After securing a multibillion-peso investment deal with Advantage Partners (AP), local information technology (IT) systems integrator MDI Novare Technologies said it is mulling over to go public as it eyes further business expansion.
MDI Novare Technologies Chairman Myla Villanueva said during a virtual event on Wednesday the firm is still studying if it will launch an initial public offering (IPO) in the next 4 to 5 years.
“Certainly, that is in the horizon,” she said, noting that the company will be ready when the time comes.
“We have always run ourselves as if we were a public company already. So, we are prepared at any time. But timing is always important in those decisions.”
Villanueva said Japanese private equity firm AP can also give them guidance in case the firm pushes through with the IPO plan.
“When we are ready with MDI Novare, I think it would be a very successful IPO,” said Emmett Thomas, AP’s head of Asia.
Villanueva said the company started looking for potential partners back in September 2019 as it plans its expansion.
Independent investment bank Evercore and international law firm Milbank advised MDI in finalizing the deal with AP.
“Even before the pandemic, I was seeing robust and exponential growth already in our own transformation from being just an infrastructure player to a digital transformation player,” she said. “In a sense, I was already beginning to realize when the big leaders in the country were calling on us to help them through that journey.”
“The timing is right and we do want to expand beyond our shores and build a national champion for the country in technology,” she added, noting that a foreign investor will help the company gain better understanding of different markets.
Thomas said AP is optimistic about the growth prospects of MDI, which is the investment firm’s first venture in the Philippines.
AP, founded in 1992, is an investment firm with investments in 43 companies in different industries. It offers portfolio and investment management, financial planning, investment advisory and consulting services.
Founded in 1988, MDI Novare caters to local blue-chip firms to digitize through application development, infrastructure, data analytics and IT security.