Us Order Drives Up Mascot

The share price of Mascot Systems zoomed to an intra-day high of Rs 246 today after the company announced that it has bagged an order worth $2.5 million.

The stock closed at Rs 230.60, up 4.89 per cent, amid a traded volume of 43,320 shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange. In the morning, Mascot Systems announced that it has bagged a $2.5 million contract from the US, which has to be executed over 22 months. The contract is predominantly offshore-centric and has been structured on a fixed price basis.

Last month, the company also issued positive guidance for fiscal 2002-03. The company claimed that the difficult period has come to an end in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2001-02. It has utilised the year as an opportunity to further strengthen its relationship with GE, extend presence to more locations, implement plans to control operating expenditure and increase performance efficiencies.

 

Going forward, it expects continuous sequential growth in earnings in fiscal 2002-03 from the first quarter onwards as a result of consistent implementation of key business initiatives.

The exact volume of quarter-on-quarter growth will depend on the implementation and closure of initiatives that are being currently pursued. However, the company has not dished out any figures for fiscal 2002-03.

For fiscal 2001-02, Mascot Systems registered a 215 per cent rise in its net profit to Rs 45.3 crore (Rs 37.5 crore). The company also declared a dividend of 40 per cent (Rs 1.60 per share) compared with 15 per cent last fiscal.

The US contributed 69 per cent of its revenues at Rs 280.6 crore during the year ended March 2002, a growth of by 26 per cent. Europe contributed 12 per cent at Rs 50.7 crore, a 24 per cent growth, while the Asia Pacific region contributed 19 per cent at Rs 76.1 crore, a fall of 1 per cent, during the year.

Mascot Systems is a provider of solutions in the areas of e-business, business intelligence, entrepreneur resource planning and mobile commerce across mainframe, midrange, client server and Internet platforms.

Mascot uses its proprietary solutions suite, SmartAPPSSM, as the framework for its distributed delivery.

Mascot Systems has established operations in the US, UK, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Japan and Singapore. The company employs over 1,500 people and has worldclass offshore development centres in Bangalore and Chennai.

Mascot focuses on the manufacturing, finance and banking, retail and distribution, telecommunications and service industries.