Subex Systems near day's apex

Subex Systems was spurred on by the company's announcement that it has bagged a $1-million Romanian contract.

By 12:50 IST, the stock of the telecom software company was trading higher by 3.75% at Rs 117.50, near the day's peak of Rs 118.90. It had recovered from its day's low of Rs 112 by then. Close to 1.3 lakh Subex Systems shares were registered as volumes on BSE by then.

Subex Systems on Monday announced that it won an order from Connex, a leading Romanian GSM operator, to deploy its flagship Fraud Management System Ranger.

Ranger helps operators to curb fraud through the use of innovative subscriber profiling techniques and advanced analytical capabilities. Ranger is also capable of addressing fraud in emerging areas like GRPS and 3G technologies. The contract is valued at about $1 million.

In April 2003, the company bagged another significant order from Total Access Communication, Thailand, to deploy the same flagship product.

Ranger FMS is part of Subex's revenue maximisation suite of products and services, RevMax.

Subex Systems' fraud management system has proved a veritable boon for the company on a global scale. Earlier in February 2003, the company said that RangerÔ went live at the Sri Lankan GSM operator, MTN Networks.

MTN Networks, Sri Lanka's flagship mobile communications network, operates Dialog GSM, the country's largest cellular network comprising over 200 base stations. It has international roaming facility in over 100 countries and a substantial subscriber base. MTN Networks, an ISO 9001 certified company, is a fully owned subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia Bhd and has won two consecutive GSM World Awards in 2001 and 2002.

The company also had won a contract for the GSM network of Ikatel in the sub-Saharan nation of Mali, to deploy Ranger TM.

At the close of 2002, Subex Systems won a contract for the wireline network of the Senegalese carrier, Sonatel, to deploy RangerÔ. Sonatel, which has one of the highest penetration rates in sub-Saharan Africa, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sonatel group, which has a strategic partnership with France Telecom. It is also the principal telecommunications service provider in Senegal. Subex, then, did not reveal the size of the order.

Ranger FMS is an end-to-end fraud management system for wireless and wireline networks that has been designed specifically to address fraud in roaming, pre-paid and post-paid environments. The company claims that Ranger FMS is one of the market leaders in this area . It already successfully deployed Ranger in Sonatel's wireless network, called Sonatel Mobile, last year.

Subex Systems, founded in 1992, has been providing software solutions for the telecom industry. It is a leading player in the market for revenue maximization solutions for the telecom domain. Its portfolio includes both software services and software products.

Telecom fraud is a significant problem the world over as the total fraud losses per annum is in excess of $14 billion. This is expected to grow to $30 billion by 2003 with the implementation of new technologies such as GPRS and UMTS, which offer tremendous opportunities for fraudsters.

Subex had acquired IVth Generation Inc., US in January 2000 and has converted the same into a wholly-owned subsidiary. The subsidiary, renamed Subex Technologies Inc. operates out of New Jersey, US. Subex acquired the product range of Canada-based Magardi, Inc. in May 2001 and the acquired products have been integrated into the existing product line of Subex. The products and services of Subex are marketed globally, with a particular focus on the US and certain developing countries.

Subex focuses in the revenue maximization arena within the telecom domain with its RevMax™ suite of products. Subex pioneered the concept of fraud management in the country, through the development and marketing of Ranger™. Ranger™ assists the operators detect fraud in the network at an early stage thus limiting the revenue loss that may be suffered by the operator due to fraud and non-payment.

For the third quarter ended 31 December 2002, Subex reported a 2.03% rise in net profit to Rs 1.51 crore on a 15.3% rise in net sales to Rs 17.51 crore.

As on 31 March 2003, promoters held 54.72% stake in Subex, while the public and institutions held 24.59% and 8.60%, respectively.