LISTED gaming firm Pacific Online System Corp. (POSC) is spending P20 million to fund its unit’s rollout of 50 lotto terminals in the next 18 months.

At the sidelines of the company’s stockholders’ meeting, POSC chairman Willy Ocier said the terminals will be located in SM malls, Save More stores and SM Hypermarkets around Luzon.

The terminals will be managed by POSC’s wholly-owned unit, Lucky Circle Corp., which retails gaming products of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

“We are looking to end 2009 with 100 Lucky Circle outlets. With this expansion, we hope to increase to 10 percent the sales in Luzon from the current 5 percent,” said Ocier.

Sales from the existing 50 outlets of Lucky Circle amount to P90 million.

POSC, through wholly-owned unit Loto Pacific Leisure Corp., acquired Lucky Circle last August for P18 million.

At the end of 2007, POSC’s net income amounted to P134.6 million, while sales reached P479.6 million. The company’s revenues represent 10 percent of the total lotto sales recorded by state-owned PCSO in the Visayas and Mindanao. POSC is the exclusive online-lottery system provider in the two regions under a partnership with PCSO.

The revenue growth was driven by the addition of 504 terminals last year. At the end of 2007, POSC had 1,401 terminals covering the VisMin area.

In another development, IP E-Game Ventures Inc. (IPE), the online-gaming arm of listed IPVG Corp., inked a licensing agreement with Perfect World Co., Ltd., a leading online-game developer and operator in China.

IPE will license Perfect World’s Zhu Xian game in the Philippines. The China-based company primarily develops three-dimensional (3D) online games based on the proprietary Angelica 3D game engine and game development platform.

IPE also holds the exclusive distribution rights to RAN Online, O2Jam and Audition, Supreme Destiny and Granado Espada online games.

Global business boosts ABS-CBN profits

THE absence of revenues from political ads notwithstanding, listed multimedia conglomerate, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. (ABS-CBN), said its net income from January to May this year grew 13 percent. Recurring profit, which excludes one-time gains or losses, rose to P598 million from P520 million.

Shang keeps bullish prospects for sector

Developer Shang Properties Inc, the real-estate arm of the Kuok Group, said despite the many in the coming year, they remained bullish on their prospects in the real-estate industry.

NTC to adopt Europe digital TV standard

DIGITAL TV broadcasts in the Philippines may soon be realized. This, as the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is reportedly considering to formally adopt Europe’s Digital Video Broadcast Handheld or DVB-H as the country’s preferred platform for Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) standard.

A FILIPINA businesswoman and a foreign national allegedly engaged in the sale and distribution of counterfeit Louis Vuitton products at a popular mall in Binondo, Manila were lodged yesterday with criminal charges in a Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC).

Software makes HRD work easier

IN a bid to expand its market, Gurango Software Corp. will embark on an aggressive marketing campaign for its human capital management (HCM) portfolio.

There’s a new version of the highly popular PDF software, version 9 of the Adobe Acrobat, that is expected to transform how the networked world “create and share electronic documents.”

Gaming firm allots P20M for expansion

LISTED gaming firm Pacific Online System Corp. (POSC) is spending P20 million to fund its unit’s rollout of 50 lotto terminals in the next 18 months.

Not Business as Usual: Poster boy

WHICH is a better alternative?

On one hand, there’s the Greenpeace Internet-based initiative asking environmentalists to write Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. to stop power subsidiary, Panay Power Corp., from using coal. Greenpeace even provides a uniform letter, addressed to nobody in particular at Metrobank, with a just “Dear Metrobank” as salutation.