The company, a joint venture between Nelco and the Japanese giant Itochu, is negotiating with Bank of Tokyo and Mashreq Bank for the purpose. The company requires on an average Rs 8 crore to Rs 10 crore to be provided against its implementation projects by these banks. The requirement will be in the form around Rs 5 crore in cash and the rest in letter or credit (LoC) and guarantee form.

Nelito, which was set up in 1995 after Itochu decided to enter the banking systems integration solutions area in association with business systems division of Nelco, the electronics arm of the Tata Group, is targeting a turnover of Rs 100 crore by 2002. It has a turnover of Rs 27 crore last year and overall growth rate of 59 per cent.

According to Nelito president, Alok Chakravarti, the other options of fund raisinginclude bridge loans and going public with a sizeable issue. "These are to be decided by the company's board, which may take time," he said while discussing the move to seek securitisation of contracts. He, however, said that infact venture capital funds would have been ideal in such scenario.

The main promoter, Nelco is passing through trying times and hence little chances of any fund infusion or assistance in the form of loans. Also Nelito is keen to avoid any kind burden in the form of a long term loan and so, the securitisation seems to be a better option.

The company is entering offshore and onshore development projects as part of the export drive. The company has already executed a project for First Bank of Nigeria and is targeting many banks in Africa and Europe. At present exports contribute around Rs 10 crore to the turnover. Among other plans, Nelito is planning to provide network management solutions to Internet service providers.

Chakravarti said that Nelito is entering the Japanese marketusing Itochu's reach and clout there. "We will offer consultancy and migration projects in Japan. We are looking at banks having 40-50 branches, and such banks can be seen in Latin America, Hong Kong, south east Asia and even in US," he said.

He said the company will also aim domestic banks to offer turnkey projects, retail banking and interconnectivity.

Indian banks have a long way to go in automation of business and services. Despite strong directives from CVC and the RBI and aid from the World Bank, nothing much has been achieved. The automation market is of the size of around Rs 1,300 crore with a compound annual growth of 65 per cent. Infosys with products like Banc2000, Citicorp Infotech with Flexcube and Microbanker, Kindle with its Bank Master are some of the leading players in this area.