IVY Comptech mulls opening own facility in Hyderabad

City-based IVY Comptech Private Limited, the wholly-owned subsidiary and the BPO arm of iGlobalMedia Group, is mulling on constructing its own facility in Hyderabad.

Addressing a press conference, Richard Segal, the chief executive officer of iGlobalMedia Group, said: "Serious discussions in this regard are on at the moment. Looking at it as a long-term plan, the company wants to have its own facility here."

According to him, the company at the moment is trying to find suitable place first and only then would think of the investments that need to go into the new facility.

IVY Comptech currently has 750 employees and is planning to increase it to 1,000 by the end of December this year. "The company has taken on lease a one lakh sq ft facility in Cyber Spazi in Banjara Hills and would be moving its operations to the new facility next year," Segal said.

The company, till March 2004, has invested $8 million in its Indian facility and is looking at investing $2.5 million in the new facility. IVY Comptech's turnover for 2003-04 was Rs 53 crore.

Gibraltar- based iGlobalMedia Group is a leading e-gaming company that owns a number of on-line poker, casino and bingo brands. As part of its services, IVY Comptech provides customer care, transaction processing, technical support besides software development and maintenance.

Segal said that most of the revenues of iGlobalMedia came from its poker sites, which at its peak have around 40,000 to 50,000 people playing.

"The company which has its gaming servers in Canada is now looking at moving the licences to Gibraltar," he said. The company is also looking at having a disaster recovery centre in London.

"iGlobalMedia does not allow anyone with an Indian IP to play for money as the laws here do not allow it but in the long-run we would be looking at bringing games which are meant for children to India as there is no money involved," Segal said.