Rai's promoted Information Technologies India Ltd (ITIL) will soon appoint agencies to advice it on its acquisitions, company offical siad. ITIL is also in the process of appointing a global consultant who will advise the company on various market opportunities in the mobile computing arena.
The company will invest up to Rs 200 crore for various expansion plans including launching Internet Service Provider (ISP) operations, developing portals and setting up software development centres.
"We have earmarked about Rs 200 crore for various expansion plans in the country. To start with we are launching our ISP operations and setting up about 20 portals for e-commerce activities," Vinay Rai, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ITIL said.
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As part of its increased thrust on e-commerce related portals it is also learnt that the company will be diluting its focus on its general purpose portal myushapioneer.com.
It is also learnt that the company is in the process of building another general purpose portal that has a higher recall value. "We will not be making any significant investments in these general purpose portal instead will be developing a new portal which has a higher recall value," said S K Mittal, managing director of the company.
Rai said the total investment for the Internet business including the upcoming portals will be about Rs 100 crore and added that the venture would be funded through the company's internal accruals and borrowings.
He said that company was in the process of finanalising joint venture partners for developing the e-commerce portals focused on news, health, careers, sports, travel and food amongst others.
ITIL which has recently got its category `a' license for all india Internet operations, would start its services by september this year, he said.
"The company would initially start with nine to ten major cities including delhi, mumbai, lucknow and kanpur and later expand to other areas," Mittal said.
"ITIL's joint ventures for portals may or may not involve equity participation," mittal said adding that the partners would be a mix of internet and financial firms.