SSI to acquire software companies

BANGALORE: Chennai-based SSI Ltd. plans to acquire three more software companies focussing on industry verticals such as banking and finance, insurance and telecom.

SSI Chairman and CEO Kalpathi S. Suresh said the fund earmarked for such acquisitions was around $15 million (Rs 65 crores, approximately), and the acquisitions should be completed by June 2000. The size of the acquisitions would be to the tune of $3-5 millions per company. "We are looking at companies which have a client base of eight to ten per company, with some key clients, with whom we could develop a larger relationship in the long term,'' said Mr. Suresh.

SSI Ltd, which had earlier set up SSI Technologies, a software and consulting division, had recently acquired Indigo Technologies, a software company specializing in online transaction processing (OLTP) solutions to the securities industry. The setting up of SSI Technologies has brought the operations of Clientsoft, SSI's wholly-owned subsidiary in the US, under the purview of SSI Technologies, which will mainly provide software solutions to industry verticals such as banking and finance, insurance, securities, and healthcare. The company has plans to take its training centres to South and South-East Asia and to Mauritius to gain a foothold in the African market.