TOP OF THE STOCK: Perfecting the Art of Survival…

• Wipro was ahead in revenues and profits, but Infy led in overall rankings
  due to better all-round performance
• Moser Baer jumped three places to #6–sales jumped 102% to Rs 669 crore,
  while net profit grew 62% to
  
  Rs 224 crore. Gross block rose 52% to Rs 815 crore
• This year’s surprise entry was Orient Information Technologies. It was
  ranked #6 in sales growth,
  
  #8 in profit growth and #1 in gross block growth
• HCL Infosystems moved up two notches to #27, but
  
  its overall performance was unimpressive

Infosys Technologies Wipro Stayam Computer Services Soffia Software Compudyne Winfosys Moser Baer (India) Orient Information Technologies HCL Technologies SSI Digital GlobalSoft Mindteck (India) Sierra Optima Hughes Software Systems Aftek Infosys Mphasis BFL Rolta India Pentasoft Technologies Infotech Enterprises Subex Systems CMC Tata Elxsi (India) Tata Infotech Blue Star Infotech Silverline Technologies Mascot GTL Nucleus Software Exports HCL Infosystems NIIT Polaris Software Labs

Infosys Technologies

The
most admired company has finally piqued Wipro to take the top position in this
year’s FINDEX rankings. Although Wipro held the top position in revenues and
net profit size, Infosys managed to beat its closest competitor to the top
overall position, thanks to its superior all round performance. Infosys had, for
the first time, issued guidance forecasting an expected growth of 30% in
revenues and net profits for the year 2002, which it comfortably met. Although
abysmally lower than the growth reported in the past few years, the ability of
the company to grow at 35% in a tough environment and on a large base clearly
reflects the strength of the company. Infosys reported revenues of Rs 2603.59
crore and a net profit of Rs 807.96 crore in March 2002, growing at 37% and 30%
respectively. It ranked # 2 in both revenues and net profit whereas in growth
terms, Infosys is ranked at # 24 in sales growth and # 21 in profit growth. Its
gross block of Rs 960.60 crore placed it at # 3 in gross block ranking whereas
it was ranked at # 2 in return on capital expenditure (ROCE). While the overall
IT environment continues to remain grim, Infosys is confident of maintaining a
30% growth rate in the current fiscal as well. Its new initiatives include
forays into Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) for which Infosys will offer
services through its BPO subsidiary, Progeon that has Citigroup as an investor.

Wipro

The company, displaced from the top position, is ranked at # 2 in the
overall ranking, thanks to its sheer size of revenues and net profit. Wipro
closed fiscal 2002 with revenues of Rs 3,416.15 crore and net profit of Rs
866.11 crore, taking the top rankings in the revenues and profit size. Its gross
block size of Rs 961.55 crore placed it at #2 whereas it stood at #8 in ROCE.
Wipro’s ROCE declined from 42% to 37%. While a 30% growth in net profit was
similar to that of Infosys, Wipro couldn’t beat Infosys in revenue growth,
which went up by just 12%, placing it at #32 in sales growth. In profit growth,
Wipro is #1 ranking above Infosys’ at 20. In terms of performance, while the
company’s global software services and products arm called Wipro Technologies
saw a 28% rise in revenues, Wipro Infotech–the Indian and Asia pacific IT
services and products arm saw a 14% fall in revenues whereas billings from
Consumer Care and Lighting fell 9%. Overall, Wipro achieved 86% of the revenues
from IT related activity with the balance coming from Consumer Care and
Lighting. Wipro took the BPO initiative before Infosys last year when it
invested in Spectramind, a Delhi-based call center, which it has now taken over.

