L&T Infotech: Walk the Talk

This wholly owned subsidiary of L&T embarked on an ambitious journey at
the beginning of 2004-05. The mission was to double its turnover and manpower to
cross Rs 700 crore, and 5000 people, over the next 18 months. The company's
first action was to start construction of a new center in Bangalore, in three
phases, for accommodating 3,000 heads, at a total investment of Rs 150 crore.
The plans looked ambitious. Taking stock on March 31, 2005, however, the mission
does not look that impossible anymore-it had already clocked Rs 576 crore in
revenues and hired 3,736 people.

The company has now embarked upon a Rs 300 crore expansion plan. M&A
remained the buzzword throughout the year-the company put together a war chest
of Rs 450-675 crore ($100-150 mn) earmarked for strategic acquisitions. The fund
corpus came from two large outsourcing orders worth $150 mn from two Fortune 500
companies.