IIS Infotech Websity project country manager Anurag Dixit said at a media briefing in Chennai on Friday that the British firm had already spent Rs 130 crore to mop up the shares of his company through two open offers in February and June '98. The change of guard took place earlier in January '98.

FI Group, which purchased IIS Infotech shares at Rs 100.90 each, plans to expand the company's equity base to Rs 25 crore from Rs 16 crore. The local firm, once it becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of FI Group, will retain its identity, Dixit said.

IIS Infotech, with its 800-strong software team, operates in UK, USA, and Singapore through its subsidiaries. It also has operations in Mexico, South Africa, Israel and Holland.

InIndia, the company has software `factories' in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

Dixit said that world over, the Y2K revenue curve was flattening out with the deadline near and most of the conversion projects tied up. The company has now turned its focus to Euro conversion projects in Europe for a piece of the action when EU countries switch over to the new currency. IIS Infotech has also drawn up plans for moving into Enterprise Resource Planning training.

On the Websity project, Dixit said the programme for graduates and undergraduates was a new concept dealing with Internet and multimedia technologies. In the south -- Tamil Nadu and Kerala specifically -- the company is setting up 20 Websity centres through their business associates Web Wizard and a network of franchisees. Nationwide, the network will comprise around a hundred centres.

The three-year programme will be priced slightly below courses of a similar duration offered by computer education leaders like Aptech and NIIT.

Dixit said the company wasbanking on a massive demand for web professionals with the boom in Internet commerce set to take revenues beyond $50 billion by 2000 AD. The company would absorb some of the professionals trained at its centres depending upon requirements, he said.