Silicon Valley to bring Pentasoft to Kolkata, take over Mauritius project

Silicon Valley Infotech has homed in on two destinations for growth- Kolkata and Mauritius.

The Kolkata plan would mean one more software development centre in the city which has seen rapid growth in this sector in recent years.

The promoter of Silicon Valley was the city-based entrepreneur Santosh Kumar Jain, who has interest in media and stock broking as well.

The city-based Silicon was also working on a plan to set up an IT park in Mauritius following its acquisition of Chennai based Pentasoft Technologies.

Besides, it will start a software development centre in Kolkata under Pentasoft brand.

Jain said Pentasoft would start its software development centre in Kolkata soon.

Pentasoft currently had an employee strength of around 300.

"The operations would retain all the software engineers of Pentasoft and soon start the operation of a Pentasoft division in Kolkata for which a site has already been identified . The regional electronic media as well as Tollywood would benefit from services rendered by Pentasoft," Jain added.

Pentasoft Technologies already has a presence in Mauritius "" a parallel development, Seaheaven Investment of Mauritius, one of the leading FIIs operating in India, acquired near 2 per cent stake in Silicon Valley on March 30. Silicon Valley acquired Pentasoft Technologies on March 14 of this year.

Jain told Business Standard that Silicon would now set up the IT park in Mauritius through it was originally a project of Pentasoft.

"The Mauritius government gave 10 hectares land to Pentasoft for IT initiatives. Now Silicon shall set up the IT park in that country. The board has not yet decided on the quantum of investment needed," he said. Jain admitted Seaheaven has picked up stake in Silicon Valley.

According to him, Seaheaven picked up stake in Silicon Valley because of its proposed IT park project in Mauritius.

"Seaheaven has picked up around 20 lakh shares in Silicon, which is around 2 per cent. I think Seaheaven knows about the IT park project and that is why it picked up the stake," he added.

Silicon Valley was eyeing a chunk of the multibillion animation and special effects business emanating from Bollywood and from television channels.

This segment was one of the specialised businesses of Pentasoft. Silicon would also invest to expand existing operations of Pentasoft in United States, Singapore and Mauritius.

Jain had at present around 60 per cent stake in Silicon Valley through group companies like ATN International, Arihant Ltd and Vishno Trade Link. Pentasoft recorded a turnover of Rs 100 crore in 2003-04.

The turnover of Silicon Valley was around Rs 19.6 crore in the same fiscal. Jain said he was hopeful that after the merger, the combined turnover would grow by at least 20 per cent.