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NEW YORK -- Huntsman Corp., a major supplier of soldermasks and conformal coatings for electronics, is rumored to be the object of a buyout.

The Wall Street Journal today reported that the chemicals company, whose 2005 sales were nearly $11.5 billion, was in serious discussions to be bought out for more than $4.3 billion.

PENANG, MALAYSIA -- VS Industry Bhd., a manufacturer of components and electronics assemblies, is expected to see strong earnings growth for the foreseeable future, a local analyst said today.

VS reported pretax profits fell 11% to RM12.7 million on a 18% drop in sales to RM155.2 million for the quarter ended Oct. 31. VS reported a pretax profit of RM14.3 million on RM188.2 million in sales last year.

However, said RHB Research, VS Industry, which mainly supplies Asia and Europe, is set to see gains from its major customer, Dyson, a maker of vacuums. Dyson aims to double its sales within three years, the report said.

VS, which has operations in Malaysia and China, is not expected to expand the latter, where plant utilization is about 60%. However, the EBIT of the China plant was 6.3% for the most recent quarter, well above the 3.4% posted in Malaysia, RHB said.

NEENAH, WI -- Plexus Corp. turned in a sterling fiscal first quarter, with sales jumping 14% year-on-year to a record $328.3 million.

For the period ended Dec. 31, the EMS firm reported net income of $12.6 million, up from $3
million last year, which included a $900,000 restructuring charge. Both figures exceeded previous company guidance.

President and CEO Dean Foate guided for second quarter revenues of $330 million to $345 million. “Although we anticipate modest sequential revenue growth in the second fiscal quarter, we are encouraged by recent new program wins,” he said, especially within the defense, security and aerospace sector. He reaffirmed full-year revenue growth guidance of 15 to 18%."

Cash flow from operations was $19.5 million, and cash and short-term investments increased $11 million from the fiscal 2005 year-end balance to $119.7 million.

For the quarter, wireline and networking sales were up 5 points year-over-year and made up 42% of sales. Wireless infrastructure was 8% of sales, down 1 point. Medical was down 5 points to 28%, industrial and commercial was up 1 point to 17%, and defense/security/aerospace was flat at 5%.

Plexus’ top 10 customers comprised 61% of sales during the quarter, the same as in the previous quarter.
Juniper Networks, with 22% of sales, and General Electric, with 15% of sales, were the only customers representing 10% or more of sales for the quarter. Sales to Juniper were also up 22% sequentially.

Operating margins improved 50 basis points for the quarter and the firm projected further improvement of 70 basis points in Q2. That would bring Plexus' operating margins to 4.6%, up 250 basis points year-over-year.