EasyCall eyes fresh funds via stock rights offering

MANILA, Philippines - EasyCall Communications Philippines Inc. is set to hold a stocks rights offering to raise fresh funds. Documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that the company will be offering up to 11.5 million common shares for P1 each to fund the acquisition of new equipment and to improve IP-based internet products and services. One share will be sold for every eight existing shares held by stockholders as of record date December 2, 2008. The shares will be offered between December 8 and 12 and will be listed with the Philippine Stock Exchange on December 17. The PSE has allowed EasyCall to proceed with the offering without engaging an underwriter owing to the small size of the offer and the committed guarantee fund from the firm’s major shareholders. About P11.17 million of share sale proceeds will be used by EasyCall to buy new equipment for its internet services for its subsidiary, which currently uses traditional telecommunication media. “As majority of its dial-up subscribers are slowly moving to faster connection options, EasyCall's thrust is to innovate and provide viable alternative connectivity solutions in the delivery of its IP-based products and services," the company said. The balance of the proceeds, on the other hand, is earmarked as additional working capital of EasyCall. The company started as a provider of alphanumeric paging services, the demand for which declined following the advent of text messages. The trend prompted EasyCall shift to providing contact center services and internet service. The call center operations were later transferred to ePerformax, which earlier also sought to list in the local bourse, to focus on more revenue-generating business. ISP and business process outsourcing, meanwhile, were identified as the new business focus of the company. GMANews.TV