Stayam Computer Services

After losing
the third place to Chennai-based Soffia Software last year, Satyam regained this
position, reporting excellent growth in topline and bottomline. In terms of size
too, Satyam had held a dominant position although behind the top two listed
players. Satyam reported a 42% growth in revenues at Rs 1731.94 crore and 55%
growth in net profit at Rs 490.13 crore; exceptional by any standards,
especially considering the huge base on which these came from. Satyam was placed
at # 3 in sales and profit size, # 21 in sales growth and # 16 in profit growth.
Its gross block was up 35% to Rs 739.25 crore whereas its ROCE declined from 45%
to 30%. Satyam was placed at # 5 in gross block, # 23 in gross block growth and
# 13 in ROCE. Satyam provides software design and development, maintenance,
packaged software implementation and engineering services and expects to report
a topline growth of 20-23% and is also foraying into BPO. It has set up a
subsidiary Nipuna Services Ltd and is gearing up to offer the services. Its
NASDAQ listed subsidiary Satyam Infoway continues to remain in red and Satyam
has decided to sell its entire stake of 52.50% to a strategic partner.

Soffia Software

Chennai based
Soffia Software moves a place down to # 4 as it continued with its impressive
performance in the year ended June 2001. Soffia Software, the mid-sized company
reported revenues of Rs 42.99 crore in June 2001 compared to Rs 13.84 crore in
the corresponding period last year, posting a growth of 211%. Its net profit too
leaped 189% to Rs 11.91 crore. While the size of its sales and net profit is
small, it was ranked at # 2 in sales growth, # 4 in profit growth, gross block
growth and ROCE. Its gross block grew 143% to Rs 28.34 crore whereas its ROCE
improved from 24% to 48%. Soffia is engaged in providing software services using
the client server technology. The company has also developed a number of
products in the area of human resources, fixed asset record maintenance and
mobile computing. The company has witnessed a dream run in the past couple of
years with revenues growing from Rs 2.42 crore in June 1999 to Rs 42.99 crore in
June 2001. In the current environment, sustaining the past growth would be
challenging and tough, which is visible from its performance in the nine months
ended March 2002.

Compudyne Winfosys

Compudyne
Winfosys was placed at #76 last year and has moved a place up due to the
excellent growth in sales and net profit during March 2001. The modest-sized
Bangalore based company reported a whopping 316% jump in revenues to Rs 25.04
crore and 236% growth in net profit, which stood at Rs 6.48 crore. Its gross
block at Rs 15.05 crore went up by 152% whereas its ROCE jumped from 11% to 22%.
Compudyne is ranked at #1 in sales growth, # 2 in profit growth, # 3 in gross
block growth, and # 19 in ROCE. Due to its small size, the company was ranked #
49 in sales and # 36 in profits. The company commenced operations providing
customized software services in client server and Internet area apart from
providing multimedia solutions. The company is now focusing on multimedia, 3D
animations, visual effects and contents for entertainment industry, having
acquired VisionArt, a subsidiary of Santa Monica Studio’s for $ 4 mn last
year. It plans to set up a multi media studio in Bangalore to cater to the
domestic film industry for which it plans to raise Rs 25 crore through issue of
shares on private placement and equity warrants to promoters.

Moser Baer (India)

The
Delhi-based top player in the data storage devices, which includes floppy
diskettes, recordable and erasable compact disks (CD), and digital versatile
discs (DVD) has moved up three places to #6. Moser Baer continued its excellent
performance reported last year as its revenues grew by almost 100% to Rs 668.60
crore with the net profit growing 62% to Rs 223.76 crore. The company’s gross
block grew 52% to Rs 815.43 crore as the company further invested in expanding
its capacity to manufacture CDs. Moser Baer’s ranking improved thanks to its
overall performance, evident from the ratings it achieved. The company was
placed at # 7 in sales size, # 5 in profit size, # 4 in gross block size, # 7 in
sales growth, # 14 in profit growth, and # 16 in gross block growth. Its ROCE
improved marginally from 17% to 19% placing it at # 27 in ROCE ranking. Moser is
one of the largest manufacturers of CDs and DVDs in the world commanding almost
11% of the market share. The company has increased the capacity of CDs to 760
million units per annum and is focusing on the fast growing DVD market. The
prices of CDs have been on the downturn since the past few months, which could
affect its performance in the current fiscal, although high volume growth would
shield some of the impact on the topline. The company expects 27% growth in the
bottom line in the current fiscal and plans to further increase its capacity to
1 billion by March 2003.

