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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (7239)	9/26/1999 10:19:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

Hitachi Zosen to pick up stake in Software Frontiers Ltd (a TVS Co) Company Website softwarefrontiers.com TVS Group tvsiyengar.com Hitachi Zosen to pick up stake in SFL Jeyessomnath C. Nagarajan Raja Simhan T.E. CHENNAI, Sept. 26 (BusinessLine) HITACHI Zosen Corp, a $6-billion Japanese conglomerate, is picking up a stake in Software Frontiers Ltd (SFL), a Gujarat-based software firm promoted by its parent company, Multimedia Frontiers Ltd (MFL). Speaking to Business Line, Dr. D.V.R. Seshadri, Managing Director, SFL, said that Hitachi Zosen would invest Rs. 50 lakhs in the equity of SFL. MFL, promoted by the Fidelity Group, a part of the TVS family business house, is engaged in the manufacture of CDs, magneto optical disks and digital versatile disks (DVDs), at its Rs. 70-crore facility. MFL has a technical collaboration agreement with the electronics division of Hitachi Zosen. SFL was set up in 1997 with an initial investment of Rs. 9 crores, with a promoter equity of Rs. 4.30 crores and the rest through loans raised from IFCI. It plans to come out with an initial public offering by November this year to the tune of Rs. 4 crores, and private placement of equity worth Rs. 7 crores with individuals. The funds raised will part-finance the expansion of the company's operations, according to officials. SFL operates under three broad areas _ projects, application software development and multimedia content development. "Now we are moving into animation projects," Dr. Seshadri said. SFL, which started full commercial operations with 100 employees four months ago, has projects worth Rs. 4 crores on hand at present. While the projects undertaken are mostly confined to Web enabling of management information systems (MIS) of corporate clients, the company has brought out a couple of products _ EVault, a document management system, and TAO (totally aligned organisation), a human resources package which is scheduled to be launched soon. On the multimedia front, the company has executed various contracts with the Indian Space Research Organisation and several departments of the Gujarat Government, according to Dr. Seshadri. Recently, it signed a contract with Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), Mumbai, for developing multimedia educational titles for a school project undertaken by IL&FS. SFL also plans to set up multimedia development centres in Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi. In addition, the company plans to set up satellite application software development centres in Hyderabad and Chennai with 8-10 professionals at each location. "Animation is big business today, and we are also negotiating contracts with different parties for projects. We will give animation a major thrust," Dr. Seshadri added. He said in three to four months, a dedicated 100 member team of professionals would be working on animation projects in its centre in Gandhinagar. While the multimedia content development will be mostly for domestic clients, the company is eyeing clients in Australia, Japan (leveraging Hitachi Zosen's relationship) and the US for animation projects.

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (7239)	9/27/1999 2:03:00 AM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12475

Analyst Recommendations. TVS Suzuki Ltd Named `Buy' at Batlivala & Karani Bloomberg News September 26, 1999, 10:45 p.m. PT Mumbai, Sept. 27 (Bloomberg Data) -- Tvs Suzuki Limited (TVSS IN) was named ``buy' by analyst Ashish Jagnani at Batlivala & Karani Securities Pvt Ltd. ================= Infosys Technologies Ltd Cut to `Hold' at Batlivala & Karani Bloomberg News September 26, 1999, 10:41 p.m. PT Mumbai, Sept. 27 (Bloomberg Data) -- Infosys Technologies Ltd (INFO IN) was downgraded to "hold" from "buy" by analyst Sanjeev Goswami at Batlivala & Karani Securities Pvt Ltd. ======================