Hong Kong's PCCW Teleservices to acquire IPVG's BPO subsidiary

MANILA, Philippines - PCCW Teleservices, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications provider, PCCW Ltd. has signed an agreement to acquire the entire issued share capital of IP BPO Holdings Pte. Ltd., a wholly-owned unit of technology and gaming conglomerate IPVG Corp., for up to $22 million.

The consideration is payable in two tranches – an initial tranche of $10 million and a performance-related tranche of up to $12 million on or around a date 12 months later, PVG said in a statement.

The BPO Holding Co. holds a 70-percent equity interest in each of Interactive Teleservices Corp. in the USA and BPO Teleservices Inc. in the Philippines.

Interactive Teleservices provides contact center services from a network of six English-speaking centers in Ohio and Nebraska, USA, and one Spanish-speaking center in Panama. BPO Teleservices is a leading player in the Philippine BPO industry and operates two contact centers in Manila providing services to US companies. Both companies serve customers from the banking and finance, IT, consumer electronics and travel sectors.

PCCW Teleservices runs one of the largest contact center operations in Asia. After the acquisition of IP BPO Holdings, the total number of agent positions will be expanded by around 2,500 to over 5,500.

Tony Bruno, director of PCCW Teleservices, said: “The acquisition represents a major step in our growth strategy for contact center businesses. The newly added assets will not only provide us with significant English and Spanish speaking capabilities to complement the core businesses in Hong Kong and mainland China, but also gain us an access to the USA, which is the largest contact center market in the world. It also opens up opportunities for us to serve existing multinational customers for their worldwide customer care needs.”