Kolkata, June 22, 2009
The Economic Times The Times of India
Rating major, ICRA has said it is open to acquisitions in the KPO and IT space to boost its non-rating revenues in the coming years.
"We are open to more acquisitions in KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) and IT space if we get right offers. In March, we had acquired US-based IT company of Sapphire Group through our analytics subsidiary," ICRA vice-chairman and group CEO P K Choudhury said.
Sapphire was a USD 1.5 million revenue company and was acquired for around USD 1 million.
Choudhury said the company is aiming to increase its non-rating revenues to 50 percent of the total group earnings by 2011-12.
"Currently, rating revenues are 60 percent and 40 percent (comes) from non-rating activities," he said.
ICRA group revenue for 2008-09 was Rs 149.81 crore, of which rating services was Rs 88.51 crore.
ICRA is not aiming for any big-ticket acquisition and is eyeing value-based companies in knowledge domain.
The consolidation with Sapphire would be complete by September, ICRA Techno Analytics Ltd (ICTEAS) Managing Director Prateep Guha said.
ICRA would shift development activities of Sapphire in Egypt and Russia to its Kolkata office.
"We are planning to introduce business intelligence software branded as Turf View Business Intelligence for both Indian and overseas market," Guha said.
This product would cater to sectors like pharma, FMCG and consumer durables and offer value on the data captured by the ERP solutions.
ICRA group's non-rating revenues mostly come from three subsidiaries, ICRA Management Consultancy Services Ltd, ICRA Techno Analytics Ltd (ICTEAS) and ICRA Online.
Choudhury, speaking about the rating of corporates in the current economic scenario said, now downgrading had reduced, "but it will be another year before we can see substantial upgrades of ratings".
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