SPI Technologies moves to expand internetional market

SPI Technologies Inc., a publicly-listed information technology (IT) firm, has tapped the Mumbai-based Edelweiss Capital Ltd. to help the company explore and expand its business presence in the international market.

SPI president and CEO Ernest Cu told the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) that Edelweiss Capital will advise the company on various options to maximize shareholder value and accelerate its growth and market presence.

Edelweiss Capital is a full-service investment bank specializing in the corporate finance requirements of emerging and middle market corporations. It has significant experience in both the business process outsourcing (BPO) and software services industries, raising over $100 million of private equity to its clients since 1998.

"Edelweiss will advise SPI on a strategy to accelerate SPI’s growth and market presence, which strategy may involve a merger, acquisition(s) and/or other transactions with strategic counterparties, including Software Services companies and BPO companies in India or the US."

Last month, SPI branched out into book production with its acquisition of the US-based Achorn Graphics Inc., a well regarded supplier of full composition services largely to book publishers.

Achorn is a full-service typesetting vendor that has been in the business for 25 years, producing products ranging from novels and children’s books to high-end medical journals and college textbooks. Based in Boston, it currently has 35 full-time employees doing mainly typesetting, while its file structuring and graphics services are being outsourced.

Aside from its scholarly publisher services, SPI also delivers a wide range of BPO services such as content conversion, litigation coding, call center services, and software maintenance and development to Fortune 500 companies and content-driven organizations worldwide.

Cu said SPI management believes that enhancing the scale of its operations will enable it to maintain its leadership position in the offshore BPO industry.

"Additionally, recent events have increased the requirement of large corporate clients for geo-political diversification in order to reduce risk. This has created significant interest in companies with critical mass in India, the Philippines and the US," Cu added.

In the first half of 2002, SPI posted a 44-percent growth in revenues to P967 million, driven by the increase in sales across all its business units. The outsourced IT business contributed 67 percent to total revenues while the call center business accounted for the remaining 33 percent.