Hinduja TMT (formerly Hinduja Finance Corporation) has posted a net profit of Rs 131 million for the quarter ended 31 December, 2001, up from Rs 124.3 million in the corresponding period of the previous year (an increase of 5.4 per cent), a company release states.

According to the release, the growth was mainly from the company's call centre activities and other IT enabled service initiatives. The company's income for the quarter was Rs 201.6 million as against Rs 222.6 million in the corresponding period of the previous year due to the phasing out of its finance activities, the release said.

The call centre set up in Bangalore has started off with its first client, a large US telecom company with an initial capacity of 180 seats, being ramped up to the contracted 540 seats and its functioning to the full satisfaction of the customer. HTMT is upgrading the call centre in a phased manner by not only increasing the number of seats but by reinforcing its capability to handle comprehensive business processing services.

HTMT has focused on IT services (covering systems integration, ERP implementation, software maintenance and development and Internet solutions) and IT enabled services (broadly covering business process outsourcing including call centres). HTMT has developed expertise in the domain areas of manufacturing, automobile, telecom, banking and financial services.

HTMT claims it is a a debt-free company and its net worth as at the end of 31 December, 2001 stands at Rs 3770 million with a book value of Rs. 106/- per share.

HTMT has its subsidiaries in USA, UK and France and is in the process of tying up with a large electronics group in Germany for marketing its services and consolidating its operations in Europe.