Cranes plans fourth acquisition

Cranes Software International Limited (CSIL), a company which specialises in tools for the scientific and engineering community and which prides itself on being one of the few shrink wrapped product companies from India, is planning its fourth acquisition of products, announcements on which will be made anytime from the next two weeks onwards.

"We are always on the lookout for acquisitions of products which help us cover more areas within our niche of scientific and engineering tools and which I consider undervalued assets. These are technically the best and come from good brand names but have not been a success due to lack of marketing or continuous investments from the parent organisation," said Asif Khader, co-founder of CSIL.

He added, "Our next acquisition, which will happen soon, will involve products that cover the civil and mechanical areas of engineering."

The acquisiton will involve products from a company outside India. No infromation was available on the financial details of the transaction.

The inorganic growth route of the company began with the acquisition of ASIN's visualisation tools including TableCurve 2D, TableCurve 3D and PeakFit for nearly $1.8 million.

This was followed by the Systat range of products from SPSS, a provider of predictive analytics technology and services in the US for around $2.25 million. The most recent of the products acquired was that of the Sigma line from SPSS.

The products that the company owns, as opposed to the third party products that CSIL continues to distribute, constitutes 80 per cent of the company's revenues, while the remaining includes training activities.

The company's revenues grew by nearly 86 per cent to reach Rs 114 crore during fiscal '04, while PAT grew from Rs 14 crore to Rs 32.5 crore, a growth of 132 per cent.

The company will also be launching a slew of new products during the year, including Systat version 12, which Khader talks of as a paradigm shift from the earlier versions.

They will be launching test and measurement software tools for the wireless industry, along with a product from their MEMS labs.

"We will also be bringing out a self learning tool, as part of a CD package, which will aim to provide instruction in areas including MAT Lab, SimuLink and others. This proves that even from the Cranes Varsity side we are focussed on products," says Khader.

Cranes Varsity is the training arm of the software company.

CSIL was formed in 1991 by Asif Khader and Mukkaram Jan and employs nearly 300 people globally, with around 70 of them working outside India. The company, which gives primary importance to intellectual property has so far filed for two patents out of its MEMS labs initiative.

Khader still says that topline growth is one of the 'side benefits' of the last four years of progress, the best part of it being bringing the company to a point where you are competting with the greats of the industry on their own platform.