GSS FY09 sales pegged at over Rs 500 cr

GSS America Infotech listed at Rs 430 versus its issue price of Rs 400. Bhargav Marepelly, CEO & Managing Director of GSS America Infotech said that their FY09 sales are pegged at over Rs 500 crore and PAT at Rs 95 crore. Meanwhile, GSS’s FY09 EPS is being seen at Rs 76, this is not including the inorganic growth planned. Marepelly said that though they are dependant on the US to some extent, the mix would change by FY09 with the inclusion of Singapore and Dubai operations.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Bhargav Marepelly:

Q: What kind of revenues and EPS numbers can you share with us for FY09, we think you could do Rs 75 earnings, is that possible next year?

A: We are looking at more than Rs 500 crore with a PAT of about Rs 95 crore for FY09, this does not include the inorganic growth that we want to experience. Part of IPO proceeds will go in for acquisitions. So not including the inorganic growth we are looking at about Rs 500 crore with PAT at Rs 95 crore for FY09.

Q: With an Rs 95 crore PAT, what do you think you will do in EPS?

A: We are looking at an EPS of Rs 76 for FY09, which does not include inorganic growth or acquisitions that are being actively considered.

Q: What is the order book? There seems to be concern about high dependence on the US as a market right now for you?

A: We are dependent on the US market to some extent, but by way of our service offering, by way of our nature of business being in IT infrastructure management, enterprise application integration, the type of deals that we sign are annuity deals in nature. We basically help Fortune 1000 companies solve their business continuity planning, disaster recovery, security management, most of the things are compliance related things.

I don’t want to say we are recession-proof, but IT infrastructure management forms the backbone of most of the organisations.

In terms of dependency we are presently dependent but our Dubai and Singapore offices are fast catching up. There are couple of deals in the pipeline, which by mid of FY09, the mix would change by Singapore and Dubai offices catching up by converting the existing pipelines into deals.