ICTV plans transfer to the PSE's Second Board

MANILA, Philippines - Listed Information Capital Technology Ventures Inc. on Thursday disclosed that it will be seeking to transfer from the Philippine Stock Exchange's SME (small and medium-scale enterprises) to the Second Board. In a statement to the PSE, ICTV said its board mandated the company to file an application before the PSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission to transfer from SME Board to Second Board. ICTV was originally incorporated in 1996 as MF Schroder & Co Inc. to engage in the purchase and sale of securities. Six years after, it was renamed Cashrounds Inc., with the purpose of engaging in the securities brokerage business through the use of information technology. On September 19, 2006, the SEC approved the change of the company's corporate name to its present one. ICTV is an online matchmaker for companies looking for private equity investments. The company seeks to play a critical and crucial role in finding investors during the initial (start-up) or second round (mezzanine) level of financing a business enterprise. Using its online business solutions, ICTV collects, aggregates, qualifies, and presents investment proposals to professional venture capital and various investors in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific region for possible funding. ICTV also operates and maintains VOIP services in all cities and municipalities nationwide. Peter Raymond Lee, IGC Securities analyst, said ICTV's move was prompted by a PSE requirement to reflect its real value following the company's share swap agreement with the shareholders of wireless data services provider Next Mobile Inc. “Actually, it's just reflecting the change in the capitalization of ICTV because of its share-swap agreement with Next Mobile," he said. The deal paved the way for a new group of investors to own some 98 percent of ICTV and, in turn, ICTV now owns 19 percent of Next Mobile Inc. valued at about P1.5 billion. Observers noted that the transaction would result in some sort of a backdoor listing for Next Mobile. The PSE presently has three boards: the first or main board, which are for companies with net assets of P500 million, authorized capital of P400 million, a five-year operating history and a consolidated pre-tax income of at least P50 million for each of three fiscal years prior to its listing application; second board for companies with a market capital of P250 million, authorized capital of P100 million and have operating history of at least one year; while the SME board requires companies which have authorized capital of at least P20 million, net tangible assets of P5 million and a positive net operating income. Besides ICTV, only one company is listed under SME Board, which is Makati Finance Corp. - GMANews.TV