Easycall seeks capital for equipment upgrade

MANILA, Philippines - The corporate regulator has approved listed Easycall Communications Philippines, Inc.’s plan to raise P11.5 million from shareholders so it can buy equipment to improve its Internet service. The firm, which has shifted to outsourcing from being a pager company, plans to sell the shares in two rounds next month. Easycall will use P11.16 million of the proceeds to upgrade Internet protocol servers and software security infrastructure, documents filed with Securities and Exchange Commission showed. The balance will be used for the operations of subsidiary EESI. Easycall will sell 11.5 million shares for a peso each. Investors may buy one share for every eight held. Instead of getting an underwriter, major shareholders Global e-Business Solutions, Inc. and Palos Verdes agreed to buy the unsubscribed shares. The firm said the two had issued a manager’s check worth P11.5 million. In a telephone interview, Easycall Corporate Secretary Milicent L. Sim-Asuncion said Global e-Business Solutions had committed to buy the unsubscribed shares even after selling 38% of its stake to Singaporean firm Star Asia Technologies, Pte. Ltd. The firm said it expected the shares to be listed on the bourse on Feb. 9. In September, it filed an application with the Philippine Stock Exchange to list the shares . — Don Gil K. Carreon, BusinessWorld