MindTree to complete city campus in next five years

Mid-sized IT solution provider MindTree Ltd has plans to complete its Orissa project by 2017 and the first phase by June 2013, said a top company official during a media interaction ahead of the foundation stone laying ceremony of the company’s city campus on Thursday.

The Bangalore-based company, which had initially planned to start operation in Bhubaneswar Infocity campus by 2013, had to reschedule its construction plans due to delay in land acquisition and other government clearances.

“MindTree Kalinga, our fifth campus in India after Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune, will be built upon 800,000 square foot area and will have three software development blocks, one academic building and a trainee accommodation facility. In the first phase, we will build the training campus,” said Subroto Bagchi, vice chairman of the company.

MindTree will invest Rs 250 crore in a span of five years to build the facility, which can employ 5,000 persons and can train 1,000 freshers, he informed while saying that the entire campus will have the touch of Puri temple along with modern architecture.

In its Bhubaneswar campus, the company will provide all its services including specialised Product Engineering Services that accounts for a third of its revenue. After its completion, it will also look for universities which can make changes in their curriculum to suit the business requirement, he said.

The company posted 11.2 per cent profit growth in the October-December quarter compared to the previous period, and a robust 98.7 per cent increase at year on year basis, benefited by sharp decline of rupee against the dollar in the period.

Still, the company was not optimistic about its January-March quarterly performance. “Rupee fluctuation is not good for the country and hence, also for the company. We are not looking at weaker rupee to make profit. What comes can also go,” Bagchi said.