Prithvi lines up $50m for acquisitions

Prithvi Information Solutions Limited, a global provider of enterprise services and solutions, has planned a spread of around $50 million for acquisitions this year. This apart, the company is planning a foray into the domestic market in the telecom space.

Speaking to Business Standard, P S Shastry, chief financial officer, Prithvi Information Solutions Limited, said, "We have been looking at around 10 companies in the last few months. We have zeroed in on 3-4 companies and will be acquiring them in the next six months."

The companies that Prithvi plans to acquire are those that operate in the business process outsourcing space.

"Many of our clients to whom we deliver critical IT solutions are looking at outsourcing non-critical processes as well. So we are looking at building our presence in this space," Shastry said.

Prithvi is also looking at companies that are involved in delivering business intelligence solutions.

"We will be spending around $50 million on acquisitions this year as we plan to acquire these 3-4 small companies which are of the size of around $10 million each," Shastry said, adding that they intended to create a separate fund for their inorganic growth plans.

"We plan to raise funds up to $70 million through issue of foreign currency convertible bonds," he added.

Meanwhile, the company is also planning to enter the domestic market. So far, around 98 per cent of its business is US-centric. "To begin with, we plan to offer embedded software for telecom instruments in the Indian market," Shastry said. Some of Prithvi's clients in the telecom space include T-Mobile and Ericsson.

Prithvi Information Solutions had raised Rs 135 crore recently through a public issue. Its topline and bottomline for the nine-month period ended December 2005 were Rs 315 crore and Rs 36.5 crore respectively. The company employs more than 1,000 people globally.