[October 29, 2009] SingTel gains control of Ayala IT company Tweet Oct 29, 2009 (The Manila Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A UNIT of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel) has hiked its shareholdings in an Ayala-led information technology (IT) service company, allowing it to gain a controlling stake at the firm. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Ayala Corp. said SCS Computer Systems Pte., Ltd. bought 21 percent, or more than 8.47 million shares, of Ayala Systems Technology Inc. from Azalea Technology Investments Inc., BPI Computer Systems Corp. and Mitsubishi Corp. for P7.2 million, or P0.85 per share. SCS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NCS Pte. Ltd., which in turn is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SingTel, Asia's leading communications group with operations and investments in more than 20 countries and territories around the world. NCS is an information and communications technology services provider that has presence in more than 10 countries across the Asia- Pacific and Middle East regions employing over 7,000 staff. Its customers include international blue chip market leaders and governments. Azalea, on the other hand, is Ayala Corp.'s wholly-owned subsidiary focused on investments in IT. Ayala Systems was established in 1988, and specializes in offshore software development for companies in Japan, Europe, America and Australia. "The acquisition will provide NCS and SingTel access to a large labor pool that is highly competitive in pricing but gives back excellent value in terms of the employee's dedication to work, technical competence, learning and growth potential," Ayala said. "Ayala Systems' experience in the outsourcing and offshoring industry will be the platform for NCS and SingTel to penetrate overseas markets," it added. This acquisition increases SCS' stake in Ayala Systems from 30 percent to 51 percent, while Azalea's ownership is slashed from 59 percent to 49 percent. Last year, Ayala Corp. did a similar move by trimming its stake in Globe Telecom by 3 percent, or 3.8 million common shares and sold it to SingTel for P4.6 billion. This increased the Singaporean firm's shareholdings in Globe from 44.47 percent to 47.3 percent while Ayala ended up with 31 percent. Ayala had said the capital raised from this exercise would be used to for the expansion of its business process outsourcing operations and Integrated Microelectronics Inc., the group's electronics manufacturing unit. To see more of The Manila Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.manilatimes.net. Copyright (c) 2009, The Manila Times, Philippines Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]