SEC okays Fil-Hispano’s P300-M stock rights offer

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the planned P300-million stock rights offer of call center firm Fil-Hispano Holdings Inc.

Under the rights offer, each stockholder is entitled to subscribe to one common share for every two shares held as of record date yet to be set by the company. Each share will be priced at P1, a sharp discount to the current market price and from the P3.95 per share price for a secondary offer last November.

Proceeds from the rights offer will be used to fund the company’s planned expansion and acquisitions. Tapped as lead underwriter for the issue is Asian Alliance Investment Corp.

As worldwide spending on business process outsourcing services is on the upswing, Fil-Hispano is considering further expanding its wings to new markets like Europe, Australia and Asia to build a much stronger platform for growth.

Fil-Hispano, the first and only call center listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange, is likewise considering tapping opportunities in Malaysia, Singapore, China, India, Australia, and the United Kingdom to optimize capacity utilization and generate a higher return on assets.

The company’s objective is to maximize the use of Call centers that are now primarily used at night to service US clients and, in turn increase return on assets. At present, 80 percent of Fil-Hispano’s call center business is coming from the US

Fil-Hispano is also looking at acquisitions, mainly in the medical and legal transcription outsourcing business.

From only 700 call center seats in 2003, Fil-Hispano’s call center unit Advanced Contact Solutions Inc. (ACS) now has a total of 2,800 as of end-March this year and is looking at ending the year with 3,000 call center seats with the continued expansion.

ACS currently has three world-class facilities at the Citibank Center in Makati City, the Allied Bank building in Makati, and in Cabuyao, Laguna. It is looking at Cubao, Libis, Alabang and Ortigas as future sites for expansion.

With the expansion in place, Fil-Hispano is expecting its net income to more than double this year to around P270 million from P119.5 million in 2004. Revenues are also seen to grow to P1.3 billion from only P647 million last year on existing call center contracts alone.