Cirtek readies Quintel for US listing

Cirtek’s newly acquired Quintel business produces antennas for leading US telcos

Laguna-based electronics manufacturer Cirtek Holdings Philippines Corp. is grooming newly acquired subsidiary Quintel, a leading supplier of antenna solutions to North America’s telecom carriers, for its stock debut on the technology-heavy Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange in the next three to five years.

During this timeframe, Cirtek expects Quintel to grow into a $500-million company in terms of revenues, making it the biggest revenue contributor to the parent group by that time, Cirtek president Roberto Juanchito Dispo said in a briefing on Wednesday.

This year, Cirtek expects Quintel’s turnover to reach around $50 million, doubling to $100 million by next year.

“Our target is to grow it to $300 million to $500 million (in revenues). That’s a perfect profile for size of revenues to access Nasdaq listing,” Dispo said. “But we won’t stop there. We want to grow into a $1-billion company.”

Hitting the $1-billion revenue goal, Dispo said, would be achieved through more strategic acquisitions, bringing it into a more formidable size to compete in the global market.

Later on, he said that listing on NYSE could also be an option.

David Piazza, Quintel president, said in a press briefing that the company’s goal would be able to grow its market share with US carriers AT&T and Verizon to 30 percent from 10 percent at present.

“Our vision is to grow laterally and create some sort of a consortium in the wireless communication space. Right now, we have the antenna space covered. We have to grow into the adjoining markets. We’re looking at companies with complementary technology and fit into 5G products that we want to produce,” Piazza said.

“The Philippines is an interesting market because it has lowest (cell) site density. We’re looking at how that number can be increased,” he added.

Quintel officials recently met with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. – which operates in 17 markets – as well as Malaysian carrier Maxis, which also operates in India, to explore potential business opportunities, Dispo said.

While Quintel’s US-based officials are in town, they are likewise set to meet with local carriers PLDT Inc./Smart Communications and Globe Telecom. They will likewise meet with Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and Department of Energy to discuss opportunities in the sharing of infrastructure to boost connectivity.

“This is a very strategic acquisition as far as Cirtek is concerned. It’s in a strong growth sector: telco and communications industry and we’re very confident that with very talented people, Quintel will be able to gain market share,” Dispo said, adding that the 20-percentage increase in market share could be achieved in a year or two.

To meet rising demand, Quintel is increasing production capacity in the Philippines and is likewise returning to China after previously consolidating its manufacturing hub in the former.

“Right now, we’re looking at explosive growth in 2018 and continued growth in 2019. Cirtek has already broken ground for another building for us (in Laguna) and we still think we could move beyond the capability beyond the size that we have here in the Philippines. In addition, a great deal of our supply chain comes from mainland China as well – the materials that we’re bringing in, so it’s possible for us to take advantage some of those cost advantages by having a factory in mainland China,” Piazza said. “It will also have some diversification in what we’re producing.”

Dispo said Cirtek was keeping its options open in setting up manufacturing hubs elsewhere in the region given that there were groups from Korea and Japan talking with the group for prospective partnership.

Cirtek has moved up the electronics manufacturing value chain with its $77-million deal to acquire Quintel, a leading innovator of spectrum and space-efficient base station antennas for wireless networks. The US firm takes pride in its rich intellectual property, strong research and development and disruptive product offering that has allowed it to become the third largest supplier of antenna solutions in North America.

Cirtek president Roberto Juanchito Dispo (third from left) and Quintel president David Piazza (fourth from left) in an Oct. 19, 2017 briefing about strategic plans for Quintel