Bfl Profit Rockets 322 Per Cent To Rs 11.20 Crore

Net profit at BFL Software Ltd soared 322 per cent for the six months ended September 30, 1998, at Rs 11.2 crore on a total income of Rs 47 crore. The company had, in the corresponding period last year, recorded a net of Rs 2.65 crore on an income of Rs 24.59 crore.

Net sales have increased to Rs 46.43 crore registering a growth of 91 per cent over the previous period. Profit before depreciation and interest was Rs 15.54 crore (33.46 per cent of sales), while net profit after tax of Rs 11.2 crore is 24.12 per cent of sales.

The company for its previous accounting year (6 months) ended March 31, 1998, had posted dismal results with a net loss of Rs 13.40 crore on an total income of Rs 29 crore. It increased paid-up share capital to Rs 9.32 crore from the earlier Rs 5.99 crore and depreciation to Rs 3.73 crore (Rs 1.04 crore). The depreciation for the six months ended March 31, 1998, was Rs 6.60 crore.

The gross profit for the current accounting year has increased to Rs 14.97 crore (Rs 3.70 crore) and it posted a gross loss of Rs 6.80 crore for the six months ended March 31, 1998.

BFL Software has also adopted the US Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP) standards and according to this, the net revenues for the current six months period is at $11 million, while its net income stood at $2.7 million.

The company has also stated that it will be opening its fifth development centre covering an area of over 20,000 square feet in Bangalore. As part of its expansion plans, the company has also leased 100,000 square feet area to form a sixth development centre, which is likely to become operational next year. With this, BFL Software will have a total of 1,70,000 square feet across six development centres.

The offshore development services, according to the company, have shown strong growth in the last 6 months.

BFL is looking at new areas of businesses including e-commerce, enterprise resource planning, healthcare software and high value-added consultancy.

The company has set up several offshore development centres for world renowned companies including Compaq Computer Corporation, NEC Australia and Lanier Worldwide, and revenues from these centres as well as its new businesses would enable BFL to become a Rs 100 crore company for the year 1998-99 and then have a 50 per cent growth for the next two years.