The ratings on St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Jabil Circuit Inc. reflect operational challenges associated with supplying volatile electronics end-markets and customer concentration. These partly are offset by Jabil's good operational performance, a growing electronics manufacturing services (EMS) market position following the integration of several acquisitions, and the company's moderate financial profile. Jabil is a leading provider of EMS to such leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) as Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Cisco Systems Inc., and Hewlett-Packard Co. Jabil had about $519 million in total debt outstanding, including operating leases and securitizations, at November 2004. Compared with its top-tier EMS peers, Jabil pursued an organic growth strategy during the rapid growth phase of the last business cycle (1998–2001), deploying comparatively modest levels of
