(Update) Ayala unit buys US BPO for P1.4B

LiveIT Solutions Inc., the Ayala unit in charge of investments in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry on Thursday said it had acquired Affinity Express Inc. for P1.4 billion or $28 million. LiveIT officials said $21 million of the acquisition cost was used to pay off Affinity's existing shareholders while the remaining $7 million will be infused as fresh capital in the American firm. Affinity Express is a provider of outsourced graphic design services. Its clients include the Los Angeles Times and US direct mail firm ADVO. In a statement, Ayala Corp. said its unit acquired Affinity from investment funds Flagship Ventures, Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc., Ticonderoga Capital, and Coop Securities LLC. "We are very pleased to be investing in an industry leading innovator like Affinity Express. We are particularly looking forward to helping the company expand its delivery footprint to the Philippines, where it will be able to tap a large and high caliber pool of artistic and creative talent with excellent communications skills," LiveIT chief executive officer Alfredo Ayala said. Ayala Corp. said Affinity plans to launch a production center in Manila within the first half of 2007. "We are in the process of selecting our first site in Metro Manila and recruiting senior leadership team for the Philippines," Ayala said. He, however, refused to disclose how much they would be spending to put up the production center. Affinity currently employs 800 workers worldwide in production centers in the United States and India. Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said Affinity is LiveIT's third investment in the BPO sector, bringing the Ayala unit's total investments in the sector to P3 billion. "We are pleased that we are continuing to make progress towards our goal of investing in the high growth offshore IT and BPO sectors," Zobel de Ayala said. He said the information and technology sectors, along with the BPO sector was estimated to have generated $30 billion in revenues in 2005. He said this may quadruple to $110 billion by 2010. - GMANews.TV