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Yehey! to list by introduction this year


MANILA, Philippines - LOCAL SEARCH engine and online content developer Yehey! Corp. will list shares on the stock exchange this year without necessarily selling these to the public, if the market reacts positively to the results of the US presidential elections, a top official said Tuesday. In an interview, Yehey! Chief Executive Officer and President Donald L. Lim said the firm is optimistic about listing by introduction this year. Companies list by introduction if they do not have an immediate need for capital. He said Yehey! is technically a public firm since its parent, listed holding firm iVantage Corp., has issued Yehey! stocks to shareholders. "We are still waiting for the right time for listing," Mr. Lim told BusinessWorld, noting that its share price could be affected by negative investor sentiment. Only two of about a dozen companies with listing plans have gone public this year. Mr. Lim said Yehey! would launch next month Freestyle Digital, a company that will develop Web sites for US-based companies. It is also forming a joint venture company with Havas Digital, one of Europe’ largest digital agencies, that it plans to incorporate as soon as the deal is finalized. Mr. Lim said the newly formed firm would be named Media Contacts and would buy and sell online advertising space to local companies. He said Yehey! intends to make an aggressive push next year by launching four major projects that cost up to P50 million each. The firm will finance the projects using a P200-million capital from iVantage. Yehey!’s projects include the revamp of its search engine to make it more competitive, and the improvement of its Internet payment service, Mr. Lim said. The company was formed in 1996 as Fiesta Online Corp. It claims to be the second most visited local Web site, generating more than 30 million page views a month. — Don Gil K. Carreon, BusinessWorld