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HCL Perot Systems may go public next year

Partha Ghosh

Vipin Kumar

NEW DELHI, June 6

HCL Perot Systems Ltd (HPS) could well be the next company from the HCL stable to go public, after HCL Technologies. The company, a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of HCL Perot Systems NV -- a holding company registered in the Netherlands -- recently se cured Government approval to eventually dilute 40 per cent of its equity share capital.

The equity will be diluted in favour of employees and the public, including NRIs, OCBs and foreign nationals, by issuance of new equity shares and/or sale of existing holding by HCL Perot Systems NV.

In an application filed with FIPB, which has been approved, the company has proposed to bring down the promoters' (HCL Perot Systems NV) holding to 60 per cent, while securing approval for offering a maximum of 10 per cent equity to its employees and 30 per cent to the public.

A top company official did confirm that HPS was planning to go public. ``We had originally planned to go public in this year, but that proposal has been postponed. Now we are looking at sometime during the spring of 2001.''

The official said that both the partners are now considering infusing fresh equity into the four-year old venture, which is one of the youngest companies in the world to achieve the CMM Level 5 certification.

``We are now planning some financial restructuring in the company by infusing fresh equity. We have chalked out a Rs. 110-crore expansion for HPS, which would be carried out in the next 10-12 months.''

Under the expansion plan, HPS would set up software development facilities in Chandigarh and Hyderabad, besides strengthening the existing facilities in Bangalore and Noida. The number of employees would consequently go up to over 1,500 in this year.

Founded in March, 1996, HPS specialises in IT outsourcing and software development services and has experience in banking and finance, telecommunications and manufacturing. It provides its services in a number of countries including the UK, Switzerland, the US, Germany and India.

During 1999, HPS clocked a revenue of Rs. 210 crores. In the current fiscal, the company expects to achieve a turnover of Rs. 360 crores, the official said.