BPO provider sets $15-M expansion in RP, Costa Rica

PeopleSupport Philippines, a business process outsourcing provider listed in the New York Stock Exchange, yesterday announced its plans to further expand its operations in the country as well as in Costa Rica.

In a press conference, Rainerio Borja, president of PeopleSupport, disclosed that it is investing around $15 million to expand its operations in its Makati headquarters and in Cebu and to open a new operation in Costa Rica.

Borja said that PeopleSupport is already in the process of adding an additional 1,000 seats in its current Makati headquarters.

In Cebu, the BPO firms is also adding an additional 450 seats.

In Costa Rica, Borja revealed, PeopleSupport is setting up a 450- seat Spanish-speaking call center primarily to service Spanish-speaking clients of one of its financial clients.

At a cost of around $8,000 per seat, Borja calculated that PeopleSupport would spend about $15 million for its planned expansion this year.

Borja also reported that following PeopleSupport’s recent acquisition of Rapidtext Inc. and The Transcription Company, the BPO company is projecting a first quarter revenue this year of up to $21 million.

Borja refused to give a full year 2006 revenue projection as the BPO firm has not yet disclosed any projection to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Last year, PeopleSupport, Borja said, posted a full year revenue of $62.1 million, an increase of 40 percent over its 2004 revenue of $44.5 million.

Net income for 2005, Borja also said, was $22.8 million, increasing 75 percent from 2004’s net income of $8.3 million.

Borja explained that PeopleSupport was started in the US in 1998 and only started operations in the Philippines in 2000.

Thus, while the firm started and is listed in the US, all of its revenues come from its BPO operations in the Philippines.

This year, Borja said, PeopleSupport is establishing its global footprint with the planned call center operation in Costa Rica.

It is also gearing up for more mergers and acquisitions with at least three potential targets.

The recent acquisition of Rapidtext and The Transcription Company, Borja said, is moving the BPO firm into the transcription and captioning sector.

Transcription, Borja explained, covers the range of medical, education, insurance and education.

Captioning, Borja said, is for the hearing impaired.