Last week, the American company Motorola won a public tender for all assets of Tesla Piešťany a.s, a bankrupt former producer of integrated circuits. Motorola officials planned to begin production of semi-conductors at the new site in the western Slovak town of Piešťany, the Slovak press reported on September 11.
"The official start-up of the plant is planned for the beginning of next year," said Václav Šmíd, Motorola's director of market development for the Czech and Slovak Republics. Šmíd said that the new company, Slovakia Electronics Industries, will employ around 1,500 people. "Our plan is in five to seven years to export $60 million per year," Šmíd said.
No details have been provided of the sum Motorola paid to buy Tesla's assets, but the company said their investments into the Pieštany factory should reach $88 million by the end of 2001.
Motorola Slovakia produces and exports semi-conductor parts for Motorola customers and partners around the world. The American company, whose annual turnover was $30 billion in 1997, has approximately a 33% share on the world market for industrial chips.
Motorola will also be the first company to take advantage of Slovakia's new ten year tax holidays for corporate investors, announced by the government as of July 1. To apply for tax breaks, a new firm must have a basic capital of at least $8.57 million. Initially, the company must spend one billion Sk ($28 million) on buying investment property, and then must spend an additional $8.82 million every year during the tax holiday. The company must increase its annual production by at least five percent every year and must export at least 90 percent of its output.
