SPI Technologies reports P244-M profit for 2002

Philippine-based SPI Technologies, the largest independent business process outsourcing (BPO) firm in Asia, posted a net income of P244 million in 2002, a marked turnaround from the net loss of P106 million the previous year, the company told the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Ernest Cu, SPI president and CEO, said it was a breakthrough year for the company, as "we are seeing the fruits of our focus on high growth/high margin areas where we have differentiated capabilities, the hard work of our entire team, and the continuing support and confidence of our world-class clientele."

Aside from its BPO services, SPI attributed its strong performance growth to the successful ramp up of its large multi-year content conversion project, the acquisition of a major book publishing service provider and the continued profitability of its call center business.

The company is now one of Asia’s leading providers of BPO services, offering a diversified line of information technology services which include call centers, content conversion, litigation support, scholarly publisher services and software services. Most of its clients are blue chip companies based in the US and Europe.

In 2002, SPI posted revenues of P2.4 billion, representing a 56- percent increase from the previous year, driven by strong revenue growth across all its business units: call centers, 142 percent; scholarly publishing, 69 percent; software services, 41 percent; content conversion, 30 percent; and litigation support, 12 percent.

SPI said the move from the start up phase to the profit optimization phase was evident in both its large multi-year digital content conversion project with Elsevier Science as well as in eTelecare, its call center business.

The company was contracted by Elvesier Science, the world’s largest publisher of scientific, technical and medical journals, for the digital conversion of approximately 40 to 50 million pages of books and journals.

SPI has seven sales and customer support offices in the US and Europe and eight dedicated production facilities and nearly 6,000 employees in the Philippines, China, India, and Vietnam. – Conrado Diaz Jr.