CMC to submit report on Govt divestment soon

While the company will announce the amount of the equity to be diluted, the exact mode of the process will be decided by the government, he said. Not specifying the exact amount to be divested, Rajiv Srivastava, CMC head-corporate, merely said the government equity can be diluted to as far as 51 per cent against little more than 83 per cent at present.

Whether the equity is to be given to domestic financial institution through private placement or to the public through a public issue will be decided by the government. When asked whether caretaker government can take such adecision, Ghosh said the step need not wait for the next government as it will be purely an administrative one.

To a query on differential price policy if part of the equity is to be given to the public and to the institutions, Srivastava said the Securities and Exchange Board of India does not permit such a policy.

On the specific time frame for completion of the whole process, Srivastava evaded a direct reply, stating that it must be within this fiscal. At present the government owns little over 83 per cent of Rs 15.15 crore of equity.

The company has registered a substantial growth with the gross turnover increasing by 48.33 per cent to reach Rs 76.30 crore. But the most significant growth has been achieved in net profit. Which has increased by a 120 per cent reach Rs 1.95 crore as against Rs 88.74 lakh in the corresponding period last year. Through optmisation of operational processes. CMC has also been able to bring down its interest obligations by over 37 per cent.

Ghosh said CMC is in theprocess of identifying global partners to form strategic alliances which will supplement its domain knowledge to meet the specific it needs of key industry segments in the country and abroad.

"By focussing on our expertise in niche areas and playing to our strengths in education and training, systems integration and customer services, we plan to substantially increase our presence not only in the country but also in IT scenario,” he added.

According to Ghosh, the first quarter of this financial year has been very promising for CMC with several prestigious projects bagged and significant developments made in providing IT solutions for key government and industrial sectors. Investments made in R&D to gain domain expertise in new high growth areas like EDI and e-commerce have also started to pay dividends. The encouraging results have not only made us confident of meeting our targets for the current financial year but also boosted our ambitious plans for the future.