3 foreign firms plan to invest $35 million in Next Mobile

At least three foreign companies have expressed interest in investing about $35 million in digital trunk radio operator Next Mobile Inc. (NMI), translating to about 23- percent ownership in the latter.

NMI chairman and CEO Mel Velarde identified the three as one global investment technology group, a Middle East telecom operator, and a New York-based investment house.

He disclosed that of the $35 million, $25 million will be in the form of equity while $10 million will be as debt. "We expect the funds to be in place before the end of the year and this will provide for the company’s needs for the next five years," Velarde said.

Velarde said that the NMI, which is currently wholly Filipino owned, is keeping the equity portion of the said foreign investment in the company at that level because of an option given to Nextel International to come back with a 20-percent stake in the NMI. Thus, even if Nextel International, which used to have investments in Nextel Phils., indeed decides to once again invest in NMI, the latter will still be able to comply with the 40-percent foreign ownership limit under the Constitution.

But the company has not ruled out the possibility of doing backdoor listing in the stock exchange. "Our potential investors still want us to list," Velarde disclosed. An earlier agreement between listed company Premiere Entertainment (PEP) and the owners of NMI for a merger of the two companies failed to materialize. One of the owner-firms of NMI, Gamboa Holdings, subsequently agreed to purchase a two-thirds stake in another listed firm Cashrounds at a price of P74.3 million raising speculations that Cashrounds will be used by NMI for its backdoor listing.

Meanwhile, NMI is allocating P100 million in capital expenditure this year, mainly for the company’s expansion to Cebu, its first outside of Luzon. "We expect to turn on Cebu in four months," he said. Around P60 million will be sourced internally while the rest will be provided by United Coconut Planters Bank via a term loan. Bank of Commerce has likewise approved a P30 million LC.

In addition, a local company is investing around P50 million in NMI with an option to raise this to P100 million. Velarde disclosed that the foreign investor-partner of said local firm has proposed to put up the $35 million long-term financing requirement of NMI.

In another development, NMI has unveiled a new service– the first of its kind in the Philippines–that will allow companies with mobile workforce to track the exact location of their people, vehicles, and products within a five meter accuracy every 10 minutes.

The IMX Mobile Locator is a mobile resource management solution that enables businesses to effectively manage their mobile operations by providing timely details on the movement of employees and field assets in real-time around the clock.

According to NMI data services director Ed Balontong, this is the only phone-based GPS in the country that gives the exact location of the one in possession of the mobile handset with an accuracy of five meters. This is compared to the 150-meter position accuracy given by some GSM handsets, whose accuracy fails because the position is determined via cellsite triangulation.

Balontong added that there are some location-based companies that similarly offer GPS services but at a stiff cost. For instance, the hardware alone which is vehicle-based is approximately P20,000 each. This does not include the monthly GPS map subscription, as well as the cost of transmitting data.

Through the IMX Mobile Locator, an office can locate the whereabouts of as much as 100 people at the same time. It uses the advanced technology of GPS, Web-enabled GIS Mapping, and the digital wireless network.

Locations are tracked using the signals of the GPS satellites being picked up by the GPS receiver of the IMX handset or an in-vehicle unit (rover). The GPS location data is automatically sent to the map application server through the IMX wireless data network. The server then translates such location fix into recognizable street and city attributes, which are viewable via a web-based map or via the IMX handset. This information is also processed for other metrics such as travel time, speed, distance traveled, and other applications.

Balontong emphasized that IMX Mobile Locator allows a business not only to instantly locate its entire fleet in one view but also improve accountability with electronic documentation of travel history, analyze and optimize asset utilization based on recorded data, and manage communications with one‚s entire fleet using one platform for voice, data, and tracking functionalities.

Monitoring can be suited to the business‚ needs. For instance, GPS handsets or rovers can be tracked on-demand or based on a pre-determined scheduled. For the in-vehicle unit or rover, it can be configured to send location based on distance, like every five kilometers.

Balontong added that access will be secured as only pre-identified PCs and IMX handsets can view the location to ensure the privacy of one’s fleet. Access schedules can also be defined to control the date and time to view the online web access.

NMI has partnered with Geoanalytika which is an expert in GIS Mapping Solutions.

NMI officials revealed that right now, some of their customers for this service include an LPG delivery company, a car carrier, a courier company.