i-flex may fix IPO offer dates in 10 days

MUMBAI: Indian financial software company i-flex solutions said on Monday it

could announce within 10 days when subscriptions will open for an eagerly

awaited initial public offering (IPO).

The firm, whose single-largest shareholder is Citigroup with a 47.47 per cent

stake, makes software products that power computer operations in banks and

provides software services to 330 institutions in 80 countries. An i-flex

spokesman said the company may announce a minimum floor price, along with the

opening and closing dates for the IPO subscription, over the next 10 days.

The company in March filed for permission to make an IPO with plans to sell

3.96 million shares, or 10 per cent of the company in April. "We delayed

the IPO in order to include the financial figures for the past year in the

prospectus," said an i-flex spokesman.

"Investors like to see full-year results, which make it easier to see

how the company is performing over time."

Profit up 29 per cent



In early May, i-flex reported its net profit in January-March rose 29 per
cent from a year earlier to Rs 358.6 million ($7.3 million), on a 47 per cent

surge in revenue to 1.12 billion. For the full year to March, net profit rose

15.2 per cent to Rs 1.27 billion on sales of 4.15 billion, up 34.5 per cent.

The actual issue price will be decided through the so-called book-building

method, and after i-flex completes its roadshow presentations to institutional

investors in India and abroad. Indian brokerage J.M. Morgan Stanley is the lead

manager for the offer and Kotak Mahindra, DSP Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith

Barney are co-managers.

The Indian market is hoping the i-flex listing would breath new life into the

domestic IPO market.

The past financial year to March saw only six IPOs in India which altogether

raised Rs 10.8 billion ($221.3 million). Just one, Bharti Televentures,

accounted for 77 per cent of the total, according to PRIME, a Delhi-based

research house which tracks the Indian primary investment market.

Brand profile



The spokesman indicated i-flex was selling shares not so much to raise money
as improve its corporate image and brand profile. "Money is not the primary

driving factor," the spokesman said. "We're sitting on Rs 1.5 billion

in cash. But being publicly listed will give us better brand visibility.

"Also, when big institutions and companies consider doing business with

you, the first thing they want to see are your results. As a listed company,

that will now all be public information."

I-flex has not indicated how much money it hopes to raise. But its March

filing said it would spend at least 2.2 billion rupees in proceeds from the IPO,

including Rs 1.7 billion to set up new software development centers in Bangalore

and Bombay.

It planned to use another Rs 500 million to set up marketing offices in Latin

America, Europe, West Asia and the Asia Pacific region and to pump funds into

subsidiaries in the Netherlands, the United States and Singapore. I-flex's

flagship product FLEXCUBE, which enables banks to automate systems, is among the

world's leading back-end systems in the financial industry.