French technology, consultancy and engineering major Alten has drawn up big plans to beef up its presence in the Indian and Asian markets following its acquisition of Calsoft Lab.
Calsoft Lab, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chennai-based California Software (Calsoft), was acquired under an agreement penned in January this year between Alten Europe and Calsoft.
Alten is planning to use Calsoft as a spring board to realise its business aspirations in India and Asia.
In an interaction with this Correspondent, Gerald Attia, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Alten, said the existing board of Calsoft would continue to manage the business in India post-takeover. This acquisition would also enable Alten to enter the domestic market and outsource some European work to India. At present, Alten has virtually no revenue coming from offshore operations. Five per cent of its revenue is coming from near shore works. Following the takeover, he was confident that both off-shore and near-shore operations would contribute at least 10 per cent each to its revenue stream.
Calsoft, he said, was already doing analytical jobs for its clients. This would help Alten to provide end-to-end solutions to its customers in Europe, he added. Now that it had acquired Calsoft, Alten had set its eyes on more buys in India.
Alten, he said, would double its workforce to 1,200 in three years. Similarly, it would add another 15 to 20 customers in the telecom vertical. Calsoft Lab currently has about 40 clients. All of them would now come under Alten fold.
Ramandeep Singh, Chief Technology Officer, Calsoft Lab, said his company notched up revenue of $25 million in 2010-11. After the takeover, Alten had projected the revenue to increase by 25-30 per cent year-on-year. Calsoft, he said, sold its lab businesses in Chennai and Bangalore to expand enterprise business and enhance market value. The deal was completed on April 14.
Calsoft Lab was involved in telecom design products and was creating software products for embedded designs.