Orient
Information Technologies

The Mumbai-based mid-sized software service company is a surprise gainer moving up
from # 37 to #7 largely because it reported excellent performance in the year
ended March 2001 with revenues increasing by 102% to Rs 87.81 crore and net
profit increasing 98% to Rs 20.11 crore. Its gross block was up 377% to Rs 45.17
crore. Orient is ranked at #6 in sales growth and #8 in profit growth and #1 in
gross block growth. While the company made it to the Top 10 due to its excellent
performance in fiscal 2001, it has failed to sustain the growth pace. In the
nine months ended December 31, 2001, revenues stood at Rs 45 crore and the
company may not be able to match its March 2001 revenues. However, if its move
to acquire the $40-million US-based software services company Professional
Access succeeds, Orient could see a jump in revenues.

HCL Technologies

The highly
tech-focused company from the Shiv Nadar stable improved its ranking from # 24
to # 8 although on a consolidated basis, it could have been placed further up.
HCL Technologies reported revenues of Rs 724.50 crore in the year ended June
2001, up by 81%. Its net profit in the same period jumped 113% to Rs 426.78
crore. HCL is ranked at # 5 in revenue size, # 4 in profit size, # 10 in sales
growth, and # 6 in profit growth. Its gross block stood at Rs 168.89 crore,
higher by 73% over the previous year whereas its ROCE improved from 14% to 22%.
HCL is placed at # 12 in gross block size, # 8 in gross block growth, and # 21
in ROCE. HCL Technologies provides software services in the area of embedded
products and product development through Technology Development Services (TDS),
Networking Services and Internet and e-commerce. The company derives major
revenues from offshore activities through its offshore development centers in
the country. The company provides these services through the 14 technical
development centers and 35 dedicated offshore centers–it was a symbol of the
company’s increased focus on this segment that 14 of these were added during
2000-01. HCL Technologies achieves around 68% of revenues from its offshore
activities.

SSI

Chennai-based
software education and services company, SSI, made it to the top 10 on the basis
of its performance in the year ended June 2001. The year was very encouraging as
its saw its revenues jump 108% to Rs 410.52 crore. Net profit in the same year
grew 38% to Rs 78.58 crore. SSI is ranked at # 12 in both sales and profit size
whereas it stands at # 5 in sales growth and # 18 in profit growth. Its gross
block size of Rs 497.23 placed it at # 7 but the 215% growth in gross block
enabled it to hold the # 2 position in the criterion. While the numbers for June
2001 are impressive, SSI has since undergone a tough time with the education
division performing poorly. Moreover, the performance in the services segment
too has been unimpressive despite the acquisition of Albion Orion last year. As
a result, SSI has witnessed a sharp decline in revenues and net profit since
last year. SSI is therefore expected to disappoint with unimpressive figures in
the current year. Nevertheless, the performance in June 2001 places the company
in the #9 position.

Digital GlobalSoft

Despite
some question marks on the prospects of the company’s existence, Digital
continued to perform exceptionally well outperforming its peers. With the
acquisition of Compaq Computer Company, the largest shareholder of Digital
GlobalSoft, by Hewlett-Packard, there are doubts on the very existence of
Digital GlobalSoft, since HP has an unlisted software arm in India. However,
Digital GlobalSoft, which derives 85% of its revenues from Compaq, has continued
to report an excellent performance. Digital’s revenues in March 2002 jumped
80% to Rs 331.70 crore whereas its net profit jumped 71% to Rs 92.67 crore.
Digital is ranked at # 15 in sales, # 13 in sales growth, #11 in profit and # 12
in profit growth. Digital’s is ranked at # 7 in ROCE, which jumped from 35% to
46%. Although the merger of HP and Compaq has been approved, there are no
indications yet of the plans of HP regarding Digital GlobalSoft. Bangalore-based
Digital provides services in the area of e-applications, system integration,
enterprise solutions, e-infrastructure, and telecom.

