MANILA, Philippines - Listed Ongpin firms PhilWeb Corp. and ISM Communications Corp. have acquired a majority stake in a German Internet service provider in a bid to expand their markets overseas.
In a statement sent late Tuesday, the two local firms said they would spend about 19.5 million euros or P1.3 billion to buy 650,000 shares or 65 percent of Germany-registered but United Kingdom-based Acentic GmbH.
The shares were bought by Host Union International Ltd., a Hong Kong-based special purpose vehicle owned by PhilWeb and ISM, from LBC Capital SARL which, in turn, is a wholly owned subsidiary of UK-based investment firm GI Innovation Partners.
“The two Philippine-listed companies were able to win over a number of competing proposals as the management of Acentic recognized that PhilWeb and ISM (added substantial value) to Acentic,” the local firms, which will divide the shares equally, said in a statement.
The acquisition is scheduled to close on Jan. 11, 2010.
Acentic is an international provider of digital and Internet protocol (IP) converged services to hotels, tourism facilities and healthcare premises. It presently provides such services to many of the world’s leading hotel chains including Accor, Dorint, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Hilton, Hyatt, Maritim, Marriott, Mövenpick and Starwood in more than 30 countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
“Acentic is a perfect fit to the information technology and telecommunications business of ISM as well as the gaming expertise of PhilWeb. The entry of PhilWeb and ISM in Acentic will enable Acentic to grow its predominantly European market to include the Asia-Pacific region, the fastest growing hotel market in the world,” the statement read.
In line with this, the two companies said it would launch Acentic Asia, which will be a subsidiary of Acentic GmbH, to take advantage of the rapidly growing Asian market.
“More significantly, the substantial number of hotel rooms currently under contract to Acentic and the imminent rollout of Acentic Asia provides PhilWeb with enormous opportunities to expand its gaming business, which is today limited only to the Philippine market,” the companies said.
As previously disclosed, ISM will use the funds it raised from the P655-million stock rights offering held in January this year, as well as the $10-million private placement made by the Ashmore Group in November 2007 and the remainder of the P300-million stock rights offering conducted in June 2007. PhilWeb will use internally generated funds to finance the acquisition.
