Amit Tripathi / DNA

Mon Nov 23, 2009 02:00 IST

Rolta India Ltd, the geospatial information and engineering services firm, is buying an inland security technology firm in the US, sources familiar with the development said.
"The demand for inland security technology is enormous from various security agencies. The idea is to acquire the technology and build intellectual property (IP) on top of that. Rolta will then export the same from here," said a source.

Kamal Singh, chairman of Rolta Group, refused to comment, but said, "Inland security is a significant focus area in our business. We constantly look to enhance our offering capabilities."

Some of Rolta's earlier acquisitions have not fared well due to the downturn in the US.
"What hasn't (worked) are the conventional things. If you talk of normal stuff such as databases, ERP those things and also things such as banking business intelligence (BI) like Hyperion services, which we got through acquisitions. Those acquisitions have suffered. They suffered because they were US-centric," Singh told DNA in an interview in August.

But Singh had stressed the IP focus of the firm. "We are now a very IP-rich firm, and that will bring margins," he had said. The company expects to earn 50% of its revenues from the geospatial business, 28% from engineering & infrastructure design and the rest from its software services by 2010.

Currently, about 60% of Rolta's business comes from the geospatial segment and about 30% from engineering design.

Last month Rolta received shareholder approval to raise about Rs 1,250 crore.