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Listed company information technology company IPVG
Corp. announced it would be selling additional shares.
Jaime Enrique Y. Gonzales, IPVG
president and managing director, said that the company would be
conducting a follow-on offering by the third quarter this year by
issuing primary shares. The company aims to raise P500 million ($10
million) from the equity market, with about 70 percent of the
proceeds earmarked for the contact center that IPVG’s wholly owned
subsidiary, IP-Contact Center Outsourcing (IPCCO), and PCCW
Teleservices would be putting up in the country.
The Hong-Kong based company is an
indirect wholly owned subsidiary of PCCW Ltd. Gonzales said they are
in the process of appointing an underwriter for the transaction. In
addition to share offering, the company would also be borrowing
about $10 million this year for the contact center operations.
“It’s a combination of debt
and equity because normally when we talk about a project of this
magnitude, we raise money through debt markets to maximize our
equity investment. You’re probably looking at 50-50 to 60-40
[with] 60 percent debt and 40 percent equity,” he said.
IPVG plans to invest $30 to $40
million in the next three years to set up the IPCCO contact center
envisioned to have 3,000 to 5,000 seats. This would translate to
7,500 contact center agents, including shifts, Gonzales said.
Expansion to areas outside Metro
Manila is also in the pipeline but at present IPCCO is maintaining
several seats in the RCBC Plaza in Makati City.
“If you look at 2007, we expect
above 22 percent to 23 percent of revenue to come from IP Contact
Center,” Gonzales said. “If you fast forward to 2008 to 2009,
[we] would be hitting the 35 percent to 40 percent mark. So it would
be one of our major contributors.”
IPVG also owns IP-Converge, an
information technology and telecommunications (IT&T) company
that provides a Internet data center services, IP-transport and
connectivity solutions, IT consultancy, and systems integration
services.
--Likha C. Cuevas
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