Bartronics India

Bartronics India Ltd has announced the commissioning and dedication of its new state-of-the-art Smartcards Manufacturing facility to the nation. The facility, first of its kind in India has been setup about 40 kms outside Hyderabad. With the completion of the first phase of an ambitious Rs 270 crores expansion plan, the Company has successfully demonstrated its capability to conceive and implement its plans within tight timelines. As a Company, the manufacturing facility has opened up the hitherto non-existent Smartcards technology area as a business expansion for the Company.

The Company has been providing end-to-end solutions in the Automatic Identification and Data Capture technologies for over last 16 years. Today, the Company has over 1600 customers spread throughout India, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Dubai. Known for its quality and customer orientation, the Company has successfully provided solutions by executing large-scab turnkey projects in Bar-coding, Radio Frequency Based Identification (RFID) and Biometrics technologies and is the acknowledged market leader in its domain. The Company declared a sales turnover of over Rs 62 crores for the current year growing at more than 100% over the last year. For the next year, with the commissioning of the manufacturing plant, the Company is expected to cross the milestone of Rs 200 crores in sales.

The 80 million cards per annum facility is one of the largest facilities for manufacture of smart cards in South Asia. A recent study by one of the reputed market research Companies has projected the demand for smart cards to be over 150 million units this year and growing at a CAGR of around 45%. In line with the market demands, the Company intends selling its new products and solutions initially to the telecom industry and then gradually moving on to government projects and the banking sector over the next 3-4 years. The Company has already entered into selling arrangements with a few leading consumers for the next two years and consequently move up from an estimated 70% capacity utilization in the first year to 100% in the second year of operations.

The culmination of the first phase of the project also effectively completes deployment of the funds raised by the Company over the last two years. The Company successfully closed its maiden Initial Public Offer (IPO) in the year 2005 and raised funds through a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) issue in early 2007. For the second phase of the expansion, the Company has plans to raise around US$ 25 million through a FCCB issue during May / June 2007. The second phase is a backward integration project, where the Company intends manufacturing chip modules required for the production of smart cards. The Company has already identified the equipment necessary for the second phase and intends deploying the same by the end of 2007 / early 2008. In addition, the Company is actively considering the acquisition route to open up new geographical markets for selling its products and solutions in other parts of the world.

Source : BseIndia