“We’ll end up the year with 25-26 new customers, which is a dramatic improvement from 2006 and 2007, when we added 11 and 12,” Phaneesh Murthy, chief executive officer of Fremont, California-based iGate, said on Thursday in an interview in New York.
Offshore services, or work done at overseas locations, are growing as US companies seek to reduce costs in the face of a global economic downturn.
IGate, with operations centred in India, expects to have 30 customers contributing at least $1 million (Rs5.05 crore) in revenue each by the end of this year and 45 by the end of 2009, Murthy said.
“Our metric is how many become million-dollar customers by the second year,” he said. “Our goal is to make sure that at least 50% of new customers turn out to be long-term strategic customers, which is over $1 million.”
IGate is ready “to start looking” for acquisitions, particularly in health care and telecom services, Murthy said. About half of the company’s revenue now comes from financial services. Acquisitions may be as large as $100 million, he said. IGate has about $62 million in cash and no debt, Murthy said.
—Bloomberg
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India Infoline has biggest gain in a week
Mumbai: A local stock brokerage and financial services company, India Infoline Ltd, rose the most in more than a week in Mumbai after saying it may buy-back shares.
The Mumbai-based company climbed as much as 8.7%, the most since 10 November, and closed at Rs40.35, up 3.99%, in Mumbai trading. The stock earlier fell as much as 10.9%. India Infoline has shed 90% this year, compared with a 58% drop in the benchmark sensitive index, or Sensex.
The company will consider on 28 November a proposal to buy back shares, it said in a statement sent to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
—Bloomberg
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No manipulative trading in ICICI stock, says Sebi
Mumbai: There was no manipulative trading associated with the slump of ICICI Bank Ltd’s shares between 8 September and 10 October, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, said on Thursday.
In that period, the share prices of the bank fell Rs720.45 to Rs363.65 per share, down 49.52%, prompting the bank to register a complaint with Sebi on 17 September alleging that “a malicious rumour is being spread to the effect that some of the top management have been selling ICICI Bank shares for the last few days”.
The company’s stock also fell a day after it publicly disclosed the $80 million (Rs404 crore) exposure of its UK subsidiary to failed US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. on 16 September. The bank’s stock fell 12.5% between 15-17 September, from Rs640 to Rs560.30.
However, the markets regulator on Thursday said in a statement “There was no pattern regarding placement of successive orders at lower price by sellers to hammer down the price,”
According to Sebi, there was no irregularity in the intraday profits booked by the major clients and brokers of ICICI Bank during the period under investigation. Most of the 20 top investors that bought and sold shares of ICICI Bank during the said period were foreign institutional investors, or FIIs.