One more time: 63 Moons' word-play on MCX extends software support contract

'One more time', 'last time', 'third time' and 'wish them good luck'.

63 Moons Technologies chose interesting words as it informed investors that Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) once again extended the software support contract with the company for a quarterly fee of Rs 125 crore.

The company is also the founder and former promoter of the bourse.

The embattled exchange, which has been using the same software for nearly two decades, has been forced to continue with it, albeit at a much higher cost, after repeatedly failing to transition to a new trading platform within stipulated deadlines.

In separate early morning stock exchange filings on Thursday, Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd and 63 moons said the contract has been extended for a period of six months starting July 1.

Not so often that a regulatory filing informing about the renewal of a contract would have word-play varying from "one more time" to "eleventh-hour request" to "wish them good luck".

According to 63 Moons, it has once again agreed to the eleventh-hour request by MCX, "which according to MCX is for the last time' for one more time".

"We sincerely wish that this 'last time' really happens someday, so that we deploy our excellent team of exchange technology engineering group in mega promising opportunity in a new digital world.

"For the count, this is the third time that MCX approached 63 moons to extend the software support service arrangement after the long-term arrangement with MCX ended on 30th September 2022 and MCX selected a new technology service provider way back in February 2021," 63 Moons, formerly known as Financial Technologies India Ltd, said in its filing.

According to the company, it has been offering MCX since August 2020 an option to purchase the software source code for self-use, which is in line with the practices adopted by all best exchanges in India and across the world.

"We had also offered them long-term contracts of two years in 2022. However, for the reasons best known to them, they have not opted for it."

These are mission-critical technologies, which are of the highest excellence in functionality and performance. 63 moons technology exchange engine has been at the heart of MCX since 2003 (20 years) working uninterruptedly for 16 hours a day all throughout, it added.

In its filing, MCX said that to ensure all stakeholders are better prepared to migrate to the new Commodity Derivatives Platform and to ensure necessary compliances, the company was obligated and has decided to extend the support services being rendered by its existing software vendor 63 Moons.

While informing about the contract extension with the bourse, 63 Moons also said that as the founders and well-wishers of MCX, "we wish them good luck with these new experiments and hope that they will reach the right destination one day".

The latest six-month extension of the software support from 63 Moons will cost the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Rs 250 crore or Rs 125 crore each quarter, an expense that might well push the commodity bourse into the red unless its overall profit shoots up significantly.

The bourse raked in a profit of Rs 129.83 crore in the last financial year ended March 2023.