Three animation studios from overseas are eyeing the Philippines for their local units to be established within 2012 according to property consultant David T. Leechiu of real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle Leechiu (JLLL).

Leechiu, the country head of JLLL, told Business World reporter Franz Jonathan dela Fuente in an interview that the three studios will establish operations in the Philippines and will hire animators. He added that the three foreign companies are still putting up work requirements, but the range is considerable and will probably be around 200 to 300 employees for each company.

The news comes on the heels of a projection made by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines that the country’s IT-BPO (Information Technology – Business Process Outsourcing) industry will increase its revenues by at least 20 percent this 2012; this, after the 22 percent growth in 2011 “amounting to about $11 billion” as the voice, back office and health care subsectors of the industry, as mentioned in earlier reports, continued to grow.

The three animation studios, according to Leechiu, will be establishing operations for business process outsourcing and other animation work and are considering office spaces in Fort Bonifacio, Makati City and Quezon City’s UP-Ayala Land Technohub. He declined to name the three studios in the interview but he said that all three are Western-based companies.

He also said that one of the three is a big company and this studio setting up operations in the Philippines could be good news, particularly for the local BPO sector and the local animation industry. Each animation company will likely spend around $3,000 for each worker they hire, Leechiu added.