The order from the engineering company is for $45 million (around Rs 193.5 crore) spread roughly over a period of between two to three years. Industry sources said that the Indian company has devised IT solutions for its engineering services division.

State Palm Insurance Co of the US has placed an order to the tune of $15 million (around Rs 64.5 crore) to be executed within one year. Satyam frequently devises customised solutions for overseas insurance companies and is a reliable name in this respect. The engineering conglomerate, incidentally, is a fairly regular customer of Satyam, outsoursing its technology requirements from the company.

Company officials however refused to confirm the orders and the customers concerned, citing confidentiality conditions in their agreement. Clients who outsource their technological requirements from Satyam do not generally want it to be known publicly as it destroys the edge that they have over their rivals, industry sources said.

During the third quarter of 1999-2000 Satyam reported a net profit of Rs 36.19 crore an increase of 75.45 per cent from the same period, the previous year.

IT solutions and other customised work for engineering services contributed around 13 per cent to the revenues of the company which was Rs 177.38 crore in the third quarter, an increase of a substantial 62 per cent from the same period last year.

The Hyderabad-based company in fact has been focussing on Internet and e-commerce related projects, where most of its revenues growths has been coming from in recent times.

On the Bombay Stock Exchange, Satyam which had closed on Tuesday at Rs 2,754 finished the session at Rs 2,755.