S'pore to contribute US$18m in revenues, says i2

Raymond Teh i2 Technologies AP president

"This year, Singapore is expected to continue to contribute 20 percent to our Asia Pacific revenues," i2 Technologies Asia Pacific president Raymond Teh told Singapore.CNET.com in a telephone interview this evening.

"Most multinational corporations are using Singapore as their pilot site for implementing e-business," Teh said. "We see great potential to implement our software here."

Singapore, which is the company's regional headquarters, contributed 20 percent or US$18.2 million to Asia Pacific revenues last year, he noted.

Teh said Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) contributed 7 percent or US$91 million of i2's global revenues last year.

Yesterday, i2 Technologies Inc said that full year revenues ending December 31 2000 hit US$1.3 billion compared with US$571 million for the corresponding period in 1999.

Teh said that i2 plans to launch Financial Settlement Matrix in April, a product which will allow payment, letter of credits and financial services for i2's B2B exchanges. "The product will also allow B2B marketplaces to transact with the financial institutions of their choice." He did not elaborate further.

i2 lists Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Seagate and Maxtor as customers here. He said i2 provides solutions to customers here to manage their (customers) global supply chain.

To a question, Teh said i2 Singapore was "always looking out for new customers" and that 67 percent of its revenues last year came from existing customers here.

He declined to say how much i2 plans to invest here, except "we have invested a lot in Singapore so far."

He also said that the firm was discussing with a few partners to set up a product localization center here in the next three to six months. He declined to reveal their identities.

Teh explained that the localization center will convert and adapt i2's English-based products and solutions to languages such as traditional and simplified Chinese. He did not elaborate further but said that i2 currently has product localization centers in Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

He said i2 will set up a support center here in the next six months. "We are hiring people to work at the support center and we are talking to partners," Teh said, without providing more details.

On headcount, he said its Singapore office now has 80 employees. He expects to double this to 160 by year end. "We are growing revenues much faster and we have more customers to serve," Teh said. "We want a pool of talent to be based here."

AP operations

i2 has offices in cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Bangalore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and Beijing. Teh expects Asia Pacific to contribute 10 percent of global revenues by year end.

He noted that about 37 percent of i2's overall revenue came from outside the US last year, with Asia Pacific (including Japan) contributing about 15 percent.

Teh added that 70 percent of Asia Pacific revenues last year came from licensing revenues and the remainder came from support and services.

He cited China, Korea and Taiwan as other strong markets in Asia Pacific. "We expect to see over 200 percent growth year-on-year...and will be fueled by the growing acceptance of e-business there."

On headcount for Asia Pacific, i2 is expected to employ a total of 600 people by year end, and increase from the current 300, Teh said.

"We have plans to open up new offices in Manila, New Zealand and Shanghai by year end," he said. i2's customers in Asia Pacific includes Samsung, Acer and Lucky Gold Star, he noted.

Shares of Nasdaq-listed i2 Technologies Inc rose US$5.70 to US$53.87 overnight.