Yehey! expects profit turnaround on higher ad revenues

Yehey!, the country’s leading local search engine, expects to turn in a modest net profit of about to P3 million this year as against a net loss of P101 million in 2005.

Yehey! is 88 percent owned by iVantage Corp., a publicly-listed holding firm with interests in money remittance and information technology.

iVantage chairman Ignacio B. Gimenez said the turnaround in the company’s financial performance will be driven by higher advertising revenues.

Gimenez said the Internet portal will continue to launch new products and services to make the site more relevant and friendly to its users and advertisers. The move is in line with the company’s thrust of becoming a major financial conglomerate.

iVantage infused P27.9 million in cash in Yehey! in line with efforts to make the latter as the primary Filipino portal for both online ads and e-commerce payment transactions.Yehey! president and chief executive officer Donald Patrick Lim said the portal will continue to invest in the development of new channels to make the company globally competitive and world-class.

The portal generates over 30 million page views a month and boasts of nearly 300,000 registered users.

The company said it is eyeing an initial public offering in 2007. It was earlier looking to raise between P40 million and P80 million from the maiden offering of its shares.

Proceeds from the offering will be used to fund the portal’s continued expansion in order to take advantage of the anticipated growth in the number of Internet users in the country.

Yehey! also earlier said it was in talks with a telecommunications company, media outfit and a financial services group as possible strategic investors in preparation for its planned IPO. About 10 to 20 percent of the company may be sold to prospective investors.

Yehey! needs strategic investors to ensure continued growth and further strengthen operations.

Is advertisers comprise global-based accounts including Dell, Levi’s, Ford, Intel, Nokia, and Citibank, HSBC and Sun Life Financial.

Yehey! provides daily Philippine and Asian news, business and financial reports, sports, jobs and daily weather forecasts. It offers 24-hour business feed and real-time stock quotes for free, unlike with other sites.

It is also the center of a vibrant online community of Filipinos worldwide, who come together via the site’s Club Yehey services that include free e-mail, chat, and electronic forums.