iVantage expansion delayed

Tech stock iVantage Corp. suffered a setback in its plan to expansion as it will not be able to increase its capital base by P2.6 billion following the failure of prospective equity funders to subscribe to a private placement offer on time.

iVantage corporate secretary A. Bayani K. Tan told the Philippine Stock Exchange that the company’s board of directors had "agreed to withdraw the offer made to the prospective private placement subscribers," since they failed meet the deadline prescribed for them to make the subscription.

The would-be subscribers are holding/investment companies owned or controlled by Jacinto Ng, chairman of the Asia United Bank, and Hans T. Sy of the SM Group. Both groups are currently major stockholders of iVantage.

The private placement offer was made as early as last March, when the then transforming IT stock was feverishly trading at nearly P3 per share owing to the perceived boom in the Internet and tech-related industry.

With the slump in the local stockmarket and the "bubble burst" of Internet stocks in the US, the domestic techies were not spared. Yesterday, iVantage finished two centavos lower at P0.89.

Tan said the company had planned to increase its capital stock by P2.6 billion of which a large chunk would be through the private placement, bringing its new authorized capital to P5 billion.

The privately-negotiated share subscription would have involved 650 million iVantage shares at a premium over its par value of P1.

However, Tan said the company will proceed with the property-for-share swap involving a 623 sqm office space on the 38th floor of the Discovery Centre – owned by Ng – in Ortigas to serve as the new headquarters as well as to house offices of new and start-up IT companies which iVantage is considering investing in.