Date:05/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/02/05/stories/2008020550450700.htm

Back Polaris looking at local currency billing for Citi Group

T.E. Raja Simhan

Chennai, Feb. 4 Polaris Software Lab is looking at local currency billing for Citi Group to counter the rupee appreciation. At present, the billing for operations in different countries is mostly in US dollar. The Chennai-based software company is also looking at a rate increase from its largest client in this quarter, according to the company’s President and COO, Mr Arup Gupta.

Rate increase

As a partner, Polaris understands some of the challenges that Citi Group is going through. But the rate increase is likely to happen during this quarter, he told analysts in a conference call while discussing the company’s December 2007 financial results.

For Polaris, of the Rs 282-crore revenue during the December 2007 quarter, Citi’s contribution was Rs 108 crore. A year ago, Citi contributed Rs 120 crore to Polaris’ revenue of Rs 273 crore.

However, Citi’s contribution to Polaris revenue declined to 38.39 per cent during the December 2007 quarter compared with 43.80 per cent a year ago.

New opportunities

“With regard to the growth in business and new opportunities, they [Citi Group] are already starting it. For the rate increase, we already have the agreement,” he said.

In the September results analyst call, Polaris officials said that certain customers in the financial sector were willing to give rate increases ranging between 5 per cent and 10 per cent.