The company has also reserved 16.19 lakh shares at a price of Rs 90 on firm allotment basis to mutual funds, foreign investors and financial institutions. Employees will also have a share of the cake, with the company allotting 1.3 lakh shares to them (the price is yet to be decided). The net public offer is 72.51 lakh shares. The company has roped in SBI Caps as the lead manager. The shares are proposed to be listed at the National Stock Exchange, the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Ahmedabad Stock Exchange.

Arraycom (India) has a paid up capital of Rs 9.99 crore; post-issue, the equity will rise to Rs 14.4 crore. After the issue, the promoters' holding will be around 45 per cent, while mutual funds will hold 4.14 per cent.

The IPO proceeds will be used for setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary in the US for strengthening the manufacturing and marketing of TFM products (total investment Rs 7.5 crore), strategic acquisitions for strengthening its communication, navigational aids, SCADA and telemetry business (Rs 17.5 crore), setting up in-hose software facilities, setting up a new assembly line facilities for communication, navigational aids and SCADA business and installation of new design, integration and test facilities for strengthening of networking and communication business.

The issue proceeds will also be used to repay foreign currency loans to the tune of Rs 20 crore and meeting the margin money for working capital requirements of Rs 12.7 crore.

Incorporated in June, 1992 as Parekh Micro Electronics, the company changed its name to Arraycom (India) on January 13, 2000. The company, which was mainly engaged in industrial electronics and trading in communication products, forayed into software in the last two to three years. Arraycom has been following a process of vertical integration commencing from manufacture of basic raw materials to offering turnkey solutions in the areas of communications and software.

The company has three divisions: Materials & components division (MCD), communication solutions & automation division (CSD) and software & IT division (SID). In MCD, the company manufactures micro electronic materials like thick film materials (TFM) and electronic components based on surface mounted technology (SMT), which constitute a forward integration of TFM.In CSD, the company offers a wide range of communication solution packages covering wireless communication, navigational aids, telecommunications, telemetry and SCADA.

The SID was born as an in-house staff support division for software development of other divisions of the company. However, the software division is now poised to be a commercially independent division.

The company from being a player engaged in industrial electronics is now emerging as a provider of integrated solutions in the areas of communications, navigational aids, telemetry, SCADA, and Information Technology.

For the nine-month period of the current fiscal, the company has recorded a total turnover of Rs 34.3 crore against Rs 23.15 crore for the full year of 1999. Net profit stood at Rs 7.85 crore for the nine-month period against Rs 3.72 crore for 1999. For fiscal 2000, the company is projecting a net profit of Rs 9.83 crore on sales of Rs 51.12 crore.