MBT lines up Rs 300cr to fund expansion

The telecom solutions provider is looking at acquiring a BPO company.

Telecom solutions provider, Mahindra-British Telecom (MBT), is looking at acquiring a BPO company and has lined up an investment of Rs 300 crore over the next two years to fund its expansion plans.

"We are open to strategic acquisitions in niche areas. Currently, we are open to a BPO company to provide support services to our clients," MBT chief executive officer and managing director Vineet Nayyar said here today on the sidelines of the inauguration of its fifth development centre in Kolkata.

He, however, said this was yet to be finalised. The company had recently acquired Axes, which is engaged in solutions for telecom equipment-makers.

Nayyar said that the total headcount will be scaled up to 15,000 in the next two years from the 8,000 level at present.

MBT, which began operations at its Kolkata centre with 60 engineers at a cost of Rs 10 crore, will soon scale it up to a 150-engineer facility.

"Over the next two to three years, the headcount in Kolkata will go up to 2,000-3,000 as we expand in a new location for which we are scouting for five acres of land," Nayyar said.

State IT minister Manabendra Mukherjee said that the state government would allot land to MBT at Bantala by January.

Nayyar, however, said the company was yet to finalise Bantala as one of the options and not the only option.

Besides Kolkata, MBT was not looking for any new centre, but would expand a few of its existing centres in Chennai and Pune.

"Of the total investment of Rs 300 crore, almost half will be pumped into the Kolkata centre and it will be largest outside Maharastra," Nayyar said.

MBT in 2004-05 earned a revenue of US $205 million and hoped to enhance the revenue in the current fiscal to US $280 million. The company has development centres in Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.

Nayyar said MBT will hit the capital market with an initial public offer but the timing is yet to be finalised.