Netpluz Asia acquires Mediaring assets from Si2i for S$3m

Singapore

IN A homecoming of sorts for Mediaring, one of Singapore's pioneering Internet companies, Netpluz Asia Pte Ltd, has signed a deal with Si2i Ltd to acquire Mediaring Network Services (MRNS) and Mediaring Communications (MRC) for S$3 million. The purchase will be staggered over four phases till mid-2017.

Mediaring was set up in Singapore in 1994 and had a very successful initial public offering in 1999. At its peak in 2000 the company had the largest market share worldwide as a one-stop service provider of voice, data and computing services with VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) technology, which at that time was a pioneering service.

Indian businessman Bhupendra Kumar Modi bought a stake in Mediaring in 2009 for around S$60 million, to become the single largest shareholder, and changed its name to Si2i Ltd. The company was integrated into Dr Modi's Spice Global network and it acquired a number of companies in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia in areas such as handset distribution and telecoms.

Netpluz Asia, a managed services provider, comprises a management team which worked in Mediaring around 2005. It has agreed to purchase the commercial assets of the brand. The retail assets of Mediaring will continue to remain with its existing owner, mainboard-listed Si2i Ltd.

Netpluz Asia aims to inject newer systems and technologies into MRNS and MRC and offer services such as cloud computing, IP Private Branch Exchange (IP-PBX) and data analytics to corporate customers. It also plans to enhance the managed service offerings to the 2,000 active customers from the MRNS and MRC pool and leverage Mediaring's ownership of a significant number of IP (Internet Protocol) Version 4 addresses, which is a valuable asset, given the explosive growth of the Internet.

Netpluz's managing director Lau Leng Fong said there are also plans to establish a regional footprint with in-country offices in Indonesia and Malaysia to directly support customers in these markets. Netpluz's goal is to become a leading managed communications service provider in the region, he added.

With the integration of the Mediaring assets and projected growth from around the region, Netpluz Asia is looking to generate annual revenues of S$10 million in 2017.

While there is no shortage of managed service providers in the IT market, Netpluz Asia is exclusively focused on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Mr Lau said. The Mediaring acquisition will beef up its pool of small-business customers as well as targeting medium-sized organisations with five to 200 users.

"There are currently other IT service providers which target larger enterprises, but many do not offer a gamut of offerings to SMBs. Netpluz evolved into its current form because of its strategic focus of offering managed services over the Internet to SMBs. We add value by delivering high quality managed data, voice and video services over a single, converged network," he added.

Looking ahead, there are plans to introduce new services in Asia, including a surveillance video system that is able to send data via e-mail without any human intervention. Customers will have a choice of implementing this service either on their networks or have it managed remotely on Netpluz Asia's hosting systems, Mr Lau added.