MUMBAI: HTMT, at its annual general meeting (AGM), informed its shareholders that the company is actively looking out for acquisition opportunities in BPO space and the IT Services segment to increase its business, domain expertise, geographical presence and customer base.

The company's shareholders also approved the appointment of K Thiagarajan as the company's managing director and CEO with effect from 1 October 2004. Thiagarajan, who had earlier joined HTMT as COO on 16 June 2004, brings with him rich experience in the IT sector.

As a step towards adopting a global delivery model, HTMT had recently acquired majority control in Customer Contact Centre Inc (c3), a Philippines-Manila based call centre company. Commenting on the HTMT's inorganic growth strategy, Thiagarajan said, "The key requirement of the Global delivery Model is to have multiple offshore delivery centers capable of providing Geographical diversity to the clients. With c3, HTMT has now 3 offshore delivery centers in two countries. We are now looking to consolidate our presence in onshore centers like New York, US."

During the AGM, the company's management made a presentation covering the milestones in the company's evolution from a finance company to a leading ITES-BPO company, business trends in the IT/ITES-BPO, cable television distribution, media content and broadband Internet segments and the focus areas for the current year in each of these businesses.

The shareholders also approved a final dividend of Rs 2.50 per share (25 per cent) for FY 2003-04. This would make a total dividend of Rs 7.50 per share (75 per cent), including the interim dividend of Rs 5 per share (50 per cent) already paid earlier in the month of March 2004.

HTMT had reported a total income of Rs 1.62 billion for FY2003-04 compared to Rs 1.14 billion for FY2002-03, an increase of 42 per cent. The net profit grew by 22 per cent from Rs 620 million to Rs 760 million.

The consolidated revenues had increased by 32 per cent from Rs 2.17 billion to Rs 2.85 billion. The consolidated net profit for the year ended 31 March 2004 at Rs 840 million represents an increase of 45 per cent over the previous year's net profit of Rs 580 million.