"Since we can not float a fully-owned subsidiary in West Asia as per the guidelines, the company has decided to offer a part of the stake to its business partners. However, the outfit, which will attract business from the Gulf region, will come up in the second phase of our expansion," Visesh Infosystems Ltd joint managing director and CEO GS Maheshwari told The Financial Express. The company is also setting up subsidiaries in Canada and the US within the next 18 months. These two fully-owned arms would be its software development and marketing centres which would incur an investment of an additional Rs 10 crore. To part-fund these projects, the company is going for an initial public offering (IPO) in November.

The IPO money would be utilised for opening an off-shore development centre at Gurgaon near New Delhi. The cost of putting up the centre including the cost of upgradation of the existing equipment is estimated at Rs 8.75 crore. The company's expansion plans also include opening of software education centres to impart training services in ERP solutions, e-commerce and medical transcription in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai with an outlay of Rs 1.6 crore. Maheshwari said the company was planning to introduce an employee stock option plan (ESOP) with a view to attract and retain exceptional talent, motivate employees and enable them to share in the long-term growth of Visesh Infosystems.

The company is in the process of creating Visesh Employee Welfare Trust called Visesh ESOP Trust to implement the employee stock option plan in conformity with Sebi guidelines. "Initially, the company will allot 50,000 shares to the above trust and the shares will be transferred to the eligible employees subject to terms and conditions," he added.

Currently, the company has 140 software professionals that would go up to 210 by the year 2000 and 500 by 2001. Visesh is projecting a turnover of Rs 30-31 crore during the next fiscal. The company has also constituted a advisory panel to the board comprising persons in the country and abroad with experience in the infotech industry. The panel would advise the board of Visesh in formulating plans and policies to enable the company to become globally competitive. The advisory panel comprises Victoria University (multimedia networking), Australia, professor Nalin K Sharda, Bharti Telesoft CEO SS Sinha, Compaq Computer Corporation technical director Anil Kapoor and Al Hashar group of companies (Muscat) group EDP head TS Sethi, among others.