Mindteck (India)

Ranked at #11 against # 52 last year, is Mumbai based Mindteck (India).
Erstwhile known as Hinditron, Mindteck seems to be getting back on track after
the restructuring process started a couple of years ago. Mindteck achieved
revenues of Rs 12.55 crore in the full year ended June 2001, which were higher
by 189%. The company reported net profit of Rs 2.95 crore as against a loss of
Rs 2.01 crore in the same period last year. Mindteck gross block went up by 60%
to Rs 5.94 crore whereas its ROCE stood at an impressive 47%. Mindteck is ranked
at # 3 in sales growth, #27 in profit growth, #12 in gross block growth, and # 5
in ROCE. Mindteck provides consulting services and offshore outsourcing in the
insurance, maritime and telecommunication segments. The company has expertise in
embedded technologies and is building competencies in Data warehousing,
Enterprise Application Integration, and CRM. It had offshore development centers
in Mumbai and Bangalore and has offices in UK, Japan, Singapore, and the US. The
company recently came out with a rights issue to raise funds for setting-up
development centers in Kolkata and Bangalore.

Sierra Optima

The Hyderabad based company improved its ranking and is placed at # 12 as
against # 21 last year. Sierra Optima is a mid-sized company providing services
in application development and migration with specialization on the Oracle
Platform. Sierra’s sales stood at Rs 36.94 crore and net profit at Rs 10.52
crore in the year ended March 2001. These were higher by 80% and 91%
respectively. Sierra’s topped the ROCE rankings although its ROCE declined
marginally from 53% to 52%. Sierra is ranked at # 12 in sales growth and # 10 in
profit growth. Despite the impressive performance last year, the company is
going through a bad patch as its parent company, the US based Sierra Atlantic
canceled all the pending orders. Consequently, the board of Sierra Optima has
decided to buy back the shares from the public at Rs 69.07 per share and get
delisted from the stock exchange. Notably, the promoters, Sierra Atlantic, would
not be eligible for participating in the offer.

Hughes Software Systems

Delhi
based Hughes Software is in the top list due to its performance in 2001. Hughes
Software moves up from # 30 to # 13 on the basis of sales and profit growth
reported in March 2001. Hughes’s revenues stood at Rs 198.54 crore, up 85%
whereas its net profit stood at Rs 63.17 crore, up 115% over the corresponding
period in the previous year. Its gross block was up by 22% to Rs 101.12 crore.
Hughes is placed at # 21 in sales, # 8 in sales growth, # 13 in profit, # 5 in
profit growth, and # 16 in gross block size. Hughes Software’s ROCE stood at
36% and it was placed at # 9 in ROCE. Hughes provides software solutions product
development to telecom companies in the area of switching technologies, access
technologies, network management systems, intelligent networks, real time and
embedded system, and computer telephony integrators. The company achieved 36% of
revenues from its parent HNS-India Inc and an equal share from services to other
clients with 28% coming in from product sales. With the slump in the global
telecom markets, the company’s performance has been sharply impacted in 2002.

Aftek Infosys

The Mumbai-based company has taken a huge leap from # 51 last year to # 14. Aftek’s
revenues for the year ended June 2001 stood at Rs 45.41 crore, up by 137%
whereas its net profit leaped 197% to Rs 25.10 crore. Aftek is placed at # 43 in
sales, # 4 in sales growth, # 21 in profit, and # 3 in profit growth. Its gross
block was up by 56% to Rs 12.41 crore and the company was placed at # 14 in
gross block growth. Aftek is engaged in providing software services and product
development in the area of embedded software. In software services, the company’s
offers customized embedded and systems software for different platforms and
appliances. In product sales, the company sells PDAs and smartcards to banks,
SMEs, and transport companies. It’s major and most successful software product
is Powersafe, which was gold certified by CA. Powersafe is an UPS monitoring
software product, which is integrated with Computer Associates’ Unicenter-TNG.
The company achieves 60% revenues from services and around 30% from product
sales. Aftek has announced plans to go for GDR issue and expects to grow at
around 50%.

