Paxys buys into IT firm

Manila Times

Saturday, March 04, 2006 Paxys buys into IT firm

PAXYS Inc., the Philippines’ first publicly listed contact-center operator, on Friday acquired a substantial amount of shares in Global Idealogy Corp. (GIC), a leading software provider of corporate applications in the country. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Paxys said it entered into a purchase agreement with GIC to acquire 4, 404,498 common shares and 2,150,000 warrants to subscribe to the same amount of GIC shares. Upon the full exercise of the warrants, Paxys would own up to 15.81 percent of GIC’s outstanding capital stock. Paxys would be paying P10.44 million for the transaction. ”[Paxys’] acquisition of GIC is intended to support Paxys’ strategic intent to broaden and deepen its product and service offerings in the business process outsourcing sector,” Paxys said. The company added that it intends to infuse P7.5 million through a subscription of new common shares of GIC to partially finance the software provider’s regional expansion and product diversification plans. The additional capital would be equivalent to 3,333,333 GIC common shares and will increase Paxys’ ownership to 23.85 percent. ”Subsequently, Paxys intends to acquire a majority ownership stake of 51 percent in GIC within the first half of 2006, through a follow-up transaction involving the purchase of an additional tranche of common shares and warrants, through a subscription of new common shares,” the call-center company said. According to Paxys, GIC is “currently the dominant provider of corporate mobile software applications in the domestic pharmaceutical industry, through its Electronic Territory Management System and Sales Force Automation software solutions, with a total user base of more than 1,000 mobile professionals from several multinational pharmaceutical companies.” GIC also provides information technology-enabled outsourcing services to US-based companies and is chaired by Roberto F. De Ocampo, a former finance secretary. Paxys earlier invested in ScopeWorks Asia, a data transcription company. The move was intended to complement the company’s call-center business under its subsidiary, Advanced Contact Solutions Inc. --Cheryl M. Arcibal