Indus has seen tremendous growth in sales both in India and the US during the last few years. The company is expecting a 100 per cent growth in sales to Rs 10 crore by this financial year with another $2.5-3 million coming from the US. ``We are targeting a turnover of Rs 20-25 crore by 1999-2000,'' Mannige said.

On the interest evinced by investment bankers, Mannige referred to recent successes like the agreements with GE Caps and IBM. ``With GE, we have a global licensing agreement by which any global arm of GE Caps, other than those in US and Canada, can opt for LSI/NT in any of the branches without prior permission from headquarters.Wehave been recognised as an independent software vendor (ISV) by IBM and also our development of LSI solution on IBM mainframe to enhance its capabilities,'' vice-president, business development Girish Ketkar said.

However, not being a listed company can cause a problem in evaluating the stake. ``Though no market valuation is possible, it could be subjective,'' Mannige said. He, however, declined to comment on a possible or expected price for the stake.

Indus draws its strength from its mission critical applications like loan appraisal system for the Internet (LASI), finance against securities system (FASS) and LSI. The company's most recent catch was ICICI which selected LSI for its Santro car scheme.

In India, Countrywide Consumer Financial Services, a GE joint venture has been one of the clients of Indus.

Indus is planning to set up a base in the UK in the next few months to look after European operations. ``We are working with some American insurance companies and a joint marketing effort withOracle Corporation is on,'' Girish said.

Another plan is to set up a support centre in the US to be operational by the middle of next year. ``We have a big presence here through our company Indus Inc and most of our clients are big US corporations,'' Girish said while explaining the need for a support service centre there.

LSI will undergo some major changes to include mainframe capabilities. ``We are looking for a solution similar to IBM Component Broker, which will be ready by February next year,'' he said. Indus has set up a product development group for IBM while its has a 24-hour technical help desk at its Pune headquarters for GE Capital assignments.