Boulevard Holdings IT unit sees 13% sales growth

Boulevard Holdings, Inc., (BHI) a holding company owned by the Panlilio family, expects sales of its information technology unit, Alliance Technologies Corp. (ATC) to grow 13 percent this year to P178 million.

ATC is the local distributor of telephony system products of Avaya Communications, an affiliate of US-based Lucent Technologies Corp. It was the original partner of AT&T before it spun off Lucent Technologies in the early 1990s. In the next two to three years, BHI has mandated ATC to concentrate diversifying into cutting-edge proprietary product lines with bigger margins such as water treatment chemicals and equipment.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, BHI said 60 percent of ATC’s sales will come from Avaya call center and telecommunication equipment for enterprise while the rest will come from software related services.

Avaya will service directly an initial 17 large US-based enterprises per agreement reached with these customers, UBS, Barclays & ABN Amro.

It is planning to hire 300 sales representatives and voice design engineers across Asia-Pacific, except India.

BHI has set aside P141 million for its tourism-related and IT businesses. Of the P141 million, P91 million has been earmarked for the development of a 25-room boutique hotel in Puerto Galera in Mindoro. Another P20 to P30 million has been allotted for the refurbishment of the Fridays Boracay Island Beach Resort in Boracay which will expand room capacity to 61 from the current 47.

BHI is eyeing revenues of between P375 million to P390 million this year, mainly coming from its investments in firms involved in leisure, hotels and tourist estates.