India will receive $5 million of the total investment.

Vattikuti said the US would have seven centres. Two centres would be located in India (Bangalore and Chennai) while one would be in Europe. The centres would function as competency points and would have e-architects, e-designers and e-educators working on various e-commerce and Internet solutions. All centres put together would have a personnel strength of 3000, he said.CBS Inc had recently received $200 million funding from a US-based management investor firm Clayeton Dubilier & Rice.

Vattikuti said the company would focus on Asia Pacific region with main thrust on India. During the last year, India has contributed 7 per cent of the company's total revenue and during the current year it was targeting a 15 to 20 per cent growth in India, he said.

Vattikuti said CBSI had recently entered into a development and testing partnership with Praja of the US.

He said the company was also in the process of developing dot coms and e-com solutions for a large web-based company in Bangalore. Over 70 people were currently working on the project, he said.

During the previous calendar, CBS Inc had posted a revenue of $465 million was targeting a 15 to 20 per cent growth during the current year. In India, the company posted $25 million and was targeting to grow at 40 per cent.

According to Vattikuti, the other areas of focus would include banking, health care, retailing and wholesale segments. For banking solutions, the company had recently entered into a tie-up with a large national bank in Manila. Similar relationships would be established in India as well, he said.

Public float by Sept; Esop to follow
CBSI chief operating officer K Subramaniam said the company was planning to float a public issue to raise Rs 100-150 crore by September. The company might go in for an ADR later. Merrill Lynch and Kotak Mahindra would be the merchant bankers for the float.

Subramaniam said the proceeds would be used to expand the business in Asia Pacific, develop infrastructure and also to part fund mergers and acquisitions. "We will have our employee stock option plan in place once we are public," said Subramaniam.