Thorn EMI Plc yesterday confirmed that it will get a 10% stake in SGS-Thomson Microelectronics BV as part of the sale of Inmos International Plc. It will also invest $10m as its share of a rights issue planned by SGS-Thomson, which is currently 50% owned by Thomson-CSF SA of France, 50% by Stet SpA, the Italian state holding company. Thorn EMI North America Inc will hold on to some static memory chip patents that are the subject of a licensing programme, and Thorn justifies the near giveaway by saying it should enhance consolidated group profit and cash flow over the next two to three years – but it gave no estim ate of the amount. Part of the rev enue stream from the licences will be spent on subscribing to any fut ure SGS-Thomson rights issues up to a $30m total. The book value of the Inmos assets going to SGS-Thomson is just $27m; Inmos recorded an $11.4m profit before tax and interest, on sales of $91m in the nine months to December 30 last. Followers of the company in London had hoped Thorn would get some cash from the sale.
