Thursday, April 24, 2008 SEC approves capital hike of Cebu IT firm
THE Cebu office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved Morph Labs’ application for an increase in authorized capital as the company prepares for an initial public offering (IPO) late this quarter.
Morph Labs will be the first pure-play Philippine IP software company to go public anywhere in the world.
The SEC-Cebu approved an increase in Morph Labs’ authorized capital from P15 million, divided into 150,000 shares at a par value of P100 per share to P500 million, divided into 500 million shares at a par value of P1 per share.
The increase was funded by converting previous advances made by shareholders in favor of the company.
The funds were used to finance the acquisition of data centers and software, conduct research and development, and provide other resources required to develop Morph AppSpace, a Platform as a Service (PaaS) used by developers of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, and other SaaS products and services, according to Winston Damarillo, the company’s founder and executive chairman.
Global
“We have developed Morph Labs from a startup into a global technology company,” said Damarillo. “Our strategic investment in infrastructure and the development of intellectual property has positioned Morph Labs as a leading enabler of SaaS development.”
SaaS applications are software solutions typically delivered to clients on a subscription basis over the Internet. Morph AppSpace provides the backend infrastructure for SaaS applications, also on a subscription basis, to developers.
Following the increase in authorized capital stock, Morph Labs’ pre-IPO capital structure consists of 160,298,502 common shares issued and outstanding.
The listing application filed by Morph Labs with the Philippine Stock Exchange last week disclosed that a total of 99,397,251 shares are intended to be sold to the public, or more than a third of the company’s issued and outstanding capital stock after the IPO.
Morph Labs aims to raise about P500 million at an offer price of P4.50 to P5.80. The company also filed its registration statement with the SEC last week. (PR)
