Easycall to undertake equity restructuring

Paging company-turned call center operator Easycall Communications Phils. Inc. (ECPI) will undertake an equity restructuring scheme to wipe out a P330-million deficit, thus cleaning its balance sheet to pursue its expansion plans.

Leon Dy, ECPI corporate information officer, told the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) that the equity restructuring will involve the offsetting of the company’s accumulated deficit against and up to the limit of the capital surplus or additional paid-in capital (APIC) as of the fiscal year ending June 30, 2002.

ECPI has P328.54 million in APIC while its deficit amounted to P329.45 million, which arose from cumulative losses incurred from its various write-offs of assets.

"This will also provide the company a clean slate moving forward to its new direction and greater emphasis on the foreign call center outsourcing business," Dy added.

In the first quarter of the year, ECPI incurred a P20-million loss, although this was a 30-percent decline from a net loss of P28.3 million in the same period a year ago. The company attributed this to the continuing cost rationalization program being undertaken such as the closure of its provincial paging sites and write-down of paging-related assets.

Last year, ECPI wrote-off P191 million worth of transmission network assets, signaling its defined shift toward the call center and internet service businesses.

With the substantial decline in its paging revenues, ECPI now derives 42 percent of its revenues from call center operations while a significant share (17 percent) is generated by the internet service business.

Its new business direction, has in turn, attracted strategic investors such as Global E-Business Solutions Inc. (GEBSI), the IT affiliate of the Delgado group’s Transnational Diversified Group (TBG) and Centralized Marketing Co. (CMC), a call center outsourcing company from the US, known for providing high quality customer service and telemarketing services to its high-end and quality-conscious corporate customers.

ECPI and CMC will form a $1 million, 50-50 joint venture that will accelerate ECPI’s entry and access to the huge foreign call center market initially focusing on the US market. The agreement also provides for technology transfer from CMC to ECPI covering best practices in call center operations, training modules and other areas for technology collaboration.