Xurpas Inc. said Monday its founders, Nico Jose Nolledo and Fernando Jude Garcia, have decided to convert shareholder advances worth P136 million into equity, underscoring their confidence in listed technology company whose shares had been trading below par value for an extended period.
The conversion price, which will determine how many shares Nolledo and Garcia would each get, will be set within 30 days. However, the conversion price must be above market price and supported by fairness opinion from a qualified third party authority, the company said.
Xurpas shares closed on June 30 at P0.26, above the par value of P0.10 a share. At current market price, the conversion of shareholder advances will give Nolledo and Garcia an additional stake of around 12 percent and push their combined interest to over 30 percent.
The combined stakes of Nolledo and Garcia in the company dropped to just under 20 percent from 37 percent after a share-swap deal for the acquisition of venture capitalist Wavemaker Group in 2020.
The shareholder advances, provided between 2017 and 2019, were used by Xurpas to fund its pivot towards the enterprise market.
Xurpas said the conversion of substantially all of the two founders’ advances to equity strengthens the balance sheet and underscore the founders’ confidence in the company’s ability to further expand its business.
“We have shown steady progress since we shifted our focus to the enterprise segment, and now have distinct products and services catering to customers both in the Philippines and increasingly, overseas,” said Garcia, who is Xurpas’ chief technology officer.
“We continue to grow not only our core software development and IT staff augmentation businesses, but have introduced pre-packaged business solutions for SME’s, and will be offering AI consulting and development services to local companies as well,” he added.
