The company is now the process of zeroing in on the companies which it finally intends to completely acquire or enter into strategic alliances with, Thadani said here.

"We had started with a list of 150-odd companies and have finally shortlisted 20 companies for acquisition. The final list is now being prepared and the entire process of acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 1999 calender year," he added. NIIT, he said, is looking at acquiring total stake or even partial stake in several US-based software companies. "We are looking at acquiring one or more companies in the US. As part of our growth strategy, we intend to pursue acquisitions only in the US. For other markets, the strategies differ." Ruling out the possibility of launching an American Depository Receipt (ADR) issue, the NIIT CEOsaid the $100 million acquisition programme would be funded entirely through internal accruals.

"We are working actively. It has taken longer than we thought but we are making good progress and are likely to complete it within this calender year." NIIT is presently operating in 31 countries through 18 wholly-owned subsidiaries and two joint venture companies. Besides, efforts are on to increase its presence across the globe.

It has also become a near zero-debt company in the April-June 1999 quarter and it expects to retire all debts by the year-end. The debt-equity ratio is at present 0.2-to-1. "We have some term loans of around Rs 25 crore which we have to necessarily carry for another few years. We are trying for pre-payment of those loans and once those are through, we would be a zero-debt company."

NIIT has projected a 30 per cent growth in revenue and profits during its 1998-99 financial year ending September 1999. In 1997-98, the company had earned a net profit of Rs 108 crore on sales of Rs 458crore. It now has, in hand, orders worth $32 million, executable over the next 12 months, he said. NIIT had recorded a 40 per cent surge in net profit during the three-month ended June 30, 1999, the third quarter of its 1998-99 fiscal, to touch Rs 60.98 crore as against Rs 43.56 crore in the corresponding period last year. Gross profit grew by around 40 per cent at Rs 71.25 crore over Rs 51.20 crore. Thadani said almost half of NIIT's global revenues came from its international business that saw a growth of 43 per cent to touch Rs 314.80 crore. The US geography continued its strong growth rate at 63 per cent to contribute Rs 155.10 crore to total revenues. Software solutions business recorded revenues of Rs 308.50 crore representing a growth of 45 per cent. Software solutions revenues today constitute 49 per cent of the its global revenues. Learning solutions revenues went up by 26 per cent to touch Rs 323.71 crore.