BayanTrade reduces capital call to P50M

Leading e-marketplace BayanTrade announced that a program capital infusion will be reduced almost 90 percent on the strength of rapid growth in e-bidding and e-procurement transactions resulting in better than expected liquidity.

The company, a year old next month, has been operating for less than six months. It was organized by six of the country’s leading business conglomerates: Ayala Corp., JG Sumit Holdings, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Benpres Holdings Corp., Aboitiz Equity Ventures and United Laboratories.

"Our original plan called for a P425-million capital infusion this month," Carol E. Carreon, BayanTrade president and CEO said. "We’ve reduced the call to the members of the founding consortium to P50 million as a result of lower than expected expenditures and rapid growth e-bidding and e-procurement transactions with the result that our liquidity is better than programmed."

A third capital infusion is scheduled in December but may not be necessary, according to Carreon. "There’s a reasonably good chance that a third capital call will not be necessary although it’s too early to tell," she said.

BayanTrade chairman Jaime Zobel de Ayala said BayanTrade’s burn rate — the rate at which cash is applied to operations and development — is significantly lower than the founding consortium expected.

He attributed the lower costs to lower prices of hardware and software in the aftermath of the dot-com meltdown over the past 14 months. Tight controls on headcount and operations expenses also contributed to the lower burn rate.

In its first five months of operations, BayanTrade conducted more than 80 auctions and processed almost 4,000 purchase orders. Carreon said the company expects to exceed P1 billion in pass through values next month. – Mary Ann Reyes