"Janus has been doing its due diligence for some time now. The market also has changed over the last few months, but we are hopeful that a deal will go through in the near future," a senior official of GTL said on conditions of anonymity.

Janus Corporation has been eyeing GTL for some time now, and it may acquire up to 10 per cent in the company. Janus picks a strategic stakes only in those companies which are professionally managed and very well diversified in their line of business. GTL is one such company which has distribution and servicing tie-ups with Tata, Keltron, Escorts, India Telecomp and Rajasthan Communications in the country and with V-band Corporation and Maxcon, both of US; Lane Telecommunications, UK; and Murata machinery, Japan.

GTL recently entered into a strategic alliance with a Singapore-based company Teledata. The company also executed one of the prestigious turnkey contracts for Citiphone banking system. Analyst said this was the right time for any strategic investor to make an entry into this company.

The stock price of GTL is hovering around its 52-week lows. It touched a low of Rs 608 on Monday, but bounced back. This counter is most active among the frontline new economy stocks. It clocked a trading volume of 44 lakh shares on the BSE and 53.76 lakh shares on the NSE.

GTL closed on the BSE on Tuesday with a marginal loss of 0.69 per cent at Rs 633 while on the NSE, it ended the day by losing 0.57 per cent at Rs 624.90.

The stock has managed to remain above its 52-week low of Rs 630.20 on the BSE. GTL recorded a net profit of Rs 57.10 crore on the sales of Rs 208 crore in the third quarter ended on December 31, 2000.

Dealers said the proposed talk between two companies for potential stake acquisition make sense also because GTL is continuosly on expansion drive.

GTL proposes to launch scores of services which include payment gateway project, Global E-procure project, Global E-enterprise projects.

GTL has also entered into a MoU for a joint venture with Enron to buid a state-of-the-art fibre optic broadband network and it also proposes to hold about 20 per cent of the equity in the venture. The company also plans to increase the development capacity of operational centre at Navi Mumbai from the present 20,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet.