Prologic To Take 25% In Dubai Firm

Delhi-based software products company Prologic First India will buy into Dubai-based Thomsun Computer International, which currently distributes Prologic products in the Far East markets. The company, according to sources, will pick up 25 per cent stake in the Dubai company.

"This is part of our expansion plan into the international markets," said Amlan Ghose, managing director, Prologic First.

To spur market reach, Prologic First is also setting up offices in the UK and Latin America and negotiating a joint venture in the US. It has just concluded a business partnership for the Southeast Asian market with Netlink-Ranve, a company in the Malaysian Information Super Corridor.

"Development of Web-enabled software, implementation of the Application Service Provider (ASP) model and new offices in the UK, Latin America and the US will help us into the big league," he said.

According to Ghose, the company will open an office in Kenya to tap the emerging sub-Sahara market. Also, "we are expecting the London office to operate as a window to the European market," he pointed out.

In the US market, the company will follow the application service provider model to tap the market there. "In the US market, we are going to follow the ASP model and start the operations early next year," Ghose pointed out.

According to him, the Sao Palo office will be the only software development center that it will have outside India. This will work on language conversion technologies for the various products of the company. It is learnt to be currently working on converting the software products to Portuguese and Spanish to address the regional markets.

The company which is valued at $18 million will also raise money through debt route. The company is learnt to be in talks with the Exim bank and State Industrial Development Bank of India (Sidbi) for this. "We are planing to raise about a couple of crores through this route," he pointed out. "This will happen during the current financial year," he pointed out.

The company is also looking to raise money from venture capital funds to support its expansion as well as software products development plans. "We are raising money from venture capital funds at a later date," he added.

According to him, the company is yet to initiate formal talks with any of the venture capital funds for the purpose. Following the venture funding, the company will also go in for an initial public offering.

Prologic First has charted a major growth path, both in product development and market reach. The company plans to be the first EMS (Enterprise Management System) supplier for the hospitality segment. To extend its reach to smaller hotels, by 2000, it also aims to be one of the first ASPs for the hospitality segment.