Mphasis BFL

Ranked at # 15 is Bangalore-based Mphasis, which has seen a sharp turnaround
in its performance for the period ended March 31, 2001. The company reported a
43% jump in revenues to Rs 172.87 crore and 535% jump in net profit to Rs 20.57
crore. The previous year’s profit has been adjusted for extraordinary
expenses. Mphasis is ranked at # 19 in sales growth and tops the profit growth
ranking. In terms of size, Mphasis stands at # 22 in sales, # 23 in profit, and
# 24 in gross block size. Mphasis provides software services and solutions in
the area of application management, legacy systems transformation, enterprise
application integration and high-end architecture, and IT consulting with focus
on financial Services, which includes Banking and Insurance, Retail, Logistics
and Transportation, Technology and IT Enabled Services. It also provides IT
enabled services, which includes call centers and business process outsourcing (BPO)
through its 73% held subsidiary MsourceE India. On a consolidated basis, Mphasis
expects its top line to grow by 30% and bottomline by 200% in fiscal 2003,
majority of which would come from MsourceE. Its performance in fiscal 2002 too
has been impressive.

Rolta India

Mumbai
based Rolta India has retained the #16 position. Rolta reported revenues of Rs
300.82 crore and net profit of Rs 105.45 crore in the year ended December 2001.
Its gross block stood at Rs 325.68 crore, up by 44% over the previous year.
Rolta is placed at # 16 in sales, # 7 in profits, # 9 in gross block size, and #
11 in ROCE. Its ROCE stood at 32% as against 33% last year. Rolta is a leader in
CAD/CAM and GIS conversion services market employing around 2000 employees and
its services include providing Geospatial Technology for AM/FM and GIS, Plant
Design Automation (PDA) and Mechanical Design Automation (MDA) and e-services.
In the Internet area, the company is into the ISP business and also focuses on
providing e-business, e-security, and network management services to the
clients.

Pentasoft Technologies

Chennai-based Pentasoft Technologies is ranked at # 17 as against # 10 in the
previous year. Pentasoft Technologies’ revenues in March 2002 declined by 36%
to Rs 371.17 crore whereas it’s net profit went down by 53% to Rs 59.68 crore
over last year. Pentasoft was ranked at # 14 in sales and # 15 in profits. The
company topped the gross block ranking which stood Rs 1130.70 crore. The company
is engaged in providing software services, CAD/CAM/CAE, Engineering services and
is also into IT education offering medium to high-end courses. In the services
segment, Pentasoft is engaged in application development, maintenance,
migration, and e-commerce services with focus on financial services, insurance,
and manufacturing verticals. The company acquired the software services division
from PentaMedia Graphics some time ago. Its CAD/CAM/CAE and engineering services
are focused on automotive, aerospace and heavy engineering industries. Pentasoft
was one of the few major IT companies that saw a sharp decline in revenues in
2002 due to the slowdown. With the first quarter of 2003 also ending on a poor
note, Pentasoft is unlikely to match its 2002 revenues in fiscal 2003.

Infotech Enterprises

The Hyderabad based company, also into CAD/CAM/GIS conversion, engineering
services and software services, moves up from # 27 to # 18. Infotech made a
series of acquisitions in 2001 and has consolidated its performance in the year
2002. The company closed March 2002 with revenues of Rs 97.44 crore and net
profit of Rs 28.76 crore, higher by 69% and 67% respectively. It was ranked at #
15 in sales growth, # 13 in profit growth, # 15 in gross block growth, and # 12
in ROCE. Its gross block increased 54% to Rs 66.94 crore. Infotech achieves
almost 60% of the revenues from CAD/CAM/GIS conversion business. Its engineering
services business is performing well and is slated to see a sharp jump in
revenues in the future. Infotech also provides software services, which forms a
small part of its business. Infotech’s recent strategic business and equity
alliance with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies
Corporation (UTC) is expected to drive revenues. Infotech has issued an
additional 18% equity to Pratt & Whitney and entered into a five-year
contract with them.

