Briefs

Rs 152 cr provision hurts Satyam’s Q4 net
A Rs 151.7 crore provisioning towards losses in subsidiaries/investments in the fourth quarter eroded the bottomline of Satyam Computer Services. Of the total provision, Rs 126 crore relates to its subsidiary VisionCompass. Satyam has decided to discontinue the operations of VisionCompass, despite the fact that the company turned in a profitable year.

B Ramalinga Raju

Satyam Computers reported a net loss of Rs 35.91 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2003 as compared to a net profit of Rs 74.40 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2002. Excluding these extraordinary provisions, net profit remained flat at Rs 115.78 crore, marginally up from Rs 115.16 crore. Top-line grew by 14.69 percent from Rs 482.55 crore in Q4 of FY02 to Rs 553.47 crore in Q4 of FY03.

For fiscal 2004, Satyam expects revenue growth of 15-17 percent in dollar terms, while EPS for the fiscal is expected to be in the range of Rs 15.67 and Rs 16.02, a growth of 8.45 percent.

For the current quarter ending June 2003, income from software services is expected to be between Rs 540 crore and Rs 545 crore and EPS for the quarter is expected to be between Rs 3.81 and Rs 3.86.

Billing rates remained almost flat with a modest decline of 0.11 percent (onsite) and 0.26 percent (offshore) during the fourth quarter. On a year-on-year comparison, onsite rates decreased by 3.9 percent and by 4.4 percent for offshore projects.

InvestBank, UAE selects i-flex‘s FLEXCUBE
i-flex solutions, a leading provider of information technology solutions to the global financial services industry, announced that InvestBank, Sharjah has selected i-flex’s flagship product FLEXCUBE as its core banking solution after a competitive evaluation process. FLEXCUBE Universal Banking Solution includes back-office for corporate, treasury, investment, retail and private banking systems.

FLEXCUBE will enable the bank to undergo a branch expansion programme and boost the range of services it provides. It will also help InvestBank provide better and faster service to its customers from any branch through a single banking platform. Emirates Technology Company (EMITAC) will provide systems integration services.

IBM (India) attains top spot in commercial desktops and notebooks
IBM’s NetVista desktop has clinched the top spot in India for commercial desktop unit shipment market share in Q4 2002 while IBM’s ThinkPad has emerged as the top revenue performer in Q4 2002. The latest tracker report from analyst firm IDC reveals that IBM’s NetVista gained 1.6 percentage points in unit market share and increased revenue market share by 1.1 percentage points. The same report also states that IBM led the commercial desktop market in terms of unit shipments with 8.2 percent share and the notebook segment in terms of revenue with 31.4 percent share in Q4 2002.

— The Financial Express

Wipro to acquire NerveWire Inc.
Wipro has announced its first acquisition for FY04—NerveWire Inc., a Newton, Massachusetts-based business and IT consulting company for $18.7 million in an all-cash transaction. The deal is aimed at expanding its presence in the global financial services market and is expected to be completed in the quarter ending June 30, 2003.

According to a company release, NerveWire brings with it a team of over 90 domain experts and consultants, primarily in the US and will add more than 40 client relationships with over 20 active engagements to Wipro’s kitty. NerveWire caters to clients in areas like security services, private client trading / investment management, banking, insurance and high-tech industries.

In the last 12 months, Wipro has been building up momentum in the financial services business and the team of 90-plus consultants from NerveWire will be a strong catalyst for creating better customer value in this segment, Wipro Technologies’ president-financial services, Girish Paranjpe, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Wipro stock closed almost unchanged at Rs 916.80 after the acquisition accnouncement on April 25, despite the markets initially cheering the acquisition. The stock leapt during the morning trades to touch a high of Rs 948.90 but the stock gave back its gains due to a bout of profit taking.

Hexaware Q1 up 31 percent
Hexaware Technologies recorded consolidated revenues of Rs 66.6 crore for its first quarter ended March 31, 2003 compared to Rs 50.9 crore in Q1 2002—a 31 percent rise year-on-year. Consolidated net profit for the company and its subsidiaries was Rs 1.75 crore for the quarter compared to a consolidated loss of Rs 8.9 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

SimMechanics 2 launched
Software International, a global scientific and engineering products and solutions provider and its US principal The Mathworks Inc., announced the availability of Matlab’s SimMechanics 2, the latest version of its mechanical simulation software that expands the power of Simulink to model physical systems. With SimMechanics 2, engineers now have the ability to simulate their mechanical models on real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) systems, allowing them to test and improve their controller and mechanical designs earlier in the design cycle.

IBM set to clinch Bharti outsourcing deal - Mamuni Das & Ashu Kumar
Telecom major Bharti is close to finalising a deal to outsource its entire information technology systems and solutions to IBM. Other support functions like contact centre, accounts and payroll will also be farmed out. In order to lower costs and increase its focus on strategic business processes, the Bharti group is planning major operational restructuring across its different telecom services and geographies. The group is consolidating its business support functions like information technology (IT), billing and mediation, contact centre, accounts and payroll under the umbrella of holding company, Bharti Tele-Ventures and outsource most of these functions to third-party companies.

— The Financial Express