i-flex has scripted a success story on the IT products side and there is immense potential for it to grow bigger. But can it maintain its hot growth pace?
The Citigroup-promoted i-flex solutions made its debut on the bourses less than a year ago and its stock price performance has been superb to date.
Since its listing on June 28, 2002, the stock has gained 74.51 per cent even as the BSE IT index slumped 33.92 per cent. The BSE Sensex lost 6.28 per cent during the same period. Most fund managers have given i-flex the pride of place in their portfolios even as they continue to be bearish on IT scrips in general.
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One reason for this is simple: i-flex is the only domestic company to script a success story on the IT products side. It has achieved on the IT products side what Infosys accomplished in the services arena. Which brings up the question: How big can i-flex get, and what can go wrong?
i-flex's sound product-led business model has helped it record robust growth at a time when top-rung domestic IT companies, predominantly focused on the services side, have been virtually struggling to maintain the growth momentum.
The company's business model is centred around its home-grown banking product FlexCube, coupled with a steady services business. FlexCube has been ranked the Number 1 selling banking package in the world for the year 2002 by International Banking Systems of the UK.
The product has modules catering to a host of banks and financial institutions, including commercial banks, investment banks, central banks and development banks.
i-flex's list of clients includes big names like the IMF, DBS and Union Bank of Switzerland. The product has a geographical spread across 70-and-odd countries round the world, and has gained acceptance even in developed markets like the US, Europe and Japan.
In the last quarter, the company added 12 new product customers and half of them were from these regions. The company