Subex Systems


The Bangalore-based company, focusing on development and marketing of software
products and services in the telecom segment, moves up one notch to # 19. Subex’s
revenues in the full year ended March 2001 jumped 77% to Rs 55.24 crore, whereas
its net profit grew 107% to Rs 10.39 crore. Subex is ranked at # 14 in sales
growth, # 7 in profit growth, and #5 in gross block growth. The company’s
gross blocked went up by 136% to Rs 10.98 crore. Subex provides services in the
areas of Telecom Applications, Network Management, Quality of Service
Measurement, Switch Interface, Call Simulation and other systems software. Subex’s
has also developed products in fraud management, data warehousing, and billing
integrity check. The company recently placed equity to Toronto Dominion Bank at
double the prevailing market price then and it also won a contract from Sonatel
Mobiles, Senegal to deploy its fraud management software, RangerT. The
performance of the company in the third quarter ended December 2001 was
disappointing and this could slowdown the pace generated in the past couple of
years.

CMC

Now a Tata
group company is ranked at # 20 compared to # 37 last year. However, the Tatas
yet can’t take the credit for the leap, as the performance is as on March
2001. With the recent acquisition of CMC by Tatas, the rankings would hopefully
only improve. CMC’s sales in the year ended March 2001 stood at Rs 537.68
crore up by 18% whereas its net profit stood at Rs 25.09 crore, up by 98%. CMC’s
gross block went up by 12% to Rs 121.87 crore. CMC was ranked at # 8 in sales, #
31 in sales growth, # 22 in profit, # 9 in profit growth, and # 15 in gross
block size. CMC provides services in hardware maintenance, system integration,
third party maintenance, networking services, education, and training. CMC was
recently acquired by the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) from the government of
India. TCS acquired the 51% stake from the government at Rs 157 per share and
came out with an open offer to acquire another 20% stake from the public at Rs
281 per share. The open offer received a lukewarm response. CMC’s performance
has improved since and the company is expected to witness sharp improvement in
profitability, going ahead.

Tata Elxsi (India)

Tata Elxsi,
another Tata group company, has reported an impressive performance and jumped in
its ranking from # 36 last year to # 21. Tata Elxsi closed fiscal 2002 with
revenues of Rs 129.81 crore and net profit of Rs 16.75 crore. While sales were
lower by 5%, the net profit went up by 21%. Its gross block went up by 11% to Rs
31.39 crore. Tata Elxsi is placed at # 23 in sales, # 41 in sales growth, # 26
in profit, and #23 in profit growth. The company has taken a series of actions
to improve profitability, which is evident from the jump in the net profit
despite the fall in sales. Tata Elxsi provides design and development services
in technologies that include Visual Computing, Networking and Communications,
Embedded Systems and Storage Management, Internet and Intranet and GroupWare.
The company also provides system integration solutions in CAD / CAM, Film, Video
and Broadcast, Network Design and Implementation and Scientific and Commercial
Computing.

Tata Infotech

This Tata
group company has moved up from #40 to #22, thanks to the improved revenues in
the year ended March 2001. However, the company saw a sharp decline in profits
 during the year. Tata Infotech closed March 2001 with revenues of Rs
515.25 crore, up 22%, and a net profit of Rs 26.54 crore, up by 118%. Its gross
block went up by 33% to Rs 147.53 crore, whereas its ROCE stood at 20% as
against 13% last year. Tata Infotech is ranked at #10 in sales, #19 in profits,
#28 in sales growth, #28 in profit growth and #13 in gross block. The company is
largely into software services and system integration apart from providing IT
education. With the acquisition of CMC by TCS, there were rumors of
consolidation among the listed Tata group companies such as the software arm of
TCS, CMC, Tata Elxsi, and Tata Infotech to improve operational efficiencies.
While the Tatas have not indicated their plans after the acquisition of CMC,
Tata Infotech’s performance has been very unimpressive in 2002 and the first
quarter of 2003. The managing director of the company, Dr Nirmal Jain, resigned
in 2001-02.

