Precision injection moulder Balda (Bad Oeynhausen / Germany; www.balda.de) is to sell its mobile phone components production business. The disposal of Balda Solutions Europe, which operates as part of the company’s Infocom division, will remove one of the company’s core businesses and follows the withdrawal from the production of camera parts. The company hopes to complete the sale of the business, which includes all of its assets, by the end of 2007 and in future will concentrate on the manufacture of touch-screen solutions in Asia and the health care, cosmetics and household segments. The headquarters of the company, which is listed on the S-Dax, will remain in Bad Oeynhausen.

Balda Solutions Europe operates production lines in Bad Oeynhausen and in Veszprém / Hungary. The company anticipates a loss in the segment in the second half of 2007. In the first half of 2007, Balda's European activities accounted for EUR 43.3m compared with EUR 99.4m in the same period in 2006. Total first half sales were EUR 129.4m (EUR 164.4m in 2006). Balda Medical expects sales of EUR 25-30m for the full year (EUR 15m in 2006), the majority of which is likely to come in the second half of the year. Sales of the affected Infocom segment in the first six months were EUR 30m.

The recent realignment is likely to result in job cuts in the administration of the Balda Holding company, where 48 people currently work. It is not yet clear how many of them will lose their jobs, a company spokesman said.