L&T Infocity declares 10% dividend

L&T Infocity Limited, a joint venture of Larsen & Toubro Limited and Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), has declared a maiden dividend of 10 per cent for 2003-04.

A Ramakrishna, deputy managing director and president (operations) of Larsen & Toubro, handed over the dividend cheque to L V Subrahmanyam, vice-chairman and managing director of APIIC, at the 33rd board meeting of L&T Infocity held here yesterday. Last year, L&T Infocity came out with a maiden bonus issue in the ratio of 1:2 to its shareholders, which resulted in the paid-up capital increase to Rs 27 crore.

Speaking on the occasion, Ramakrishna said that the company was moving up the value chain by positioning itself as a total business space service provider by offering other related services like consultancy and property management to the IT sector. Subrahmanyam observed that L&T Infocity was instrumental in making Hyderabad a leading destination for IT investment.

L&T Infocity was incorporated in 1997 with the prime objective of developing Hi-Tec City with APIIC holding a 11 per cent stake in it. It spent over Rs 40 crore on the infrastructural facilities and earmarked 60 acres of land within Hi-Tec City to IT giants like Satyam, Oracle, Convergys, Reliance, Dell Computers, HPCL etc.

The company developed 1.5 million sq ft of world-class office space in two buildings "� Cyber Towers and Cyber Gateway. It is now developing an additional five lakh sq ft Cyber Pearl through a 50:50 joint venture with Ascendas India Limited. The first phase of Cyber Pearl with 2.5 lakh sq ft space is ready for occupation. Among the occupants at these parks are global majors like Microsoft, Oracle Dell, HSBC, GE Capital Services, Keane India etc. Cyber Towers and Cyber Gateway have been accorded the status of industrial park.

L&T Infocity has been awarded an ISO 9001:2000 certification in the area of facility management of IT parks. It also owns a 51 per cent stake in HITEX, the state-of-the-art trade exhibition centre on the outskirts of Hyderabad. It has also developed an exclusive IT park with a built-up area of 2 lakh sq ft for HSBC in Visakhapatnam, which will employ 2,000 employees.

All the facilities of L&T Infocity put together employ around 12,000 professionals and would have 75,000 professionals on completion of various projects by 2008.