E-Games eyes more acquisitions

MANILA, Philippines - Video game publisher IP E-Games Ventures Inc., a unit of publicly held IPVG Corp., is looking at acquiring more real estate business this year and next year after the successful acquisition of a property inside the sprawling Cagayan special economic zone and freeport.

Ricardo Lagdameo, head of corporate finance and investor relations of IPVG, said in an interview that the company is looking at acquiring another property worth about P70 million also in Cagayan within the year.

Lagdameo said the company would also acquire two more properties in Metro Manila and in a popular tourist destination in the Philippines either next year or the following year.

E-Games, through wholly-owned unit RAN Online, has acquired 36,000 square meters of land at the planned casino complex in the Cagayan special economic zone.

Last March 22, the stockholders of E-Games approved to amend the company’s primary purpose to include food and beverage, gaming, entertainment as well as hotel and leisure.

Likewise, the company’s stockholders gave the go signal for the acquisition of substantial assets pertaining to gaming, entertainment, tourism, hotel, and leisure business.

Earlier, E-Games chief executive officer Enrique Gonzalez told The Star that the company is considering a private placement to a strategic or institutional investor to fund new businesses, which include casino operations.

E-Games hopes to capitalize on the growing gambling sector, which is seen to register revenues of $3 billion by 2015 amid an emerging middle class and improved infrastructure.

It noted that casinos will be key drivers in achieving President Aquino’s vision of bringing in 10 million visitors to the Philippines by 2016.

International tourists led by Koreans and Americans visiting the Philippines grew 13 percent to approximately 1.819 million in the first five months of the year from 1.61 million arrivals in the same period last year.

E-Games acquired a 75-percent stake in Digital Paradise Inc., the operator of Netopia, the most prominent brand of Internet cafes in the Philippines.

Last March, the company merged its online games business with Level Up! creating the largest gaming company in the country with an estimated 70 percent market share with over 37 million registered users and over five million active users per month.

Level Up is owned by China’s leading Internet services provider, Tencent and Naspers, which owns multiply.com, and several other online companies around the world. It pioneered the online gaming business in the Philippines.

Its parent firm, Level Up International, has a subsidiary in Brazil, which likewise pioneered and leads the online gaming business there. It also has a joint venture in the US and a user base in India.

Well-known published games from the parties include Ran Online, Cabal Online, Ragnarok Online, Rohan Online, Grand Chase Online and the newly launched Bounty Hounds Online.