EPLDT acquired 100 percent of the shares of SPi from its sole shareholder, SPi Tech L.P. for US$135.34 million in cash, PLDT said in a statement Tuesday.
As part of the transaction, ePLDT also acquired a $7 million debt owed by SPi at face value. In addition, ePLDT advanced $16.43 million to SPi for it to fully pay its debt owed to DBS Bank Singapore.
EPLDT, the information and communications technology arm of the PLDT Group, intends to have this debt refinanced by SPi in due course.
'This acquisition also manifests our commitment to make the Philippines one of the leading
business process outsourcing locations in the world,' said Ray Espinosa, president & chief executive officer (CEO) of ePLDT.
'SPi's well-established presence in the US and its domain expertise in a variety of service verticals will give us a unique opportunity to increase our participation in the growing base of the global outsourcing and off-shoring market,' Espinosa added.
According to PLDT, SPi is the second largest 'pure-play' BPO (business process outsourcing) company and the ninth largest independent BPO service in the world. SPi has operations in 19 locations in North America, Europe and Asia.
Its customers include Fortune 100 companies, non-profit organizations and government agencies in the financial services, healthcare, legal and publishing markets. SPi operates facilities in the Philippines, India, U.S., China and Vietnam.
'The management team is very supportive of this acquisition and quite excited about this new phase in SPi's history. With ePLDT's call center capabilities, IT infrastructure and financial resources; we will be among a select few in the world who can execute on these opportunities,' said Ernest Cu, president and CEO of SPi.
As of May 2006, SPi has 6,500 employees and approximately 4,200 seats worldwide.
Combined with its existing Ventus call center group, ePLDT now has more than 11,000 employees and about 8,300 seats in its total BPO/call center operations. The Ventus Group operates seven call center facilities located in Metro Manila (Makati, Taguig, Pasig, Mandaluyong, Quezon City) and Iloilo City in the south.