Fi Nominee Set To Be Appointed On Caltiger Board

The country's first free Internet service provider (ISP), Caltiger.com is close to appointing a nominee from a domestic financial institution on its board for the first time.

Keeping the name of the financial institution under wraps, the newly appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of the company, P K Vijay Kumar, said, "One of the financial institutions (FI) is close to getting onto our board. However, we cannot disclose the name of the FI at this point of time, due to reasons of confidentiality".

Vijay Kumar said the company had been negotiating with ICICI and IDBI for some time for making an investment into the company.

 

"Ideally, we would like to offer the equity route to the FI. However, it is not certain whether we would avail of debt or equity ultimately. The cost of the debt would be a decisive factor if we were to choose the debt route," the CEO said.

He further said that a mix of debt and equity could also not be ruled out.

Vijay Kumar further said that the fact that a particular financial institution was interested in representing itself on the firm's board underscores the fact that Caltiger is seen in a light different from a dotcom firm, as a telecom company having substantial assets.

The company is also talking to two or three large venture capitalists to whom it could offer stake.

Recently, the company took part in the roadshow for information technology firms organised by Goldman Sachs in New Delhi.

"It was a two-day event and we were awarded a one-on-one interaction with three to four large venture capitalist firms, who were interested in investing in our company. We are already in an advanced stage of interaction with at least two of them," Kumar pointed out.

"The response to our interactions at the roadshow were very positive," he added.

He further said that negotiations are likely to be tied up by the end of this month.

The company has earmarked Rs 800 crore, to be spent over the next couple of years, on an optical fibre network which will cover the 100 city roll-out that the company has envisaged.

The amount will be raised through equity dilution.