Northgate to raise $100 mn

The funds are likely to be raised via the preferential allotment route.

Hyderabad-based Northgate Technologies Limited, a player in the online advertising and telecom sectors, is planning to raise around $100 million in the next three months. This apart, the company is eyeing a listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) within a year's time.

Addressing the media, Venkat Meenavalli, chairman and managing director of Northgate Technologies Limited, said, "We plan to raise $60 million-$100 million in the next 2-3 months. This is likely to be via the preferential allotment route. A listing on the LSE is also on the cards in the next 8-12 months."

Northgate Technologies, which has launched its Globe7 Soft Phone through its subsidiary Globe7 Inc, has achieved 2.5 million downloads from 187 countries.

Globe7 Soft Phone is basically a (session initiation protocol) SIP soft phone powered by IPTV with PC to PC, PC to landline, landline to PC, free fax and real time video calling features.

"We are targeting to achieve 30 million downloads within a year's time," Meenavalli said.

The company has also entered into a three-year agreement with Lycos Inc, where Globe7 is powering Lycos phone with voice, real time video, IPTV and video-on-demand features.

To enable IPTV and video-on-demand via Globe7 Soft Phone, the company is setting up a subsidiary in Hong Kong that will aggregate and edit content from various sources.

The company sources content from Reuters and is planning to partner with others for Chinese, German and French content. The company is also looking at sports and movies.

It has also tied up with a New York-based gaming company to launch gaming applications with IPTV in the next six months.

Launching Globe7 technology on mobile devices with WIMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) in Europe is also on its agenda. Northgate Technologies earned revenues of Rs 56 crore in the last nine months, with profits of around Rs 15.52 crore.