Bses Ready For Bigger Net Role, Own Gateway

BSES, the electricity distributor in suburban Mumbai, intends to come out with an initial public offering (IPO) within a year to fund its investments in the telecom sector, the company's chairman R V Shahi said.

He said the IPO will help the company fund its Internet business which would require an investment of about Rs 300 crore over the next one year.

A major part of the investment will go towards expanding the subsidiary Powersurfer.net's foray into all the metros and Bangalore. The company recently received a category-A Internet Service Provider (ISP) licence. Shahi said that the company is also looking to set up an Internet gateway of its own.

 

So far the company has invested about Rs 60 crore in the venture and also intends to raise some funds through debt. Shahi said that the IPO issue has been discussed at the board level but the details have not been worked out. "We don't know how much of it would be listed in India and what would be the proportion listed abroad," Shahi told reporters on the sidelines of the India Power 2000, focusing on convergence between power, telecom, information technology, cable and media. The conference is jointly organised by Assocham and Independent Power Producers Association of India.

Shahi said that he expects the telecom venture to contribute about 50 per cent of the company's turnover by the end of the fifth year.

He said that BSES is looking at tieups with content providers, vortals for developing the website into a full-fledged home portal. The joint venture with Indbazaar.com will not materialise, the company said. The various services which BSES is looking to provide include information through Internet kiosks with touch screen monitors, data base, video conferencing, air and rail reservation and shopping details. It will also provide free software that will make experience with the Net hassle free.

Shahi also said that he is hopeful of a tieup with PowerGrid Corporation for national long distance operations. BSES has bid for the PowerGrid tender for NLDO and also the tender for laying down optic fibre cables in Maharashtra. He said that the optic fibre line would cover 1,400 km in Mumbai by 2001.

BSES has 2,000 ISP customers and hope to get about 25,000 by September, 45,000 by December and over a lakh by March 2001. Shahi said that he hopes they have three to four lakh users by 2002.

Shahi also said that the company will be very aggressive in the marketplace. "We have set up a committee that reviews rival ISP charges on a daily basis and we want to follow the tariff that is offered by our competitors. We want to provide good quality and reliable service to customers," he said.

BSES will also offer services like billing information, online bill payment and complaint redressal to its 1.9 million electricity consumers. This is a move that is expected to attract regular visitors to the site.