mjunction shelves IPO plan on Tatas' support

mjunction services, one of the largest e-commerce companies promoted by Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Tata Steel, has shelved its initial public offering (IPO) plan after Tata Steel indicated it would back the management team for its future expansion plans.

Sources close to the development said that the e-commerce firm did not go ahead with negotiations with a private equity investor in view of the promoter's commitment.

This decision has also been influenced by a better cash flow from operations, strong treasury operations and negligible debt on its books, factors which are expected to help in raising funds in the future when the company identifies targets for acquisition.

The company, which expects to do transactions of around Rs 15,000 crore in FY09, and is growing at 50 per cent, is looking for acquisitions and may approach its shareholders for funds.

It recently scaled up its procurement operations and aims to relaunch its business-to-consumer (B2C) operations by May.

The company recently invested close to Rs 8 crore in technology upgrades in order to redesign its portal, straightline.in, into a B2C portal, a complete shift from its earlier business-to-business (B2B)focus.

While IBM is the hardware and software provider, Cognizant Technology Solutions is the implementation partner. Microsoft is the advanced independent software vendor for mjunction.

The company is also looking at strengthening its online content business, auto e-retailing business as well as manage direct and indirect material requirements of various industries and clients, in an attempt to achieve a five-fold growth to attain a revenue of Rs 50,000 crore, up from Rs 15,000 crore now.

Speaking to Business Standard, Viresh Oberoi, managing director of mjunction, said, “We are completely redoing our straightline.in portal to reach consumers directly with all branded products. We are also looking at getting into logistics and transportation management, especially useful in a B2C environment.”

Among other plans, buyjunction, the company’s e-sourcing services and solutions business, is close to signing up five big clients from such sectors as steel, cement etc, in this quarter, informed Vinaya Varma, head of buyjunction.

“We are also arranging transportation contracts for specialised trucks carrying bulk materials. This helps in rationalising and bringing down costs involved in supply chain management,” Varma said.

Further, mjunctionedge, the content and conference division of mjunction services, intends to strengthen its database for online content business.