EasyCall: A successfully rehabilitated listed company
Emeterio Sd. Perez
J. Roberto C. Delgado is the chairman of the seven-person board of EasyCall Communications Philippines Inc. (ECP). Modesto N. Cervantes and Socorro Z. Niro are vice chairmen. Aside from them, Jonathan M. Cervantes and Zaki Antoni H. Delgado are regular members of the ECP board. Joanna De Asis and Alasdair John W. Thomson are independent directors.
As EasyCall describes itself on the website of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), it “was originally registered as a telecommunications company on Sept. 26, 1989.” It was “initially engaged in the paging industry and later on evolved to engage in contact center outsourcing business and information technology related business.”
That, in short, defines the businesses of EasyCall, which has all 150 million outstanding common shares with a par value of P1 per share listed on the PSE board. As a listed company, it has an authorized capital stock consisting of 300 million common shares.
In a public ownership report (POR) as of June 7, 2018, EasyCall listed Modesto and Jonathan as direct owners of 3.017 million ECP common shares, or 2.01 percent, and 3,094 ECP common shares, respectively. It also described TDG Ventures Inc., which is a 100-percent subsidiary of Transnational Diversified Corp., as principal stockholder, owning 124.325 million ECP common shares, or 82.88 percent.
With the lone principal stockholder and insiders having a combined ownership of 131.845 million ECP common shares, the company’s public stockholders are left with 18.155 million ECP common shares, or 12.10 percent.
Financials
EasyCall reported under equity that it had a narrower deficit of P17.810 million as of Dec.31, 2016, down from P25.322 million as of end-2015. It recorded a net profit of P7.771 million in 2016, down from P13.037 million in 2015. In 2014, it registered a net income of 9.461 million.
Apparently, EasyCall’s deficit of P17.810 million included “management and consultancy fees of P3.358 million in 2016; P3.283 million in 2015; and P3.398 million in 2014.
As of unaudited but the latest filing as of March 31, 2018, EasyCall said it has succeeded in reducing its deficit to P4.926 million from P7.662 million as of Dec. 31, 2017.
This assessment is based on the audits conducted by SGV and Co. as posted by EasyCall on the PSE website.
Due Diligencer has only one suggestion to EasyCall’s public stockholders: why not go over ECP’s filings to determine if you are listed among the holders of the company’s common shares?
As public investors, are you among the owners credited by EasyCall with 18.155 million ECP common shares in its POR?
Due Diligencer’s take
In its own filing, EasyCall said its “equity in ePerformax amounted to P9.07 million, with an increase of 74.47 percent for this year.”
EasyCall did not explain how it arrived at 74.47 percent. Does this refer to its additional share in ePerformax’s net profit, which should first be included in its unit’s retained earnings before any amount is declared dividend, either in stock or in cash?
With its success in trimming down its deficit, EasyCall could be seen by investors as being on its way to financial recovery. As the company’s report on the PSE website shows, it is now into other businesses such as outsourcing and call center operations.
On June 7, 2018, EasyCall common shares opened trading at P18.90, hit a high of P19.36, dropped to a low of P18.50 and closed the session at P19.06.
The market reports showed EasyCall common shares even reached a 30-day high of P25.40 and recorded a month’s low of P17.40. However, the stock even recorded a 52-week high, which means a one-year high of P76.50 and a year’s low of P3.
The market’s historical data reported on www.pse.com.ph showed 64,100 as the number of ECP common shares traded on June 7, 2018, against the previous day’s 86,400 ECP common shares. On May 30, 2018, ECP’s traded volume topped 1 million common shares at 1.363 million.
With this market performance, public investors could be speculating heavily on ECP common shares. Is this because EasyCall could finally be on its way to financial recovery? Just asking.
esdperez@gmail.com
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