PhilEXIM to guarantee loan for IPVG unit

BY RUBY ANNE M. RUBIO, BusinessWorld Reporter State-owned Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency (Phil-EXIM) will guarantee a $750,000 loan to be extended by Export Industry Bank (Exportbank) to IP-Converge, a subsidiary of publicly listed IPVG Corp. In a letter to the exchange, IPVG alternate corporate information officer Raquel C. Mallillin-Gagalang said the loan would be used to fund the operation and expansion of an Internet data center in RCBC Plaza, a Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA)-accredited building. "The Internet data center provides mission critical services including bandwidth, co-location, network management, disaster recovery and business continuity services," she wrote. IPVG chief financial officer Emmanuel L. Jalandoni told BusinessWorld the expansion of the Internet data center is to accommodate the burgeoning business process outsourcing (BPO) and call center industry in the country. By yearend, the company is looking at 50 to 100 more foreign and local clients. "We plan to tap more clients. There are a lot of companies setting up their offices here. We want to give them facility for their data services. In the medium term, we are looking at providing disaster recovery and business continuity services, not just hosting facilities but a full range of other services," he told BusinessWorld. Owning and operating the only carrier-neutral international telco-grade facility in the country, IP Converge provides customers with Internet connectivity, co-location services, application management, solutions architecture, and managed network services. Through its partnership with all the players in the telecommunications industry, IP Converge offers clients with a wider array of mission critical applications, diverse in both carrier and specific cable routes used for transmission of traffic. Its data center has peering arrangements with the top five local exchange carriers. ACQUISITION IPVG acquired the data center from Reach Network Philippines, Inc., a joint venture between PCCW (Pacific Century Cyber-works, Inc.) and Telstra. The data center was designed and constructed by PCCW, a recognized leader in Asia in the building and management of data center facilities. IP Converge is the exclusive local partner of Credence Analytics, the world’s no. 4 and India’s leading financial solutions provider. IPVG Corp. was the result of the merger between MBf, Inc. and IPVG Corp. (formerly Adobo Interactive, Inc.). It was organized to provide Internet, extranet and other value-added services to any and all types of information technology users, with the objective of developing the IT sector in the country through the adoption and localizing of global Internet models.