Prithvi Info plans ODC in Hyderabad

To go public in 6 months

Prithvi Information Solutions Limited, a technology and process outsourcing services provider, is planning to set up an offshore development centre (ODC) in Hyderabad with a capacity of 1,000 billable seats.

To finance this expansion plan, the company will be going for a Rs 150-crore initial public offering (IPO) within the next six months.

Addressing mediapersons here on Wednesday, V Satish Kumar, founder and managing director of Prithvi Information Solutions, said, "We are looking at buying property of around 2.5 lakh sq ft in size to set up an ODC in Hyderabad. We already have two development centres in Hyderabad besides one in Bangalore. However, most of our work is on-site, and we are planning to change that now."

The company has 85 clients based out of the US. "At present, only around six per cent of our work is done from offshore centres and we are looking at increasing this to 10 per cent by 2006, 20 per cent by 2007 and later to 30 per cent, which would be an ideal situation for us," said P S Shastry, chief finance officer of Prithvi Information Solutions.

The company will be going for an IPO between October and December this year and it is most likely to be via the book-building route. Prithvi Information ended the 2004-05 fiscal with a turnover of Rs 300 crore and a bottomline of Rs 29 crore.

It is looking at achieving a turnover of Rs 420 crore in the current fiscal. The company currently employs 950 people globally out of which around 150 work in India (120 in Hyderabad and 30 in Bangalore). The company may also look at Visakhapatnam for further expansion.