Vantage sells 67% stake in digital marketing arm Yehey!

HOLDING firm Vantage Equities Inc. has entered into a deal to sell a controlling stake in digital marketing unit Yehey! Corp., citing a new strategy to focus on businesses in the financial sector.

Based on separate disclosures to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, a deal was struck to sell Vantage’s 66.95 percent stake in Yehey! to a group of buyers represented by one Alfonso Yap Go for P290 million.

The transaction involves 186.12 million shares of Yehey! which will be unloaded at P1.56 per share. The price consideration marked a 14.7 percent discount from the P1.83 per share closing price on Tuesday, the day before the deal was announced.

The PSE imposed a one-hour trading halt on Yehey! on Wednesday to give investors time to digest the transaction.

With this transaction, Vantage will still be left with two major operating business segments: remittance services and mutual fund management. Aside from Yehey!, other subsidiaries are: e-Business Services, Inc., eBiz Financial, iCurrencies, Inc., Philequitv Balanced Fund. Inc., Philequitv Foreign Currency Fixed Income. Inc., Phil Equity Dividend Yield Funds Inc. and Philequity Management, Inc.

For its part, Yehey! offers marketing solutions in the digital space. Its marketing services include web design and development, web management, media buying and planning, digital public relations and reputation management, digital strategy, social media marketing, digital research and digital Strategy.

“We understand that the buyers are still in the process of evaluating options for the company and will disclose such plans to the PSE at the appropriate time. Neither the seller nor the company is party to the buyers’ deliberation,” the Yehey! disclosure said.

The shares involved in the transaction will be transferred via a special block sale on the exchange once the mandatory tender offer and the closing conditions are complied with, the disclosure said.