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

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (10084)	12/18/1999 11:30:00 AM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

Infotech Enterprises picks KPMG for recast,eyes Nasdaq listing. infotech.stph.net Infotech Enterprises picks KPMG for finance recast; eyes Nasdaq listing and acquisition in the US (Saturday, December 18, 1999 BS) Anjan Mitra in New Delhi The Hyderabad-based Infotech Enterprises Ltd (IEL) has mandated KPMG to recast its financial accounting for 1999-2000 as per US GAPP with an eye on a Nasdaq listing in 18 to 24 months. The Rs 22-crore company has also given a mandate to a United States-based outfit to locate for it a company in the US for acquisition. The indicated budget for acquisition is approximately $10 million. "We gave the mandate to KPMG last week only to recast our financial accounting as per US GAPP for our future accounting purposes," IEL chairman BVR Mohan Reddy informed yesterday. According to Reddy, they have set a target of acquiring a company in the US within the next six months. Sometime back, IEL completed acquisition of a United Kingdom-based company, Dataview Solutions. After having made two acquisitions in the recent past -- one in India (the Indian subsidiary of $120-million Analytical Surveys Inc), and one in the UK -- Reddy said that the process of integration is on at the moment. "We'll do the integration of these two acquired companies and then go in for the third acquisition in the US." Though the two acquisitions cost IEL about $6 million, Reddy said that they have ramped up the acquisition budget for the US acquisition as "we have ready cash which is due to internal accruals and the investments made by strategic investors." Reddy also pointed out that they hope to close this fiscal year with a 80-85 per cent growth in revenue compared to last fiscal. EIL had registered a turnover of Rs 8.36 crore and a net profit of Rs 2.30 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 1999 against a turnover of Rs. 3.06 crore and a net profit of Rs 92 lakh for the same period last fiscal. The new strategic investors in EIL include GE Caps, Walden International Investment Group and Callaghan partners Corp. While GE caps has picked up about 10 per cent equity stake for its investment of about $6.11 million, Walden has about 2 per cent stakes. EIL will make a preferential allotment of optionally convertible debentures (OCDs) to GE Caps and the two foreign funds, with each OCD being convertible to one equity share of Infotech. The OCDs will be issued at a face value of $8.14 (Rs 350). The Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance for the new investments came through recently. Currently, EIL has a foreign equity holding of about 12 per cent, including a one per cent stake by Analytical Surveys Inc, US, which it acquired in lieu of selling off its wholly-owned Indian subsidiary Cartographic Services (P) Ltd to EIL. The foreign equity holding in the company will go up to about 26 per cent when the GE Caps, Walden and Callaghan investments are done. EIL also has got governmental approval for taking about 4 per cent foreign equity investments in lieu of its recent acquisition of Dataview Solution Ltd. The OCDs will have a put option. According to the agreement, if GE Caps decides to exercise the put option, EIL will have to make a payment of $3.82 million along with interest of 3 year Libor plus one per cent at the end of 18 months from the date of investments.

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (10084)	12/18/1999 12:49:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 12475

India close to a SECOND TRYST with economic freedom-Rajat Gupta Our New Delhi Bureau (ET) 17 DECEMBER LEADING consultant McKinsey & Co has predicted that market capitalisation for Indian IT companies would touch $225 bn on an annual turnover of $87 bn by the year '08 in a study on "Indian IT strategies". The study, commissioned by Nasscom last year, was released here today by Rajat Gupta, managing director (worldwide), McKinsey & Co indicates 2.2m jobs, an annual FDI of $4-5 bn and contributions of more than 7.5 per cent of GDP growth and explosion in e-business due to growth in the Indian IT sector by '08. Mr Gupta, in his inaugural address at the "Indian IT Strategy Summit" organised by Nasscom here today, said India is on the threshold of a ?second tryst with destiny?. got political freedom the first time and now the second tryst with destiny is for economic freedom. The study indicates an opportunity of $87 bn for Indian companies in '08 which includes $50 bn of exports" said Mr Gupta. Elaborating on the agenda for action, the McKinsey chief said the newly-formed IT ministry should play a catalytic and facilitator role. "While the government is doing a lot and should be commended, we think more nee-ds to be done. The IT ministry should serve as a nodal authority: to ensure consistency and integration of policy across multiple agencies; focus on implementation of all IT-related rules, laws and policies; and execute with speed and ens-ure impact on initiatives that encourage improved capability building, innovation and entrepreneurship in the industry," he added. US ambassador to India Richard Celeste said that the ministry of IT should be actually the "ministry of speed" and anything else would be a mistake. Giving the US expectations from the Indian government, Mr Celeste said that duty on hardware should be reduced, Internet gateway should be thrown open on January 1, e-commerce should be tax-free and IT should be an engine of growth that does not cause a divide between the "haves and have nots". "No industry has such profound impact on society as IT. It has given new vocabulary to our leaders who now talk of convergence, cyberspace and bandwidth. The IT industry draws Indo-US ties together with firms keeping in touch over 24 hours in cyberspace. Indians are the largest users of H1-B visas for US, at 40 per cent, and as the requirement increases we would be increasing our visa lines. We expect to have 1.2m H1-B visas issued for the US by '08," said Mr Celeste.