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Cofutures to shop for software companies in India, abroad
Neeraj Jha
Mumbai: Consolidated Futuristic Solutions Ltd (Cofutures), a joint venture between the HFCL Group and Kerry Packer group of Australia may acquire software companies in India and abroad. "We are looking for good acquisition opportunities of medium sized software companies in India and abroad," Mr CK Goushal, advisor (finance), HFCL told The Financial Express. Mr Goushal said the company was still to receive any acquisition proposal from prospective sellers. Cofutures will kick off operations from April 1 at its headquarters in Gurgaon near Delhi under Mr Rajeev Shah, the newly appointed chief executive officer of the company. The rest of the team is expected to be in place soon. Mr Shah is responsible for not only putting up the team in place but also the company's business plan. "The work is on the business plan should be should be ready in about a month's time," Mr Goushal said. For the first year of its operation, though, the company is not expecting any significant turnover. Cofutures has been formed witha view to addressing the telecom, media, healthcare and financial domains with software services, products and IT-enabled services. It is also looking to enter the application services segment with Internet embedded and client server technologies. The company is targeting the overseas market. "Cofutures will clearly have an export-orientation," Mr Goushal said. As part of its growth plan, the company will soon be setting up offices in the US and Europe. It already has an office in Australia. Cofutures is HFCL's JV with the investment arm of CPH, which is part of the $10 bilion Kerry Packer Group. HFCL and the Kerry Packer Group hold 51 per cent and 30 per cent respectively in the JV. Ten per cent has been earmarked for the employee stock option plan (ESOP), while another nine per cent will be held by the strategic partner. As of now, the equity earmarked for the strategic partner is being equally held by the two partners, namely, HFCL and the Kerry Packer Group. Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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