MindTree Consulting expects topline to cross $24 m this fiscal

MindTree Consulting is back on its high growth path, ahead of the industry. It expects its topline to grow by over 30 per cent in the current financial year (2003-04) to exceed $24 million.

It is also likely to improve its bottomline. Compared with the cash profit it made last year, it is likely to end the current year as profitable in net terms also.

Sources within the company, which is privately held and VC funded, declined to confirm these numbers but did not seriously dispute them.

In the next calendar year (2004) MindTree has two major items on its agenda. One is announcing an acquisition early in the year (this was expected in the current year itself) and the other is doubling its people strength in the single year to reach 2000.

"We absolutely feel that, given the complexities and dynamics of the marketplace today, you have to be open to inorganic growth. We have done 90 per cent of our homework for acquiring a like-minded company whose work is complimentary to ours. So keep watching this space, we should be able to give more good news in the coming quarter," says Subroto Bagchi, president and chief operating officer.

Mindtree's Bangalore facilities, which accommodate 900 people (the rest 100 are strewn all over the world), are full and early next year it will acquire an equal facility. The thousand people to fill it will all come in next year itself.

"We were very prudent in terms of how we used cash. We are really proud that we built the company from zero to 1,000 with half the $23.6 million we have so far raised. The other half is still in the bank. So you can see how strong the operational cash flow has been right through. We expect that despite the scorching pace we have set, we will be able to manage the company without the need for additional funding for at least two to three years," asserts Bagchi.

The company has renamed its two businesses earlier this year. The E-business is being called the IT services business; and the second part, the product realisation service, has been renamed the R&D services business.

"The verticals in both the businesses have seen significant success. We are very pleased with the breakthroughs that these verticals have achieved," he adds.

Two other recent achievements of the company which Bagchi highlights are: becoming the world's youngest and so far the only company to be assessed at PCMM level V; and coming within the top 25 best employers in the country across industries in a Hewitt survey for 2003.