Ayala BPO arm buys US firm

Ayala Corp., the country's largest business group, on Wednesday disclosed that its business process outsourcing investment arm has acquired a US-based "strategic research and decision support firm". The acquisition of Grail, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts was done through Integreon, owned by Ayala's BPO investment arm LiveIt Investments. Grail was acquired from Monitor Group, a global advisory, capability-building and capital services firm. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Among Grail's clients are Microsoft, cosmetics giant Estee Lauder and majority of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies. "These organizations rely on Grail to provide the insights they need to launch products, build brands, assess new opportunities, evaluate M&A/partnership deals, address competitive threats and understand regulatory issues," Ayala said. Besides its Cambridge office, Grail has other offices in North America, Beijing (China), Delhi (India) and Johannesburg (south Africa). It has 200 employees worldwide. "This acquisition accelerates the expansion of our business intelligence, research and analytics business with high-end, custom market research," said Liam Brown, Integreon CEO. The acquisition of Grail Research will also enable Integreon to "meet the most demanding global research requirements of [its] investment banking, law firm and corporate clients on an enterprise basis," said Erik Tabuena, Integreon Managed Solutions (Philippines) Inc. president. "Grail will enable Integreon to further climb the value chain, and will strengthen its position as the leading KPO company," said Fred Ayala, CEO of LIveIt Invetsments. Meanwhile, Colin Gounden, CEO and founder of Grail, has joined Integreon as chief marketing officer and will report directly to Brown. -Cheryl M. Arcibal, GMANews.TV