TSI shareholders selling 70% stake

The controlling shareholders of Touch Solutions Inc., long speculated to be a target for backdoor-listing, have struck a deal to sell 70 percent of the information technology company to a new investor.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, TSI said its major stockholders had accepted an offer from Shiok Success International Ltd. to buy up to 70 percent of the company’s outstanding capital stock.

Trading on TSI was suspended from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Thursday to give the investing public sufficient time to digest the material information. However, no details were provided on the prospective new investor.

Shares of TSI have been rising since late last year on rumors that a new investor would come in and use it for backdoor listing.

As of Thursday, the company had a market capitalization of about P998 million.

TSI was incorporated in 2001 to establish and operate information technology services and products. It started with the distribution of accounting software in the country and subsequently focused on open source and open systems technologies.  In 2004, it spun off its accounting software packages to its affiliate Sagesoft Solutions Inc.

TSI established Touch Solutions Japan Co. Ltd. (TSI Japan) in Tokyo, Japan in 2007 to market software development services in Japan using open source technologies.

In 2010, TSI began offering IT consultancy and systems integration services that provide open sourced-based solutions to solve IT systems and business problems. It listed on the PSE’s second board in December 2011. Doris C. Dumlao