ETelecare Agrees to Providence, Ayala Purchase for $290 Million

By Ian C. Sayson

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- ETelecare Global Solutions Inc., the Philippines' largest provider of outsourced business services, agreed to be bought by U.S.-based Providence Equity Partners Inc. and Manila-based Ayala Corp. for $290 million.

The buyers' offered to buy all the company's shares at $9 each, a 76 percent premium over the stock price of $5.10 on Sept. 18, ETelecare said in a statement on Business Wire. Two-thirds of the owners of ETelecare's stocks and American depositary shares must accept the offer for the purchase to proceed, it added.

Providence is a private equity company with $21 billion in capital that invests in media and communications. Ayala, which owns shares in ETelecare through a unit, is the oldest business group in the Philippines, where it owns the largest developer, the No. 1 bank by value and second-biggest mobile phone company.

ETelecare American depositary shares jumped 67 percent to $8.50 as of 10:15 a.m. in New York, the most since being listed in March 2007. Shares traded in the Philippines fell 7.7 percent to 300 pesos at the noon close of trading in Manila.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ian C. Sayson in Manila at isayson@bloomberg.net