NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Affymetrix disclosed today in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects to realize restructuring charges of $15.4 million for fiscal-year 2008 as part of its efforts to relocate the majority of its probe array manufacturing from West Sacramento, Calif., to Singapore.
Affy initially revealed its plans for the relocation in an SEC filing on Feb. 29. At the time, it said it expected to incur non-cash charges of around $12 million to $15 million related to the abandonment of certain manufacturing assets and approximately $500,000 related to employee severance in the first quarter of 2008.
According to the 10-Q filing today, the firm said of the $15.4 million in charges it now expects to incur, roughly $2.9 million will relate to employee severance and $12.5 million will relate to the abandonment of the manufacturing assets. Affy also said that depending on the rate at which it transfers operations to Singapore, it may incur additional expenses.
For the first quarter of 2008, Affy recognized approximately $1.4 million of charges related to employee severance and $12.5 million related to the manufacturing assets. The firm recently reported that its Q1 revenues were flat with the comparable period a year ago, excluding a $90 million settlement payment recognized during the quarter.
In a separate SEC filing today, Affy disclosed that investment advisor Fidelity Management & Research now owns 5,050,490 shares of the firm’s common stock, which represents a nearly 7.3 percent stake in Affy. Of that total amount, the Fidelity Growth Company Fund owns 4,403,190 shares, representing a stake of 6.34 percent in Affy as of April 30.