Xurpas buys majority stake in Storm Flex to grow distribution system

Newly-listed Xurpas Inc. has acquired the controlling equity in a local technology firm for $4.3 million or P190.89 million in a bid to widen its distribution system to physical products and services.

 

Xurpas has signed a memorandum agreement with Storm Flex Systems Inc. after completing the sale of a 51 percent stake in the latter, according to a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday.

 

“The acquisition of Storm signals our expansion into an entirely new distribution network, beyond telecommunication networks, into the selling of physical goods and services,” Xurpas president and CEO Nix Nolledo said in a statement.

 

Incorporated in January 2013 to engage in human resources consultancy, Storm developed a proprietary platform which allows company employees that signed with Storm to exchange their current employee benefits and transform these into products and services.

 

Its flex benefits system is currently used by some of the country’s leading local conglomerates, business process outsourcing firms, and fast-moving consumer goods companies in Manila and Metro Cebu.

 

"Because Storm’s clients are able to provide their employees with an effectively wider range of benefits, it is yet another example of how technology can provide companies an ‘unfair advantage’ in the most unlikely areas such as employee attraction and retention," Nolledo noted.

 

Xurpas said the acquisition is in line with plans to expand in Southeast Asia as Storm will use the proceeds from the transaction to rev up its growth locally and branch out to other markets in Southeast Asia.

 

Xurpas debuted on the Philippine Stock Exchange on December 2, 2014.

 

In October 2014, Nolledo told GMA News Online that listing on the PSE makes it easier for the company to penetrate Southeast Asian markets. – Danessa O. Rivera/VS, GMA News