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Caritor mulls Nasdaq listing

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE: California based software services and products firm, Caritor is planning a Nasdaq listing either in early or mid 2006. Although the size was not mentioned, the company plans to utilize the fund raised on acquisitions, entering new geographies and also on new products and services. "Japan, Australia, and Asia would be targeted aggressively and Latin America also probed for opportunities. On the services front, BPO would be a strong consideration, being offered through a joint venture," said Phani K Nagarjuna, Global Head, Group Strategy, Marketing and Products, Caritor.



Founded in 1993 with an initial investment of $150,000, Caritor today boasts of $58 million revenue with no debt and a cash pile of $20 million. With profitability of 15 to 16 per cent, the company plans to post in revenue of $100 million this year and touch $200 million in 2006. (Its fiscal is calendar year).



Earlier known as IT Solutions, Caritor was founded by its Chairman and CEO, Mani Subramanian, the former head of the UK operations of TCS and President of Wipro. Owned by the Board and employees in the ratio of 60:40 in favor of the Board, Caritor is present at the moment in four continents, North America, Europe, South Africa and Asia. Its workforce of 1,750 plus is spread across five offshore development centers in India. Distributed with three development centers in Bangalore and two in Chennai, Caritor plans to open two more centers in India, one each in Bangalore and Chennai and increase its workforce to 3000 by the end of 2004.



Presently in India since 1994, the company has invested close to $15 million in its Indian operations so far. This year an investment of $10 million has been earmarked for its Indian operations. Apart from the ODCs, the investment is to be pumped into the sales and marketing effort of the company in India. Sales and marketing office is planned in Kolkata and Hyderabad, adding to its existing office in Mumbai and Gurgoan. "India is a huge market and we are gearing to tap the business opportunity. We would be targeting the retail, banking, education and healthcare segments in the country. We might also consider a development center in Hyderabad sometime next year," added Nagarjuna.



Apart from services, Caritor also offers its flagship product suite, Baseline on an ASP model. Baseline Support and Baseline Self Service are two modules which are already being shipped. Baseline Sales Force Automation is in the process of being released soon. Their other products include iConnect. A collaborative product, targeted exclusively for the automobile industry.



Caritor had formed a business intelligence product company called Influence in 1996. It had sold it to Informatica in 1999 for $80 million in an all-stock transaction deal.



CIOL Bureau

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