Drop in BPO-related inquiries noted

CEBU, Philippines – Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) proves to be still promising in Cebu as the newly constructed TG Universal building at the Cebu Asiatown IT Park continues to get inquiries from prospective locators, although fewer than expected.

Just barely two years since it started construction, TGU, a 16-story IT building is now 60 percent occupied not only by BPO tenants, but also corporate accounts, such as insurance, and banking, among others.

The building developed by Business Ventures Corporation, the developer of Sykes building in Mabolo area, spent more than P700 million for the construction of the state-of-the-art IT building.

 In an interview with Business Ventures Corporation operations vice president Charles Ong, he said that the company is now talking with big BPO players who expressed interest to locate in the building. Ong however, refused to divulge the identity of these companies.

Ong, whose family’s core business is into apartment rentals and warehousing, said that the family decided to diversify its business to building development targeting the BPO investors because of the good prospect for this kind of development.

However, he said although there are still inquiries from prospective BPO companies, a slowdown has been noted from what was expected.

Ong said after the completion of the TGU building at Asiatown, the company also considers developing other BPO buildings within Metro Cebu and one of the target areas is the South Road Properties (SRP).

“If there is a good development at SRP, we will consider investing [for a building] in the area,” he said adding that what is important is to take advantage immediately whenever there is a good “economic timing.”

The current offering of the Cebu City government in encouraging BPO building developers to start up constructing facilities at the SRP, is so far a good and tempting plan, Ong said.

 But, as of this moment, the company is still focusing on filling up TGU building, after deciding on the next project, he said.

TGU is now housing BPO companies, which are into back-office services, including also other corporate tenants like BDO, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Union Bank, and others.

According to Ong, one of the effective comeons of Cebu to draw BPO investors to locate in Cebu, is the relatively cheap rental rates, compared to Makati City and other business district and cyber-parks in Manila.