Prithvi Information to set up subsidiary in Singapore

Prithvi Information Solutions Limited (PISL) has decided to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore and open its offices in Dubai and Qatar in a month's span.

The Hyderabad-based IT solutions company has also entered into an agreement with Walking Stick.com, a Kolkata-based start-up company, for acquiring a controlling stake of about 53 per cent in it at a cost of Rs 6 crore. Walking Stick is expected to achieve a turnover of $3 million in the current financial year.

Disclosing this to mediapersons here on Wednesday, PISL managing director Satish Kumar said that the company was planning for an issue of foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) to the tune of $70 million for acquisitions that would give impetus to inorganic growth for the next three to four years. A final decision in this regard will be taken by next month.

PISL, which came out with an initial public offering last year, is setting up a Rs 90-crore offshore development centre (ODC) in Hyderabad. The 2-lakh square feet ODC, to be completed by next year, will house over 1,500 professionals.

Kumar said that the ODC would also have a global innovation centre for knowledge process outsourcing. In this regard, PISL has tied up with Carnegie Mellon University in the US. The company was also in the process of tying up with a couple of universities located in Hyderabad.

Till recently, all the clients of PISL were based in the US. In the last quarter of 2005-06, the company commenced its operations in Europe. In the next financial year, Kumar said, European operations were expected to account for nearly 6 per cent of the company's turnover. Incidentally, of the company's turnover of Rs 453 crore in the last financial year, only Rs 1 crore came from European operations.

On the domestic front, the company has made a foray into telecommunication-related activities by successfully bidding for the supply of embedded equipment jointly with LG to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited.

"We are planning to expand further into this field, which is the entry point for networking solutions in the domestic telecom sector," Kumar said, adding that the company was expecting about $15 million business from its domestic operations in the current year.