Business

Monday October 19, 2009

PMC-Sierra to set up RM1.3bil HQ in Penang

By DAVID TAN


GEORGE TOWN: US-based broadband communications and storage semiconductors provider PMC-Sierra Inc is setting up its RM1.3bil international headquarters at the RM100mil SunTech Tower in Bayan Baru, also known as Penang Cyber City 1.

The 6,500 sq ft commercial space in the 23-storey SunTech Tower, a MSC-compliant building, will serve as PMC-Sierra’s global headquarters for its operations in intellectual property (IP) ownership, technology hub and design.

PMC-Sierra is a fabless semiconductor company that designs chips used in the communications and storage industries.

Fadillah Yusof ... ‘The SunTech Tower complies with MSC status requirements.’

Executive committee chairman of investPenang Datuk Lee Kah Choon told StarBiz that investPenang would work with PMC-Sierra to facilitate its investments into Penang.

“Penang has the necessary manpower to support semiconductor companies such as PMC-Sierra, as it is the site of various foreign electronics and information technology (IT) companies.

“We hope the federal government would endorse SunTech Tower’s Cyber Centre status soon, as Penang needs more MSC-status companies to be competitive,” he said.

Lee said investPenang had yet to understand the full impact of the investment, as the bulk of it could be in the form of IP.

“But PMC-Sierra’s presence will provide quality training for the local pool of human resource,” he added.

Meanwhile, Science, Technology & Innovation deputy minister Fadillah Yusof said the ministry had recommended strongly to the Prime Minister’s Department for SunTech Tower to be given Cyber Centre status. “The SunTech Tower complies with MSC status requirements,” he told StarBiz after taking a tour of SunTech. The Cyber Centre status allows SunTech Tower to enjoy all the privileges stated in the MSC bill of guarantees.

Since announcing plans to set up its international headquarters in Malaysia in April, PMC-Sierra had been trying to decide between Kuala Lumpur or Penang as the site.

Datuk Lee Kah Choon ... ‘Penang needs more MSC-status companies to be competitive.’

In April, PMC-Sierra vice-president Ian Banks had said the company would allocate RM1.3bil to set up its international headquarters in Malaysia.

The company finally decided in favour of Penang and recently inked a deal to lease the 6,500 sq ft facility at the SunTech Tower.

In its first year of operations, the facility in SunTech, which is currently undergoing renovation, will hire some 50 staff.

PMC-Sierra said Malaysia was chosen as the site for its international headquarters because it has the suitable manpower and is strategically located for the company to manage its supply chain.

In April, Malaysia Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) director-general Datuk Jalilah Baba had estimated that the presence of PMC-Sierra in the country would generate about US$400mil to US$460mil of revenue flow into Malaysia in the first year.

Local factories would also benefit from the work outsourced by PMC-Sierra. PMC-Sierra now joins US multinational corporations such as Seagate and National Instruments as one of the main tenants of SunTech Tower, which has an estimated gross office space of over 200,000 sq ft.

Both Seagate and National Instruments have their business process outsourcing operations and shared services centres at the SunTech Tower.

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