MFC2—Engineering, circuit fabrication and assembly

   Suzhou, China   

285,000***

Temporary lease—32,300

  

2052

September 2005


* We have 16 leases relating to this space, which range in terms from one to three years and range in size from approximately 1,000 square feet to approximately 6,000 square feet. These leases expire in various months of each year. In general, as these leases expire, we extend them on substantially the same terms.

 

** We have several other parcels that have long-term land leases expiring beyond 2043. Under the terms of these leases, we paid an upfront fee for use of the parcel through expiration of the lease. We have no other financial obligations on these long-term land leases other than payments of real estate taxes.

 

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*** Our long-term land lease for MFC2 includes an additional 65,000 square feet of land that we have reserved for future expansion of our manufacturing operations. Under the terms of this lease, we paid an upfront fee for use of the parcel through expiration of the lease. We have no other financial obligations on this long-term land lease other than payments of real estate taxes to local Chinese governmental authorities.

 

We believe our facilities are adequate for our current needs and that suitable additional or substitute space will be available to accommodate foreseeable expansion of our operations or to move our operations in the event one or more of our short-term leases can no longer be renewed on commercially reasonable terms at the expiration of its term.

 

Item 3.    Legal Proceedings

 

From time to time, we may be party to lawsuits in the ordinary course of business; however, we are currently not a party to any material legal proceeding.

 

Item 4.    Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders

 

No matters were submitted to a vote of security holders during the fourth quarter of our fiscal year through the solicitation of proxies or otherwise.

 

Executive Officers of the Registrant

 

The following table sets forth information about our executive officers as of November 30, 2004:

 

Name


   Age

  

Position(s)


Philip A. Harding

   72   

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors

Reza Meshgin

   41    President and Chief Operating Officer

Craig Riedel

   48    Chief Financial Officer and Secretary

Thomas Lee

   45    Vice President of Operations

Charles Tapscott

   62    Vice President of Sales and Marketing

 

Philip A. Harding has served as our Chief Executive Officer since January 1988 and as a director since September 1988. In December 2003, Mr. Harding assumed the position of Chairman of the board of directors. Prior to joining us, Mr. Harding served as the Chief Executive Officer of Weltec Digital Corporation from 1984 to 1987. From 1981 to 1984, Mr. Harding served as the President of the Remex Division of Excello Corporation after joining Excello in 1979 as the Vice President of Engineering. Prior to joining Excello, Mr. Harding served as the General Manager of the Commercial Systems Division of Electronic Memories and Magnetics Corporation from 1973 to 1979. Each of these companies manufactured computer peripherals and components. From February 1988 to March 2004, Mr. Harding served as Chief Executive Officer of Wearnes Hollingsworth Corporation, an electronic connector company and a member of the WBL Corporation group of companies. Mr. Harding also served as Chairman of the board of directors of Advanced Logic Research, Inc., a former member of the WBL Corporation group of companies, from October 1985 to March 1988. Mr. Harding also served as a member of the board of directors of MFS, a member of the WBL Corporation group of companies, from October 1994 to September 2000. Mr. Harding holds a B.S.E.E. from Cooper Union College and an M.S. from Columbia University.

 

Reza Meshgin joined us in June 1989 and has served as Engineering Supervisor, Application Engineering Manager, Director of Engineering and Telecommunications Division Manager. Prior to assuming his current position as President and Chief Operating Officer in January 2004, Mr. Meshgin served as Vice President and General Manager from May 2002 through December 2003. Mr. Meshgin holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from Wichita State University and an M.B.A. from University of California at Irvine.

 

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Craig Riedel has served as our Chief Financial Officer and Secretary since November 1992. Mr. Riedel served as the Chief Financial Officer of Wearnes Hollingsworth Corporation from 1998 until March 2004. From 1986 to 1992, Mr. Riedel served in various positions, including Controller, for Interconnection Products, Inc., a member of the WBL Corporation group of companies. Prior to joining Interconnection, Mr. Riedel held various finance positions from 1981 to 1986 and served as an accountant with Deloitte Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte & Touche LLP), most recently as Audit Senior, from 1978 to 1981. Mr. Riedel holds an AA.S. in financial services and a B.S. in business administration from Lake Erie College.

 

Thomas Lee joined us in October 1986 as the Supervisor of Photo Department and subsequently served as our Manufacturing Manager and Director of Operations from May 1995 to May 2002. Since May 2002, Mr. Lee has served as our Vice President of Operations. Prior to joining us, Mr. Lee served as a mechanical engineer at the Agricultural Corporation in Burma. Mr. Lee holds a B.E. in mechanical engineering from the Rangoon Institute of Technology in Burma.

