The Hindu Business Line : Paradyne Infotech: Avoid

AN INVESTMENT in the initial public offer of Paradyne Infotech need not be considered. The company's financial performance the past two years has been impressive. The valuation of the stock is also attractive.

Paradyne's market capitalisation, based on the offer price, works out to Rs 42 crore and the price-earnings multiple would be about 9. However, factors such as the lack of well-articulated strategy, excessive dependence on the domestic market for revenues, and the small size of the company increase the risks involved.

Paradyne does not appear to possess any distinct competitive advantage, which is essential for a software services company to sustain itself and grow.

Impressive growth

Paradyne's revenues increased from Rs 35 crore at the end of March 2003 to Rs 68.52 crore at the end of March 2005.

During the same period, profits rose from Rs 31 lakh to Rs 5 crore. The average return on net worth over the past three years is a healthy 35 per cent.

Annand Sarnaaik, a management graduate with no experience in software services, set up Paradyne Infotech in 1997.

The company is into systems integration, software services, managed services and recently entered BPO. Systems integration contributes a sizeable 75 per cent of the firm's revenues. Exports accounted for less than 10 per cent of total revenues. Growth in export sales has, however, been unimpressive.

The bulk of revenue may be generated from hardware sales. Though the company does not indicate the hardware component in the total sales, of the total 102 technical staff employed by Paradyne, 34 are hardware engineers.

Risky prospects

Nothing in the offer document suggests that Paradyne has a competitive edge over its competitors in the domestic software arena. The revenues from the latter are set to grow rapidly given that the Indian industry is expected to grow at 12 to15 per cent per annum in the next several years.

Without competitive advantage or size, Paradyne may find it difficult to take advantage of the growth prospects for domestic software services. Its management strategy is also not well articulated.

Paradyne sees itself as an integrated IT solutions provider. The company's size, however, makes such claims look lofty and suggests that it lacks a focussed strategy.

The offer document also does not clearly indicate what proportion of the profits is accounted for by systems integration, which is hardware intensive and the competition is quite intense in India.

There is also no mention of the company's performance in the quarter ended June. Paradyne has indicated that it has orders for Rs 12 crore as of end-September. This works out to a substantially small proportion of the total revenues for the year ended March. These risk factors considerably dilute the attractiveness of the offer.

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