052807: Paxys raises BPO seats to 7,000

By Honey Madrilejos-Reyes

Reporter

PUBLICLY traded Paxys Inc., a leading player in business process outsourcing (BPO), will complete by mid-July its sixth call center facility, bringing its number of seats to 7,000. At the sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting Friday, chairman Tarcisio M. Medalla said the $10-million facility would be located at the heart of Cubao’s commercial area. “This would be our biggest single-floor facility in which we would have 1,600 seats,” he said. At present, Paxys operates 5,400 seats from facilities operated by its unit Advanced Contact Solutions Inc. ACS provides inbound customer services such as order taking, help desk and technical support; outbound services such as telemarketing, telecollection, and sales verification; and other BPO services such as research, financial administration and HR functions. It services both Philippine and foreign clients. “We continue to be extremely positive about the future of the BPO industry because there is still so much unmet demand, untapped markets and room for growth for all players,” Medalla said. Meanwhile, Paxys’ chief financial officer Manuel Lozano said the company is planning to borrow $30 million to $35 million in the second half to refinance its P400-million loan obligations and also fund its expansion program. “We are now in talks with a number of banks. Maybe in the next two to three months, we would have something more definite to announce,” he said. Paxys ended the first quarter with a net income of P139.6 million from P76.6 million a year earlier. Service income, on the other hand, almost doubled to P808.24 million from P447.23 million the year before. Paxys attributed the increase to new work programs from US clients and consolidation of the results of unit Smart Salary, an Australian company engaged in salary packaging and other outsourced services in human resources. From January to March, Advanced Contact reported service revenues of P631 million, an increase of 41 percent from last year’s P447 million due to new work programs and rise in volume hours. Its capacity has grown to 4,893 seats from 3,400 seats last year. Meanwhile, ScopeWorks Asia Inc. booked a loss of P1.6 million during the period from revenues of P6 million. The subsidiary provides outsourced transcription, editing and proofreading services.

 

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