IP E-Games sets private placement for expansion

MANILA, Philippines -  IP E-Games, the publicly-listed online gaming unit of technology firm IPVG, will be undertaking a private placement of shares to fund its expansion initiaves.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, IP E-Games said its board approved the issuance of 1.2 million shares to IPVG Employees Inc. at P18 each share to fund additional content acquisition.

The company earlier acquired another Internet café, I.T. Park Log Inc., which owns a chain of 23 branches, further beefing up its presence in the digital consumer platform.

The move follows the company’s purchase of the Netopia chain of Internet cafes and is seen to boost the group’s network to around 170.

IPVG chief executive officer Enrique Gonzalez said I.T.Log services a specific segment of the market not served by other Internet cafe chains.

Most of I.T. Log’s cafes are open 24 hours to better accommodate the demands of over 10,000 of its regular daily customers.

Incorporated in 2005, IP E-Games is a leading online game publisher in the Philippines offering the widest selection of games, from casual gamers to core enthusiasts. Its flagship game, RAN Online, a campus-based massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), is the leading online game today. It also publishes Cabal Online which garnered a phenomenal 60,000 CCU (concurrent users) two weeks after it was launched.

MMORPGs allow a large number of players to interact with one another over the Internet in a virtual world.

The company pioneered the free-to-play business model, wherein gamers are not required to pay a subscription fee to play online games.

Among the other gaming titles launched by the company were Superstar, a singing game similar to Singstar for the Sony PlayStation 3, and Dragonica, the first eight-way 3D side scrolling online adventure game.

IP E-Games is the first Philippine online game company to release Triple A titles such as Granado Espada, which earned the Presidential Award for the best Korean game in 2006. The company has also launched Runes of Magic, the award-winning high-fantasy MMORPG.

The company has 28 main distributors with a network spanning approximately 20,000 outlets such as Internet cafes, independent kiosks, mini-carts and computer shops.