Patni sees significant work from ABN AMRO

NEW DELHI - Patni Computer Systems Ltd, India's sixth-largest software exporter, expects significant business from ABN AMRO Bank in the coming quarters, a top Patni official said.

"It is a $10 million plus relationship for us and growing," Mrinal Sattawala, executive vice-president at Patni, told reporters.

"Over the next 2-3 quarters we should see significant business growth," he said.

In September, Patni and two other Indian software companies, were among five firms who won ABN AMRO's 1.8 billion euros ($2.2 billion) IT outsourcing deal.

A lion's share of the deal -- 1.5 billion euros -- went to IBM to mainly provide IT infrastructure.

Amongst the Indian winners, Tata Consultancy Services said it expected revenues of more than 200 million euros from the deal while Infosys Technologies said its contract was worth $140 million.

The slice won by Patni is not known.

The five-year contract from ABN AMRO was the largest for the booming Indian outsourcing industry that has become a magnet for global corporations keen to cut software development costs.

Sattawala also said he expected business from GE, Patni's largest client, to be "roughly stable" during the year.

"We are not projecting significant growth in the GE business," he said.

Application development and infrastructure management for GE contributed roughly 17 percent of Patni's fourth quarter revenue.

Patni's revenue rose 38 percent in calendar 2005 to $450.55 million while net income rose 11 percent to $60.87 million.

Sattawala said the firm was also scouting around for acquisitions to boost growth, mainly in Europe.

"We continue to look very aggressively for the right opportunity."