Investor acquires 10% of technology firm Touch Solutions

MANILA, Philippines—Local technology firm Touch Solutions Inc. has sold 10 percent of its shares to a new investor via private placement as it raises cash for working capital in the coming year.

In a disclosure, Touch Solutions, which went public last year, said its board of directors had authorized the sale of six million of the firm’s unissued capital stock to a certain Yasuhiro Nakamura.

The shares would be issued at P5.50 each, a premium of 5 percent over the company’s 30-day average share price of P5.23.

This, however, is a discount over the company’s share price of P7.66 on Thursday, following a 4.93-percent increase over Wednesday’s close.

At P5.50, the newly issued shares are worth P33 million.

“The parties are still finalizing the terms of the applicable subscription agreement in order to effect the private placement,” Touch Solutions told the local bourse this week.

“As soon as practicable, the filing of the application to list the newly issued shares with the Philippine Stock Exchange would be filed,” it added.

The new shares will make up 9.72 percent of Touch Solution’s total expanded capital once the transaction is completed.

“The proceeds to be received by Touch Solutions from the issuance of new shares will be used as part of its working capital, as well as for investment in its present and future projects,” Touch Solutions said.

Touch Solutions started commercial operations in 2002 offering and distributing accounting software in the country, specifically the Peachtree accounting system.

Touch Solutions also has a unit in Japan, Touch Solutions Japan Co. Ltd. (TSI Japan) in Tokyo, which markets software development services using open source technologies to leverage on its technical base.

The company also offers IT Consultancy and Systems Integration (CSI) services that provide open sourced-based solutions to solve IT systems and business problems.

The sale of the new shares comes just over a year after Touch Solutions listed on the local bourse.

Apart from its operations in the Philippines and Japan, Touch Solutions also wants to expand in other Asian territories such as Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.