Ma Foi forays into IT development

Forms new subsidiary called Minvesta Infotech Ltd

Ma Foi, a staffing and human resource services firm, has announced its foray into IT development by forming a subsidiary. It has chalked out a Rs 30 crore budget plan for 2006 to expand its domestic and international presence.

Addressing a press conference, K Pandia Rajan, managing director, Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd, said that the company has formed a new subsidiary, Minvesta Infotech Ltd, to focus on building HR solutions for the specific needs of companies and develop IT products in the HR space.

Ma Foi, in which Dutch staffing major Vedior has 76 per cent stake, is putting together its expertise in HR domain and the experience in automation of several HR critical processes, to start this new arm, he added.

Minvesta will be funded internally and has an equity base of Rs 1 crore. Initially, it will start with 41 people, who have been involved in system and product development in the Ma Foi group. The team strength would be scaled up to 100 by the end of this year, he said adding that Minvesta already bagged an order from a large MNC to develop payroll application.

Rajan also said that the company had earmarked Rs 30 crore for expansion of its operations in 2006. It will also chalk out separate budget for its acquisitions.

As part of its international expansion, Ma Foi is planning to expand its operations to Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia during this year. The other countries that it has been eying for expansion include Thailand, Phillipines and Bangladesh. It has also made some inroads into Pakistan and is mulling opening an office there.

Chennai-based Ma Foi is in the advanced stages of acquiring a company in Sri Lanka. Its other acquisitions include one in India and another one in Thailand. In domestic market, it will be focusing on strengthening its presence in marine, healthcare and IT verticals during this year.

Enthused by the overall high degree of buoyancy on the industry front, Ma Foi expects to recruit about 5000 people a month for permanent placements during 2006. It has executed 10,131 permanent placements during 2005 taking the total number of placements till date to over 770,000 across 30 countries.

Last year, it hired about 12,000 people in India, Sri Lanka and in a couple of other countries for entire back office operations of HSBC.

The company is garnering a significant amount of revenue for staffing services from companies setting up shops in India. At present, it is working for 163 Fortune 500 companies, which contribute about 60 per cent to its gross revenue.

It expects to end 2006 with a gross revenue of Rs.350 crore (its gross revenue for 2005 was Rs 212 crore). The company has moved to a new 4000 sq ft facility in Chennai to accommodate the entire corporate operations of Ma Foi.

Fresh arenas

Its new subsidiary, Minvesta Infotech Ltd, would focus on building HR solutions for the specific needs of companies and develop IT products in the HR space

Minvesta has already bagged an order from a large MNC to develop payroll application

Ma Foi is planning to expand its operations to Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia during this year

In domestic market, it would focus on strengthening its presence in marine, healthcare and IT verticals