NEWARK, NY -- IEC Electronics' chairman says the EMS company is "looking at acquisitions" with a particular interest in larger deals.

On an Aug. 17 conference call with investors, chairman and chief executive Barry Gilbert acknowledged, "We have some technology targets," adding that the company is focused on bigger acquisitions.

"That doesn’t mean that some of the smaller opportunities don’t make sense. It just means that we’re looking toward larger opportunities.

"The acquisitions we are looking for are really a broadening and deepening of our general capabilities, but also the areas that we’ve chosen to focus on from a market sector. And so we are not likely to acquire a company that has large portions of its business outside of the areas military, aerospace, medical, industrial, high-end communications."

Pressed for details, Gilbert declined to discuss the contract assembler's targets. "I am not going to discuss it in a public call. These are things that are helping to build this company to achieve the margins that we’ve been sharing with our shareholders. I see no particular advantage in providing that level of insight to the world."

IEC has made four acquisitions in the past few years, but is coming under scrutiny for its increasing debt load.

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