IPVG sells stake in 2 companies

Publicly listed IPVG Corp. is selling its stake in two companies while acquiring majority ownership of another, as part of a restructuring and consolidation of the former’s communications and online games businesses.

The IPVG board has authorized the company to sell all of its shares in IP Converge Data Center, which owns and operates data centers in the Philippines and in Singapore, to Viridiem Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IPVG in Singapore.

The company was also authorized to sell all of its shares in IP E-Game Ventures, which operates its online games business, to IPE Global Holdings, a British Virgin Islands company which shall become a subsidiary of IPVG.

Meanwhile, the IPVG board approved the acquisition by the company of 51 percent of Lucid Multimedia Tech, a company engaged in the business of providing 3D outsourcing services.

Company officials earlier said IPVG would buy fewer assets this year and would only consider investing in ventures with low risk and high return.

Last year, IPVG bought five companies in the online content and BPO sectors for about $30 million.

Also in yesterday’s meeting, the board gave the go-signal for the lifting of the voluntary trading suspension of trading of IPVG stocks on or before Feb. 16, 2009.

It also approved the equity re-structuring of IPVG to wipe-out up to P400 million in deficit from the company’s additional paid-in capital.

IPVG has expressed optimism about its business prospects this year despite the slowing global economy, even as it projects its business to grow by as much as 30 percent.

IPVG chief executive officer Enrique Gonzales said the company ’s businesses are resilient, and their sectors forecast healthy organic growth rates of 20 percent to 30 percent.

But profit growth will be slower than last year, which Gonzales described as a phenomenal year for IPVG in terms of operating and financial performance.

IPVG posted a net profit of P130.9 million in the third quarter, almost 75 percent higher than a year earlier.

Revenues also went up more than three times to almost P1 billion, already surpassing the 2007 level of P714.56 million.

IPVG net profits reached P169.54 million in 2007, from a net loss of more than P100 million in 2006.