i-flex was weighed down by news that the Netherlands government has asked its staff there to leave the country in a week, but the stock also proved resilient with a recovery.
As a result i-flex, a favourite with institutions, was merely 0.7% lower at Rs 904.80 on BSE after hitting a low of Rs 883.25, down 3%, in early trades. Around 30,000 shares of the banking solutions company were traded on BSE so far.
The stock's fortunes have been upbeat of late, having surged from Rs 840.10 on 13 March 2003 to a lifetime high of Rs 965 on 22 March 2003. The scirp has come off that high, since. Some domestic funds like Birla Sun Life Securities and Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund are believed to have picked up the stock of late.
i-flex Solutions has said that some of its employees at its Netherlands subsidiary were questioned by authorities in that country. Most of these employees have been asked to leave the country within a week. The CEO of i-flex's Netherlands subsidiary, Senthil Kumar, who is based in London, in addition, was detained by British authorities on request from the Dutch authorities, as part of the investigation. The exact scope of the investigation so far has not been disclosed to i-flex. Based on questions asked, it is i-flex's understanding that the investigation relates to visa matters.
i-flex's UK and Dutch lawyers are in touch with the respective authorities on this matter.
i-flex has already initiated a high level effort in close collaboration with the ministry of external affairs, ministry of IT of India and Nasscom and the respective consulates to secure the immediate release from detention of the CEO of the i-flex arm.
i-flex is also working towards ensuring early and safe return of the concerned i-flex employees and their families from Netherlands. Nascom is said to be pursuing the matter.
i-flex's Dutch subsidiary has 20 employees of which 12 are Indians. Earlier this month, in another such episode, 270 Indian infotech professionals in Malaysia were detained in what Malaysian authorities said was a drive against illegal immigrants.
Of late, i-flex has been in the limelight following the immense success of its key banking product, Flexcube, which has been instrumental in pushing up the company's fortunes. The product has already been rolled out in more than 30 countries.
On 20 March 2003, i-Flex announced that IC Bank Rt. Budapest, Hungary selected its flagship product ‘Flexcube' to streamline operations in the areas of bills and collections, loans and deposits, foreign exchange and funds transfer, among others. With the implementation of Flexcube, IC Bank will be able to provide faster services to clients from any branch through a single banking platform.
i-flex Solutions, a leading provider of technology solutions to the financial services sector, derives over 60% of its revenues from high margin products. Its range of solutions includes packaged applications for the financial services industry, custom application software development, deployment, maintenance and support services for financial institutions, and business and IT consulting services in the financial services domain.
For the third quarter ended 31 December 2002, i-flex announced (on consolidated basis) a rise in net profit by 117% to Rs 59 crore, compared to Rs 27.18 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Revenues increased by 50% to Rs 174 crore (Rs 1.74 billion) from Rs 115.66 crore (Rs 1.15 billion) in DQ 2001.
It may be noted that Citigroup, the global financial services company, has a 42% stake in the company.
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