The Hindu Business Line : SemIndia systems biz to break even by March-end

Bangalore, Feb. 2 SemIndia Inc expects to commission its assembly, test, marking and packing (ATMP) facility in Hyderabad in the second half of this calendar year, while its systems business would break-even by end of the current fiscal.

“The systems business is doing extremely well and will post small profits by March 2009. Thereafter, it will post profits every quarter,” said Mr Bob Kondamoori, Vice-Chairman of SemIndia. The company, which clocked revenues of over Rs 80 crore last year, is expected to grow by more than three times in the current fiscal.

SemIndia Systems, which manufactures telecom equipment such as modules for cellphones, modems, routers and WiMAX equipment, currently serves over a dozen customers such as BSNL and UTStarcom. “The company has an order book of over Rs 1,000 crore,” Mr Kondamoori said.

Hiring to begin soon

At present, SemIndia Systems designs and develops its products in Singapore and gets them manufactured at Malaysia and at Flextronics facility in Chennai. “Hiring for the ATMP would commence in the next few months. Once the ATMP is operational, the company expects to move its manufacturing activities to Hyderabad,” Mr Kondamoori, who also represents Sandalwood Partners, the lead investor in SemIndia, said.

Other investors include Flextronics and Empire Capital. SemIndia’s plan to set up chip manufacturing facility at the Fab City in Hyderabad has taken a back seat due to the viability of the project because of the change in market conditions, where demand for semiconductors has seen a decline in recent times.

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