Mumbai, Feb 6: CMC Ltd, the government-owned computer maintenance and software services company, is planning to form a joint venture in the country to offer Internet services. According to company sources, it is currently in the process of finalising the partner."We have already approached the government to give us the go-ahead to form a joint venture with a foreign company for providing Internet services," according top company sources.
According to them, the company is presently talking to a few companies offering Internet services in the US for forming the joint venture. "We hope to have the venture in place soon," said a CMC source who refused to divulge the names of the companies.
At present, CMC provides electronic mail (e-mail) services in the country under the name CMC Mail and company officials say that venturing into Internet services is a logical step.
"We need to have an international partner for Internet services as we are not experienced in that. Besides its experience, an internationalcompany will also be able to provide us with access to its various value-added services," said the source.
According to the company, forming a joint venture with an international company will be mutually beneficial. "It opens up the market for them in India and for us worldwide," sources said.
As per the Internet policy announced by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) last month, Indian companies have been allowed to form joint ventures with foreign partners for Internet services. The policy, however, has put a 49 per cent ceiling on foreign holdings in such ventures.
The Rs 225 crore CMC has already chalked out an expansion strategy spanning the next five years which will involve an investment of an estimated Rs 125 crore. To fund its expansion plans, the company has asked the government's permission to increase its equity base by an additional Rs 20 crore.
The growth strategy includes setting up a base in Europe either in the form of a 100 per cent held subsidiary or by forming a jointventure, developing new applications using cutting edge technology, porting its existing products to newer technologies and by taking a leadership position in all its areas of operations.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
