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Mascot, Debis jt venture in Nov

Rajesh Chandramouli

Vishwanath Kulkarni

CHENNAI/BANGALORE, Sept. 18

THE joint venture between Mascot Systems Ltd and Debis' IT Services is likely to be inked in November.

Sources at Mascot Systems said that the proposed 50:50 joint venture with Debis `was still on', thereby refuting all market rumours that the joint venture would not happen.

The sources also pointed out that a ``token order'' worth $1 million was recently received by Mascot from Debis.

As per the initial plans, the joint venture was expected to commence operations by June-July.

The delay in setting up the joint venture was because of the internal reorganisation process in Debis, consequent to its takeover by the Germany-based Deutsche Telecom.

The joint venture is expected to help Mascot not only to gain entry in the German market, but also gain a strong foothold.

Germany is still a nascent market for Indian software players. The joint venture is also expected to also help Mascot to make use of the name of Debis as a reference point for newer businesses there.

The sources said that the legal representatives of both Debis and Mascot held detailed discussions in the end of July and have gone through the entire joint venture agreement.

They added that since the process in Germany takes a longer time, the commencement of venture would be delayed.

A section of Debis's staff in Germany was also recently trained by Mascot for the purpose of understanding the offshore model.

Mascot has some 1,200 employees at the moment, which it wants to take to over 1,600 by the end of the fiscal.

Debis' IT Services is a German company which specialises in consulting services, software solutions and system integration.

Prior to the acquisition by Deutche Telecom, it was part of the Daimler Chrysler group.

Debis recorded a turnover of 2.9 billion euros (Rs 8,400 crore), of which 900 million euros came from outside Europe.

Though the size of orders that would flow into the venture is not immediately known, the sources peg it at around Rs 200 crores of revenue per year.