Polaris to acquire Laser Soft for Rs.52 crore

CHENNAI - City-based banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) company Polaris Software Lab Thursday said it will acquire competitor Laser Soft Infosystems for Rs.52 crore.

“The acquisition will enable us to target Indian banks as well as banks in Africa, Latin America for core banking and other financial technology solutions,” Arun Jain, chairman and chief executive of Polaris Software, told reporters here.

Of the total purchase price, Rs.35 crore will be paid in cash immediately and the balance will be paid to Laser Soft shareholders in two years based on performance.

Around 83 percent of Laser Soft’s stake is held by company managing director Suresh B. Kamath and the balance by employees and some other individuals.

Jain said Polaris will acquire the minority holdings as well.

The Rs.37-crore Laser Soft with around 600 employees will bring to Polaris around 40 banking customers.

According to Polaris chief financial officer R. Srikanth, the current assets of Laser Soft is around Rs.18 crore and the fixed assets at book value is around Rs.8 crore.

“Last year the company on a turnover of Rs.37 crore earned a profit after tax of Rs.4.8 crore. The target for the current year is Rs.41 crore turnover and a profit of Rs.7 crore,” said Srikanth.

As per the current plans, Polaris will keep Laser Soft as an independent entity and perhaps a year later merge the latter with itself.