iVantage focuses on IT business

iVantage Corp. continues to divest of its holdings in financial services companies as it slowly re-invents itself into an integrated information technology (IT) provider.

Corporate secretary A. Bayani K. Tan informed the Philippine Stock Exchange that the company has sold its 65-percent interest in each of the four affiliated investment firms under its wings for a combined value of P62.1 million.

The four companies are Philequity Management Inc. (PMI), Vantage PSE Index Fund Inc., Vantage Money Market Fund Inc. and Vantage Dollar Income Fund Inc. PMI is the investment manager of Philequity Fund Inc. which together with the three other companies are mutual fund entities.

The companies were transferred to Wealth Securities Inc., controlled by former iVantage president and PSE chairman Wilson Sy.

In early November, iVantage disposed of its 10-percent stake in Generali Pilipinas Holding Co. Inc. to Banco de Oro’s BDO Capital Investment Corp. for P67.685 million, GPHCI is the holding company of Generali Pilipinas Life Assurance Co., a life insurance firm, and Generali Pilipinas Insurance Co. which deals with non-life insurance.

Since its transformation into an IT-oriented firm last May, iVantage has been consolidating its acquired IT businesses with other related ventures (Lucky Star Gaming and Philcom’s money remittance service), as well as integrating them with the remaining companies where it continue to hold equity interest such as international Exchange Bank and IEB Currencies Inc.

iVantage has acquired 47 percent of software provider Jupiter Systems Inc. in a landmark deal last May that also involved equity infusion in several other firms: systems integrator Nexus Technologies logistics and support network WordText Systems; Internet portal and search engine Yeheyl Corp. Pte. Ltd.; web marketing and development WS Fiesta Online Corp.; and medical transcriptor service IPD Systems Inc. –Conrado Diaz Jr.