i-flex planning to set up China subsidiary

i-flex solutions, a global leader among banking solutions providers, is contemplating floating a subsidiary in China as part of its strategy to strengthen its base in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries.

The company also plans to start a massive head hunting to support its expanding global operations.

Incidentally, i-flex has recently opened a repo office in Shanghai. As much as 96 per cent of i-flex's revenues comes from the overseas operations.

Deepak Ghasias, chief financial officer, i-flex said the company is starting a repo office in Russia. It plans to set up an office in Brazil too.

"BRIC is the emerging economic super power of the world. By opening offices, our strategy is to focus on these countries," he said.

Ghasias said the company would float a subsidiary in China once it starts getting business there.

"In Singapore also we first set up a repo office and then upgraded it as a branch. Subsequently, we launched a subsidiary there. We might follow the same model for China and other BRIC countries too," he said.

The company aims to become a total financial solutions provider and also plans to launch non-life insurance solutions shortly.

It recently acquired Castel Ltd of Canada, which is in the field of property and casualty insurance solutions.

"We have bought 34 per cent stake in that company in stock futures. The deal will be completed in next few months," he said. Ghasias said it is looking for clients in non-life sector in India.

i-flex plans to double the number of employees from the current 5,000 to 10,000 in the next four quarters. "We shall employ 13,000 people in 2 years," he said.

i-flex has four product development centres in the country at Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai.

The company is planning to have a fifth one for which Kolkata is one of the contenders.

Scouting for Flexcel partners

i-flex is planning to infuse more capital into its application service provider (ASP) arm Flexcel International Ltd through new equity partners. The fund will be utilised as capex and operating expenses.

A decision on a partner is likely to be taken in the next two weeks. Flexcel is currently a three-way joint venture between i-flex, HDFC Bank and Lord Krishna Bank (LKB). i-flex and HDFC Bank hold 40 per cent each and the rest is with LKB.

Deepak Ghasias, CFO, said it will raise Rs 35 crore for capex and opex for Flexcel. The company currently have a paid-up equity of Rs 15 crore and a revenue of Rs 10 crore.