First, congratulations on the great IPO show reports.
After a decision to not go ahead with an IPO last time, to today with a
successful IPO, I am sure life and business would change a lot from here. Does
it bother you a bit?
Yes, we had planned an IPO some time back but the market conditions didnt seem
right. As about the changes ahead and moving forward, the q-o-q routine would
set in for sure. That would be new to us. Also, so far we have been managing
expectations of employees and customers. Now shareholders would join that pack
too. We have been looking forward to it and preparing for a while.
What are the bright points of a public issue, now that
you have done one?
To name a few, visibility, a different q-o-q radar, availability of shares
in the market, potential employee attractiveness, improvement in the recruitment
tunnel, better customer awareness.
MindTree, that also has a good presence in the product engineering space, had
an over-subscription too (around 103 times) in 2007. It attracted a lot of QIB
(qualified institutional buyer) interest like in your case. Would it be right to
attribute a good market response to the factor that OPD is still a white space?
Its a good company. But I cant dissect too much into it and comment. QIBs
are the ones who study the company and industry very well. But, what I can
better talk about is the industry. We are in a good market and in a good area.
OPD is going on a road where new versions of software products as well as many
disruptive areas are going to redefine the market. With cloud computing,
collaboration, analytics, etc, there would be some disruptive product
development too. This would require OPD partners to have a better, faster and
cheaper product development.
Any changes that you are planning for the business model?
Not much. We are in a good market and position as I said. We would continue
doing what we have been doing rather than change the model. Hence, no plans for
the short term. Our four main horizontal areas have a lot of potential and we
have built more expertise around that.
How do you plan to use this growth capital?
Mainly Rs 128 crore would be raised apart from Rs 40 crore as secondary
shares. The first lot has a well defined plan. Rs 76 crore would be pumped in
establishing development facilities and completion of the Hinjewadi and Nagpur
setups. Rs 20 crore would go for hardware, etc, and Rs 3 crore for a SEZ
subsidiary and the rest for general corporate reserves and some for issue
expenses.
Pratima Harigunani/CMN
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in