Blue Star Infotech

Mumbai-based Blue Star Infotech is the new entrant in the rankings and based
on its previous year’s figures, the company has moved up from # 34 to # 22.
Blue Star Infotech was formed as a division of Air-Conditioner manufacturer Blue
Star Ltd in 1983 for providing services on HP platforms. The division was spun
off in 1999 as an independent company and it currently provides services in the
area of legacy application support, R&D services to global product and
technology companies, ERP implementation and software services in the area of
Banking, Financial Services and Insurance. Blue Star Infotech reported revenues
to the tune of Rs 52.21 crore and a net profit of Rs 12.34 crore in the full
year ended March 2002. These were higher by 10% and 46% respectively. The
company reported a ROCE of 38%, marginally lower than the previous year. Blue
Star is placed at # 38 in sales, # 30 in profits, # 33 in sales growth, # 17 in
profit growth, and #7 in ROCE.

Silverline Technologies

Silverline
Technologies has retained its ranking at # 23. Silverline has decided to extend
its year-end to June 2002 and therefore its ranking is based on the performance
relating to March 2001. Silverline reported sales of Rs 272.72 crore and a net
profit of Rs 131.47 crore in the year ended March 2001. While sales grew by 40%,
net profit was up by 87% during the period. Its gross block grew 16% to Rs
183.11 crore. Silverline was placed at # 18 in sales, # 6 in profits, # 22 in
sales growth, # 22 in profit growth, # 11 in gross block size, and $ 36 in gross
block growth. The company provides services in e-commerce, CRM, re-engineering
and maintenance of legacy systems through its offshore development centers in
Thane and Bangalore. The financials are based on the performance on a standalone
basis and on a consolidated basis, the company would have being among the major
ones in revenue size.

Mascot

The subsidiary of US based listed company, iGate has moved up from # 43 to #
24. Mascot closed fiscal 2002 with revenues of Rs 403.21 crore, up 18% and net
profit of Rs 45.52 crore, up by 21%. Its gross block went up 58% to Rs 81.30
crore. Mascot is ranked at # 13 in sales, # 17 in profit, # 20 in gross block
size, and # 13 in gross block growth. Mascot provides software solutions with a
focus on design, deployment, and management of software applications solutions
that support businesses. Its services include application maintenance
outsourcing, e-business solutions, customized and web solutions, business
intelligence and application re-engineering. The company focus is on
manufacturing, financial services, service industry, retail, and telecom.
Although the company has massive offshore facilities spread across Bangalore,
Pune and Chennai, it still achieves around 80% of the revenues from onsite
activities with GE being its major client contributing almost 35% of the total
revenues.

GTL

A new entrant, Mumbai based GTL, erstwhile known as Global Tele Systems, has
slipped in the ranking to # 25 from # 8. GTL reported revenues of Rs 532.81
crore, which was down by 35% and a net profit of Rs 104 crore, down by 57%. The
company’s gross block stood at Rs 689.78 crore, up 4%. GTL is ranked at # 9 in
sales, # 8 in profits, and # 6 in gross block size. GTL’s is a comprehensive
player in the Network Engineering and IT Services industry providing software
development and services, deployment of IT infrastructure for Internet and
telecom companies, operating call center and providing services in the managed
network services, VPN and software development services. The company has
reorganized its business into two divisions. Under the Network Engineering
Services Division, GTL services would include network deployment, installation,
and operations on a turnkey basis to telecom services providers and IT Services
Division. Its IT Services division would provides services in software
development, maintenance and support, project management, data centers, VPN,
managed networks, network consultancy and network security. GTL’s performance
was impacted by the slow down in the software services and telecom industry and
the company is likely to remain subdued in the current year.

