Goldstone Tele Services (GTSL) has completed a Rs 2.5 crore backward integration project for manufacturing granules, a raw material used for manufacturing thermo shrink field jointing kits for jelly-filled telecom cables.

"There is a major foreign exchange saving from the project and we expect a Rs 3 to 4 crore improvement in the bottomline from the current fiscal onwards," K Vasudeva Rao, executive director, said.

The company has also received approval for the project from the telecom engineering centre of the department of telecommunications. "Our internal consumption being about 30 tons of granules per annum, we plan to supply the raw material to other jointing kits manufacturers such as RPG Tele and Surana Tele, Rao said.

With its shares getting listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and other regional bourses, a long-awaited exercise for the management, the company is now actively pursuing its earlier plans of entering the information technology-enabled services. "We have identified two companies to acquire in this area, one engaged in the call centre business and the other in backoffice operations for banks and insurance companies in US," Rao said.

Negotiations are on and a deal is expected to be struck by end-December. Both the companies are medium sized with business volumes of about Rs 15 crore, he said. The company has a healthy reserves position at Rs 21.2 crore, which it proposes to use for the proposed acquisitions. It plans to broadbase its presence in IT-enabled services over the next three years. It already has two wholly owned subsidiaries, Newtech Stewing Telecom and Shree Telecom, which manufactures telecom accessories and which were acquired some time ago.

The company has posted a net profit of Rs 2.7 crore on a total revenue of Rs 15 crore for the first quarter ended September 2001. It expects to clock a turnover of Rs 45 crore for the year ended June.