By Lavern Clarke, Staff Reporter
NETSERV COMMUNICATIONS (Jamaica) Limited is back in business, servicing a number of contracts and earning revenues since the first week in May.
But the receivers refused comment yesterday on the amount of business the teleservices company is currently transacting, noting that to do so would be giving information to competing firms.
According to receiver's agent, Wilfred Baghaloo, for some of the jobs secured by NetServ the contracting parties have assigned work to more than one local company.
"Some of the contracts we have are not exclusive," he told Wednesday Business. NetServ also has free zone status, so all jobs are being done on behalf of overseas clients.
The company, now wholly controlled by the National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ) through its appointed receiver/manager John Lee of PriceWaterhouse, currently has 50 telesales agents working out of its New Kingston location, while 2 engineers man the equipment that supports the local sales operation from offices in Miami. Total staff complement is 67.
The operation has the capacity for 312 agents.
NIBJ took over the company from its principal Paul Pereira last December, five months into its operations, after the Trinidadian failed to adhere to conditions of the approximate $200 million loan from Government under the Intec Fund.
Lee has been authorised to put up the business for sale, and potential investors have up to June 11 to say whether they are interested in acquiring the company and/or its assets on a "as is, where is" basis. After June 17, Lee will start accepting bids from the companies whose business profiles have been approved.
NetServ continues to maintain liabilities that Pereira had incurred for equipment, and it is unlikely that the debts will be discharged before the sale of the company is finalised, the receivers indicated yesterday. How it will be done, will be dictated by the law, said Baghaloo, who adds that the issue of the liabilities is discussed within the bid documents.
The last reports made public said equipment supplier Active Link was still owed US$600,000.
In former reports to NIBJ, Lee had determined that the equipment and furniture had been acquired at a cost of US$2.2m, but still at issue is the actual value of the equipment and technology residing within the firm.
Baghaloo says the evaluations continue, but adds that so far PriceWaterhouse has determined that the equipment is actually state of the art. He refused comment on the depreciation charges applied to the equipment, but said that the "real value will be what the market accepts it for."
Bidders for the company will be allowed to bring in their own valuators after June 17 "subject to reason and to our approval," said Baghaloo.
Investors will be provided with an 'Information Memorandum' on the company, but will be gagged on its contents.
"The memorandum will contain proprietary information such as the contracts and details of the equipment," said the agent. "Those we consider to be trade secrets, and we would like to keep them as such."
In this regard bidders will be required to sign a 'confidentiality agreement'.
