LESS than two weeks after opening its operations in the Philippines, business process outsourcing firm TechTeam Global Inc. announced it bought the parent company of Manila-based Onvaio Asia Services Inc.

“This acquisition, together with the recent partnership established with Rainmaker Asia Inc., provides TechTeam with an immediate direct presence in the Philippines and the ability to quickly and efficiently expand Philippine-based delivery operations in response to growing customer demand,” the Southfield, Michigan-headquartered firm said in a statement issued Thursday last week.

In reply to questions sent via e-mail, chief financial officer and treasurer Marc J. Lichtman told the BusinessMirror the decision to expand into the Philippines is “part of the company’s long-term strategy.”

“It is too early to say at this point, but expansion in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific region is important to our long-term strategy,” Lichtman said.

Gary Cotshott, president and chief executive officer of TechTeam Global, also said the agreement with Rainmaker is a purview of TechTeam management’s plan “to establish a TechTeam-owned facility in the Philippines.”

When asked to cite the amount of investment and the target seats that TechTeam has for its Philippine expansion, Lichtman reiterated that: “it is too early to say at this point.”

Still, TechTeam said its acquisition of Onvaio adds to the company’s “capabilities in providing software technical support outsourcing services.”

Cotshott said the purchase is also part of plans to create an “Asia/Latin America business unit…to take advantage of the market opportunity that these regions present.”

The Philippines is considered one of the top service providers in the global offshoring and outsourcing (O&O) industry, according to a recent paper by Jones Lang LaSalle Leechiu Inc.

Citing Everest Research Institute, JLL Leechiu said the country is the third-largest destination of O&O firms, next to India and Canada and ahead of Ireland and Mexico. The O&O industry comprises three segments: BPO, information technology outsourcing  and engineering services outsourcing.

“BPO focuses on customer care, back-office processing and research,” while “ITO concentrates on application development and maintenance, network management, system integration and hardware and software maintenance.”

JLL Leechiu defined ESO’s function as designing and developing engineering and software products, operate product testing and improvement and conduct pure and applied research.”

The O&O industry covers five percent of the market worldwide, according to JLL Leechiu.

Since 2001, the industry has grown nearly 100 percent per annum on average over the last five years and 50 percent annually in the last two years, JLL Leechiu said, citing data from the Business Process Association of the Philippines.

THE Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) Group said its foreign partners in the $550-million Asia-America Gateway (AAG) cable project should have a say on a proposed policy seeking mandatory interconnection of backhaul networks to all landing stations.

Loadstar Investment shares surge despite losses, deficit

OIL company Petron Corp. closed trading on Friday at P6 in a performance that landed it among the market’s 30 biggest gainers last week.

THE Gotianun-led Filinvest Alabang Inc. (FAI) is spending P5.6 billion to build a four-tower residential community within the 244-hectare Filinvest Corporate City (FCC) in Alabang.

LESS than two weeks after opening its operations in the Philippines, business process outsourcing firm TechTeam Global Inc. announced it bought the parent company of Manila-based Onvaio Asia Services Inc.

FLAG carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) will increase its flight frequencies to Macau and Singapore.

In a statement, PAL said it will mount flights to Macau every day from the five-times-weekly frequency.

SAN JOSE, Antique—To help lessen dependence on imported fuel oil, Filipino-owned Sun West Water and Electric Co. (Suweco) inked a power- supply agreement with Antique Electric Cooperative Inc. (Anteco) for the output of its planned 8-megawatt (MW) minihydro-power project.

LAST week: Philippine stock prices dropped anew by 3.10-percent week-on-week to 2,739.70 after the government reported a higher-than-expected May inflation figure of 9.6 percent. Another major factor was the decision of the Bangko Sentral to raise its key-interest rates by 25 basis points to 5.25 percent.

TALK about clout. Development Bank of the Philippines chairman (DBP), Patricia Santo Tomas, and president, Reynaldo David, introduced last Wednesday, the bank’s first batch of 120 nursing scholars to President Arroyo.