 

Charles Tapscott joined us in November 1994 as Director of Business Development and has served as our Vice President of Sales and Marketing since January 2002. Prior to joining us, Mr. Tapscott served as Vice President of Marketing at Targ-It-Tronics, Inc. from July 1990 to November 1994. Prior to Targ-It-Tronics, Mr. Tapscott served in various positions at Harris Corporation supporting the development of defense-based communications from June 1966 to July 1990. Mr. Tapscott holds a B.S.I.E., with a minor in electrical engineering, from the University of Florida.

 

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Part II

 

Item 5.    Market for Registrant’s Common Equity and Related Stockholder Matters

 

Our common stock, par value $0.0001 (“Common Stock”) is traded on the NASDAQ National Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol “MFLX.” The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the high and low sales closing prices for the Common Stock on Nasdaq, as reported in its consolidated transaction reporting system:

 

     Fiscal 2004

     High

   Low

Third Quarter

   $ 10.04    $ 10.00

Fourth Quarter

     10.50      6.90

 

Stockholders of record on October 31, 2004 numbered approximately 61. Because many of the shares of our Common Stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of stockholders, we are unable to estimate the total number of beneficial owners represented by these stockholders of record. We have never declared or paid any cash dividend on our Common Stock, nor do we currently intend to pay any cash dividend on our Common Stock in the foreseeable future. We expect to retain our earnings, if any, for the growth and development of our business. In addition, the terms of our revolving credit facility limit our ability to pay cash dividends on our Common Stock. A description of the terms of our revolving credit facility can be found in this Annual Report under Item 7 under the caption “Liquidity and Capital Resources” and under Item 8 under Note 7.

 

Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

 

Information regarding the Securities Authorized for Issuance under our Equity Compensation Plans can be found under Item 12 of this Annual Report.

 

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

 

In September 2003, we issued to all of our stockholders rights to acquire shares of our common stock at a price of approximately $3.86 per share. In October 2003, certain of these stockholders exercised these rights to acquire an aggregate of 6,537,540 shares of common stock for aggregate consideration of $25,251,000. The issuance of these shares of common stock was considered to be exempt from registration under the Securities Act in reliance on Section 4(2) of the Securities Act, or Regulation D promulgated thereunder, as transactions by an issuer not involving a public offering. The recipients of shares of common stock represented their intention to acquire the shares for investment only and not with a view to or for sale with any distribution thereof, and appropriate legends were affixed to the share certificates issued in these transactions. All recipients had adequate access to information about the company through their relationship with the company.

 

Use of Proceeds from Registered Securities

 

We registered 5,566,508 shares of our Common Stock in connection with our initial public offering (“IPO”) under the Securities Act of 1933 (5,000,000 for us and 566,508 for our selling stockholders). The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) declared our Registration Statement on Form S-1, as amended (Reg. No. 333-114510), for the IPO effective on June 24, 2004. The net offering proceeds to us after deducting expenses were $44,600,000. We used $21.0 million of the proceeds to pay the outstanding amount of the revolving line of credit with Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (“NLG”) through September 30, 2004. In addition, we used $2.0 million of the proceeds to pay the outstanding amount of the revolving line of credit with Bank of China (“BC”) in September 2004, and $1.0 million of the proceeds to reduce the outstanding balance of our revolving line of credit with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (“SPDB”). We also utilized $1.9 million of the proceeds to offset expenses incurred in the IPO. We invested the remaining net proceeds in seven-day municipal securities and in a money market account.

 

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Item 6.    Selected Consolidated Financial Data

 

The following selected consolidated financial data is qualified by reference to, and should be read in conjunction with, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the Consolidated Financial Statements and related Notes included in Item 8 of this Annual Report. The selected consolidated statements of income data as of September 30, 2004, 2003 and 2002 and selected consolidated balance sheet data as of September 30, 2004 and 2003 are derived from audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The selected consolidated statements of income data as of September 30, 2001 and 2000 and selected consolidated balance sheet data as of September 30, 2002, 2001 and 2000 were derived from audited consolidated financial statements not included in this Annual Report. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of our future results.

 

     Year Ended September 30,

 
     2004

    2003

    2002

    2001

    2000

 
     (in thousands, except share and per share data)  

Net sales

   $ 253,049     $ 129,415     $ 110,537     $ 84,640     $ 102,115  

Operating income

   $ 36,419     $ 7,707     $ 7,850     $ 7,292     $ 16,501  

Net income

   $ 25,706     $ 4,577     $ 4,967     $ 4,776     $ 9,649  

Earnings per share:

                                        

Basic

   $ 1.33     $ 0.39     $ 0.42     $ 0.41