Nucleus Software Exports

Delhi-based Nucleus Software Exports is ranked at # 26 as against #6, which
was based on its financials of last year. Nucleus Software reported revenues of
Rs 40.43 crore and a net profit of Rs 10.19 crore, which were higher by 50% and
6% respectively. The company’s gross block went up by 72% to Rs 22.08 crore.
Nucleus is ranked at # 17 in sales growth, # 25 in profit growth, and # 9 in
asset growth. Its ROCE ranking is # 17 and it achieved a ROCE of 25%. Nucleus is
focused on the banking segment and has developed a number of products in this
area. Its performance has been steadily improving over the past couple of years
although the company witnessed a decline in the profits in the fourth quarter of
2002, which was largely due to high personnel cost. The company has increased
its employees from 471 to 611 and currently has a presence in 7 countries.
Nucleus has been aggressive in its marketing in the past two years, which has
yielded positive results. Nucleus Software is still a mid-sized company and it
remains to be seen if the company can take a successful leap to reach the next
stage.

HCL Infosystems

Although
HCL Infosystems has moved two notches up from #29 to #27, overall performance
remained unimpressive. HCL Infosystems reported revenues of Rs 1162.31 crore, up
by just 3% and a net profit of Rs 58.36 crore, down by 20% in the year ended
June 2001. Its gross block was up by 8% to Rs 99.82 crore. HCL Infosystems is
placed at # 4 in sales, # 16 in profits, and # 17 in gross block size. HCL
Infosystems is an integrated technology company, providing systems integration
services and software solutions. The company is also the undisputed leader in
the domestic hardware segment and its offerings include manufacturing of PCs,
servers, and high-end storage products among others. In services, the company
provides IT consulting, software development, System Integration, SAP
consultancy, Customization of business solutions, Setting up Call Centers,
Technical Helpdesk, System support, facilities management and networking. While
the hardware business remains a poor contributor to the operating profit, the
company has been unable to make any major mark in the services segment. The
current slowdown is only likely to put further pressure on the company’s
performance.

NIIT

The IT
Education major and software services company has slipped from the # 11 position
to # 28 position due to the sharp deterioration in the bottomline. One of the
leading players in the Indian IT training segment, NIIT witnessed a slowdown in
its education business during 2001. Moreover, its services business too failed
to grow at the industry level. In the full year ended September 2001, NIIT’s
revenues fell 8% to Rs 687.51 crore whereas the net profit slumped 57% to Rs
95.96 crore. Its gross block however went up 28% to Rs 310.16 crore. NIIT is
ranked at # 6 in sales, # 10 in profit and gross block size. NIIT’s revenues
from education declined by 18% to Rs 451.86 crore whereas the software services
grew by just 19%. On a consolidated basis NIIT’s revenues stood at Rs 1138.92
crore and could have been placed higher in the rankings. NIIT has witnessed
improvement in the education business in the past two quarters and expects to
see a revival by the end of September 2002.

Polaris Software Labs

The Chennai-based software services company has slipped from # 13 to # 29
due to minuscule growth in sales and net profit. Polaris’ revenues for the
year ended March 2002 grew by just 2% to Rs 273.91 crore whereas its net profit
jumped 3% to Rs 61.65 crore. Its gross block went up by 22% to Rs 71 crore.
Polaris is ranked at # 17 in sales, # 14 in profits, and # 22 in gross block.
The company is engaged in providing software services with primary focus on
Banking, Finance services, and Insurance sector (BFSI). Its services include
migration, re-engineering, ERP, data networking and web enabled application
development services. The revenues of the company are slated to jump manifold as
it has recently acquired OrbiTech Solutions Ltd, a subsidiary of OrbiTech Ltd,
which is in turn a subsidiary of Citibank Technologies Holdings Inc, USA. The
merged entity will become a Rs 650 crore company and push Polaris into the top 5
IT companies slot in the country and also take it higher up in the rankings next
year.