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Kolkata/Mumbai, Dec. 6 Silverline Technologies got re-listed on BSE on Thursday after its trading was suspended from November 13 in order to give effect to the reduction of capital and de-merger of its animation division.

The Rs 10-stock shot up to Rs 220 and finally closed at Rs 160.50, marking a 1,141 per cent gain over the last closing price of Rs 13 on the exchange. About 33-lakh shares changed hands.

“We saw a lot of buying due to the fact that the company has got re-listed with a clean slate and it has totally recovered from its losses”, said Sanjay Kotari, Senior Research Analyst, Unitis Tower Wealth Management.

The division, which co-created the animation with Percept Pictures and Sahara Entertainment, Hanuman, is being spun off as a separate entity and to be listed later. The shareholders would get 4 shares in Silverline Animation Technologies, for every 100 shares held in Silverline Technologies.

The company has short-listed 3 profit-making North American companies for acquisitions through stock swap, according to the management.

Mr Ravi Subramanian, STL chairman, told Business Line that STL, which managed to turnaround after going bust, would now be looking at acquisitions in North America.

To facilitate these acquisitions, Silverline is in the process of issuing FCCBs and ADRs. Silverline is also in the process of issuing 37.76 lakh convertible warrants to Mount Blanc Investment Corporation of Canada. It is allotting about 57 lakh optionally convertible equity warrants of Rs 10 each to Ravi Subramanian.

Founded in 1992, the company, which was the first Indian IT company to get listed on NYSE, landed in financial troubles when the dotcom bubble burst. In fact, its acquisition of SeraNova for $39.24 million pushed the company virtually to the brink and the company began to avail themselves of every debt raising opportunity to keep itself afloat. The promoters of the company lost most of their personal assets under bank auctions in the US.

In 2005, corporate advisory company, Firstcall India assisted in the revival process of the company. The restructuring process was flagged off in February 2005.

The 2001 scam-tainted Silverline, in the past few years, cleared all its debts with the banks and institutions, according to the Chairman. It also acquired Millennium Care Inc of Canada, a technology support service provider in the retail, utilities, and local government and municipalities, and Netxert Inc of US, which delivers services in systems integration in the automotive, technology and Government sectors.

In the financial year to June 30, 2007, Silverline’s total income grew to Rs 77.27 crore from Rs 2.55 crore in the previous fiscal. Certain operations of the two overseas outfits, such as software development, back office support in finance, accounting and revenue management services, are now being sourced from here.

As on September 30, 2007, the paid-up equity of the company was around Rs 3 crore. Angel Broking held 35,15,267 shares, representing 1.17 per cent stake, apparently as the largest single block of holding, at the end of September quarter this year. The broking outfit entered the counter in quarter to September 30, 2007. Angel Broking spokesperson, Ms Poonam Sukhija, did not reply to Business Line queries regarding the status of the investment.

According to the last BSE posted information, some 76 individuals and entities held a total of 0.02 per cent stake on March 31, 2007.

“We foresee the fiscal 2008 to be the year of consolidation with over 1,500 employees worldwide and revenue of over $ 125 million,” Mr Titus Sequeira, Executive Director, said. The company expects to notch up a turnover of Rs 496 crore in 2007-08 with a net profit of Rs. 63 crore.

“To see whether the shareholders should hold on to their shares or not, they have to wait for the other two companies to get listed. The fact that the shareholders will get shares of Silverline Animation as well should be incentive enough to hold onto shares on the company as animation is picking up quite fast in the country,” said Mr Sanjay Someshwar, Sub-broker, Ventura Securities.

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