MindTree sales up 90 per cent

MindTree Consulting said here on Friday that its gross income grew 90 per cent in the year to March to $55 million.

The privately held IT and R&D services firm doubled its staff to 2,000 in the year and also made significant acquisitions of clients, including General Electric and Emirates, a company release said.

"We expect high growth in the coming years and will continue to add capacity," managing director Ashok Soota said.

During the year, the company strengthened its relationships with existing customers such as American Insurance Group, US's largest life insurer, Swedish truck maker Volvo and Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever.

MindTree's work for rent-a-car firm Avis grew from re-building its website avis.com five years ago to projects for eight divisions of vehicle and travel financier, Cendant Corporation, Avis' parent company, the release said.

"We find that large organisations are increasingly finding it more comfortable to work with mid-size IT companies. This trend is prevalent across the globe and MindTree has emerged as the face of India's mid-size segment," said chief operating officer Subroto Bagchi.

Most of MindTree's money still came from the US, while revenues from Europe grew 120 per cent.

Clients were also acquired in West Asia, Japan and among the ASEAN nations, "leading to solid growth in all our major markets," MindTree's chief executive officer Krishnakumar Natarajan said.

During the year, the firm started new development centres in Hyderabad and Bangalore. Its R&D services business grew to include clients such as Alcatel, Nera, StorageTek, Symantec and Toshiba.

The firm consolidated its Bluetooth solutions business with solutions licenced to 30 product companies, S Janakiraman, chief executive officer of R&D services said.