Markets turmoil boon for MCI unit
The Asian stock market turmoil has been good for at least one telecommunications company.
Darome Teleconferencing, a subsidiary of MCI Communications, has seen turnover rise significantly thanks to frantic calls by financial institutions.
'We have seen the most phenomenal increase in calls in the past few days, for obvious reasons,' said Ian Wells, Darome's general manager for Asia-Pacific.
'All the big banks and security houses have been using us so that their research people and economists can quickly deal with the issue, and we also have experienced a surge through call centres in the United States and Europe.
'For every 100 calls in Hong Kong, I'd say we get 200 in the US and 300 in Europe. All this has upped our workload by about 20 per cent.' The company, which claims to be the largest teleconferencing operator in Hong Kong, saw a 400 per cent year-on-year increase in calls during August and September following the devaluation of several Southeast Asian currencies.
Mr Wells noted that calls really took off on August 28, when Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir announced the ban on short selling of stocks on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange.
Investment houses are the main subscribers to Darome's services.
