eTelecare seeks voluntary PSE delisting

MANILA, Philippines -  eTelecare Global Solutions (EGSI) has filed a petition with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) for the voluntary delisting of all its common shares from the official registry of the bourse.

In a letter to the PSE, company vice president for tax and legal affairs Michael Montero emphasized that a voluntary delisting will not prejudice the interest of investors.

The company asked the PSE to delist its common shares effective Nov. 9, 2009, or at least 60 days from the filing of the petition.

Last Dec. 18, 2008, EGS Acquisition Corp. (EGS), a local corporation jointly owned by affiliates of Providence Equity Partners Inc. and Ayala Corp. through EGS Corp., completed the acquisition of 18.9 million common shares and 10.4 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) or 98.7 percent of the outstanding capital stock of EGSI pursuant to a public tender offer.

In its tender offer, EGS earlier said its intention was to acquire EGSI and cause a delisting of the latter’s shares from the PSE and eTelecare’s ADS from the Nasdaq national market.

On Dec. 22, EGSI’s board of directors approved the delisting of the company’s common shares from the PSE and the delisting of its ADS from the Nasdaq in the US, and directed management to file all necessary applications and appropriate documents for purposes of such delisting. On Jan. 12, 2009, the company’s ADS were delisted from Nasdaq.

EGSI said in its letter to the PSE that last March 16, the respective boards of directors of the EGSI and EGS approved the merger of the two corporations. The articles of merger and the plan and agreement of merger were approved by EGSI’s shareholders.

Meanwhile, EGSI’s shareholders also approved amendments to its articles of incorporation by: first, increasing the par value of its shares from P2 to P812,500 per share and correspondingly decreasing the number of shares comprising the company’s authorized capital stock from 65,000,000 to 160 shares (reverse stock split); and second, providing that the company shall not issue fractional shares.

The merger documents and amendments were later approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

EGSI also informed the PSE that all shareholders were notified of the planned delisting, which was approved by majority of its directors.