Mascot Sys to Sell Shares to Fund Expansion, Attract Talent-More IPOs to come iGTE
3/8/00 11:45:00 PM
Source: Bloomberg News
Bangalore, India, March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Mascot Systems Ltd., the wholly owned Indian subsidiary of U.S.-based iGate Capital Corp., will make an initial share sale offer to help attract as well as retain software programmers and finance expansion.
Mascot Systems, that's iGate's only software development arm outside the U.S., will sell a total of 30 million shares to retail and big investors from mid-April. Each share has a face value of 4 rupees. The company didn't say how much it expects to get for each share whose price will be decided by inviting bids. The sale will be managed by a group of banks led by Kotak Mahindra Capital Co.
The money raised from the sale will be used to expand operations in India and 'create value for purposes of employee stock options,' said Ananth Narayanan, chief financial officer of Mascot Systems. 'Salaries alone are not enough to attract and retain talent.'
In recent months Indian software companies such as HCL Technologies Ltd. and Hughes Software Systems Ltd. have made initial share sales and attracted a large number of investors. Shares of HCL Technologies have risen 24 percent since they began trading on the Mumbai stock exchange in November.
Mastech Corp., as iGate Capital was formerly known, announced yesterday that it had split into nine units that will offer specialized Internet-related services. The nine include Mascot Systems, which plans to increase the number of its employees to 3000, from 1300, as it expands into Internet-related services.
More IPOs
By the end of this year about six of these companies could make initial share offers, Sunil Wadhwani, chief executive officer of iGate Capital told Bloomberg News in an interview yesterday.
Out of the 30 million new shares that Mascot Systems will sell, 24 million will be held by iGate Capital, 3 million by employees and the rest will go to investors and the public.
Mascot Systems expects to make a profit of $26.4 million for the 15 months ending March 2001. It had earnings of $5.83 million in the nine months ended December 1999. Mascot Systems changed its accounting year close from December to 12 months ending March |
