The Hindu : Business : IBS acquires U.S. company

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Friday, Jun 13, 2008
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Business

IBS acquires U.S. company

Staff Reporter

To become a Rs. 1,000-crore group

KOCHI: IBS Software Services Private Limited, a new generation IT solutions company to the global travel, transportation and logistics (TTL) industry, acquired VISaer, a United States-based software solutions provider in aviation maintenance and engineering software solutions, in May. It acquired majority stake of the U.S.-based HBSI, a provider of new generation technology to hotel chains and distribution channels, in March 2008.

V.K.Mathews, IBS’ chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said the company had registered more than 47 per cent annual growth. It was poised to become a Rs.1,000 crore company within two years. The company is likely to have an initial public offer in 2010. Mr. Mathews said the company was planning to expand its Kochi centre. It will have a five lakh Sq ft area, enough to accommodate 5,000 people. The company is already having 40,000 sq.ft. at Infopark.

The expansion programme at Kochi is expected to cost Rs.150 crores.

The company was keen on providing IT solutions in logistics at the Vallarpadam container terminal. It was also planning to open a centre in Kozhikode. The earlier strategic acquisitions of the company included asset purchase of U.S.-based Discovery Travel Systems which added travel, tour and cruise line of business to the company’s service portfolio. The acquisition of the United Kingdom-based Avient Technologies helped in setting up a global centre for excellence in flight operations. Yet another acquisition was that of the product, TopAir, a flight operations solution.

Mr. Mathews said the world’s top airlines, airports, cruise lines, hotel companies as well as oil and gas companies were using IBS solutions. The company presently owns intellectual property rights for over 15 products that cater to the TTL domain.

Mr.Mathews said TTL, though appeared a small segment, was a large space, with gross spending of over $2 trillions annually. IBS was giving its customers viable and inevitable options to liberate themselves from legacy systems built and developed over the past 40 years.

In an era of massive growth and evolution, industry players would have to decide to move towards next generation systems to remain competitive, he said.

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